"The Governor had provided both a puppet play and a regular dramatic performance for our benefit, and on this first occasion of the kind the Envoy thought it right that we should visit both.
"Each performance was attended by a full Burmese orchestra. The principal instruments belonging to this are very remarkable, and, as far as I know, peculiar to Burmah.
"The chief instrument in size and power is that called in Burmese pattshaing, and which I can only name in English as a drum-harmonicon. It consists of a circular tub-like frame about thirty inches high and four feet six inches in diameter. This frame is formed of separate wooden staves fancifully carved, and fitting by tenon into a hoop which keeps them in place. Round the interior of the frame are suspended vertically some eighteen or twenty drums, or tom-toms, graduated in tone, and in size from about two and a-half inches diameter up to ten. In tuning the instrument the tone of each drum is modified as required by the application of a little moist clay with a sweep of the thumb, in the centre of the parchment. The whole system then forms a sort of harmonicon, on which the performer, squatted in the middle, plays with the natural plectra of his fingers and palms, and with great dexterity and musical effect."
BURMESE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
The two Burmese musical instruments which we here engrave are thus described by Captain Yule in his "Mission to Ava:"—
"The bamboo harmonicon or staccato is a curious example of the production of melody by simple and unexpected means. Its use, though unknown in India, extends throughout the Eastern Archipelago; and something similar is possessed, I believe, by the negro slaves in Brazil. Eighteen to twenty-four flat slips of bamboo, about an inch and a half broad, and of graduated length, are strung upon a double string and suspended in a catenary over the mouth of a trough-like sounding box. The roundish outside of the bamboo is uppermost, and whilst the extremities of the slips are left to their original thickness, the middle part of each is thinned and hollowed out below. The tuning is accomplished partly by the regulation of this thinning of the middle part. The scale so formed is played with one or two drumsticks, and the instrument is one of very mellow and pleasing tone. Though the materials are of no value, a good old harmonicon is prized by the owner, like a good old Cremona, and he can rarely be induced to part with it.
"There was one example at the capital, of a similar instrument formed of slips of iron or steel. It was said to have been made by the august hands of King Tharawadee himself, who, like Louis Seize, was abler as a smith than as a king. The effect was not unpleasing, and strongly resembled that of a large Geneva musical box, but it was far inferior in sweetness to the bamboo instrument.
"Another instrument used in these concerts is a long cylindrical guitar of three strings, shaped like an alligator and so named. It is placed on the ground before the performer."