to the most compact form and resembling the rackett
(q.v.). The narrow bores are pierced longitudinally through the
thickness of the barrel in parallel channels communicating with each
other in twos or threes, and so arranged as to provide the requisite
length for each drone. The reeds are double reeds all set in the wooden
stock within the bag. By means of regulating slides (called in English
_regulators_ and in French _layettes_), which may be pushed up and down
in longitudinal grooves round the circumference of the barrel, the
length of each drone tube can be so regulated that a simple harmonic
bass consisting of the common chord is obtainable. In the union pipes
the drones are separate pipes having keys played by the elbow, which
correspond to the sliders in the musette drone and produce the same kind
of harmonic bass. The modern Egyptian arghool consists of a kind of
clarinet with a drone attached to it by means of waxed thread; in this
case the beating reed of the drone is set in vibration directly by the
breath of the performer, who takes both mouthpieces into his mouth,
without the medium of a wind reservoir. Mersenne gave very clear
descriptions of the construction of cornemuse and musette, with clear
illustrations of the reeds and stock.[4] There are allusions in the
Greek classics which point to the existence of a pipe with a drone,
either of the arghool or the bagpipe type.[5] (K. S.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] For the "drone," the male of the honey bee, see BEE. The musical
sense, both for the noise made and for the instrument, comes from the
buzzing of the bee.

[2] British Museum, Add. MS. 12,228 (Italian work), _Roman du Roy
Meliadus_, 14th century, fol. 221 b., and Add. MS. 18,851, end 15th
century (Spanish work illustrated by Flemish artists), fol. 13.

[3] _Syntagma musicum. Theatrum instrumentorum_, pl. xi. No. 6.

[4] _L'Harmonie universelle_ (Paris, 1636-1637), t. ii. bk. 5, pp.
282-287 and p. 305.

[5] Plato, _Crito_, 54; Aristophanes, _Acharnians_, 865, where some
musicians are in derision dubbed "bumblebee pipers." See BAGPIPE;
also Kathleen Schlesinger, "Researches into the Origin of the Organs
of the Ancients," _Intern. mus. Ges._ vol. ii. (1901), Sammelband ii.
pp. 188-202.

DRONFIELD, an urban district in the north-eastern parliamentary division
of Derbyshire, England, 6 m. S. of Sheffield, on the Midland railway.
Pop. (1901) 3809. It lies on