ee 
25. The Jew’s Harp in Assam, 
By A. WILuirer Youne. 
t was the gift ofa a harp, made of argent which 
first suggested enquiry a the distribution and use of this 
ancient primitive little npn he instrument, savtioularty in 
Assam whence my specimen had come 
nai for similar instruments in the Indian Museum 
was in vain. Sir Saurendra Mohan Tagore does not mention the 
Jew’s harp in his various treatises on the subject of Hindu music, 
whilst Capt. C. R, Day in his book on “The Music and a 
Instruments of ae: India and the Deccan” siinpty states that 
‘The Jew’s harp,” or “‘ murchang,” is mentioned in most of the 
Sanskrit te upon “saniioah instruments, and its use is common 
all over 
Itis pes e question, however, whether this is not too sweeping 
a generalisation. Hnquiries in Lower Bengal, Behar and Chota 
e 
in the villages around Calcutta. A friend who has travelled over 
a large part of Lower Burma tells me that he has not seen or 
heaved of the instrument in any town or village south of 
Mandalay. 
The late Dr. Carrington Bolton, ina paper printed in the 
American Science Monthly, states that the birthplace of this instru- 
ment is in Asia and that it is common throughout the East, in 
Tibet, Burma, rie and Japan as well as in the sp nue of th 
seas from Born to Fiji, qn and the Philippine 
beet pally described in a recent number of the Pasciculé 
Malayenses by Mr. Henry Balfour, Curator of the Pitt Rivers 
Museum, Oxford. The ilinstrations show that the instruments 
are very similar to those used in Assam. 
n hina a variety of the Jew’s harp is known as “ keou 
kinu,” or “mouth harp,” and the fact that it has been found 
among the Ainosis a proof of the age and universality of its 
use, 
The metal PN arcana a o tes the same name in England 
have also a long history. The re manufactured at Nurem- 
pic as far back as 1524 and Revilight into the country by the 
da, 
where for long it was = nd instrument known, it is still called 
“tromp” or “Jew’s tr 
