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Back to article: ARGHOUL, ARGHOOL, or ARGHUL (in the Egyptian hieroglyphs,As or As-IT)

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ARGHOUL, ARGHOOL, or ARGHUL (in the Egyptian hieroglyphs,As or As-IT),1 an ancient and modern Egyptian and Arab wood-wind instrument, with cylindrical bore and single reed mouthpiece of the clarinet type. The arghoul consists of two reed pipes of unequal lengths bound together by means of waxed thread, so that the two mouthpieces lie side by side, and can be taken by the performer into his mouth at the same time. The mouthpiece consists of a reed having a small tongue detached by means of a longitudinal slit which forms the beating reed, as in the clarinet mouthpiece. The shorter pipe has six holes on which the melody is played; the three upper holes being covered by the fingers of the right hand, and the lower by those of the left hand. The longer pipe has no lateral holes; it is a
(From Edward William Lane's An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians.)
Modern Arghoul, 3 ft. 21 in. long.
drone pipe with one note only, which, however, can be varied by the addition of extra lengths of reed. In the illustration all three lengths are shown in use. An arghoul belonging to the collection of the Conservatoire Royal at Brussels, described by Victor Mahill'on in his catalogue2 (No. 113), gives the following scale: