·? (maker [Term not mentioned in available sources])
maker of bagpipes (&c.)
Schwörer mentions a Khe ̬ lonˉ pa_ (Village priest) in Somˉ Paw-Eh (prov. Tak), who also made mouth organs; She refers to him again, now by name (Ca ̬ Ga, ca. 50 years old); Even though she nowhere mentions the term for "instrument maker", she adds some interesting facts regarding the makers of mouth organs; She reports, for example, that there was [i.e. in the 1970s; ws] a maker in every second or third Laˇhu_ shehˇ lehˉ (Shehleh Lahu) village, and that many of those men were addicted to opium, and didn’t work regularly in the fields; One of them, who lived in Meungˇ No-I_ (Amphur [district] Wiang Pa Pao, prov. Chiang Rai), gladly accepted to make musical instruments and showed good craftsmanship when under the influence of opium; He estimated that he built 10 mouth organs a year; In Winter the price of a Naw_ ku ̬ ma was, depending on the quality of its sound, 9-20 silver Rupees (i.e. 135-300 gr. of silver); A Naw_ suhˆ-ehˆ cost 6,5 silver Rupees (≥ 97,5 gr.); He also made Jew’s harps; A set of 3 of those could be bought for 1/3 of a silver Rupee (≥ 5 gr.); His income was sufficient to buy his daily rice, but too little to buy his daily ration of opium; That’s why he occasionally helped out other villagers for a day’s wage on field work; Schwörer expresses her surprise that even "the Naw_ ku ̬ ma, an instrument that is only played ritually, to praise the highest being, can be built by an opium addict who doesn’t enjoy a high reputation in the village community".
Schwörer, Gretel: Die Mundorgel bei den Laˇ Hu_ in Nord-Thailand: Bauweise, Funktion und Musik, 1: Darstellung. Hamburg, 1982, p.32 (Khe ̬ Lonˉ Pa_), 167-168, 193.