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THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE INCAS. y] 
The entire absence of drums and the large number of flutes in 
the prehistoric Peruvian collections in museums would seem t: 
support this claim in Peru were it not for the fact that numerous 
pottery vessels decorated with figures in the act of beating the 
drum are found with mummies in the ancient graves. (See 
Plates I and II.) 
The fact that a tribe has flutes and no drums is not proot 
that their earliest instrument was not the drum. There are 
well-known cases of the ‘dropping out’’ of musical instruments 
In Guatemala the marimba has become a national instrument 
Professor O. T. Mason, referring to this instrument, says: 
“In one case we have a musical instrument imported by negro 
slaves given to the Indians with its native African name and aban- 
doned by the negroes themselves.” ' 
INSTRUMENTS OF PERCUSSION. 
IN instruments of this class the drum undoubtedly held the 
first place, although, as has been, stated, none has been found in 
the ancient graves up to the present time. This may 
be accounted for by the perishable material of which 
they were made; or, through the existence of some superstition 
on account of which they may never have been buried with the 
dead. However this may be, the numerous representations on 
pottery vessels, and the accounts of early writers, give us a 
pretty accurate idea of their form and construction. 
The drums appear to be identical with those in use in many 
parts of Peru to-day and were made by stretching a skin over 
a hoop of wood or over one end of a short section of the trunk 
of a tree which had been hollowed out to a thin cylinder. These 
two forms of drum are shown on Plate II, where two men (figs. 
7 and 10) are beating very thin drums, which would seem to repre- 
sent the hoop form, while another drummer (fig. 9) plays upon 
one much thicker, which is probably of the second type. Judging 
from these representations, the drums would not exceed fourteen 
or fifteen inches in diameter. We are told frequently by early 
writers that small drums were used on different occasions; but 
Tum 
* American Anthropologist, Vol. X, No. 11. 
