Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/296

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Story of the Flute

he met with a music-loving lion in Edinburgh, and that when the flute was played near the lions' den in the Tower of London one of the lions "rose up and came to the front of the den, and seemed all attention. Meanwhile a tiger in the same den started up, leaped over the lion's back, turned and ran under its belly, leaped over him again, and so to and fro incessantly."

The Kaffirs have a transverse flute, which is held from right to left, a peculiarity not found elsewhere. By humming at the same time they produce a peculiar buzzing sound.

In Burma the orchestra is usually led by a bamboo flute, called "Puloay," with seven finger-holes in front Indian
Flutes
and one behind. Notwithstanding the fact that Krishna is very frequently represented holding a transverse flute (known as "Murali" or "Pillagovi"), the instrument is, as a rule, played in India only by men of low caste. An exception is made in favour of the nose-flute used by the Brahmins. The snake-charmers use a double pipe, blown through the nose, called "Toomerie" or "Poongee." Numerous nose-flutes are to be met with in Borneo, South America, Java, Siam, Fiji, above all, in Otaheite (where the natives often spend their whole Nose Flutesday lying in hammocks playing pipes and flutes), and the Polynesian Islands. Melville in Typee describes these curious instruments (called "Vivo") thus:—"The nose-flute is longer than an ordinary fife, is made of a beautiful scarlet-coloured reed, and has four or five stops [i.e., finger-holes] with

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