Plate XLII. — Saw Duang & Bow. — Saw Tai & Bow. Saw Oo & Bow. — Klui. Pee
These instruments belong to H.M. the King of Siam, and were drawn by the gracious permission of H.R.H. Prince Narés Varariddhi, then Siamese Minister in England, and brother of the King.
The Saw Tai, or Siamese fiddle (centre figure), has the lower part of the neck of carved ivory, and the upper part of gold enamelled. The back is of cocoa-nut shells, jewelled. There is a jewelled boss on the sound membrane, which is of parchment. It is the same instrument as the Javese Rabáb, and is of Persian origin. The strings, three in number, of silk cord, meet at the top beneath the pegs, and pass under a ligature, whence they diverge to the bridge. It has no finger-board, and the length of string to vibrate is not marked off, as is usual with bowed instruments, by pressure upon the finger-board, but by pressing the independent string with the entire width of the finger, which leaves the intonation a little uncertain. The player squats cross-legged, and holds the instrument in a sloping position.
The Saw Chine, or Chinese fiddle, is shown in two varieties, the Saw Duang (left of centre figure) with jewels round one of the pegs, and the Saw Oo (right of centre figure). Like the Saw Tai, these fiddles have no finger-boards. The bowstring, as in the Chinese Urh-hsien and Hu-ch’in, is inserted between the strings so as to play either. The wind instruments here shown are a Klui, or flute (on the left), which has a membrane over one hole, resembling the Basque galoubet; and the Pee (on the right), a kind of oboe, very harsh, and resembling in tone a very powerful bagpipe, a resemblance assisted by the peculiar heptatonic scale of the Siamese, being not far off the Syrian scale, noticed in the Scotch bagpipe. (See Introduction, page xv., and Plates V. and XLIII.) The Pee is considered to be of Javese origin.
There are four kinds of Bands in Siam, the precise details of which are given in Notes on Siamese Musical Instruments, a work prepared at the Siamese Embassy and published in London, 1885. The Lao Phān Band, peculiar to the north of Siam, includes the reed instrument called Phān, mentioned in the Introduction, page xviii.