Okay, so Google has failed me, I have no idea what to call this thing, and when I bought it the store clerk, who is also the owner, referred to it as simply a “musical instrument”- not specifying a particular species. I think it might be a child’s instrument moreso than a professional sort of thing, though it does sound lovely.
It consists of what amounts to a small wooden bowl, about four inches in diameter and three inches deep, with the end that would be open in a bowl being covered by a thin, flat piece of wood glued on and cut to fit, forming the “face” I would say of the instrument. Near the bottom of the face seven flat pieces of metal, about 4 milimeters (maybe 1/8th of an inch) wide, all with slightly wider, round-ish ends which are bent inward (toward the face) at an angle. Each of these metal pieces is of a different length, thus giving it the higher and lower notes.
It seems it’s played by briefly pushing a fingertip or thumbtip down on one or more of these end blobs (
) at a time, with a sound similar to a cross between a wooden xylophone and Tibetan singing bowls. The best way to hold it for playing seems to be holding it with the fingers of both hands to pluck the metal… Keys (are they?) with the thumbs. The sound changes depending on whether I use the nails or my actual thumbtips.
There is also a small round hole in the face behind the keys, decorated with the shape of a lizard left there, which is presumably for the purpose of altering the sound by letting some out of the bowl, in which it likely resonates. Some kind of cross between a guitar, a piano, a triangle and a xylophone.
The store I bought it from sells mostly things from or styled after India- bangles, posters of Hindu gods, sandalwood incense and the like. They mostly have damaru drums and wooden flutes and such there, though they’ve also branched out into maracas and, once, a didgeridoo.
What’s the proper term for my beautiful mutant?