ec: chsenes 
ch fid 
right is the figure of the fcarabeus Thebaicus, {wppofed to 
have been the hieroglyphic of immortality. On the left, is 
— crocodile, fixed upon the apis with his teeth and’plung- 
g him into the waves. Thefe are both moulded in bafio 
ps cig in the ftucco itfelf. -This is a fufficient indication of 
the grotto, to any one who may with to examine it again. At 
the end of the paffage, on the left hand, is the pi¢ture of a 
pn n Playing upon the. harp, painted in frefco, and quite 
e 
ae He i is clad in a habit made like a fhirt; fuch as the 
women ftill wear in Abyflinia, and the men in Nubia. This 
feems to be white linen or muflin, with narrow itripes of 
red. It reaches down to his ankles ; his feet are without 
fandals, and bare ; his neck and arms are alfo:bafe his er 
of merit wit fign- 
painter in neers : es = degre of er the ve of ae 
mufician in a manner never to be miftaken. His left hand 
a employed in the upper part of the inftrument am 
the notes in alto, as if in an arpeggio. While Raging for- 
wards, he ines. with his right hand to be beginning with’ 
the loweft ftring, an and promiling to’ afcend with the mo 
rapid execution. This action, fo obvioufly rendered by an 
indifferen t artift, fhews that it was a common one in his time, 
or, in he words, that great hands were then frequent, and 
Di ae ng that mufic was well underitood and diligently’ 
8 
«If we allow - performer’ s ftature to be about five feet 
ten inches, then we may compute the harp, in its extreme 
Jength, to be e fomkthing: lefs than fix feet anda half. “Et 
gt 
feems to fupport itfelf in equilibrio ~ its foot, or bafe, E; 
and — ly the player's It. 
fteady. 
Pip oe The length a thefe, -and the force 
frame, oppofite to the longeft ftring, which certainly muft 
have improved the tone, and that € uft have ren- 
dered it very fubj go out of fori he back part is 
e tone ie tundulat, al ways 
increafes in proportion 
“ Bets that, the whole principe upon which the a 
‘namner’s asthe hattnte 
and Sides - Hap eg ra to be La shimee or aids probably 
with ivory, tortoife hell, and mother-of-pearl, the ordi 
produce of the 
even now me o finith an initrument 
rance of its tward. ym we mutt. ob-" 
' ferve, likewife, how near it spaced to a perfect inftru- 
ment-; for 
it wanted onl 
ae oftaves i ip compafs. r ae were intentionally 
deferts. enarress i Reli 
with m 
i) Whee of having two com. “o ithe 2 mufical 
7 
ftrings w ‘th which it was furnithed. Indeed the cee back 
would break w ith the tention of the four longett, if they were. 
made of the fize and confiftence, and tuned to the pitch. that’ ~ 
our’s are at prefent. 
“<T look upon this inftrument, then, as the Theban harp, 
before and at the time of Refesltcis. who adorned Thebes, and 
probably caufed it to be painted there, as well as the other’ 
figures i in the fepulchre of his father, as a monument of the 
fuperiority which Egypt had in mufic at that aes over all 
the barbarous-nations = he had feen or conquer 
‘« Aftronomy, and, we may imagine, the a hae ies: shade? 
@ rapid progrefs at this. pertod in Upper Egypt, and con- 
tiated to do fo for 50 years after, between which time, and 
the Perfian conqueft, fome cataftrophe muft have happened” 
that reduced them to the loweft ebb, which hiftorians have- 
miftaken for their firft original. 
s¢ We know about the time of Sefoftris, if, as fir Ifaac 
Newton fuppofes, this prince and Sefac were the fame, that 
‘in Paleftine the harp ad only ftrings 5. but as D 
while he played upon it, both danced = te before the ark,, 
it is plain that the inftrument upon which he played could 
have been but of ye Bh cain we ie fuppote little ex- 
ceeding in weight a 
was probab 
ar ; though the origin of this harp 
ly Eeyptinn, and from the days of Mofes it had 
ong been degenerating in fize, that it might be more pacar y 
. 
antiquity, 
= any oy) shes of the Hraelites, 
The 
is reprefented upon a : baffocrelievo at Peohdisié is; in in the Cyre- 
naicum, a city built by Ptolemy Philadel phos, ‘andit is there’ 
— reprefented. 
“ Tt has fifteen firings, or two complete oftaves $ but i 
adding thefe two notes has occafioned likewife the addition 
of a fore-piece to fultain the crofs-bar above, fo that. its 
form is triangular 5 the extremity of the bafe is roun 
into a ram’s head, which feems to allude to its- "Pheban orl- 
ginal; and I. fhould i imagine that this inftrument is likewile 
gyptian, as no harp with fuch a number of {rings 
ever been feen = ; _ WwW = in Grecian gue te & = 
we know of it is, that it was called. chinzor in Hebsew, 
-the royal prophet himfelf frequently calls it the cenenged 
harp in the Pialms.. 
The Welth harp feems of very high ee in ei eae 
under the idical government. Before vation of 
Julius Cefar the Britons had mufic; and thie bards ike the ‘ 
and we have the ahebority of venerable Bede for focial and. 
domeftic finging | im the Saxon language, up? 
this ifland, at the be 
yal Highnefs 1 dhe — Wales, int ae 
isch Sembdatied Caste aining ; an written by * 
native of Wales, and an eminent eee on the harp: ¥ 
extract revert this’ work Mr. Edward ie 
inftruments of his country- 
“ The mufical jnftruments,, ‘anciently fed in Wales ae 
3h 
/ 
