The takúmbo.--Though classed here as guitar, the takúmbo hardly deserves the name. It is a bamboo joint which has one joint wall opened. At the other end beyond the second joint it is so cut as to resemble a miter. Two strings, uplifted from the surface about 4 centimeters apart, and held in an elevated position and at their requisite tension by little wooden wedges placed underneath, form the strings. A lozenge-shaped hole in the center between the strings increases the resonance. The instrument is played by beating the strings with little sticks preferably of bamboo. Two persons may play at one time.
The time observed is the drum rhythm. The sound produced is very faint and unimpressive, and the instrument is of very sporadic occurrence.
The fact that one end is carved in the form of a miter tends to confirm my supposition that this is a purely religious instrument. The carving is supposed to represent the mouth of a crocodile.18
18This figure is called bin-u-á-da, or bin-u-wá-ya from bu-á-ya, crocodile.
I was given to understand that this instrument is used in the immolation to the blood-deities in case of hemorrhage and such other illnesses as are accompanied by fluxes of blood. It is said that the instrument is set in a vertical position, the miterlike cutting being upward, and that a part of the victim's blood is placed upon the node as if it were a little saucer. The instrument is then played. I never witnessed the ceremony, nor heard the instrument played, and am not prepared to give credence to the above story till further investigation corroborates it.
THE VIOLIN19
19Kó-gut.
I neither saw nor heard this instrument, but my inquiries substantiate the existence of it. The body is said to be of coconut shell with the husk removed. The bow is made of bamboo bent into the form of a defensive bow, to the ends of which are attached several threads of abaká fiber that serve as the bowstring. The strings of the violin are two in number and are made of abaká fiber.
The violin is said to be played as our violins are by drawing the bow across the strings. It is not played by women, according to reports, nor are there any stated times and reasons, religious or otherwise, for its use.20