26 o 
Case 4 .— An interesting collection of twenty wind and 
stringed musical instruments from India, consisting of the mahat 
vina, which is constructed of two gourds, connecting a horizontal 
rod of bamboo, upon which are stretched seven wires of various 
thickness, these being tuned by an ordinary key similar to the 
guitar or banjo key, but somewhat larger; the mayuri which has 
eighteen fine wire strings; the kachapi vina is another stringed in- 
strument; likewise the ektara, which has but one string. Other 
very peculiar instruments in this case are the chikara,the sanyogi 
and the surangi, each of which have two sets of strings, one of cat- 
gut strung over a bridge, and directly above a set of brass wires 
which run through holes in the bridge. 
The wind instruments are chiefly the rana sringa, the puni 
and the benu. 
Case 5 . — Reproductions of antique forms of musical instru- 
ments, such as the Elizabethian lute; the rebec, an Arabian 
stringed instrument; the crwth which is a Welsh instrument said 
to be the oldest known stringed instrument; guitar (Antonius 
Stradivarius); the quinterna, an antique form of an Italian guitar, 
the xylophone, and a harp of Irish form. This collection was 
presented by Lyon & Healy. 
ALCOVE 1 17. 
Case 47.— Piano made about 1820 by John Tallman and 
arranged in six octaves. 
Case 48. — An Italian musical instrument known as a 
calderarpa, which is a combination of the piano key-board with 
the string arrangement of a harp. 
Case 49. — First full-cast iron plate frame piano. Invented 
in 1832 by Meyer of Philadelphia. 
