September i, 1904] 



NATURE 



441 



upon the general line of inquiry inaugurated by Colonel Lane 

 Fox. It is commonly accepted as a fact, which is borne 

 out by tradition, both ancient and modern, that certain 

 groups of stringed instruments of music must be referred 

 for their origin to the bow of the archer. The actual 

 historical record does not help us to come to a definite con- 

 clusion on this point, nor does the direct testimony of 

 archaeology, but from other sources very suggestive evidence 

 is forthcoming. A comparative study of the musical instru- 

 ments of modern savage and barbaric peoples makes it very 

 clear to one that the greater portion of the probable chain 

 of sequences which led from the simple bows to highly 

 specialised instruments of the harp family may be recon- 

 structed from types still existing in use among living peoples, 

 most of the well-defined early stages being represented in 

 Africa at the present day.' The native of Damaraland, who 

 possesses no stringed instrument proper, is in the habit of 

 temporarily converting his ordinary shooting-bow into a 

 musical instrument. For this purpose he ties a small thong 

 loopwise round the bow and bow-string, so as to divide the 

 latter into two vibrating parts of unequal length. When 

 lightly struck with a small stick the tense string emits a 

 couple of notes, which satisfy this primitive musician's 

 humble cravings for purely rhythmic sound. Amongst many 

 other African tribes we find a slight advance, in the form 

 of special rather slightly made bows constructed and used 

 for musical purposes only. In order to increase the volume 

 of sound, it is frequently the custom amongst some of the 

 tribes to rest the bow against some hollow, resonant body, 

 such as an inverted pot or hollow gourd. In many parts, 

 again, we find that the instrument has been further improved 

 by attaching a gourd to the bow, and thus providing it with 

 a permanent resonating body. To achieve greater musical 

 results, it would appear that somewhere in Africa (in the 

 West, I suspect) two or more small bows were attached to 

 a single gourd. I have, so far, been unable to trace this 

 particular link in .\frica itself, but, curiously enough, this 

 very form has been obtained from Guiana. It may be 

 thought that I am applying a breaking strain to the chain 

 of evidence when I endeavour to work an instrument from 

 South America into an African developmental series. But, 

 when we recall the fact that evidence of the existence of 

 iudigenotis stringed instruments of music in the New World 

 has yet to be produced, coupled with the certain knowledge 

 that a considerable number of varieties of musical instru- 

 ments, stringed and otherwise, accompanied the enforced 

 migration of African natives during the days of the slave 

 trade, and were thus established in use and perpetuated in 

 many parts of the New World, including the north-east 

 regions of South America, we may, I think, admit with 

 some confidence that in this particular instance from Guiana 

 to Guinea is no very far cry, and that the more than prob- 

 able African origin of this instrument from South America 

 gives it a perfect claim to take its place in the African 

 sequence. I still anticipate that this type of instrument 

 will be forthcoming from some hinterland region in West 

 Africa. Were no evidence at all forthcoming of such a form, 

 either in past or present, we should be almost compelled 

 to infer that such a one had existed, as this stage in the 

 sequence appears to be necessary to prevent a break in the 

 continuity of forms leading to what is apparently the next 

 important stage, represented by a type of instrument common 

 in West .Africa, having five little bows, each carrying its 

 string, and all of which are fixed by their lower ends into 

 a box-like wooden resonator. This method of attaching the 

 bows to the now improved body of the instrument necessitates 

 the lower attachment of the strings being transferred from 

 the bows to the body, so that the bow-like form begins to 

 disappear. The next improvement of which there is evidence 

 from existing types consists in the substitution of a single, 

 stouter, curved rod for the five little " bows," all the five 

 strings being serially attached to the upper end of the rod, 

 their lower ends to the body as before. This instrument 

 is somewhat rare now, and it may well be a source of wonder 

 to us that it has survived at all (unless it be to assist the 

 ethnologist), since it is an almost aggressively inefficient 

 form, owing to the row of strings being brought into two 

 different planes at right angles to one another. The struc- 

 ture of this rude instrument gives it a quaintly composite 



By H. Balfour. 



NO. 18 1 8, VOL. 70] 



appearance, suggesting that it is a banjo at one end and 

 a harp at the other. This is due to the strings remaining, 

 'as in the preceding form, attached to the resonating body 

 in a line disposed transversely, while the substitution of a 

 single rod for the five " bows " has necessitated the disposal 

 of their upper attachments in a longitudinal series as regards 

 the longer axis of the instrument. Inefficient though it be, 

 this instrument occupies an important position in the 

 apparent chain of evolution, leading on as it does through 

 some intermediate types to a form in which the difficulty 

 as regards the strings is overcome by attaching their lower 

 ends in a longitudinal series, and so bringing them into the 

 same plane throughout their length. In this shape the 

 instrument has assumed a harp-like form — a rude and not 

 very effective one, it is true, but it is none the less definitely 

 a member of the harp family. The modern varieties of this 

 type extend across Africa from west to east, and the harps 

 of ancient Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and India were assuredly 

 elaborations of this primitive form. The Indian form, 

 closely resembling that of ancient Egypt, still survives in 

 Burma, while elsewhere we find a few apparently allied 

 forms. In all these forms of the harp, from the rudest 

 Central and West African types to the highly ornate and 

 many-stringed examples of Egypt and the East, one point 

 is especially noteworthy. This is the invariable absence of 

 the fore-pillar, which in the modern harps of Western Europe 

 is so important, nay, essential, a structural feature. In 

 spite of the skill and care exercised in the construction of 

 some of the more elaborate forms, none were fitted with a 

 fore-pillar, the result being that the frame across which the 

 strings were stretched was always weak and disposed to 

 yield more or less to the strain caused by the tension of the 

 strings. This implied that, even when the strings were not 

 unduly strained, the tightening up of one of them to raise 

 its pitch necessarily caused a greater or less slackening of 

 all the other strings, since the free end of the rod or " neck " 

 would tend to be drawn slightly towards the body of the 

 instrument under the increased tension. One can picture 

 the soul-destroying agonies endured by two performers upon 

 these harps when endeavouring, if they ever did so, to bring 

 their refractory instruments into unison, w^hile, as for the 

 orchestral music of the old Assyrian days — well, perhaps 

 we had better not attempt to picture that! The mere 

 addition of a simple, strut-like support between the free end 

 of the " neck " and the " body " would have obviated this 

 difficulty and rendered the instrument relatively efficient and 

 unyielding to varying tension. And yet, even in W'estern 

 Europe, this seemingly obvious and invaluable addition did 

 not appear, as far as I can ascertain, until about the seventh 

 or eighth century a.d. ; and even then it seems to have been 

 added somewhat half-heartedly, and a very long time had 

 yet to elapse before the fore-pillar became an integral part 

 of the framework and was allotted its due proportion in 

 the general design. 



I have purposely selected this particular series for my 

 illustration, not because it is something new — indeed, it is 

 already more or less familiar, and maybe has even some 

 merit in its lack of newness, since, in accordance with a 

 popular dictum, it may urge a greater claim to be regarded 

 as true — nor because it is specially striking, but rather for 

 the reason that it illustrates suitably several of the points 

 upon which I wish briefly to touch. Even in the severely 

 condensed form in which I have been obliged to present this 

 series of developments from bow to harp, there is, I think, 

 demonstrated the practical application of several of the 

 general principles upon which is based the theory whereby 

 Colonel Lane Fo.x sought to elucidate the phenoimena of 

 human progress. 



A series of this kind serves, in the first place, to demon- 

 strate that the absence of historical and archjeological 

 evidence of the actual continuity in development from simple 

 to complex does not preclude investigations into the early 

 history of any product of human ingenuity, nor prevent the 

 formation of a suggestive and plausible if largely hypo- 

 thetical series, illustrating the probable chain of sequences 

 along which some highly specialised form may be traced 

 back link by link to its rudimentary prototypes, or even to 

 its absolute origin, which in this particular instance is the 

 ordinary shooting bow temporarily converted into a musical 

 instrument. Where an actual chronological series is not 

 forthcoming, a comparative study of such types as are 



