By way of an addendum to last night’s post I should mention that The Pitt Rivers Museum has a web page and if you spend view minutes clicking around you should come across a database of all that they have in the collection.

It is a wee bit clunky but it only took me another two minutes to discover that they have a large number of trumpets fashioned out of the human femur very few of which appear to be on display.

You have to wonder at who was the first person to pick up an old piece of human femur and have a go blowing down it.

So you Google it and discover that a trumpet made from a human thigh bone is properly called a Kangling and you can acquire them for $550 (male) or $600 (female). You can also get them made out wood – but that would appear to be defeating the point.

Anyway, pay them a visit at http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/index.html to see what you are missing and should you happen to be in Oxford spend an hour or two wandering round. If there is a child available take it with you and then send it off to find the shrunken heads and the nit combs made from a walrus’ tusk and the black statue studded with nails.