312 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND SINGING. 



Besides the gongs and their varieties, the chunang 

 and tertawak, which differ only in being smaller and 

 more harsh sounding, and the tomtoms which they 

 have borrowed from the Hindus, the young men and 

 children may be frequently seen amusing themselves 

 with a kind of pipe, which resembles a child's penny 

 wooden whistle, and is formed precisely on the same 

 principle, being about a foot long, and made of reeds, 

 which have five or six holes in the lower part of the 

 tube, on which the fingers are made to act like keys. 

 Another instrument, of more soft and melodious sound, 

 is sometimes seen : it is formed of a joint of bamboo, 

 which having been dried so that it cannot shrink, is cut 

 lengthwise sufficiently deep, but not through the cane, 

 into narrow strips, about half an inch apart from each 

 other: these strips of the outer skin of the bamboo 

 are then stretched and raised above the surface of the 

 cane by small pegs or wedges forced under them at 

 each end, and being played upon by the fingers, as are 

 the strings of the harp and guitar, produce very melo- 

 dious sounds, and it is a pity that the Dyaks do not 

 endeavour to improve this instrument, rather than use 

 the deafening and disagreeable noisy gongs. 



When they sing, which they rarely do, it is in a low 

 and plaintive voice ; but as I did not sufficiently under- 

 stand the Dyak language, I could never learn anything 

 respecting the composition of their songs. I never heard 

 them but at night, when most of the inhabitants of 

 the village were asleep. They do not practise vocal 

 music at any of their festivals. 



