d her
guests, who then very courteously took their leave.

The Duke of Alva had met his match in the brave Countess, and had been
forced by her to keep to the letter of protection given her by the King;
but he ought to have had sufficient chivalry to have not required such a
lesson about keeping his King's promise.

Many _Chatterbox_ readers, as they grow older, will probably read in
their histories of the terrible Duke of Alva, and will perceive more
fully what a brave woman this Countess must have been. Without doubt it
was through such incidents as these that Countess Katharina von
Schwarzburg came by her name of 'The Heroic.'

THE MUSIC OF THE NATIONS.

XII.--MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES.

The Indians of America, especially those of North America, show a much
higher mental development than is common in savage nations.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Indian Conjuror's Drum.]

[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Indian Conjuror's Rattle.]

This is shown in many tribes by a communal system of government, loyalty
to their Sachems, or chiefs, their skill in embroidering leather
articles with dyed quills and grasses, and not least in their production
of stringed musical instruments. Instruments of concussion and
percussion, like drums and cymbals, and also wind instruments of shell
or horn, and rude forms of bagpipes, are inventions of most savage
races; but the production of even the most elementary form of stringed
instrument is a distinct advance, showing an understanding, however
faint, of the use of vibration in developing and strengthening an
original note.

The Apache Indians have a small fiddle with one string, and the Yakutata
of Alaska have also a form of violin. The Nachee Indians of the
Mississippi regions have a sacred instrument of great antiquity. It is
of wood, about five feet high by one foot wide, and is held between the
feet, resting alongside the chin of the performer. The strings are made
of the sinews of a large buffalo, and it is played by a bow, held by two
men, one at each end. Probably we might be inclined to think it more
noisy than musical, but happily in music, as in most other things,
tastes differ.

In Central Africa an instrument is made of the shell of the armadillo,
or of the turtle, having strings stretched across it. It is suggestive
of the primitive lyres of antiquity, in which a tortoise-shell was used
as a sounding-board.

Among nearly all Indian tribes, conjurors