women play generally upon wind inftruments, fuch as fmall
pipes and flutes ; whilft the favourite inftrument o f the men is
the guittar or fomething not very unlike it, fame o f which have
two firings, fome four, and others fevem. Eunuchs, and the
loweft.dafs o f perfoas, are hired to p lay; and the merit o f a
performance ihould feem to confiit in the intenfenefs o f the noife
brought out o f the different inftruments. The gong or, as they
call it, the loo is admirably adapted for this purpofe. This inftrument
is a fort o f ihallow kettle, or rather the lid o f a kettle, which
they ftrike with a wooden mallet covered with leather. The
compofition is faid to be copper, tin, and bifmuth. T h e y have alfo
a kind o f clarinet, three or four different forts o f trumpets, and a
ftringed inftrument not unlike a violoncello. Their Jutg is a
combination o f uneven, reeds o f bamboo, not unlike the pipe
o f Pan; the tones.ate far from being diiagreeable, but its con-
ftruition is fb wild and irregular, that it does not appear to be
reducible to any kind o f fcale.. Their kettle drums are generally
fliaped like barrels; and thefe, as. well as different-fized
bells fixed in a frame, eonftitute parts in their facred mu-
fic. They have alfo an inftrument o f mufic which confifts
o f ftones, cut into the fhape o f a carpenter’s fquare, each ftone
fufpended by the corner in a wooden frame. Thole which I
faw appeared to belong to that fpecies o f the filicious, genus
ufually called Gneifs, a, fort o f flaty granite. In the Kefwick
roufeum are mufical ftones o f the fame kind, which were picked,
up in a rivulet at the foot o f Skiddaw mountain ; but thefe feem.
to contain, fmall pieces o f black Ihorl, or tourmaline. It is indeed
the boaft o f their hiftorians, that the whole empire o f nature