Bagpipers, in the main, have to be hardy souls. From the mire of Flanders fields to the more hostile quarters of Twickenham, history has taught them to endure rain, mud, bullets and brickbats. But nothing, it seems, compares to the pain of getting your mouthpiece rammed against your teeth when you are playing on the back of a camel, and your beast trips over a sand dune.

Two military pipe bands belonging to the Sultan of Oman, who ply their trade seated upon the backs of camels, are suffering badly for their art. Proud men, resplendent in white uniforms and seated on bedecked and braided camels, they look magnificent until they smile, when they reveal large numbers of missing teeth.

This is the inevitable result of their mounts lurching unexpectedly when they are playing, thrusting 18 inches of rigid hardwood into their mouths.

The Sultan, a lover of the pipes - he has five other more fortunate bands which are not camel-mounted - has now asked Scots craftsmen to redesign the bagpipes with a bendy blowpipe to save his musicians from injury.

McCallum Bagipes, a bagpipe manufacturer from Kilmarnock, has come up with something that flexes as the camels sway graciously across the sands. Stuart McCallum, a director of the company making the camel-

friendly pipes, said: “I was amazed when I got the request, but I designed the device using computer technology.

“It's a flexible plastic tube that bends as the camel moves and can be adjusted in length, depending on how tall the piper is. There's a padded bit on the tip as well for extra comfort.”

Kenny MacLeod, a fellow director of McCallum, said: “One of the Royal Guard's three pipe bands play on camels and the Royal Oman Police also have camel-mounted pipers.

“We stayed in the Royal Guard officers' mess in the capital, Muscat. We didn't meet the Sultan but we did see the brigadier who oversees all the military music and he liaises directly with his ruler.

“The Omanis explained some of the pipers had lost teeth while playing so they were delighted with the prototype. Since we've got back they've asked for more samples to be sent over. Hopefully, we'll get an order for about 150.”

The bendy blowpipes are being tested by the Scots group, the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, who, although they do not ride camels, play rock tunes on the pipes and jump around on stage, incurring mouth injuries. Mr MacLeod said: “They were intrigued when they heard about the device.”

The “bendy” pipes start at about £600 a set and go up to £4,000 depending on type, quality and trim. Cheaper, one might say, than dental fees.

AT HOME IN THE HIGHLANDS

It is not surprising to find the bagpipes being played in the Omani desert — the instrument is almost universal, and has been played, in different shapes and sizes, from Asia to Western Europe for centuries. Its history goes back to pre-medieval times — with images found on a Hittite slab, an early Greek bronze, and in paintings by Breughel and Hieronymus Bosch. One of Aristophanes’s plays refers to an instrument with a bag attached into which the user blows, and in The Canterbury Tales (1380), Chaucer writes: “A baggepype wel coude he blowe and sowne,/ And ther-with-al he broghte us out of towne.”

The Highland bagpipes became famous when they were adopted by Scottish soldiers serving the British Empire. But they were familiar among Bedouin tribesmen, who called them the habban; in Germany (the dudelsack); in Spain and Portugal (the gaitas); and in Italy (the zampagna).

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