THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE INCAS. J 



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 prooi 

 that their earliest instrument was not the drum. There arc- 

 well-known eases of the "dropping out" of musical instrument^ 

 In Guatemala the marimba has become a national instrument 

 Professor ( ). T. Mason, referring to this instrument, says: 

 » 



**In one case we have a musical instrument imported by n 

 slaves given to the Indians with its native African name and aban- 

 doned by the negroes themselves." ' 



INSTRUMENTS OF PERCUSSION. 



Ix instruments of this class the drum undoubtedly held the 

 4 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 I 

 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. Ti 



forms of drum are shown on Plate II, where two men (figs. 

 7 and 10 ery thin drums, which would seem to repre- 



sent the boon form, while another drummer (fig. n I 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- d on different occasions; but 



1 American Anthropologi I V< 1 X. No. tz. 



