________________
APRIL, 1895.)
DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF OBJECTS.
107
72
75
76
(m). Kenhòm. Bamboo intensil, taken up the cocoanut-tree to receive the contents
of the honden (vide No. 71), or henwain (vide No. 34). (m). Shanonha-toak. Bamboo siphon and strainer. At the upper end of a single joint
of bamboo & snall vent-hole is made in the centre of the node, and the node at the other end is removed; the mouth thus formed being then covered with a small piece of cocoanut ochrea (vide Nos. 36, 37, 45 and 46). In filling a drinking-cup from a bowl of tári, as drawn from the tree, this bamboo object is placed in the bowl and, after a few seconds, the thumb is pressed on the small vent-hole at the apper end :. the bamboo thus loaded is transferred to the cup, where its contents, daly filtered, are discharged by removing the thumb from the vent-hole. Another method of filling this utensil, when the bowl is nearly empty, is to apply the mouth to the vent-hole and draw in the breath and, then, when filled as far as possible, the thumb is applied to the vent-hole, as above described. Sometimes the upper node is also removed, in which case the cap is filled by pouring unstrained tårí through
the shanonha. (). Tanop-toak (C. N. Kiran-nga-häo). Bamboo drinking-vessel provided with a tube
for sucking társ, in constant use among the middle-aged and old men of Chowra, Teressa, and Car Nicobar, especially of the first named. It is not ased in the Central and Southern Groups, where tári is drunk with the enta (vide No. 38), or a glass, or by pouring direct from the shanonha (vide No. 73) into the mouth through the
small vent-hole in that utensil. (mn). Landh-hiya (C. N. SAnòng-sa). Betel-nut crusher, the barrel of which is of
bamboo; used by those who have few or no teeth. Similar objects, made of brass,
are sometimes obtained from ship traders. (m). Henhel (C. N. Fa-nā). Bamboo flageolet, similar to those in nse 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 Fenzlit), 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 arbitrary, 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 at 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-ni, when it accompanies & 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 Bt-kait-ni festival, when the performer usually perches himself on one of the derricks, 20 to 40 feet high (styled honbónahe), which are construotod for the purpose of raising the lofty pole to a Vertioad postion.
