Rather more complete than the above specimens are some of the whistles and small pipes which have been found in graves of the Indians of Chiriqui in central America. The pipe or whistle which is represented in the accompanying engraving appears, to judge from the somewhat obscure description transmitted to us, to possess about half a dozen tones. It is of pottery, painted in red and black on a cream-coloured ground, and in length about five inches. Among the instruments of this kind from central America the most complete have four finger-holes. By means of three the following four sounds (including the sound which is produced when none of the holes are closed) can be emitted: [Illustration] the fourth finger-hole, when closed, has the effect of lowering the pitch a semitone. By a particular process two or three lower notes are obtainable. [Illustration] [Illustration] The pipe of the Aztecs, which is called by the Mexican Spaniards _pito_, somewhat resembled our flageolet: the material was a reddish pottery, and it was provided with four finger-holes. Although among about half a dozen specimens which the writer has examined some are considerably larger than others they all have, singularly enough, the same pitch of sound. The smallest is about six inches in length, and the largest about nine inches. Several _pitos_ have been found in a remarkably well-preserved condition. They are easy to blow, and their order of intervals is in conformity with the pentatonic scale, thus: [Illustration] The usual shape of the _pito_ is that here represented; showing the upper side of one pipe, and a side view of another. A specimen of a less common shape, also engraved, is in the British museum. Indications suggestive of the popular estimation in which the flute (or perhaps, more strictly speaking, the pipe) was held by the Aztecs are not wanting. It was played in religious observances and we find it referred to allegorically in orations delivered on solemn occasions. For instance, at the religious festival which was held in honour of Tezcatlepoca--a divinity depicted as a handsome youth, and considered second only to the supreme being--a young man was sacrificed who, in preparation for the ceremony, had been instructed in the art of playing the flute. Twenty days before his death four young girls, named after the principal goddesses, were given to him as companions; and when the hour arrived in which he was to be sacrificed he observed the established symbolical rite of breaking a flute on each of the steps, as he ascended the temple.