The quijongo is a type of

musical bow The musical bow (bowstring or string bow, a subset of bar zithers) is a simple string instrument used by a number of African peoples as well as Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It consists of a flexible, usually wooden, stick 1.5 to 10 feet ...

used by the indigenous peoples of

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

and

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

. In some countries, such as

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

, it is known as the carimba. It was probably used by the indigenous

Chorotega people Mangue, also known as Chorotega,Daniel G. Brinton. 1886. Notes on the Mangue; An Extinct Dialect Formerly Spoken in Nicaragua Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society , Vol. 23, No. 122 (Apr., 1886), pp. 238-257 is an extinct Oto-Manguea ...

Nicoya Nicoya is a Districts of Costa Rica, district and head city of the Nicoya (canton), Nicoya canton, in the Guanacaste Province, Guanacaste province of Costa Rica, located on the Nicoya Peninsula. It is one of the country's most important tourism, ...

. It consists of a bow measuring 140cm in length, made of flexible wood with a string (generally metal) stretched between its ends. At a point a third of the way between its ends, a jicara or

calabaza Calabaza is the generic name in the Spanish language for any type of winter squash. Within an English-language context it specifically refers to the West Indian pumpkin, a winter squash typically grown in the West Indies, tropical America, and t ...

gourd is affixed to serve as a resonator. Sound is created by striking the string with a stick, and the tone can be modulated by covering and uncovering the soundhole in the resonator with the fingers, changing the tone by a fourth or sixth. Occasionally, it is amplified by placing the base of the bow on a separate box.

References

Quijongo at Encarta

Sources

*''Native American Stringed Musical Instruments'' by Daniel Brinton. in ''The American antiquarian and oriental journal'' By Stephen Denison Peet Jameson & Morse, 1897 v. 19, pg 19

Musical bows Costa Rican musical instruments Nicaraguan musical instruments Salvadoran musical instruments Mesoamerican musical instruments {{Musical-instrument-stub