A small fiddle in crude violin shaped. Decorated with painted designs in black, ochre and white. Yellow paint derived from a root collected in peyote country, Wirikuta or Catorze de Real in San Luis Potosi. Heavy head with a crude triangular scroll. Four strings, three of wire and one of nylon, are attached to lateral pegs and to a tailpiece which is, in turn, tied by a piece of heavy string to a knob glued to the back. The fingerboard is cut unto a zig-zag shape over the belly. Two slot-shaped sound-holes with heavily incised, curved tails. Bow: A flat stick with a pierced dog-leg at one end and a hole some distance from the other. Horsehair is tied through the holes and secured with a knot at the dog-leg and a cord at the grip.
violins; necked fiddle
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