Shell- Trumpets and their Distribution. 47 



An interesting survival of this practise in Central 

 America is recorded by Theobert Maler in his " Researches 

 in the Central Portion of the Usumatsintla Valley.""" On 

 p. 33 of his paper he relates how his arrival at the Indian 

 settlements at Pethd was greeted by the blowing of conch- 

 shell trumpets made from Strombus gigas. 



According to Pinart," the musical instruments of the 

 present natives (Guaymis) of the Chiriquian region of 

 Panama are limited chiefly to the bone-flute and the 

 marine conch-shell. He describes one of their ceremonies, 

 the balza, in which the conch-shell plays an important 

 role. When a village has decided to give a balzaria and 

 the date has been fixed upon, notice is given to other 

 villages inviting the inhabitants to attend. Everyone is 

 invited, men and women, young and old. According to 

 the distance away, each family group sets out in time to 

 arrive at the place of meeting two days before the com- 

 mencement of the ceremonies. During the journey, the 

 invited guests blow from time to time on large conch- 

 shells in order to make known to all persons living near 

 the line of route their passage and the purpose of their 

 journey. 



Pinart believes the Guaymis to be the descendants 

 of the race that constructed the ancient huacals from 

 which so many Chiriquian antiquities have come. This 

 ancient race has left behind them numerous examples of 

 wind-instruments of clay, modelled in the form of animals 

 and birds. One of these figurines serving as a whistle 

 represents a mythical form holding something resembling 

 a fish or conch-shell a little distance from the mouth.'^ 



'^^ ATetnoirs Peabody Aluseiun, ii., no. i., 1901. 



'* Alphonse Pinart, " Les Indiens de I'Etat de Panama," Rev. cCeihnog., 

 vi., 1887, pp. 33, 117, (quoted by Mac Curdy, "A Study of Chiriquian 

 Antiquities," Memoirs Conn. Acad. Arts and Sciences , iii., 1911, pp. 169-170). 



'= Mac Curdy, op. cit.. p. 185, fig. 315. 



