94 BULLETIN 136, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the crwth of that period is exhibited (96478, pi. 41c?). It is oblong 

 in shape, with two oblong openings which enable the player to 

 stop the strings. The body is scooped out of a single block of 

 wood and the belly is glued in place. The bridge is remarkably 

 shallow and is placed in a somewhat oblique direction with one 

 foot passing through one of the circular sound holes and resting on 

 the back of the instrument. It has 6 catgut strings, 4 of which 

 rest on the bridge and were played with a bow; the other 2 run 

 beside the bridge and were twanged with the left thumb or else used 

 as drones. One of these was tuned G below middle C and the other 

 an octave higher. The usual tuning of the four catgut strings was 

 middle C and its octave and the D above middle C with its octave. 

 The top of the bridge is so flat that it is almost impossible to draw 

 the bow across a single string, and it seems probable that the strings 

 were sounded in pairs, as they are tuned in octaves. 



The strings are passed through small holes at the top of the 

 neck and fastened at the back of the head to tuning pins that project 

 through the head and are turned at the front of the instrument. 

 This contrivance is very common on the instruments of the Arabs, 

 Persians, and Hindus, and the bridge with one foot through the 

 sound hole is a characteristic of the three-stringed fiddle, a variety of 

 the "rebab." Furthermore, the crwth bears a striking resemblance 

 to the oriental lyre (pi. 41<?) which was used in Egypt, Greece, 

 and other countries before the Christian era, the only noteworthy 

 difference being the addition of the finger board in the crwth. 



Rebab is a generic term for bowed instruments in Moslem coun- 

 tries. The word is said to have been derived from the Persian 

 "revave," meaning "sorrowful toned." It appears that originally 

 the rebab had only one or two strings. Another instrument of this 

 class (the " kamanja ") appears to have had two or three strings. 

 From Persia these instruments found their way into northern Af- 

 rica, thence to Spain, central Europe, and England. The rebab 

 resembled a mandolin in appearance and was called by many, 

 slightly different names. The "rebec" of western Europe in the 

 Middle Ages was identical with the German geige. The player 

 either rested the larger end of the instrument lightly against his 

 breast or held it like a violin. In either position it was played 

 with a bow. A flattening of the back of the instrument and a 

 slight changing of the outline marked the gradual evolution of the 

 violin group of stringed instruments. "When these came into gen- 

 eral use the rebec and geige disappeared. The third class, repre- 

 sented by the vial, is considered on page 99. 



Having outlined the development of bowed stringed instruments 

 in Persia, the Orient, and Europe, we will note exhibited specimens 

 which illustrate this development. First, a rebab from Morocco 



