MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS - online book

The History And Development Of Musical Instruments From The Earliest Times.

	MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.                      43 ance not unlike the teeth of a saw. The performer strikes them with a sort of plectrum resembling a brush, or with a small stick called khen. Occasionally the ou is made with pieces of metal shaped like reeds. The ancient ou was con­structed with only six tones which were at­tuned thus— /, g, a c, d, f. The instrument appears to have become deterio­rated in the course of time; for, although it has gradually acquired as many as twenty-seven pieces of metal, it evidently serves at the present day more for the production of rhythmical noise than for the execution of any melody. The modem ou is made of a species of wood called kicou or isicou: and the tiger rests generally on a hollow wooden pedestal about three feet six inches long, which serves as a sound-board. The tc/iou, likewise an instrument of percussion, was made of the wood of a tree called kicou-mou, the stem of which resembles that of the pine and whose foliage is much like that of the cypress. It was constructed of boards about three-quarters of an inch in thickness. In the middle of one of the sides was an aper­ture into which the hand was passed for the purpose of holding the handle of a Avooden hammer, the end of which entered into a hole situated in the bottom of the tchou. The handle was kept in its place by means of a wooden pin, on which