feet, the breadth of the body being equal to half its length. It was struck with the plectrum, which was attached by a string to the neck, close to its junction with the body; and the performers usually stood as they played. Both men and women* used the guitar. Some danced whilst they touched its No. 222. Dancing while playing the guitar. Thebes. strings, supporting it on the right arm; and I have met with one instance of it slung by a band round the neck, like the modern Spanish guitar. + It is, indeed, from an ancient instrument of this kind, sometimes called cithára (x10άpa), that the modern name guitar has been derived; though the cithara of the Greeks and Romans, in early times at least, was always a lyre.‡ The Egyptian guitar * Vide also pl. 12, and wood-cut, No. 191. Vide wood-cut, No. 223. No. 223. Guitar slung by a belt. Thebes. may be called a lute; but I cannot suppose it to have been at all similar to the barbiton*, so frequently mentioned by Horace and other authors; though this last is believed by some to have had only three strings. Athenæus ‡, on the contrary, describes it with many chords, and attributes its invention to Anacreon; and Theocritus also applies to it the epithet oλuxopdov. It was particularly consecrated to Polyhymnia; and, like the cithara §, appears to have been derived from Lesbos. || The barbitos of Strabo, who mentions it as an instrument of foreign origin. Its name was not derived from ẞapßapos. + The Greeks had a lyre of three strings, which might have been the barbiton, if this really had only three chords; but it is generally sup posed to have been a large instrument, ま Βαρβιτον οργανον εντατον και πολυχορδον.” Athen. 4. The eyes upon a cithara in pl. 192. of Mr. Hope's Costumes recall an Egyptian ornament. Conf. Hor. Od. lib. i. 1. 33.: An instrument of an oval form, with a circular or cylindrical handle, was found at Thebes, not altogether unlike the guitar; but, owing to the imperfect state of its preservation, nothing could be ascertained respecting the pegs, or the mode of tightening the chords. The wooden body was faced with leather, the handle extending down it to the lower end, and part of the string remained which attached the plectrum. Three small holes indicated the place where the chords were secured, and two others, a short distance above, appear to have been intended for fastening some kind of bridge; but this is merely conjecture, as I had not an opportunity of examining it, and am indebted to Mr. Madox for the accompanying sketch. No. 224. An instrument like the guitar found at Thebes. Wire strings were not used by the Egyptians in any of their instruments, nor, as far as we can learn from ancient authors, were they of any other quality than catgut; and the employment of this last in the warlike bow is supposed to have led to its adop discovery of its musical sound. We are not, therefore, surprised to find that the Arabs, a nation of hunters, should have been the inventors of the monochordium, an instrument of the most imperfect kind (especially when the skill of a Paganini is not employed to command its tones): but it is a remarkable fact, that the same people still possess the instrument; and poor singers in the streets of Cairo accompany the voice with a one-stringed raháb. This circumstance may also be adduced as a proof of its antiquity; for, being used by the reciters of poemst, it has evidently been the instrument of their early bards, who are the first musicians in every country. There is no instance of it in the sculptures of the ancient Egyptians, nor is it probable that, even if known to them, it would have been admitted in their musical entertainments; unless, indeed, it were used, as at present, for an accompaniment in recitative. THE FLUTE (λayıauλos, or OBLIQUA TIBIA). The flute was at first very simple, and, as Horace observes, "with a few holes; " the number being limited to four, until Diodorus, of Thebes in Boeotia, added others; improving the instrument, at the same time, by making a lateral opening for the mouth. It was originally of reed; but in *J. Pollux. iv. 9.: tr “ μονοχορδον δε Αράβων το ευρημα.” + Hence called raháb e sháer, " the poet's viol." Mr. Lane has given a drawing and description of it in his accurate and minute work on the Modern Egyptian Customs, vol. ii. p. 74. J. Poll. Onom. iv. 10. process of time it increased in size, and in the number of its notes, and was made of better and more sonorous materials. It is impossible to say whether the Egyptians had one or several kinds of flutes, adapted, as with the Greeks*, to different purposes-some to mournful, others to festive occasions; but it is evident that they employed the flute both at banquets and in religious processions. Most of those used by the Greeks were borrowed, like their names, from Asia; as the Lydian, Phrygian, Carian, and Mysian flutes; and Olympus, the disciple of Marsyas, introduced the instrument from Phrygiat into Greece, and was reputed by some to have brought the lyre from the same country. Clonas, who lived many years after Terpander, was said to have been the first to invent laws and suitable airs for the flute, though these were supposed to have been borrowed from the Mysians §; and Pausanias ascribes || the construction of the flute to Ardalus, the son of Vulcan.¶ Aristotle, in mentioning Minerva as its inventor, merely alludes to one of the many allegorical fables connected with that goddess, Apollo, and Mercury; and the story of Minerva's throwing aside the flute, offended at the deformed appearance of her mouth * Pausanias mentions three, as being different, the Doric, Lydian, and Phrygian. Lib. ix. + Plut. de Musicâ. Alexander on Phrygia, quoted by Plutarch, loc. cit. § Plut. de Musicâ. Paus. Corinth. lib. ii. Athenæus considers Marsyas the inventor of the avλog; the Kaλaμoç, or reed, having been used before his time. The μονοκα Xapos, according to Euphorion, was a reputed invention of Mercury, Athen. iv. 25. |