Folklore: Instruments that reveal secrets

Subject: Folklore: Instruments that reveal secrets
From: Pied Piper
Date: 18 Jun 04 - 07:39 AM

Wales
Iraq
Egypt
Seth plots against the king.

Seth began scheming against the great king. He aligned himself with Aso, the queen of Ethiopia, and 72 other conspirators. But nothing could be done while Isis ruled the country, Her authority was unquestionable. Upon Osiris' return, an evil plot was put into motion. Seth secretly acquired the measurements of Osiris and began having a wonderfully decorated box built to fit those measurements. When the box was finished, Seth had a great feast to which he invited Osiris and the 72 conspirators. Having absolutely no evil in him, Osiris suspected nothing. When the feasting was done, Seth had the box brought out. He offered it as a gift to anyone whom the box fit. One at a time they tried to fit into the box until it was Osiris' turn. He layed in the box suspecting nothing. The conspirators slammed the lid, nailed it closed, and poured molten lead in the seam to seal his fate. They threw the great chest into the Nile river. Osiris was never seen again, walking in the land of the living.

Isis grieves for Osiris.

This news reached Isis and she was grief stricken. She put on her dress of mourning and set about trying to find the body of her husband. She knew well, the dead could not rest until they have had a proper funeral. Isis searched long, but found nothing. She asked every man and every woman if they had seen the giant box that contained her husband, but no one had. Finally, Isis asked some children who were playing by the Nile. They told her where Seth and the conspirators had thrown the chest into the river. After further investigation, and consultation with some demons, Isis learns that the chest had floated out to sea, to the land of Byblos and become lodged in a tamarisk bush. As if by magic the bush shot up and became a magnificent tree. The towering tree enclosed the ornate box within its huge trunk. The king of Byblos admired the great tree so much that he had it cut down and made into a giant pillar to support the roof of his palace.

The Elements of this story must be very old, do you know of any other examples?

PP

Subject: RE: Folklore: Instruments that reveal secrets
From: Pied Piper
Date: 18 Jun 04 - 07:50 AM

Midas
Another one

Subject: RE: Folklore: Instruments that reveal secrets
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 Jun 04 - 09:24 AM

The Old Orange Flute

Subject: RE: Folklore: Instruments that reveal secrets
From: Kent Davis
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 12:59 AM

The Two Sisters (Oh the Wind and Rain) features a fiddle bow, made using the murdered sister's hair, which will only play "Oh the Wind and Rain". This is in the Digitrad. (Child #10)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Instruments that reveal secrets
From: semi-submersible
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 07:03 AM

The Midas page above was missing the part about the reeds when I looked.

Click for one of the versions of The Two Sisters (a speaking harp made from the murdered girl's body).

Lloyd Alexander published (1967) a charming children's book called The Truthful Harp: it breaks a string every time the (Welsh-sounding) would-be-bard takes liberties with facts. Comically done. (One of the first stories in what became a rather massive series.)

Legends from Tuva (speaking through a stringed instrument and a jaw harp): http://www.kiravan.com/MTALLIS.htm

I can't recall a searchable phrase, but I believe that a prophetic drum made from the skin of a loved one occurs in myths from various continents.

Literal "Talking Drums" at http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues00/jun00/mall_jun00.html:
"Batá drums imitate the tonal language of Yoruba. Any Yoruba syllable has one of three tones, in a fixed relationship with each other, and the batá imitates them."

Subject: RE: Folklore: Instruments that reveal secrets
From: Joe_F
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 07:30 PM

In various versions of Child 10 (The Twa Sisters) the murdered sister becomes all or part of a fiddle or a harp. I seem to recall an American version in which it is a banjo %^).

In the fantasy novel _Picking the Ballad's Bones_ by Elizabeth Scarborough (1991), a gang of folkies trying to save music (with the help of Sir Walter Scott's ghost) from the wicked entertainment industry are guided at every step by a magic banjo, which plays the tunes of songs to which the well-known words are clues.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Instruments that reveal secrets
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 21 Jun 04 - 12:06 PM

Yet another version of "The Twa Sisters" is Binnorie
in which, after her sister drowns her,

A famous harper, passing by
Binnorie, oh Binnorie
That sweet fair form did chance to spy,
By the bonnie milldams of Binnorie.

And a harp he made of her white breast bone
Binnorie, oh Binnorie
Whose sound would melt a heart of stone
By the bonnie milldams of Binnorie.

The harper plays the harp at her father's hall, and the harp plays by itself, and

"Oh, these are the last, last words I will say,
Binnorie, oh Binnorie
My sister it was, that did me slay!
By the bonnie milldams of Binnorie!"

Dave Oesterreich