unbounded interest should they ever be found to refer to the Jews.* The first figure is an Egyptian scribe, who presents an account of their arrival to a person seated, the owner of the tomb, and one of the principal officers of the reigning Pharaoh. The next, also an Egyptian, ushers them into his presence; and two advance, bringing presents, the wild goat or ibex, and the gazelle, the productions of their country. Four men, carrying bows and clubs, follow, leading an ass on which two children are placed in panniers, accompanied by a boy and four women; and last of all, another ass laden, and two men, one holding a bow and club, the other a lyre, which he plays with the plectrum. All the men have beards, contrary to the custom of the Egyptians, but very general in the East at that period, and noticed as a peculiarity of foreign uncivilised nations throughout their sculptures. The men have sandals, the women a sort of boot reaching to the anclet, both which were worn by many Asiatic people. The lyre is rude, and differs a little in form from those generally used in Egypt; but its presence here, and in others of the oldest sculptures, amply testifies its great antiquity, and claims for it a rank among the earliest stringed in

struments.

THE GUITAR.

The Egyptian guitar has only three chords; and to it I believe Diodorus alludes, when he applies

*Plate 14.

+ Similar high shoes, or boots, were also worn by Greek and Etruscan, and even by Egyptian women, being found in the tombs of

that number to the lyre, which he says corresponded to the three seasons of the year. Its invention he attributes to Hermes or Mercury *, who taught men letters, astronomy, and the rites of religion, and who gave the instrument three tones,—the treble, bass, and tenor; the first to accord with summer, the second with winter, and the third with spring.

That the Egyptian year was divided into three parts, is abundantly proved by numerous hieroglyphic inscriptions, as well as by the authority of Greek writers; and each season consisted of four months of thirty days each, making a total of three hundred and sixty days in the year. To these were added five more at the end of the twelfth month; and every fourth, or leap year, another intercalary day increased this number to six, and thereby regulated the calendar, in the same manner as at the present day. +

That Diodorus confounds the guitar with the lyre, is probable, from his attributing its origin to Mercury, who was always the supposed inventor of the latter; though there is reason to believe that the same fable was told him by the Egyptians, in connection with the other three-stringed instrument, and that it led to his mistake respecting the lyre.

It was no doubt from a conviction of the great talent required for the invention of an instrument

*Diod. i. 16.

+ Vide the appendix of my Materia Hieroglyphica; and Diodorus, i. 50., who mentions this quarter day, and who " visited Egypt in the reign of Ptolemy Neus Dionysus." i. 44.

having only three chords, and yet equalling the power of one with numerous strings, that the Egyptians were induced to consider it worthy of the deity who was the patron of the arts; and the fable of his intervention, on this and similar occasions, is merely an allegorical mode of expressing the intellectual gifts communicated from the Divinity, through his intermediate agency.

The Egyptian guitar consisted of two parts,-a long flat neck or handle, and a hollow oval body, either wholly of wood or covered with leather, whose upper surface was perforated with several holes, to allow the sound to escape. Over this

No. 221.

Female playing the guitar.

Thebes.

body, and the whole length of the handle, extended three strings, no doubt, as usual, of catgut, secured

Of a similar nature is that mentioned by Diodorus concerning Osiris, who was reputed to have been the first to plant the vine, and

at the upper extremity, either by the same number of pegs, or by some other means peculiar to the instrument. It does not appear to have had any bridge; but the chords were fastened at the lower end to a triangular piece of wood or ivory, which raised them to a sufficient height; and in some of those represented in the sculptures, we find they were elevated at the upper extremity of the handle, by means of a small cross-bar, immediately below each of the apertures where the strings were tightened. This answered the same purpose as the depressed end of our modern guitar; and, indeed, since the neck was straight, some contrivance of the kind was absolutely necessary.

It is true that the paintings do not indicate the existence of pegs in this instrument for securing and bracing the strings, but their common use in the harps and psalteries strongly argues their adoption in the guitar; and it is more probable that the artist may have omitted them, than that the two or four tassels attached to that part of the handle should be the substitute for a more perfect method well known to them, and adopted in other instruments. In one instance, however, the strings appear to have been each passed through a separate aperture in the handle, and then bound round it and tied in a knot.*

The length of the handle was sometimes twice, sometimes thrice, that of the body; and I suppose the whole instrument to have measured about four

* Vide wood-cut, No. 185.