MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
wires; these being the guides for the fingers 
to make tlie several notes, by pressing be- 
tween the frets : the bridge is very low, 
and stands behind a circular sound-hole, 
covered with an ornamented and perforated 
plate : the body of the guitar is of an oval 
form, the sides perpendicular to the belly 
and back. This instrument is strung pecu- 
liarly : the upper open note, G, is of double 
steel wires, about No. 4 ; the second, E, is 
also double. No. 5 ; the third is of brass, 
double, and gives C; the fourth is double, 
of brass, and gives G, an octave below the 
upper wires ; the fifth is E, an octave below 
the second wires ; and the sixth is C, the 
octave below the third. The two last are 
single wires, covered with very fine wire, 
closely as possible, like the fourth strings of 
violins. The wires loop at the bottom to 
little ivory studs, and at the top to small 
steel studs, moving in grooves, each of them 
winding up with a watch-key, so as to put 
them in tune respectively. The Spanish 
guitar is strung with cat gut partly ; but 
the lower notes are, like those of the harp, 
made of floss-silk, covered very closely 
with fine wire. 
There has been a late invention of what is 
called a Harp Guitar, but it does not seem 
to merit the name of an improvement. The 
compass of the instrument is increased by 
some long strings ; but it appears to us, 
that the simplicity which is the character- 
istic of the guitar, is thus unnecessarily 
violated. We have few, if any, makers or 
performers of note in this branch ; tliough 
some ladies sweep the notes with consider- 
able grace and effect. The plectrum is out 
of use ; the thumb and fingers of the right 
hand touching the strings, while the fingers 
of the left move among the frets. 
This genus of instruments includes an im- 
mense variety, chiefly of very remote anti- 
quity; the name of tlie guitar, we are confi- 
dent, was borrowed, not as some assert from 
the Spanish, nor from the Latin cithara ; but 
from the very ancient Hindu word sittarah, 
or sittar, which exclusively applies to an in- 
strument with a very long neck, and mount- 
ed with four very small steel wires passing 
over a low bridge, that stands on a piece of 
tough untanned sheep’s skin, spread over 
the surface of half a gourd or callibash. 
We have every reason to suppose the sittar 
was unknown in Europe until Alexander 
visited India. The scale of the sittar is 
very confined, though the performers do 
not neglect the scope given by the neck, 
which is nearly a yai'd long, and about an 
inch and a quarter in breadth, to produce 
many very unpleasant notes, high in alt, 
on the first wire : sliding their forefingers 
up as high as they can reach, and shifting 
with one finger only, among the frets, which 
are extremely numerous. The octachord, 
or lyre, of Pythagoras, had but eight notes ; 
the pandoron was also of the lute kind ; 
the bandora was the same ; the chelys was 
more like our modern guitar; the theorbo, 
or arch-lute, is still iii use in Italy, and 
seems to have been the basis of the harp 
guitar before mentioned. It has, however, 
two necks, of which the longest is appro- 
priated to the bass-notes : if we are cor- 
rectly informed, it is extremely difficult to 
perform well on the therbo ; but the sweet- 
ness of its tones compensates for the trouble 
of attaining perfection. The lute much 
resembles the guitar, and is supposed to be 
equally ancient ; it has six rows of strings, 
and is performed like the rest of this genus. 
The lyre is held to be even more ancient 
than the sittar ; though we have little or 
no information whereon we can depend, 
as to its scale, or its mode of performance. 
This instrument is seen on many ancient 
coins and statues, especially of Apollo. 
We have several fabulous accounts of its 
origin, and of improvements in days of 
yore ; but we cannot take upon ns to fol- 
low the tract of a long list of heathens, to 
whom much merit in this particular has 
been ascribed, since no benefit or par- 
ticular gratification would result to the 
generality of our readers, nor w'ould tlie 
instrument be better described, for it is 
a known truth, that all our acquaintance 
with it is from representation only. 
We now come to the Dulcimer; it is no- 
thing more than a small triangular flat box, 
in which is a shallow sounding board, hav- 
ing two bridges that approximate to each 
other as they retire from the performer. 
Over these bridges the wires are stretched 
in-the usual way. The mode of perform- 
ance is by means of two little sticks, armed 
with small knobs, partly of cork, and part- 
ly of hard wood, so as to make the tone 
more or less soft ; it is at the utmost but 
a low sounding instrument, though of a 
pleasant tone. The scale is various, but 
commonly about three octaves ; some have 
double wires. The people of the northern 
parts of Hindostan have a kind of dulcimer 
made of flat steel bars, varying from two 
feet to only a few inches in length ; these 
are all fixed by means of wedges into a slit 
between two battens, and protrude hori- 
