RoTH] MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 459 
(fig. 237), apparently of similar size and shape, and each with a 
venthole (JO). 
567. The hard seed capsules of certain plants may be drilled and 
emptied of their contents, so as to admit of their use as whistles 
(XG, 1, 302). At the Makuari funeral dance of the Arawak, whistles 
(pl. 165 D), carved out of wood (to represent a savanna ploverlike 
bird, the purukuri, noted for its characteristic whistling note), were 
blown to signal each new arrival at the landing stage up to the house 
(sec. 844). The Waiwai and Parikuta have an interesting form of 
whistle, also carved out of wood, about 34 inches long, where the blow- 
hole is in connection with a gourd: which forms a kind of sounding 
box (pl. 165 B). 
568. Among the playthings of the Carib children met with on the 
upper Manawarin (Moruca River) I have noted small painted clay 
figures representing turtles (pl. 166 A, C, D) and frogs (B). 
These are all hollow with a single aperture at the hinder extremity, 
which is blown across. Similar clay whistles, highly polished, and 
said to represent frogs, also come from the Taruma (E). These 
have two apertures, one on either side, at the base of a project- 
ing rostrum on which the lip rests when blown upon. The few speci- 
mens that I have handled each had a fragment inside that rattled on 
shaking, but as to the nature of its material, or its purposeful or acci- 
dental presence, I can not express an opinion. 
569. The skulls of various creatures—e. g., deer—can be trans- 
formed into whistles by covering with “ pitch” and leaving open only 
the foramen magnum and anterior nasal aperture. They are thus met 
with on the Rio Negro (KG, 1, 302; ARW, 351). The claw of the 
ant bear is similarly utilized by Wapishana, Makusi, ete., after lim- 
iting the size and shape of the base with wax. 
570. We are again indebted to Gumilla for the record of a reed 
instrument from the Orinoco Indians of his day, a record all the 
more interesting in that its modern representative is met with among 
the present-day Warrau of the Moruca, people, be it remembered, 
whose original home was the swampland at the Orinoco mouth. He 
says: “ The flutes (baxvones) are of very simple construction. Taking 
a bamboo (cava) of 2 varas in length, all the partitions, except the 
last one within it, are broken through. In this last one they make 
a small slender tongue from a splinter of the same bamboo, without 
pulling it out from its place. So delicate is the splinter that it 
easily produces a sound when the instrument is blown at the upper 
end. But the tone of the sound varies with the size of the gourd 
with which they surround the last segment of the bamboo. This 
is affixed by making two holes in it, and calking and covering 
with wax. The hole at the end of the gourd which was originally 
