DCM 1153: Anonymous Dulali (Nose Flute)

DCM ledger, quoting letter from Reed to DCM, 8 June 1932: "Recently I made a cruise to the South Sea Islands, and while in Suva, I secured this nose flute from the Curator of the Fiji Museum. The native name of this flute is 'mbitu vaka tangi.' (The m is silent). Mbitu is the native name of bamboo. It is played with the right nostril, and has a plaintive melancholy note, not unlike the call of the eastern snipe or killdeer. It is very rare as the present generation of Fijians have lost the art of making and playing this instrument."
Instrument type: Dulali (Nose Flute)
Medium: Bamboo.; 67.4 cm.
Key Holes System: DCM ledger: "...hole near lower septum, one near center...2 holes intermediate between center and ends."
Mark Maximum: No mark.
Condition: Cracks at both ends.
Provenance: William J. Reed (Flutist on the Leviathan, 1931), San Francisco, 14 June 1932. Reed to DCM: "While in Suva, I secured this nose flute from the Curator of the Fiji Museum."

The Dayton C. Miller collection in the Library of Congress, contains nearly 1,700 flutes and other wind instruments, statuary, iconography, books, music, trade catalogs, tutors, patents, and other materials mostly related to the flute. It includes both Western and non-Western examples of flutes from around the world, with at least 460 European and American instrument makers represented. Items in the collection date from the 16th to the 20th century.