Drum "em" · 

Westneuguinea / Westpapua (Irian Jaya), Asmat · ID: 3036991

Description

wood, blackish brown patina, red pigment, hollowed log in the shape of an hourglass (“hourglass drum”), lizard drum skin (“varanus indicus”), aside of two tiny holes intact, fixed by a plaited rattan ring, small clumps of resin (23 pieces) for tuning on its surface, openwork handle, corpus carved with four lizard feet, decorated with plaited bast fibre, slightly dam., minor missing parts, abrasion of paint;
the corpus of the drum has been hollowed with glowing logs in a procedure lasting for weeks and months. Afterwards the surface was smoothened with the skin of saw fish or rough leaves. The lizard giving its skin for the covering is first benumbed with a special arrow with butt tip, so that no hole is torn in it. The “glue” between reptile skin and wood is a mixture of human blood (from the lateron owner of the drum) and chalk of snails and mussels.

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