This is a form specially in vogue among the Tlinkits, and these rattles are one of the articles of trade with the tourists in the North-west. Another form is a gourd or clay globe containing pebbles or something similar. Rattles of this kind are common in the ceremonials of the Mokis. Bells, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, were made by tribes of the Central American region of copper in the so-called “hawk’s-bell” shape, but it is not absolutely certain that this form of bell was not derived from European contact.[280] No other form of bell was known to any of the natives. [Illustration: AMERINDIAN RATTLES Gourd, Ojibwa Earthenware rattle from Chiriqui. Tin, Ojibwa ] Whistles were made of pottery and wood and of human and other bones,[281] and were similar to our common whistles with one or more holes in the tube for changing the note. The flute was of wood, generally of cedar, which is considered a sacred wood. It was eighteen or twenty inches long and was often ornamented with carving and tufts of feathers, etc. In Mexico, some were made of terra cotta. [Illustration: OMAHA LARGE FLUTE Made of red cedar. Flutes were also made of eagle wing bones and of reed ] It is certain that the sounds produced on these various instruments would in no way suggest or resemble what is understood by music among people of European origin, and it is also probable that our music when first heard by Amerinds seems to them more like wailing and lamentation than sounds of pleasure. I remember an evening long ago, in Arizona, when we had the interesting companionship of several intelligent Navajo chiefs, who entertained us by singing, accompanying themselves by drumming on the bottom of one of our camp kettles. At length someone of our party exclaimed, “Now let’s give them _Home, Sweet Home_,” and this song was accordingly rendered in a way that should have moved the savage to tears, but, though the firelight was brilliant, I failed to detect any; indeed their expression appeared to resemble that which a professional musician of our own race might have exhibited. They were perfectly satisfied with a single selection, and they politely said _Buéno_. The Navajos have a peculiar drum, the basket drum, described by Washington Matthews.[282] It is a bowl-shaped basket made according to special rules and rites, and inverted is used as a drum in certain ceremonials, being beaten by a stick, also manufactured in a special way, and according to long-established religious rites. Whenever a ceremony is completed this stick is always pulled apart during an appropriate song, and its fragments “deposited, with prayer and ceremony, in the fork of a cedar tree or other secure place.” It is made from yucca leaves, four being the prescribed number, and every one of these must be absolutely free from blemish. One from each cardinal point of the compass is necessary, and the making of the drumstick from