The Music of Hindostan c6.266

c6.266

The *udukku* is a small drum, shaped like an hour-glass, held in the right hand so that the squeeze of the fingers tightens the braces and sharpens the tone within the limits of about a sixth. A pea at the end of a string swings from the middle and strikes either drum-head. The *tālam*, lit. time-instrument, was a pair of shallow cups of bell metal, about three inches in diameter. This song bears marks of genuineness, and the three rhythms and the suggestion of harmony are interesting; but the other is not very distantly related, except perhaps for its seven-bar rhythm, to the strains of the Salvation Army, which I heard that evening outside in the *bazar*.