Tok Pisin:_stringben_

    Earlier we were wondering what _stringben_ meant in the phrase _mi man
bilong pilai long stringben_...
    well, I have been reading some books I have on music (esp'ly David Reck's
_Music of the Whole Earth_)... in Papua New Guinea, idiochordophones* &
various other kinds of chordophones predominate...
                                ... in another words, string instruments!!!!!

    * IDIOCHORDOPHONES= string instruments that have the interestin'
attribute of having being made entirely "of one-piece": the resonant body and
the "string(s)" of the instrument is a good sized section of sago root or
bamboo, the "string(s)" being an integral portion of the tube cut length-wise
- split- & pried from the main body of the tube. The tube ends are reinforced
by binding materials - usually woven long grasses, vines or plait bamboo rope
- to prevent further splitting. Idiochordophones have a very "raw" sound,
full of timbral colourations - i.e. insectoid-like buzzin', clickin', etc. -
created by the primitive materials used & exploited to the fullest by skilled
performers.

    pretty neat, eh?

    zHANg