Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo03amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE INCAS. Whymper, who gives an excellent account of the Incan re- mains in Ecuador, figures three of these whistles grotesquely re- sembling the human form. He has this to say of them: "Then there are the musical pottery whistles, delightfully ugly things, which are sometimes more useful to carry than letters of introduction. Simple airs can be got out of them, and on the home- ward journey nty people lightened the way by playing on these primi- tive instruments." ' The trumpet in its various forms is un- doubtedty one of the most ancient of wind instruments, and its distribution Trumpet ■ . . ^ . ^ m prehistoric times was all but uni- \crsal. Two forms of this instrument were common in Peru: the conch and a trumpet of terra cotta. Both of these forms are shown in the accompanying figure. This illustration shows the ornamentation on one side of a gold ornament found in a prehistoric grave at lea, Peru. It is double-convex in form, consisting of two thin, concavo-convex pieces which are not joined by solder, as is sometimes the case in ornaments of this kind, but are held together by the edges of one of llic jiicces being turned tightly over the other. The figures arc in rcpoiissd work. Fig. I of Plate III represents a remarkably fine specimen of the shell trumpet. It has a copper mouth-jjiece, and is ornamented with an engraved figure of a warrior. The shell is a Stronibiis galratiis, Swains. Unfortunately the mouth-piece ' Travels amongst the Gri-at Andes of the Equator, jx 2S1.
Text Appearing After Image:
GOLD ORNAMENT FROM ICA, PERU.

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