As in literature, Lao folk songs are passed on by word of mouth and are rarely written down. The basis of Laotian music is placed on the Khene: a series of bamboo sticks of different lengths. It can be described as a mouth pipe organ, consisting of around fourteen bamboo tubes (which in fact resemble the arrangement seen in western pipe organs, or the pipes in a bagpipe) connected to a mouthpiece. Other traditional Lao instruments are the: Khouy, which is a Bamboo Flute, the Saw, also known as the Saw-Oh or Saw-Ai, a violin consisting of two cords, The Nang Nat or Nat Row, a bamboo xylophone, and the Khong Vong, a series of sixteen cymbals struck by a cloth covered mallet.