142 PANDEAN PIPES. 



off this coast, as well as from the Admiralty Islands, the New 

 Hebrides, the Tonga Group, and New Zealand. The instruments 

 from all these localities are distinguished from the Solomon Island 

 pan-pipe by the reeds being arranged in a single row and being of a 

 much smaller size. They are also more neatly made. Those used 

 by the Treasury and Shortland natives are composed of a double 

 row of from 6 to 8 reeds, the second row being merely added to give 

 support to the instrument. The longest reed is usually a foot in 

 length and three quarters of an inch in bore ; whilst the shortest 

 reed is about 5 inches long and rather less than half an inch 

 in bore. Some natives prefer instruments having twice this 

 length. The Pandean pipes, played at the public dances of Alu, 

 are of very large size, the length of the longest reed of one 

 which I measured being between 8| and 4 feet. At such perform- 

 ance.?, the air is given by the smaller pipes ; whilst the bass note,s of 

 the larger pipes form a droning but harmonious accompaniment. The 

 music of these instruments, being in the usual contracted compass, 

 is of a somewhat monotonous character. Those of Treasury Island 

 are said to be only adapted for playing one tune, which is the 

 second air given on the page. I learn from Mr. Isabell, who was 

 interested in this matter, that the natives vary the number of reeds 

 in the instrument according to the air it is intended to play. The 

 musician accompanies his melody with a nodding of the head and 

 a swaying of the body on the liips, movements which are anything 

 but expressive and are in fact rather ludicrous. 



Jew's harps of foreign manufacture are much in demand amongst 

 persons of both sexes and all ages throughout the Solomon Group. 

 In the eastern islands they fashion them of bamboo, as in the 

 New Hebrides and New Guinea;^ but I did not observe any native- 

 made instruments amongst the people of Bougainville Straits. The 

 women of Treasury Island produce a similar though softer kind of 

 music by playing, somewhat after the fashion of a Jew's harp, 

 on a lightly made fine-stringed bow about 15 inches long. This is 

 held to the lips and the string is gently struck with the lingers, 

 the cavity of the mouth serving as a resonator. . . . That 

 school-boy's delight, the " paper-and-comb instrument," finds its 

 counterpart in these islands. On one occasion, when I was enjoying 

 a pipe and watching the surf on the south coast of Stirling Island, 



1 Mr. Mosely in Lis " Notes by a Naturalist " gives au illustration of a Jew's harp from 

 the New Hebrides. 



