MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF DENISON COLLECTION 
33 
instrument on our list which gives in its construction, information 
as to actual scale relationships. There are eleven very high 
wooden frets, eight on the body and three on the neck. The top 
one serves as a bridge and the frets decrease in height all the way 
down. The four strings are tuned in pairs, and are often plucked 
with the finger nails which are grown conveniently long. A 
loose wire fastened inside the body jangles when the instrument 
is played, and adds to the effect, somewhat as the beads do in the 
African zanze. 
17. Gekkin (Moon guitar)^ — Japan. A comparison with no. 
16 shows the intimate connection between China and Japan. 
The Japanese instruments always show much more care in 
construction and beauty of ornament than the parallel type in 
China. The sizes of the two instruments are almost identical (the 
body of the Gekkin is 34 cm. diameter, by 3,5 cm.) but the number 
and locations of the frets are different. The Gekkin has nine in 
all, four on the body and five on the neck. The frets are of 
ivory. Carved wooden ornaments are located about where 
sound-holes might be expected on a medieval viol. A snake skin 
protects the face of the instrument from the blows of the small 
pick. This instrument also contains a snare. 
VII. STRINGED INSTRUMENTS WITH BOW . 
18. Mendicant’s fiddle — Thibet (Darjiling). This instrument 
is a crude Thibetan counterpart of the Chinese urheen (19) and 
in every way shows its low origin. There is only the slightest 
attempt at decoration with inaccurate cross-markings on the 
neck. The tuning-pegs are not mates, but evidently have been 
picked up somewhere, and put to this use. The two ^ ^strings” 
are simple bunches of about a dozen horse-hairs each, like those 
on the bow. The evolution of bows is in itself an interesting 
subject. This bow is most primitive, being simply a bent stick, 
but there is a notch at one end which makes it possible to loosen 
the hair when not in use. A peculiar feature of this instrument 
(as of no. 19) is that the hair of the bow passes between the 
strings so that the bow cannot be removed from the strings. The 
body of the instrument, which corresponds in position to the 
