4IO Memoirs Dcniicc P. Bishop Museum 



it is not common. ]\Iouth flutes are rare in ^Melanesia, but a type with two 

 holes was used in Xew Caledonia. 



Whistles were used in the Marquesas and in Xew Zealand. They do not 

 seem to have been used elsewhere in Polynesia. 



A Jew's bar]) practically identical with that found in the Marquesas was 

 used in Hawaii, while a crude form of this instrument also is found in New 

 Zealand. It does not seem to have been used in Western Polynesia. In Mel- 

 anesia the Jew's harj) is important only in the Solomon Islands, Init the instru- 

 ment used there difl:'ers so radically fnni the Marquesan, both in form and 

 method of playing, that relationship seems improbable. 



The occurrence of the musical bow in Polynesia seems to have been 

 limited to the ]\Iarquesas and Hawaii. The Hawaiian instrument, ukckc (Emer- 

 son, 72, p. 147), had three strings, and it is possible that the Marquesan 

 "lyres" bore some relation to it. In Melanesia a single stringed musical bow, 

 which was tapped with a stick as in the Marquesas, was used in New Cale- 

 donia. A two-stringed bow, quite different in principle from the Hawaiian ukeke, 

 was used in the Solomon Islands. 



A joint of bamboo slotted along one side, laid on the ground and beaten 

 with two sticks, was used as a musical instrument in Tonga, the Cook Islands 

 and the Society Islands, but was not used in Hawaii or the ^^larquesas and is 

 naturally lacking in New Zealand. In Melanesia it seems to have been limited to 

 the south coast of New Guinea. 



The use of a series of joints of bamboo which were held verticallv and 

 beaten upon the ground seems to have been limited, in Polynesia, to Samoa and 

 Tonga. A curious drum made from several joints of bamboo lashed together, 

 the heads covered with matting, seems to have been limited to Samoa. In Polv- 

 nesia pan pipes of bamboo were limited to Tonga. 



Although the distinction between the marginal and western divisions of 

 Polynesian culture is less clearly marked by musical instruments than by houses 

 or stone artifacts, it is possible to distinguish a few features. The large 

 cylindrical drum with a skin head is an element of the eastern or marginal 

 culture; the slotted drum is distinctively western. The reversal of this rule in 

 New Zealand does not seem enough to invalidate the general conclusion. The 

 Jew's harp also a])])ears to be an element of the marginal culture. The w'ooden 

 trumpet and whistle are limited to New Zealand and the IManjuesas. In view 

 of the absence of the nose flute in Samoa it seems possible that this also was 

 originally a feature of the marginal culture and that its presence in Tonga is 

 due to the strong Fijian influence. The slotted bamboo, on the other hand, and 

 the series of joints of bamboo thumped on the ground, appear to be features 

 of the western culture. 



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