- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Flute or flageolet of bamboo, sometimes played with the nostril.
- Long description
- Flute or flageolet of bamboo, sometimes played with the nostril. The flute has seven finger holes parallel to the embouchure hole, and one finger hole on the opposite side. There is a delicate wrapping of palm leaf or other plant just beneath the mouth, which is unravelling.
- Geographical reference
- Nicobar Islands
- Person
- PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
- Field collector Edward Horace Man
- Maker Unknown Maker
- Date
- Date collected
- Before 1878
- Acquisition information
- Found unentered: 2006 Donated: 1884
- Materials and processes
- Process Carved, Material Bamboo Plant, Material Palm Fibre Plant
- Dimensions
- Length 460 mm, Diameter 23 mm
- Object numbers
- PR Cat and other PR nos: 2977 Accession number: 1884.140.1918
- Research and responses
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.' Objects listed on pages 48 - 57 of the green book are associated with the date 21.1.78 and the number 7456d [AP]
Search terms: Music, Musical Instrument, Flute