relied on of these instruments transmitted to us. The Conch was frequently used as a trumpet for conveying signals in war.
Fig. 21.—Juruparis, with and without cover, used by Indians on the Rio Haupés.
In the Museum at Kew Gardens.
[Fig. 20] represents a kind of trumpet made of wood, and nearly seven feet in length, which Gumilla found among the Indians in the vicinity of the Orinoco. It somewhat resembles the juruparis ([Fig. 21]), a mysterious instrument of the Indians on the Rio Haupés, a tributary of the Rio Negro, South America. The juruparis is regarded as an object of great veneration. Women are never permitted to see it. So stringent is this law that any woman obtaining a sight of it is put to death—usually by poison. No youths are allowed to see it until they have been subjected to a series of initiatory fastings and scourgings. The juruparis is usually kept hidden in the bed of some stream, deep in the forest; and no one dares to drink out of that sanctified stream, or to bathe in its water. At feasts the juruparis is brought out during the night, and is blown outside the houses of entertainment. The inner portion of the instrument consists of a tube made of slips of the Paxiaba palm (Triartea exorrhiza). When the Indians are about to use the instrument they nearly close the upper end of the tube with clay, and also tie above the oblong
square hole (shown in the engraving) a portion of the leaf of the Uaruma, one of the arrow-root family. Round the tube are wrapped long strips of the tough bark of the Jébaru (Parivoa grandiflora). This covering descends in folds below the tube. The length of the instrument is from four to five feet. The illustration ([Fig. 21]), which exhibits the juruparis with its cover and without it, has been taken from a specimen in the museum at Kew gardens. The mysteries connected with this trumpet are evidently founded on an old tradition from prehistoric Indian ancestors. Jurupari means “demon"; and with several Indian tribes on the Amazon customs and ceremonies still prevail in honour of Jurupari.
The Caroados, an Indian tribe in Brazil, have a war trumpet which closely resembles the juruparis. With this people it is the custom for the chief to give on his war trumpet the signal for battle, and to continue blowing as long as he wishes the battle to last. The trumpet is made of wood, and its sound is described by travellers as very deep but rather pleasant. The sound is easily produced, and its continuance does not require much exertion; but a peculiar vibration of the lips is necessary which requires practice. Another trumpet, the turé, is common with many Indian tribes on the Amazon who use it chiefly in war. It is made of a long and thick bamboo, and there is a split reed in the mouthpiece. It therefore partakes rather of the character of an oboe or clarinet. Its tone is described as loud and harsh. The turé is especially used by the sentinels of predatory hordes, who, mounted on a lofty tree, give the signal of attack to their comrades.
Again, the aborigines in Mexico had a curious contrivance of this kind, the acocotl, now more usually called clarin. The former word is its old Indian name, and the latter appears to have been first given to the instrument by the Spaniards. The
acocotl consists of a very thin tube from eight to ten feet in length, and generally not quite straight but with some irregular curves. This tube, which is often not thicker than a couple of inches in diameter, terminates at one end in a sort of bell, and has at the other end a small mouthpiece resembling in shape that of a clarinet. The tube is made of the dry stalk of a plant which is common in Mexico, and which likewise the Indians call acocotl. The most singular characteristic of the instrument is that the performer does not blow into it, but inhales the air through it; or rather, he produces the sound by sucking the mouthpiece. It is said to require strong lungs to perform on the acocotl effectively according to Indian notions of taste.