SARAWAK ETHNOGRAPHICAL COLLECTION. 37 



mouth piece of the instrument; into the gourd are set six to 

 eight bamboo tubes, the joint being made air-tight with a luting 

 of dammar; the tubes are closed at their lower ends but into 

 each near its lower end * is let a small frameof apeng palm wood 

 (Arenga sp.) or of brass with a vibrating tongue (Plate VII fig. 

 iO); each tube has a stop and if these are not closed by 

 the fingers no sound can be produced by blowing into the neck 

 of the gourd ; the tubes are of unequal length and are tuned 

 by being cut more or less obliquely at their upper ends, and one 

 is generally much longer than the others. 



This form of mouth-organ seems to be essentially a Mon- 

 golian type very similar instruments being found in China (the 

 Seng or Cheng), Japan and Siam ; Hein (Die Bildenden Kiinste 

 bei den Dayaks auf Borneo. Vienna, 1890 p. 116 fig. 78,) 

 figures a Chinese Seng, a mouth-organ of the Mrung of India 

 and a Kyan mouth-organ, and notes that all are constructed 

 on essentially the same principle, he does not, however, describe 

 the form of the vibratory apparatus in any of these instruments 

 so it is quite possible that the Mrung mouth-organ is furnished 

 with 'beating' reeds instead of 'free' or 'framed' reeds. 



A good figure of a. Kyan youth playing on a mouth-organ 

 is given in "In Central Borneo" by Dr. A.W. Nieuwenhuis, Vol. 

 II. pi. lxxxviii. 



The instruments are played more by suction than by blowing. 

 The Bornean tribes who use this instrument are the Kyans, 

 Kenyans and allied tribes, the Dusuns, Punans and the Sea- 

 Dyaks, it is almost certain that the latter and very probable 

 that the Punans have borrowed this instrument from the Kyans 

 or Kenyahs. 



1. Kyan — Klerdi. 



a. (Plate III fig. 9 right hand specimen). 



Of large size ; six bamboo tubes open at the top are 

 inserted into a large hole cut in a hollow gourd (labu ayer 

 genok.) the joint being rendered air-tight by a luting of dammar; 



* i.e. in that portion of the tube inside the gourd. 

 R. A. Soc, No. 40, 1904 



