ABSTRACT
Speculation on the origin of the bagpipe in Scotland must be largely futile, as the instrument is everywhere so ancient as to be beyond the means of establishing whether it was indigenous, or where otherwise it came from. W. H. Grattan Flood in The Story of the Bagpipe cites possible reference to Jubal and the bagpipe in the book of Genesis, and to the instrument in Nebuchadnezzar’s private band in the third book of Daniel, referring to a Chaldean sculpture illustrating the first of these. Iconography in Scotland itself shows the bagpipe in use at an early date. The earliest literary reference to the bagpipes in Scotland seems to be that in the poem of ‘Peblis to the Play’ said to have been written by James I of Scotland and he is said to have been a performer upon the instrument himself as well as upon the harp, trumpet, ‘Shepherd’s reed’ and other instruments.
