Bag - mešnica
Novalja, island Pag, the 1st half of the 20th century

wood (fig tree), wood (mable), bulrush, sheep leather
cutting, insertion, knifework

 

length of the tube = 8 cm

length of the stock = 8,4 cm
length of the chanter = 19,5 cm
distance from the top of the chanter to the first finger-hole = 4,3 cm

 

Et 9389
The Collection of Musical Instruments

Description

The bag consists of sheep skin (this part is called “meh”), a maple chanter, a fig tree stock, and blowpipes through which the air is blown in. The animal’s hind legs and buttocks are tightly tied with a rope.

Note

On the island of Pag the bag (mijeh) is called mešnica or “svirale”. If the skin used to make a bag cracks, which is plausible considering the players in Novalja merely plucked it when they processed it, a small round stone is inserted on the inside which is then tied on the outside. In this case, what we have here is not a stone, but a piece of fir plank, also called “paprica”. (acc. to Širola, 1937)