and cursed the offender, who thereupon became imbecile, and was excluded from the succession." 1 The legends of bells in England are numerous, but they refer chiefly to those which have been lost at sea, and still ring beneath the waves; but even in these legends there is a certain belief in the personality of the bells, and of a vengeful spirit lurking in them. It was because they had been sold that the vessels containing them went to the bottom, and other calamities happened. Thus, a bishop of Bangor, who sold the bells of the cathedral, was struck blind when he went to see them shipped; and Sir Miles Partridge, who won the Jesus bells of St. Paul's, London, from King Henry VIII. at dice, was soon afterwards hanged on Tower Hill; whilst the bells of Boscastle, on account of the impiety of the captain, went down with the vessel which was bringing them over from the Continent. "Still when the storm of Bottreaux's waves Those bells that sullen surges hide Peal their deep tones beneath the tide : Thus saith the ocean chime; Storm, whirlwind, billow past, Come to thy God at last.'" The baptism of bells has always been a rite in the Romish Church, and in it we find the embodiment of the same superstition which attributes to drums and rattles among savages the power to summon or drive away spirits. The passing bell, even now tolled at the hour of death, is a relic of this belief, for it was supposed to scare away the evil spirits, and to enable the departing soul to pass on its way unmolested. curious instance of this belief is given in Chambers's Book of Days, vol. i. p. 311-"An old woman related to the writer, how after the death of a wicked squire, his spirit came and sat upon the bell, so that all the ringers together could not toll it." A once 1 Dr. Joseph Anderson's Scotland in Early Christian Times, p. 205. 2 See Chambers's Book of Days, for this and various curious legends of bells. Every phase of human life in Christian countries is now ushered in by bells, as beautifully sung by Schiller, and the joys and sorrows of life are all thus announced to a community which cares little or nothing for them. Yet "That offspring of consuming fire, High from the summit of the spire Shall bid the sons of mirth be glad, Shall add to superstitious fear, The sounds of Paradise ; And all his changeful fate brings down Shall murmur from its metal crown, Mr. Rowbotham has pointed out some curious instances of reversion in the use of musical instruments, as that the rattles of the Mexicans were by preference in the shape of the old Maraca rattle, whilst the noseflute is still used in the ritual of the Brahmins, although no longer known in civilized communities. A still more singular case of this reversion is to be found in Roman Catholic countries, where, during a certain time, bells are silenced, but are replaced by the primitive rattle of the ancient Chinese type, which consisted of twelve writing tablets strung together. The rattles used in Roman Catholic churches during the few days preceding Easter, are also of wooden tablets shaken together, and known as troccole; but I have never heard any reason assigned for their use, although the boys in Italy, who are privileged during these days to sound these clappers everywhere, even in the churches, call it "breaking the bones of Judas Iscariot." The custom is, however, doubtless of pre-Christian origin, for we are told these wooden clappers were in use in ancient Greece. China possesses many singular instruments of per cussion; but perhaps the most singular is that in the shape of a tiger, with twenty-seven wooden teeth along the back, which are scraped gently with a rod. It is impossible to associate much music with an instrument of this kind, or with that wooden instrument in shape of a bushel or square box, with a hammer fastened inside, to be pulled backwards and forwards by the hand. And this brings us back to the drum, that universal instrument of many forms, the smaller of which throughout the East are still played with the hand only, as represented on Egyptian and Assyrian monuments, and illustrated in that very interesting exhibition from Ceylon, which some years since was located in the Agricultural Hall. There was a drum from the West Coast of Africa in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, which much resembled the Chinese bushel or box drum, being made of a block of very resonant wood hollowed out, and struck with a club from the inside. The drums of the Kaffirs are their skin shields, which they clash together or strike with their assegais, whereby they approach the nearest to the very primitive drum of the Australians. Thus we see that in all ages and in all countries these instruments of percussion, from the simple stretched skin of the Australians to the highly elaborated instruments of the Chinese, Siamese, and Japanese, and including rattles, gongs, and bells of all descriptions, have been employed in religious services, in marches and war dances, in signalling and calling together of assemblies; but in the earliest of times, and among the most barbarous peoples they were fetishes, and this fetishism still lurks in the use of bells and the superstitions attaching to them even in the most highly civilized countries. We shall point out later how far this applies to instruments of the flute and lyre type, and how far we may follow these too into that night of ages, when music under the name of Orpheus taught stones and trees and savage beasts to move responsive to his lyre, and well-nigh prevailed even over death and the grave; or to that still earlier time when, as George Eliot sings, Jubal standing beside his brother Tubal Cain at his smithy "Watched the hammer till his eyes No longer following its fall or rise Seemed glad with something that they could not see, Wherein dumb longings inward speech had found, Concords and discords, cadences and cries, That seemed from some world-shrouded soul to rise. 'Twas easy following where invention trod; All eyes can see when light flows out from God." But from the simple instrument of percussion to the innumerable inflatile and pulsatile instruments of today, the progression is wonderful, and would seem to have required the skill of many an Orpheus. CHAPTER XVII. PRIMITIVE INSTRUMENTS OF MUSIC. II. THE FLUTE. Inflatile Instruments-Flutes in Paleolithic Times-Pandean Pipes Ornithoparcus on Jubal-George Eliot's Poem-The Bagpipe-The Horn and the Trumpet-Etruscan Bronze Trumpets found in Ireland-Trumpets of an Enemy's Armbone Hebrew Trumpets-Egyptian, Assyrian, Etruscan, and Greek Pipes and Double Pipes-The Nose-Flute-Chinese Bamboo Flutes-Flutes of Peru and Mexico-Egyptian Reed Pipes with Straws Inserted-Clay Pipe of Babylon-Effect of Music upon Animals-The Organ-St. Dunstan-Krisna and Marsyas. IN treating of those musical instruments termed inflatile, the flute must of necessity take the first place, being, as far as we know, the most ancient of musical instruments, for the French caves belonging to paleolithic times, which have afforded us the earliest speciinens of pre-historic drawing and sculpture, have also furnished us with a proof that these remarkable cave people cultivated the art of music, since, amongst other relics, has been found a wind instrument of the flute kind, made of bone, and pierced with two holes. It is of course possible that other musical instruments may have been known in those remote times, but stringed instruments would have quickly decayed, leaving no trace, and wooden drums would not have been much more durable; but it remains to be discovered whether some of the heavy chipped stones called implements may not also have served as musical instruments, after the manner of the Chinese harmonicons and the modern |