74 BULLETIN 13C, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



pounded it with a pair of drumsticks (95158). No. 95160 is more 

 than 53 inches long and has four strings and a gourd resonator, 

 but lacks the bridge described with the preceding specimen. 



The muet is followed, in point of development, by the lyre. A 

 majority of the primitive lyres in the exhibition cases are from 

 Africa. Two specimens show the use of five strings without tuning 

 pegs, one of these (76250, pi. 41/) acquired by the Museum in 1885, 

 is particularly crude as it contains no metal. The thin top appears 

 to be a planed board, but the remainder of the instrument shows no 

 mark of a tool other than a sharp knife. There are no sound holes 

 in the top, but a space is left open at the end. The projection of the 

 top beyond the body affords additional resonance space as well as 

 a brace for the thumb while the fingers twang the strings. Five 

 sticks are inserted in the end of the body of the instrument and are 

 bent upward by removing the bark on the inner side of the curve. 

 The strings consist of two strands of grass root twisted together. 

 They are inserted in the body of the instrument and the free ends 

 secured to the curved sticks at an angle above the body of the instru- 

 ment. The tuning of the strings was accomplished by sliding the 

 fastening up and down the curved stick, the elasticity of the stick 

 providing a tension that affects the pitch. Another lyre resembles 

 this, but is less crude (95806). The entire end is open and remotely 

 suggests half a violin. The strings are apparently of the same 

 material as in the specimen last described, but the root fiber is used 

 in a single instead of a double strand. Attention is directed to the 

 loop of fiber by which the instrument was carried. 



Two African lyres have the strings tightened by a cylindrical 

 bit of wood placed beneath them at the point where they are inserted 

 in the instrument. No metal was used in 95224, the top being held 

 in place by wooden pegs and the strings being vegetable fiber. The 

 entire surface of the body has been charred and scraped, after which 

 the outer surface was removed in a pattern showing the natural color 

 of the wood. The same structure is seen in 95225, but the wood 

 appears to have been "rubbed down" smoothly after charring and 

 the incised lines filled with white pigment. A human head, roughly 

 carved, projects from the upper end of the body. 



Four lyres have bodies covered with hide, and strings attached 

 lo tuning pegs. The only Egyptian instrument in this group is 

 !>f>179 (pi. 41<7), which is made of a block of wood, the inside hol- 

 lowed out like a trough. A stick serving for the neck of the in- 

 strument is inserted in one end. The entire block is covered with 

 rawhide, evidently put on when green, fitted smoothly to the wood 

 and sewed up the back. Two sound holes are cut in the top. Before 

 the rawhide was put in place live gut strings were threaded through 

 it in a longitudinal row and attached to a narrow strip of wood on 



