Today's random selection from the stuff on my shelf is a bell. It's about a half pound, made from cast brass, and hand carved with vines and geometric shapes. The top half looks like a normal bell, but the bottom is made up of 18 hooks that are bent into a sort of cage shape. They're not all made the exact same shape, so when you ring it you get about a half dozen different sounding rings at the same time, about half of which seem to be in a minor key. This means that it has a slightly disturbing sound and I try not to ring it very much.
I don't remember when I got this, but I remember getting it just across the river from Parkersburg WV. It was apparantly made in India (I have no idea when) and was used by elephant handlers to get the elephants' attention for giving commands and such. I have no idea of knowing if that's correct or just made up by the person I purchased it from, but I looked into things a bit and it really is from India, so that's something at least.
It makes me wish that an elephant would show up near my appartment so that I could try to use it. Just my luck it would probably make the thing try to kill me, but at least I'd get an interesting story out of it.
