The three seven-holed flutes are made from uqalo bamboo. They can also be made of umhlanga river-reed or dried ummbila corn-stalk. Among the Bantu of south eastern Africa (particularly rural KwaZulu-Natal) the flutes were made and played by prepubescent boys when herding cattle and goats. The name ‘umtshingo’ [isiZulu] is literally translated as ‘that which has to be discarded’ because there was a strict rule against whistling and blowing on flutes either indoors or within the grounds of a homestead, for fear of disturbing the family’s departed spirits, or ‘the sleeping ones’. On returning with their animals at the end of the day, the young people had to hide, or discard their flutes, hence the name ‘umtshingo’.