naw, free-reed mouth organ

​Free-reed mouth organ system of the Lahu people of China and Thailand, mentioned in Blench (2012): “The naw is played by a number of minority peoples of the region, including the Yi, Lahu and Lisu people… Traditionally this instrument also played a coded language, used for unmarried people to converse with … the Lahu and related peoples use the tones produced by mouth-organ to mimic the speech-tones of the language and in this way recite the lengthy epics which reinforce their identity (11-12)”.​

Blench, R. (2012). The history and distribution of the free-reed mouth-organ in SE Asia. 20. http://www.rogerblench.info/Archaeology/SE%20Asia/Dublin%202012/History%20and%20distribution%20of%20free%20reed%20mouth%20organs.pdf