Note 128 — A JOURNAL OF THE FIRST VOYAGE OF VASCO DA GAMA IN 1497-99.

I am indebted for a photograph of one of these trumpets to Sir John Kirk, who states that the Royal Trumpet, or Siwa, was peculiar to the cities ruled by the descendants of the Persians of Shiraz, who settled on this coast in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They were of ivory, or copper and wood, and consisted of three pieces. The ivory or copper was sometimes most elaborately carved, and bore Arabic texts.