1884.111.8

Collection type

Object

Description

Fipple Flageolet Duct Flute wrapped in blue and white cloth.

Geographical reference

Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Union Territory of India)

Asia > Southern Asia > Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Union Territory of India)

Person

Maker Unknown Maker

Field collector Edward Horace Man

PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1884

Date collected

Prior to 1884

Acquisition information

Donated: 1884

Materials and processes

Material Bamboo Plant, Material Wax, Material Textile, Process Perforated, Process Bound

Dimensions

Diameter: max 25 mm, Length: max 435 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1884.111.8 PR no.: 4/ 11935

Research and responses

11935 number would suggest that this is an EH Man object. This object is listed in Accession Book VII but is one of those items listed there which were part of the PRM collections before 1884. [AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998]

Associated publications

Indian Antiquary, Feb. 1895, 'Catalogue of Nicobarese objects', p. 107 '76 (m) Henhel (Car Nicobar Fa-na) Bamboo flageolet similar to those in use among the Burmese, generally about 18 inches long. A flat circular piece of beeswax about the size of a four-anna piece, but thicker, is inserted in the tube, and is fixed in the middle of the oblong incision marked A in the sketch, where it serves as the block of the instrument. Over the upper half of this incision a piece of leaf (generally of the Amomum Fenzlii) or paper, is loosely wrapped. These measures serve to regulate the tone of the instrument, which is provided with 7 finger holes and one thumb hole, the latter being on the reverse side, and at a level corresponding with the space between the top and second finger holes. The scale is arbitary, and between the Burmese and the European. In construction it resembles the metal flue pipe of an organ. Some four or five tunes only are known, and these are borrowed from the Malays. The tone is liquid and clear. The henhel is not made in Car Nicobar, where only a few, obtained from Chowra, are owned by those who have learnt to play on it. In the long-established villages in the Central Group, where there are cemeteries, this instrument can be played only at the special feast known as Et-kait-fii when it accompanies a danang (vide no 77). It can be played at any time at any village where there is no cemetery, provided no mourners are present: at these villages only can it be played as an accompaniment to dancing and singing. A few persons are able to play this instrument through one or other of the nostrils and more especially is this done on the occasion of the Et-kait-fii festival when the performer usually perches himself on one of the derricks, 20 or 40 feet high (styled henkonsha) which are constructed for the purpose of raising the lofty pole to a vertical position.' [AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998]

Search terms: Music, Musical Instrument, Flute