26 THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE INCAS. 



sentinels set on each side; and in the morning, by break of day the 

 squadrons arming themselves, with great noise and shouts, with 

 sounds of trumpets, and timbrels, and cornets, they began the onset." T 



Alonso de Ovalle remarks : 



"The sound of the drum and trumpet is only to show them the 

 necessity of their meeting in arms." 2 



Prescott tells us that at the siege of Cuzco (1536) 



" The Spaniards were roused by the hideous clamor of conch, trum- 

 pet and atabal, mingled with fierce war-cries of the barbarians." 3 



Fig. 3 of Plate IV shows a double musical water bottle. It 

 consists of two pottery vessels connected near the bottom in 

 such a way that water passes freely from one to the 

 other. Near the top of the first or front jar (usually 

 T surmounted by a human or some animal figure) is the 



opening of the whistle. When the jars have been 

 partly filled and are swung backward and forward, a series of 

 whistling sounds is produced. As the vessel swings forward and 

 upward, the water is lowered in the first jar and raised in the other ; 

 in the backward motion it rushes back into the first, forcing the 

 air out through the whistle. It has often been said that the sound 

 emitted by these jars resembles the cry of the animal represented 

 on the vessel. A careful examination of fifty-five of these 

 whistling jars leads to the conclusion that this is the result 

 of a lively imagination — that they are whistles pure and 

 simple. 



Fig. 4 of Plate III shows a nondescript instrument made of 

 terra cotta. The tone is produced by blowing into either of the 

 two holes in exactly the same manner that the trumpet is sounded. 

 The lips, in both cases, act as reeds, causing the vibration oi the 

 air within the instrument. 



1 Royal Commentaries of Peru, Ed. Rycaut, Part I, Book V, Chap. XVIII. 



2 Historical Relation of Chile, Pinkerton, Vol. XIV, p. 122. 



3 Conquest of Peru. Vol. II, p. 47. 



