My grandmother owned a pair made of ebony, that were shaped much like scallop shells. I was surprised to find the etymology is from "chestnut" which comes from genus "castanea". I could never imagine my definitely proper grandmother dancing seductively.

castanets .pl.
5Fr castagnette (sing.) < Sp castaOeta, dim. of castaOa < L castanea, CHESTNUT: so named from the shape6 a pair of small, hollowed pieces of hard wood, ivory, etc., held in the hand by a connecting cord and clicked together with the fingers to beat time to music, esp. in Spanish dances

Requires a lot of manual dexterity to play a pair of castanets.

The ones we have at school for small children to use are made of hardwood of exceptional quality, and they're on a stick. All you have to do is turn the stick back and forth in your hand, and the castanets attached at either end will beat about and click like the dickens. Music teachers have been known to go insane when out-of-control children run around the music room clicking catanets.

The chestnut connection is interesting. I don't think they look like chestnuts personally.

How do you spell canasta? Wonder what the derivation of that word is?

Canasta and castanets should go into a song together.

Canasta means basket. Much more than that yo no sé That's Spanish for I don't know. My dictionary gives no etimology for this word.