[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

42 MALEKULA
sporadically throughout the island. The musical bow is essentially
a woman’s instrument, though a man will sometimes play it. It
is known in South Malekula, but it is said to belong properly to
the people of the interior, In construction it is a small, simple
bow, some eighteen inches long, with a string of banyan or
coco-nut ï¬Åbre. The bow is held lightly between the lips near
one end, while the other end is held in the left hand, the string
being turned away from the body. In her right hand the
performer has a small stick made from the mid-rib of a coco-nut
frond. This is called " the tongue â€ù (nzlemm). It is inserted
from below the bow~string and passed between this and the
bow-stave, so that it points over the perforn-ier’s shoulder. In
this position it is drawn back and forth rubbing the while
against both stave and string. The pitch of the resultant
note is regulated by the index ï¬Ånger of the left hand pressing
on the string, and the mouth acts as resonator, being opened
and shut as the pitch is varied, so that it may resonate correctly.
The Malekulan pan-pipes are of two varieties: those with seven
reeds, called mzsusm (see Plate XVIIB), and those with eight,
called nimbu rovorop. In both there is apparently a double, line
of reeds, but how they are played, what are the intervals between
the notes, and what is the distribution of the types throughout
the island we are not told. The names nesusur and probably
nimbu rovorop are in the dialect of Lambumbu, but it is certain
that these instruments are not conï¬Åned to this district.
Of the flute we have no description, nor are we told the
locality to which it belongs, but it is said to have been introduced
to the south-west of Malekula from Aulua on the east coast.
The trumpet, called in Seniang nitavu mbzmgon numbu} is made
from a piece of bamboo about I8 inches long by I inch
in diameter. The performer blows into it from one end, and
produces thereby a booming note similar to that made by .a
conch trumpet. The distribution of this instrument is also
unrecorded.
Of the songs of the Malekulans little can, unfortunately, be
deduced from the extant notes, save that there appear to have
been a considerable number of them. Many of the tunes were
very roughly recorded in Tonic Sol-fa, but there is nothing to
1 Nitavu is the Seniang word for an ordinary conch trumpet,