The Selluraphone

In the words of Baden-Powell, from "Lessons on the 'Varsity of Life."

     I had just landed in Malta on my return there from a visit to Sicily. While in that island I had bought, as a curio, one of those high brass saddles with which the natives decorate their horses and mules.
     It was ornamented with a row of brass knobs upon a kind of spike in front, which terminated with a couple of brass flags at the top. One the sides were also rather larger and more conspicuous knobs.
     A friend, seeing me arrive with this strange implement, asked: “Is that a musical instrument?”
     “What else do you suppose it is?” I replied.
     Then he begged me, with all the earnestness at his command, to play it at a concert the following week.
     I did so.
     I arranged with the orchestra to play a high-class Nocturne in which I should take the solo part with my “Selluraphone.” Meantime I fitted the instrument with a strap so that I could hand round my neck in front of my chest and I attached a paper- covered comb opposite my mouth, and at the performance I “sang” through this comb in a high falsetto, tuning the instrument by means of its flags, playing the notes on the knobs up and down the front, and giving the loud and soft effect by tinkering with the larger knobs on the side.
     Not a soul guessed that it was not a real musical instrument.