The word Juruparis means 'demon,' and it is supposed that its mysteries date back to some pre-historic Indian tradition, as various tribes inhabiting the vast forests round the Amazon district practise weird ceremonies in honour of the demons.
The Juruparis in casing.
In form the Juruparis is a slender tube from four to five feet long, made from strips of palm wood. Close to the mouth is an oblong hole, and when the instrument is to be used a piece of curved Uaruma or Arrowroot wood is inserted into the opening, which is then nearly closed with wet clay.
When not in use, the Juruparis is wrapped in a great-coat made of strips of the tough bark of the Jebaru-tree, which are wound round and round the sacred instrument and held in place by a rough framework of wood. In the museum at Kew Gardens a Juruparis in its outer casing may be seen. In ancient days the Indians of the American continent seem to have been more clever at making musical instruments than of recent years.
The Aztecs held pipes and flutes in great respect, and they were played at all religious ceremonies. At the great yearly festival of Tezcatlepoca, who was always represented as a handsome youth, a young man was sacrificed to the god, and a chief condition of the selection was that the selected person should be a really fine flute-player, presumably so that he might amuse Tezcatlepoca in another world. As the victim ascended the high mound on which the sacrificial altar stood, facing the rising sun, it was his duty to break a flute on every step.
The Hinen.
The whistle shown in the illustration is made of burnt clay and painted. Instruments were shaped like all kinds of grotesque animals, birds, fish, and so on. Some have finger-holes, enabling the pitch to be altered and give different tones, others have a little ball of clay set loosely in a hollow place, so that when the air is set in motion a shrill whistling sound is emitted.
Whistling with the mouth, by the way, is strongly disapproved by the Arabs, who call it 'El Sifr,' and say that Satan must have touched any one before he can whistle, and that it takes forty days to purify the mouth which has so defiled itself. The Burmese were, up to a very late date, ignorant of the art, and expressed great astonishment when an American whistled an air, exclaiming that 'he made music with his mouth.' The natives of Tonga Islands, in Polynesia, consider whistling most disrespectful to their gods, and even in European countries it is objected to at certain times. In Northern Germany peasants say that whistling in the evening makes the angels weep, and in Iceland the feeling is so strong that even swinging a stick or whip, which may make the air whistle, is supposed to have an evil effect.