to them by imitating the sounds of the places or the things in which those spirits live. hoo, hoo, hoo hoo, hooo tuvans love to imitate sounds. the reason they do this is because they believe that by imitating some sound, they can literally implace themselves-- put themselves in that being or thing. merroooo maew, meooowwww (levin) tuva sits on just the northwest border of mongolia. politically, it's part of russia. it's a small place and its people have always been herders. they herd sheep, yak, goats, and when you live all of the time with animals, you develop a very close relationship with the animals. and so there's actually many forms of music that are used to interact with animals. they're part of the environment. horses occupy a central place in the life of tuvans and there's a lot of music that's also related to horses in different ways. first of all, the instruments-- they're made of horses. the igil for instance, the two string fiddle, is made from the skin of a horse, which is on the head of the instrument. the strings are made from horse gut. the bow is made from horse hair and, in