2-981-823 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Performers at the Villa of Belgatchia, Calcutta, from a sketch by one of our special artists, 1876. 'Among the feats...was the ingenious musician, Baboo Rally Prosonno Bannerjee, playing on two flutes, or trumpets, with his neck. This performance excited great interest. At first it was thought that he was producing the sound by his mouth, or by ventriloquism; but it seems there is a very delicate apparatus within the instrument, so fine that the small quantity of air propelled by the pressure of the neck on the mouth of the tube is sufficient to give forth a sound...The [karatala] instruments are of steel, and lie in the palm of the hand; they are made to clink together, producing a delicate sound almost like the dropping of water. The hymn chanted by the pundit Samaswami and his two pupils was in Sanscrit, so its meaning was not understood by most of the company'. From "Illustrated London News", 1876.