Page:The Melanesians Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore.djvu/359

] to help in moving it, and has a little house built over it to keep it from sun and weather. In all these islands the drums lie horizontally upon the ground, but in Ambrym and the Southern New Hebrides they stand erect, the butt buried in the earth and the tapering top shaped into a face. The bamboo drums if large are held by an assistant as the performer beats, small ones can be carried in a dancer's hand. Such instruments as these are no doubt improperly called drums. I have seen the hollow trunk of a tree-fern set up in the ground, and a mat tied over it to form a drumhead, beaten with the fists, and also a thin broad slab of wood, probably cut from the buttress of a tree, laid over a hole dug in the ground and struck with a rammer; these, however, rude, may be called true drums. Panpipes, vigo in Mota, galevu in Florida, luembalambala if of seven or eight pipes, nggovi if of three, in Lepers' Island, are common; it is the proper thing in some places to assist the instrument with a vocal sound. Some galevu have a double row of pipes, one of each pair open at the bottom, the other closed. Single bamboo pipes are blown in the Florida hauhamumu dance, two with each performer, or one of the largest size; with these certain tunes, which have each their names, are played in concert with considerable musical effect. The reed, or