HANDBOOK OF THE COLLECTION OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 95 



(95738, pi. 42e) has two strings that can not be stopped. The bow 

 is a bent-wood stick covered with red and white flannel, the horse- 

 hair tied at each end. The lower half of the belly is of parchment 

 glued to the body. Similar in construction, but unfinished, is 95739. 

 The parchment belly has been glued on, and lacings that held it while 

 the glue dried are still in place. On the finished instrument the 

 edges of the parchment have been cut away. A rebab from Java 

 (95670, pi. 42c?) has a pear-shaped body, rounded back, and vertical 

 sides. It has two strings. From Egypt we have two specimens of 

 the rebab el Mooghun'nee. The older specimen is 56195, which was 

 acquired in 1876. The other specimen is 95138, acquired in 1891. 

 Each instrument has a body consisting of a four-sided frame of 

 wood with belly of rawhide or parchment, the back of the frame 

 being left open. The strings are of horsehair and are not twisted. 

 No. 95693 is a copy of the " fiddle and bow " used by the Bedouins 

 and called by them " rebabeh." As an interesting comparison, we 

 note two Italian ribeca (95309 and 95310, pi. 41e), which have three 

 strings tuned in fifths and two rude F-shaped sound holes without 

 a notch in the middle. A modern Greek lyra made on the old lines is 

 203721. The body, neck, and head are made from a block of oak, 

 the body being excavated. The belly is of pine, about one-fourth 

 inch in thickness, nailed to the body and having two D-shaped 

 sound holes below the bridge. The construction of the bow is in- 

 teresting. The horsehair is fastened to a rag, which is tied to the 

 frog at the end of the bow, and the tension of the hair is governed 

 by crowding the hand of the player between the rag and the stick. 

 An instrument from the Celebes Islands is No. 95120. The pear- 

 shaped body is carved from a block of wood, and the eyes and mouth 

 of a mask carved on the back of the instrument serve as sound holes. 

 It is strung with two brass wires and played with a bow. Another 

 native fiddle from Africa is 151295, used by all the tribes of Angola. 

 It has three strings of vegetable fiber, two of which are single ply, 

 the third two ply. Two fiddles from Tiflis in Russia are entirely 

 different in shape. A bulbous body made of 16 thin bent staves 

 characterizes 72975. The belly is of bladder, and it has three strings, 

 two of brass and one of steel wire. The other instrument from the 

 Caucasus is 72976, which has a coffin-shaped body, made from a 

 block of wood. It has four gut strings and four sympathetic brass 

 wire strings. In the tuning of these strings the highest are at the 

 left, an Arab custom which is the reverse of the European timing. 



The second type of stringed, bowed instrument used in Moslem 

 countries was the "kamanja," a specimen of which is shown as 

 96480 (pi. 42/). It has a balloon-shaped body made from a block 

 of wood, and three strings that start from the ends of the tuning 

 pegs. The bridge is something like a violin bridge, with the right 



