The kin-kou (engraved), a large drum fixed on a pedestal which raises it above six feet from the ground, is embellished with symbolical designs. A similar drum on which natural phenomena are depicted is called lei-kou; and another of the kind, with figures of certain birds and beasts which are regarded as symbols of long life, is called ling-kou, and also lou-kou.
The flutes, ty, yo, and tché were generally made of bamboo. The koan-tsee was a Pandean pipe containing twelve tubes of bamboo. The siao, likewise a Pandean pipe, contained sixteen tubes. The pai-siao differed from the siao inasmuch as the tubes were inserted into an oddly-shaped case highly ornamented with grotesque designs and silken appendages.
The Chinese are known to have constructed at an early period a curious wind-instrument, called hiuen. It was made of baked clay and had five finger-holes, three of which were placed on one side and two on the opposite side, as in the cut. Its tones were in conformity with the pentatonic scale. The reader unacquainted with the pentatonic scale may ascertain its character by playing on the pianoforte the scale of C major with the omission of f and b (the fourth and seventh); or by striking the black keys in regular succession from f-sharp to the next f-sharp above or below.
Another curious wind-instrument of high antiquity, the cheng, (engraved, p. 46) is still in use. Formerly it had either 13, 19, or 24 tubes, placed in a calabash; and a long curved tube served as a mouth-piece. In olden time it was called yu.
The ancient stringed instruments, the kin and chê, were of the dulcimer kind: they are still in use, and specimens of them are in the South Kensington museum.
The Buddhists introduced from Thibet into China their god of music, who is represented as a rather jovial-looking man with a moustache and an imperial, playing the pepa, a kind of lute with four silken strings. Perhaps some interesting information respecting the ancient Chinese musical instruments may be gathered from the famous ruins of the Buddhist temples Ongcor-Wat and Ongcor-Thôm, in Cambodia. These splendid ruins are supposed to be above two thousand years old: and, at any rate, the circumstance of their age not being known to the Cambodians suggests a high antiquity. On the bas-reliefs with which the temples were enriched are figured musical instruments, which European travellers describe as “flutes, organs, trumpets, and drums, resembling those of the Chinese.” Faithful sketches of these representations might, very likely, afford valuable hints to the student of musical history.
The Hindus.
In the Brahmin mythology of the Hindus the god Nareda is the inventor of the vina, the principal national instrument of Hindustan. Saraswati, the consort of Brahma, may be regarded as the Minerva of the Hindus. She is the goddess of music as well as of speech; to her is attributed the invention of the systematic arrangement of the sounds into a musical scale. She is represented seated on a peacock and playing on a stringed instrument of the lute kind. Brahma himself we find depicted as a vigorous man with four handsome heads, beating with his hands upon a small drum; and Vishnu, in his incarnation as Krishna, is represented as a beautiful youth playing upon a flute. The Hindus construct a peculiar kind of flute, which they consider as the favourite instrument of Krishna. They have also the divinity Ganesa, the god of Wisdom, who is represented as a man with the head of an elephant, holding a tamboura in his hands.