362 



THE HUMAN SPECIES 



There is, however, another mode of origin for stringed instru- 

 ments played on by the finger. If they did not wish to use a 

 large gourd with strings stretched across it, it was but a step 

 to employ the empty carapace of a tortoise for this purpose. 

 The fact that a six-stringed "chrotta" has been found in the 

 Alemannic cemetery at Oberflacht shows that the forefathers 

 of the German people had attained to this kind of musical 

 instrument. And it was also only a short step in advance to 

 fill in the space between the branching horns of an ox, or 

 antelope, with strings, and so to create 

 the famous lyre. 



Prehistoric musical instruments are 

 but so rarely found that any representa- 

 tions of them either in statuettes, or in 

 outline drawings, are of extreme value. 

 There are two almost perfect marble 

 figures belonging to the period of that 

 civilisation which surrounded the ^Egean 

 Sea which were found at Keros, near 

 Amorgos. One represents a player on 

 a double flute (Fig. 183), and the other, 

 a sitting man with a round-shaped harp. 

 On an urn from Oldenburg (Hallstatt 

 period) small figures playing on stringed 

 instruments near some large female figures 



may be seen rather crudely outlined. 

 FIG. 183. Flute player of . . r , TT .. -11 u 



limestone from Keros, Also of the Hallstatt period but much 



better executed is the representation of 

 an artist playing on a seven-stringed lyre 



on the bronze platter from the temple of Alphaeus at Olympia. 



All these indeed belong to a time when outside the boundaries 



of Europe the skilful races of Asia and Egypt had long been 



in possession of perfect musical instruments. 



Writing. 



Writing is the final point in man's monopoly of the in- 

 tellectual world, and springs from an inborn desire for the power 

 of recording thoughts, experiences and events. 



The need of such a record must have been felt by the 



near Amorgos, natu- 

 ral size. (Homes.) 



