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of two men—the raïta-player and the drummer, with his tam-tam or derbouca.

The second type of wind instrument is the flute. This is either the ordinary penny whistle made out of a reed and producing the same sort of music, only softer, or the long flute, chiefly found in the southern areas. The flute is the most interesting of all the Arab instruments and the hardest to play. It consists of a long reed hollowed out, about half an inch in diameter and from two to three feet long. It has eight stops, but there is no sort of mouthpiece.

The sound is produced by the player blowing across the top of the flute at some particular angle which I have never been able to discover, and producing the softest, saddest, deepest note one can possibly imagine.

To the most unmusical the sound of the long flute must appeal, and when accompanying one of those love ballads of the far South it is enchanting.

These two flutes are used to accompany all kinds of songs, but chiefly those concerning the exploits of heroes and the love lays which hold such a big place in all Arab melodies. Occasionally it is used to follow religions chants, but not always.

The flute is usually accompanied by the tam-tam or the derbouca, which is played very softly. Moreover, the accompaniment to the song is more often only heard between each verse, while during the singing it is just a faint drone with a distinct time-beating, and sometimes no music at all.

The religious chants, which are not, as might be supposed, sung in the mosques but at the shrines of saints or in private houses, have usually no accompaniment except the tam-tam. These chants consist of either hymns in praise of some saint or marabout, or else in long passages of the Koran telling one of our well-known Bible stories. At first sight it would seem