MUSICAL INSTRmfENTS OF THE MALATa 



191 



III tlie Sunda districts of Java very good music is 

 produced hj an mstrument whicli consists of a senes 

 of small bamboo tubea oT different lengths^ so placed 

 in a rude framework of wood tbat tbey can slightly 

 vibrate^ and strike tbo sides of tlie frame when it is 

 shaken in the hand. 



On the peninsula of Malacca a kind of gigantic 

 -^lian harp is made, by removing the partitions 

 within a bamboo, thirty or forty feet long, and making 

 a row of holes in the side as in a flute. This is 

 placed upright among the dense foliage, and in the 

 varying breeze gives out soft or heavy notes, until 

 the whole surrounding forest seems filled with the 

 harps of fairies. 



All the.se natives are passionately fond of music, 

 and perhaps in nothing has their inventive genius 

 been so well displayed as in their j>eculiar musical in- 

 struments, which have been brought to the greatest 

 perfection in J ava, where they are so elaborate that a 

 set of eighteen or twenty pieces, for a complete band, 

 costs from six hundred to one thousand dollars. A 

 number of these were taken to England by Sir Stam- 

 ford Raffles, and carefully examined by a competent 

 judge, who expressed himself "astonished and de- 

 lighted with their ingenious fabrication, splendor, 

 beauty, and accm-ate intonation." 



While we were watching the slow, graceful dance, 

 dinner was prepared, and we were summoned from 

 the' veranda to an open room in the rear. The wife 

 of the rajah was the only lady at the table, and, as all 

 the princes and notables of the other villages were 

 present, the number of guests who were i^endy to 



