It seems, at first sight, as if this class of instruments should be placed under the head of “wood;” but the Chinese draw a very wide distinction between wood and bamboo, holding the latter in especial esteem, as being of all vegetation, the most useful to man; and they claim that nature in producing it, fitted it especially to the art of music. It is true that it required no great inventive faculty to extract tones from the hollow sticks of bamboo, and it is possible that music drawn from the bamboo was the earliest of the Chinese empire. One of the most famed of instruments made of this reed, is called the _Koan-tsee_. This is simply a set of pan’s pipes, arranged according to Chinese tonality; the superior (male) tones, called _yang_ being given to one instrument, and the inferior (female) called _yn_ to another, so that to have a melody in any modulations performed, two instruments and two musicians were required. This arrangement was too awkward to last forever; finally the two instruments were united in one, and instead of being weakly bound together by cord, as were the twelve pipes of the _koan-tsee_, two strips of thin board held the tubes in place; the number of pipes was also increased from twelve, to sixteen, and the new instrument called the _siao_.[113] Of course the Chinese possess flutes, as well as other instruments of bamboo. The _yo_ and _ty_ are in some respects similar to our flutes, save that they have usually but three holes, and the tones have therefore to be produced by a more skillful use of the breath than is required on the European flute. An instrument of the flute family the use of which has become somewhat obsolete, is the _tche_. This is different from all other flutes, and is now but little played in China. The _embouchure_ is exactly in the middle, both ends are stopped, and on each side of the _embouchure_ are three holes. It was considered the most difficult of all flutes to play. THE SOUND OF CALABASH. The calabash is a gourd of pumpkin shape, but somewhat smaller. In the instrument which we are about to describe, we shall see that the calabash (called _pao_ by the Chinese) really emits no sound, but serves only as an air reservoir for one of the most wonderful instruments of ancient times. The _cheng_, which is the only instrument in which the calabash is used, is in fact a _portable organ_, and when we consider that this intricate instrument was invented about four thousand years ago, we are lost in astonishment that the invention did not lead to greater results; yet the Chinese have frequently, in other sciences as well, advanced to the threshold of great discoveries.