4 SARAWAK ETHNOGRAPHICAL COLLECTION. 



STRINGED INSTRUMENTS. 



There are four main classes of stringed instruments in use 

 amongst the tribes of Borneo*: — 



I. Primitive musical bow — perhaps the progenitor of 



II. Fiddles and guitars. 



III. Upright harps. 



IV. Cylindrical harps. 



Class I.— Primitive Musical Bow. 



This instrument is used only by the Tanjongs, a small isolat- 

 ed tribe living at Kapit, Rejang River, Sarawak. It consists of 

 a flattened bow (busoi) with a rattan string laid across a pot of 

 earthenware or metal, the mouth of the pot being closed by a 

 wooden diaphragm (aran); the handle of the bow is grasped in 

 the right hand and the taut bow string is tapped with a short 

 stick held in the left hand; different notes can be produced 

 either by fingering the string or by moving the bow so that 

 different parts of its arc rest on the wooden diaphragm closing 

 the pot. A very fair volume of sound can be produced. Until 

 quite recently no specimens of this interesting musical instru- 

 ment had found their way to European Museums, but there are 

 now examples in the Anthropological Museums of Oxford and 

 Cambridge Universities. The " Natural History of the Musical 

 Bow" by H. Balfour (Oxford, 1899) should be consulted for a 

 full and detailed account of the geographical distribution and 

 evolution of this primitive type of musical instrument. 



* Dr. A. W. Xieuwenhius figures in ''In Centraal Borneo" Vol. II 

 PL LVII a Kayan girl beating with a stick on a string stretched long- 

 itudinally across a shield and bridged up with two cylindrical wooden 

 plugs at the end ; underneath the plate is printed "Het Voordragen van 

 zangen, de overleveringen van den stam, behelzende ": — i.e. the overture 

 to a song, delivered by the assembled tribe." 



But there is no reference to the illustration in the text and I believe 

 that this is merely an improvised musical instrument, and one seldom 

 in use. 



Jour. Straits Branch 



