30 THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE INCAS. 
Professor E. S. Morse agrees with Dr. Mason that there is no 
evidence of a pre-Columbian stringed device. ! 
I believe that no claim has as yet been made for the existence 
of the musical bow in Peru; and what Dr. Henry Balfour says 
of this most primitive of stringed instruments is very important, 
as showing with what caution the evidence should be considered 
before pronouncing any instrument to be of pre-Spanish origin: 
“In viewing the various types of musical bow to be found in the 
New World, I must say that I feel that the case of the claims of this 
instrument to be regarded as indigenous (pre-Columbian) in the 
Americas can only as yet be dismissed with the verdict of not proven. 
I can find no absolutely convincing evidence to prove the case, and 
in view of the certainty of many varieties having been introduced by 
the immigrants from Africa, it will require very strong evidence to 
establish the claim.”’ 2 
Although not conclusive, such evidence as we have at the 
present time is against the existence of any form of stringed 
instrument in Peru before the coming of the Spaniards. 
CONCLUSION. 
UNDOUBTEDLY the most important instruments were the 
drum, the various kinds of flutes and the Pan-pipe. Early 
writers frequently speak of the Indians dancing to the music of 
the pipe and tabor. The ancient potters have left us representa- 
tions of these scenes on their water vessels (Plate I, figs. 1 and 
2). These dances appear to have remained unchanged in 1649 
when Alonso de Ovalle wrote this quaint account: 
“Their way of dancing is with little jumps, and a step or two, not 
rising much from the ground, and without any capers such as the 
Spanish use; they dance all together in a ring.”’ 3 
Of the music of the Incas we know nothing. A number of 
songs have been recorded which have been known to the Indians 
for generations, and believed by them to have been handed down 
unchanged, but their authenticity is, of course, doubtful—even 
t Appleton’s Popular Science Monthly, March, 1899. 
2 The Natural History of the Musical Bow, pp. 50-51. 
3 Historical Relation of Chile, Pinkerton, Vol. XIV, p. 117. 
