300 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



ing or imitating the voice. In these attempts men 

 might be guided by their observation of the whistle 

 and song of birds, whose beaks may have served as a 

 model for the construction of the flute and reed-pipe. 

 Pott traces the word for sound to the root srar, and 

 hnice, after some natural phonetic changes, we have 

 in Lithuanian szicilpti for the song of birds. Of 

 all natural objects, different kinds of reeds and the 

 hollow stalks of plants are, owing to their hollow and 

 cylindrical form, best adapted for the imitation of a 

 bird's beak and the sonorous transmission of breath. 

 In many languages the word for a flute is the same 

 as that for a reed. In Sanscrit, vanqa and venu mean 

 a flute and bamboo ; in Persian, nd and nay mean a 

 flute and reed ; in Greek Sovag, and in Latin calamus, 

 have the same double meaning, and many more 

 examples might be given. 



Stringed instruments are a more elaborate in- 

 vention, and may have been suggested by the vibra- 

 tion of a bow-string when it is twanged. The bow 

 is common to all modern savages, and was also found 

 among extinct peoples and those which are now 

 civilized, as well as in prehistoric times. The San- 

 scrit word for a stringed instrument, tata or vitata, 

 is derived from the root tan, to stretch. Pictet 

 observes that one name for a lute is rudri, from rud, 

 to lament, that is, a plaintive instrument ; in Persian 

 we have rod for song, music, or a stringed instru- 

 ment. The etymology of arcus is the same ; the root 



