tunkul

Updated: May 9, 2025

The Mayas of old were wont to abandon the house where a person had died. Many still observe that same custom when they can afford to do so; for they believe that the spirit of the departed hovers round it. Among the musical instruments used by the Mayas there were two kinds of drums the Tunkul and the Zacatan. They are still used by the aborigines in their religious festivals and dances.

Augustus Le Plongeon - Vestiges of the Mayas : or, Facts Tending to Prove that Communications and Intimate : Relations Must Have Existed, in very Remote Times, Between : the Inhabitants of Mayab and Those of Asia and Africa

The Tunkul is a cylinder hollowed from the trunk of a tree, so as to leave it about one inch in thickness all round. It is generally about four feet in length. On one side two slits are cut, so as to leave between them a strip of about four inches in width, to within six inches from the ends; this strip is divided in the middle, across, so as to form, as it were, tongues.

Augustus Le Plongeon - Vestiges of the Mayas : or, Facts Tending to Prove that Communications and Intimate : Relations Must Have Existed, in very Remote Times, Between : the Inhabitants of Mayab and Those of Asia and Africa