The of which the Rabbins speak, and which stood, they say, in the temple court, and was used to call the priests to prayer, the Levites to singing, and leprous persons to their purification, and the sound of which, they venture to add, could be heard from Jerusalem to Jericho (Buxtorf, Lex. Rabbit., s. v. rivian), has by some been supposed to be a species of drum. This, how ever, is improbable. [See note on p. 255, ante.] 2. ilnl/p, phaamon. This name nowhere occurs but with reference to the small golden appendages to the robe of the high-priest (Exod. xxviii. 33 ; xxxix. 25), which all versions agree in rendering bells,' or little bells.' These bells were attached to the hem of the garment, and were separated from each other by golden knobs, shaped like pomegranates. They obviously produced their tinkling sound by striking against the golden knobs which were appended near them. There is no trace of bells among the ancient Egyptians, or in classical antiquity, and we call these such for want of a better term to describe sonorous pieces of metal used in this manner.
3. r::6v1' tzeltzelim, metzinon, vi4vn metzilthaim. These words are translated cymbals in most versions, except in Zech. xiv. 20, where they are rendered bells '—the bells of the horses.' If the words, however, denote cymbals in other places, they cannot well denote a different thing here. It is true that camels, and sometimes horses, wear bells in the East at present ; and it is probable that the Hebrews had something similar in the shape of small cymbal-shaped pieces of metal, suspended under the necks of the animals, and which struck against each other with the motions of the animal. The Romans attached metallic pendants of this kind, called phalarea, to their war-horses, in order to produce a terrific effect when shaken by the rapid motions of the animal. These were certainly not bells, but might without any violent impropriety be called cymbals, from the manner in which they struck against each other. This is the single doubtful text ; in all the other texts we may conclude with reasonable certainty that cymbals, and sometimes castagnets (which are small cymbals), are intended. There is an important passage (Ps. cl. 5), Praise him with the clear cymbal, praise him with the resounding cymbal,' which clearly points to two instruments under the same name, and leaves us to conclude that the Hebrews had both hand-cymbals and finger-cymbals (or castagnets), although it may not in all cases be easy to say which of the two is intended in particular texts. Cymbals figure in the grand procession at the removal of the ark (1 Chron. xiii. 8) ; other instances occur of their being used in the worship of God (Neh. xii. 27 ; Ps. cl. 5 ; r Chron. xvi. 19) ; and the illustrious Asaph was himself a player on the cymbal (1 Chron. xvi. 5). The sound of these instruments is very sharp and piercing, but it does not belong to fine, speaking, expressive music. Hence Paul could describe it by the word riXaXcirov, clanging' (s Cor. xiii. 1). The Hebrew instruments were probably similar to those of the Egyptians. These were of mixed metal, apparently brass, or a com pound of brass and silver, and of a form exactly resembling those of modern times, though smaller, being only seven inches or five inches and a half in diameter. The handle has disappeared from the existing specimens, but is supposed to have been of the same material, bound with leather or string, and being inserted in a small hole at the summit, to have been secured by bending back the two ends (No. 396, fig. 3). The same kind of instru ment is still used by the modern inhabitants of Egypt, and from them, says Wilkinson, have been borrowed the very small cymbals played with the finger and thumb, which supply the place of castagnets in the almeh dance' (Ancient Egypt.,iii. 255). In thus calling instruments used as castag nets small cymbals,' this author incidentally sup ports the view we have taken. The modern
castagnet, introduced into Spain by the Moors, is to be referred to the same source.
4. shali-rhim. This word occurs but once, viz, in i Sam. xviii. 6, and is there uncer• tainly rendered, in the A. V., instruments of music,' and in the margin three-stringed instru ments.' The word is plural, and means threes.' Most writers, proceeding upon this interpretation, identify it with the triangle, which Athenxus (iv. 23) alleges to have been a Syrian invention. We have no Egyptian representation of it, but that people had instruments which are not figured on the existing monuments. As this was the instru ment with which the damsels of Israel came forth to meet the victorious David, the ancient transla tors have usually rendered the word by cymbals or castagnets, which seemed to them more proper to women. But the triangle may not the less have been suited to a military triumph, and as an accompaniment to the other instruments used on that occasion. Jerome has sistra, an idea which has received little attention from commentators ; but if we had not preferred to find the sistnini under another word, we would not hesitate to accept this conclusion, founded, as it manifestly is, on the three transverse movable bars with which the sistra are usually furnished. In Barker's Bible ( /595), the word is rendered by rebecke.' 5. menaaneim. This is another word which occurs but once in Scripture (2 Sam. vi. 5), where our version translates it by cymbals,' although it has appropriated another word to that instrument. It is now more generally thought to denote the sistrum, and appears to be derived from 1711, nua, ' to shake,' or to vibrate,' corre sponding to the etymology of the sistrum (o-cla rpov), from o-eiw. An objection has indeed been museums. They are mostly furnished with sacred symbols, and were chiefly used by the priests and priestesses in the ceremonies of religion, particu larly in those connected with the worship of Isis (Plut. de Isid., c. 63; Juven. xiii. 93 ; Jablonsky, Opisc. i. 306). See Burney's and Hawkins' His tories of Music; Forkel, Gesehichte der Musi k ; Calmet, Dissert. sur la Musique des Ilebreux, annexed to his Commentary on the Psalms ; Pfeif fer, Ueber die Musik der Allen Heir., 1779 ; Saal chutz, Form der Heir. Poesie ; Gesch. and Wiirdi gung d. 177usik bei den Heir., 1829 ; Harenberg, Comm. de Re Musica Vetus., in Miscell. Lips. ix. 213, seq. ; 'Winer, Biblisehes Real-war/el-buck, arts. Musik,' Musikalische Instrumente,' Becken,' Harfe,' Tambourine,' etc. ; Jahn, Biblisehes Archdologie ; Reland, De Spoliis Temp. Hieros. ; Versuch, Die Illelodie n. Harmonic der Alt. Heir.; Shiite IIaggiborim, in Ugolini Thesaur. torn. xxxii. ; Constant, Trade sur la Poisie et in Musique des IPireux ; De Wette, Commentar. fiber die Psalmen ; Rosellini, Monument" dell' ; Wilkinson's Anc. Egyptians ; Villoteau, Sur in Musique des Orientaux, in Descript. de l'Egypte ; Lady M. N.V. Montague's Letters ; Volney, Voihge en Syrie; Tournefort, Voyage an Levant; Niebuhr, Reisebeschreibung ; Russell's Nat. Hist. of Aleppo ; Lane's MOdern Egyptians.—J. K.
urged, that the sistrum was not sufficiently ancient ; but this has been set at rest by the recent dis coveries in Egyptian antiquities, which have re vealed sistra belonging to the most ancient period. The sistrum was generally from eight to sixteen or eighteen inches in length, and entirely of bronze or brass. It was sometimes inlaid with silver, gilt, or otherwise ornamented, and being held upright was shaken, the rings moving to and fro upon the bars. The last were frequently made to imitate snakes, or simply bent at each end to secure them from slipping through the holes. Several actual speci mens of these instruments have been found, and are deposited in the British, Berlin, and other