These Solomon Island natives appear to have fairly good ears for music, and have many popular tunes and songs besides those quoted above. The majority of them have only a few words and a simple air, but the singers make the most of them by repetition, so that what appears to be a long song or tune is often quite short, and contains only a few lines as in the above instance. The Jew’s-harp has become very popular on these islands, and both men and boys become accomplished players on it. The native instrument of the same class is made from a piece of bamboo with a narrow groove cut out of the centre about six inches long. A string is passed over the groove, or tongue, and the end is placed against the mouth, and the sound is produced by jerking the string to make it vibrate. The Pandean pipe, which is made on the same principle as the classic pipe of that name, is of native origin, and it is composed of short, hollow lengths of bamboo lashed together with vegetable fibre. Attached to the ends of each pipe are streamers of the same substance. [Illustration 44: SOLOMON ISLANDER PLAYING THE “IVIVU,” OR FLUTE This instrument, when played by a native, has a very sweet tone.] The native flute (_Ivivu_) is composed of a thick piece of bamboo nearly three feet long, hollowed out but closed at each end. It contains four holes. {131} The first one is about five inches from the top and is made for the mouth of the player. At a distance of another five inches is another hole for the first finger of the right hand, and the remaining two holes are at the far end separated by a few inches. The tone obtained from this peculiar instrument is not at all unpleasant. They possess still another instrument, known in England as the mouth fiddle, which is roughly made of a bent stick and has two strings. The player holds one end of it between his teeth and manipulates the strings with his fingers after the style of a big Jew’s-harp. Besides their musical accomplishments the natives are very fair draughtsmen, and some of their drawings are surprisingly good. Shark fishing, head-hunting, and scenes of murder, are amongst their favourite pictures. The frigate birds and human heads figure in nearly all their designs—especially the former, which are fish-hawks as large as big seagulls, but somewhat darker in plumage. When soaring overhead in search of prey to swoop down on, the frigate bird shows the peculiar shape of its wings, which, roughly speaking, form the letter “M.” Like the shark it is more or less sacred, and therefore not eaten and seldom harmed. {132} All the drawings are done on wood with a red-hot stick, in much the same way as poker-work is done in England. There is no particular shape or size or even design in the instruments used for drawing. Nowadays the natives beg a little iron or wire, which they make red hot and go to work with to burn out their designs.