Time also, I found, had occasioned a little variation, as the bamboos in drying lengthen a little; but it is a mere trifle. One or two points I must not forget to direct attention to. Notice that the reeds in the _Sheng_ have their faces turned to the wall of the bowl, and in this way a reflecting surface acts to the advantage of the reed; the air also acts less wildly than might be the case if the reeds were turned toward the centre of the bowl. The reed tongues are very thin, and are not lifted from the level of the plates; consequently they may be caused to sound both by drawing with the breath and by blowing, although the latter is prohibited in practice, as the moisture from blowing condensing on the reed alters the pitch, and corrodes the metal. Any excessive forcing of the tone the reeds are not liable to, because the air is passing at the same time through all the pipes, those that are sounding and those that are not. Fairly, then, I think that I may claim to have transformed myself into an early Chinaman, and to have shown that I possess a sympathetic, inquisitive, barbarian sort of a mind, and ought to have lived years ago. The plan that I hit upon in a wild, instinctive way appears to be identical with the plan upon which the _Sheng_ was evolved; for no other seems so easy and natural as this, alike in regard to the origin of the instrument and to the development of the music. CHAPTER XVII. In the Land of Siam. THE SIAMESE “PHAN.” Geographically the three empires of China, Japan and Siam, may be considered as one region, and therefore, without doubt the _Sheng_, the _Sho_, and the _Phan_ have a common origin; and within the confines of these lands this kind of instrument has its home. There is no other type of the free reed, nor does it seem to have strayed beyond its home until after the lapse of many centuries—how many we cannot with any certainty say. Somewhere in the land of China the free reed had its origin; the first instance, too, of the employment of metal as a vibrating tongue to produce musical sound; and, as I said, the reed stamped out in metal was bound to be a free reed. Yet it is curious that no other nation had for music a metal reed, when we note that, as Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen has stated, the working of metal had been practised as early as 3000 B.C. in Chaldea. He tells us of earliest Chaldean inscriptions being certainly as ancient as 4000 to 5000 B.C., and that one of our earliest Chaldean sculptures contained a representation of the harp and the pipes which were attributed to Jubal. The last half dozen lines are a repetition from the first chapter, merely because it is desirable to have the facts they set forth born in mind in this part of the exposition also.