XXXV111. THE SECOND WINTER MEETING. 



hurdy-gurdy (the vielle, or organistrum), and his description 

 agrees rather with a one-stringed rustic bass viol known as the 

 Bum-bass, or Basse de Flandre, and still used in Germany. 



Ritson, at the end of the i8th century in his "Observations 

 on the Minstrels," writes : 



" It is conceived that a few individuals resembling the 

 character of the old minstrels might have been lately and 

 may possibly be still found, in some of the least polished or 

 less frequented parts of the kingdom. . . . Within two 

 years one was to be seen in the streets of London ; he played 

 on an instrument of the rudest construction, which he, properly 

 enough, called a humslrum, and chanted (amongst others) the 

 old ballad of Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor." 



The locus c/assicus for the humstrum is Barnes' Dorset Poems, 

 Collection III., where in the original edition the poem, "The 

 Humstrum," is accompanied by a woodcut of the instrument. 



The humstrum appears to be a somewhat degenerate form of 

 the rebec, a popular three-stringed fiddle in use in the Middle 

 Ages, and derived through Moorish and Arabic influence from 

 the East. In Germany the instrument was called the " Geige," 

 and is said to have given its name to the dance known as the 

 jig. It was generally used by the wandering minstrels. In the 

 humstrum the labour required for excavating the hollow body of 

 the instrument is dispensed with, and a tin canister (perhaps in 

 early times a bladder) takes its place. The strings, four in 

 number, are of wire, and in the present instance the bagpipe or 

 hurdy-gurdy tuning has been adopted. A rude melody can be 

 played on the uppermost string by a slight pressure of the 

 fingers, though there is no finger-board. The bridge is formed 

 by the rounded side of the tin, across which the strings are 

 stretched. The tone is curious and buzzy. 



BY THE PRESIDENT : 



A fine specimen of Deilephila (Phryxus) Livornica (the striped Hawk Moth), 

 bred from an egg laid by a moth captured at Ferndown, in Dorset, near Bourne- 

 mouth, June 22nd, 1904. He said : 



