One of the classical traditions respecting the origin of the lyre refers it to an observation made upon the resonance of the gut-strings in the shell of a dried-up tortoise ; another to a similar obser vation upon the twanging of a bow-string. These traditions have been deemed contradictory, from being supposed to refer to one and the same ment ; but they are perfectly reconcilable when referred to two. The lyre, which we have already sought to connect with the Hebrew kinnor, might have had the tortoise origin, and the instrument we have now in view might as obviously be referred to the bow and its string. That the latter has only lately become known to us through the Egyptian monuments sufficiently accounts for this confusion, and explains why no attempt has hitherto been made (except in the Pictorial Bible, note on Ps. cxxxviii. 2) to place the Egyptian harp among the musical instruments of the Hebrews. We have no desire to insist on its identity with the 'Jebel in par ticular : but it is remarkable that whereas the nebel is in Scripture mentioned so as to show that it always or generally formed part of a band of instruments, so the Egyptian harp is usually seen to be played in concert with other instruments. Sometimes, however, it was played alone, or as an accompaniment to the voice, and a band of seven or more choristers frequently sang to it a favourite air, beating time with their hands between each stanza (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt., ii. 239). The principle of the bow was among the Egyptians extended to other instruments, which, from their smaller size and manner of being played, might be classed among lyres (No. 384). It is more than probable that these simple instruments were known to the Hebrews, although we are unable to discover the name by which they were called.
3. occurs as an instrument in onlya few places, and never but in connection with the nebel. This has given rise to the conjecture that the two instruments may have differed from each other only in the number of their strings, or the openings at the bottom. Hence we meet with the Sept. translation iv 3ekax6pk, and in the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, words expressing an instru ment of ten strings, which is also followed in the A. V. (Ps. xxxiii. 2 ; cxliv. 9). We see no reason to dissent from this conclusion. Pfeiffer was in clined to think that the 'asor may have been the quadrangular lyre which is represented in different varieties in ancient monuments, and which has usually ten strings, though sometimes more (No. 383, figs. I, 2).
4- gittith, a word which occurs in the titles to Ps. viii., lxxxi., lxxxiv., and is generally sup posed to denote a musical instrument. From the name it has been supposed to be an instrument which David brought from Gath ; and it has been inferred from Is. xvi. ro, that it was in particular use at the vintage season. If an instrument of music, it is remarkable that it does not occur in the list of the instruments assigned by David to the large stringed instrument of a somewhat triangular shape, it may possibly have borne some resem blance to figs. 4 and 5, No. 383, which are copied
from old writers on the subject, and which bear much resemblance to instruments such as the khanoon and tchenh, which continue to be common and popular in Syria, Arabia, Egypt, and Persia, and which correspond to both these conditions.
temple musicians ; nor even in that list which ap pears in verses 2 and 3 of Ps. lxxxi., in the title of which it is found. The supposition of Gesenius, that it is a general name for is stringed instrument, obviates this difficulty. The Septuagint renders the title by 151-42 7-42w ' upon the winepress,' and Carpzov, Pfeiffer, and others, follow this, in taking the word to denote a song composed for the vintage, or for the Feast of Tabernacles (Carpzov, p Observ. Phi/ol. super Psalmos Tres rrthr1+91), Helmst. 1758 ; Pfeiffer, fiber die Mitsik, p. 32).
5. nn, mhznim, which occurs in Ps. xlv. 8 and cl. 4, is supposed by some to denote a stringed instrument, but it seems merely a poetical allusion to the strings of any instrument. -Thus in Ps. xlv. 8 we would read `Out of the ivory palaces the strings (i.e., concerts of music) have made thee glad ;' and so in Ps. cl. 4, Praise bins with strings (stringed instruments) and qgabs.' 6. nmil, or NnD, sabeca, an instrument ren dered sackbut,' and which occurs only in Dan. iii. 5, 7, to, 15. It is doubtless the same as the stringed instrument of music denominated by the Greeks cap.1361cn, o-athfizirois, and by the Latins sambuca. It seems to have been a species of harp or lyre, and, as some think, was only a species of the nebel, distinguished by the number of its strings. The able writer of the musical articles in Smith's Classical Dictionary thinks the sambuca was the same as the Egyptian harp, which we have already conjectured to be the particular instrument designated by the name nebel, or one of the instruments of the class so denominated. We should have no objection to regard this harp as being represented by the sabeca as a species of the nebel; but we cannot see that any proof of the conjecture is adduced, and as the word only occurs in a list of Babylonian instru ments, and never among those of the Hebrews, the identification would go to show that the latter had not the harp, for which conclusion we are by no means prepared.
As the intimations which can be collected re specting the sambuca amount to this, that it was a 7. rilrNo; or ripl:p, ,esanterin, the IfraX 1-7)ptop or psaltery of the Greeks. It occurs only in Dan. iii. 7, ro, 15, where it is supposed to re present the Hebrew nebel. The word ,frakrhptop is, however, applied by the Greek translators so arbi trarily to instruments which have different names in Hebrew, that nothing can be built upon its use; still less are we disposed to accept the conclusion of Gesenius, that the Chaldee word is,in this instance formed from the Greek. The Chaldee name, and perhaps the instrument represented by it, may be recognised in the modern „ santeer, which is of the class already referred to as represented by figs. 3, 4, No. 383.