A very ancient one is depicted in an Egyptian tomb, and dates from the 12th Dynasty. It represents a Semitic immigrant with an eight-stringed kithara, which he holds in a horizontal position under his right (?) arm; he plucks the strings with the fingers of the left hand, while he uses a plectrum with the right. The body of the instrument is really a quadrangular-shaped board with the upper half cut out. There is also a picture of a player on the kithara, accompanying two harpists, in a grave at Thebes belonging to the period between the 12th and 18th Dynasties. Here, again, we have the ruder form characteristic of the Semitic kithara. Later the kithara becomes quite common, and is more artistically constructed. It generally has a square, sometimes an urnshaped sound-box, from which rise arms of various design and thickness, bound together by a wooden cross-bar. These arms are often of different lengths, and the cross-bar therefore slopes downwards, thus serving to give the strings their proper pitch. The strings radiate from the sound-box in the form of a fan, and vary in number from 3 to 12.

The kithara was, however, not properly an Egyptian but an Asiatic instrument." We have already seen that the oldest known to be depicted in Egypt was played by a Semitic immigrant. The very earliest representation of a stringed instrument is that discovered at Telloh in Southern Babylonia. It is of a large size, but the frame shows a sound-body beneath, on which are set the

HARPER AND CHOIR (c. B.C. 3000).

two upright posts and the cross-bar of the lyre. The number of the strings is great enough to suggest that a harp was meant, but the model, which is exceedingly rude, is that of the kithara. Many specimens have been also found at Khorsabad, Kouyunjik, and Nimrud, which strongly resemble those of the immigrant Semites in Egypt. They are, however, more fully developed and have a larger sound-box at the base. They differ in form and in number of strings at the same period. A twelve-stringed kithara, shown on a bas-relief at

are unmistakable. The strings are fixed in a strong oval body resting on a kettle-shaped or vase-like sounding-box; the frame is simple and nearly square. The projecting arms are curved and joined by a cross-bar to which the strings, which vary in number from 3 to 6, are fixed. The figures thus resemble the Greek lyre or kithara. It is not likely, however, that they simply depict foreign importations, and that they cannot therefore be relied upon as evidence for the ancient kinnor. Oriental conservatism was at its strongest in matters affecting the cultus of the Israelites, and though the kinnor may have been modified in certain details, it is unlikely to have been wholly supplanted. We may assume with great probability that these coins represent Jewish instruments, and in that case the biblical kinnōr.

We may then sum up, following Weiss. The ancient versions render kinnor by kithara: the kithara was of Asiatic origin, was introduced by Semites into Egypt, and was in common use in Western Asia; and the representations on Jewish coins of the 2nd cent. before Christ clearly resemble the Greek kithara. The view is therefore very credible, that we should regard the ancient Heb. kinnor as a simple and primitive form of the kithara.

(b) The nebel. If we suppose the kinnor to have been a lyre, then it almost necessarily follows that the nebel was a harp. We can hardly imagine this instrument, so familiar to all early nations, to have been absent from the Jewish orchestra. Many other suggestions have been made, mostly based on the etymological meaning of the word (a skin or bottle'). It has been identified with the bagpipe, with some sort of wind instrument, and with the lute, guitar, or mandoline; but none of these suppositions is satisfactory. The lute was held to be supported by reference to the Egyptian nfr, which denotes a lute with two or three strings and a very long neck; but the identification of nbl with nfr is now abandoned, and the lute, as has been said, is not known to have been a popular Semitic instrument. A somewhat more likely supposition is that the nebel was a kind of dulcimer. This instrument occurs in a monument of the time of Assurbanipal (B. C. 668-626), on which is depicted an Assyrian orchestra of 11 performers. Of these, 7 are harpists, 2 flautists, one a drummer, and one a dulcimer player. This dulcimer is said by some to have been the nebel, the chief reason being that its Arabic name, santir, is a corruption of the Greek psalterion, which in turn is the equivalent of the Heb. nablion or nebel. But psalterion was a

general name for several kinds of instruments, and was especially applied to every stringed instrument which was played upon with the fingers

ASSYRIAN DULCIMER.

(c. B.C. 640).

of both hands, instead of by one hand and a plectrum held in the other. Therefore the Greek name for a harp was also psalterion. The Greek

cian knelt, and the frame rested on his shoulder. As time advanced, harps were still further developed. The lower part of the frame was converted into a sound-body, which was broadened at the base so that it could rest on the ground unsupported by the player. Some harps were placed on a stool, or raised upon a stand or limb attached to the lower part. The players of these large instruments stood during the performance. While we cannot deny the possibility or even the probability of the Hebrews having been familiar with such harps, they were not the common or popular nebels, which were easily portable.

Now, smaller portable harps did exist in Egypt in a great variety of forms. One is bow-shaped with a transverse string-holder; a second has a quadrangular flat-shaped sound-box pierced with holes, while the strings are stretched from a string. holder resting on the sounding-board to a post rising at right angles from one end of the latter; and a third, ornamented with a bird's head, is quite triangular, the upright post being at once string-holder and sound-box. Another instrument is very common in Upper Egypt. It resembles a mandoline, with the neck bending abruptly upwards from the sound-body; the strings, which are from three to five in number, are not attached to the body of the instrument itself, but to a stringholder attached to its centre. At the upper end of the neck are pins for stretching and tuning the strings.

We might have regarded one or other of these smaller harps as furnishing the model of the nebel

PRIEST PLAYING HARP.

(Tomb of Ramses III.).

translation does not, therefore, decide in favour of the dulcimer, and the very fact that psalterion was a generic term would make it particularly appropriate as a designation of the harp, which varied so much in size and shape. That a corrup tion or derivative should be applied to a stringed instrument of another kind is quite intelligible. The description of the nabla by Ovid (Ars. Am. iii. 327), the statement by Josephus (Ant. VII. xii. 3) that the nebel had 12 strings and was played without plectrum, and, as we shall see, the distinction drawn by the early Fathers between instruments with a sound-body below and those having a resonance-board above the strings, all point to the harp.

The Egyptian monuments present us with a great variety of harps. The earliest form shown is very primitive; it is in the shape of an archer's bow, possesses no sound-box, and has but a limited number of strings. As early as the 5th Dynasty, however, improvements began to be effected; the upper part, to which the strings were affixed with pegs, was broadened and developed into a soundbody, and the frame began to be more or less elaborately ornamented. While playing, the musi

ASSYRIAN HARP.

on Ps 1493, Isidore Etym. III. xxii. 2), who distinguished between instruments with the soundbody beneath and those possessing it above, we must look for a harp that satisfies the latter condition. And this we find, again among a

It is highly probable that there were different species of kinnors and nebels, but whether these are designated in the OT or not is unknown. In one case this is almost certain. They of Ps 33 and 1449, or simply by Ps 923, was in all likelihood a ten-stringed harp.

The meaning of the word ' (Gittith) in the headings of Ps 8. 81. 84 is wholly obscure. The LXX and Vulg. suggest the rendering 'Song of the vintage'; but it may be derived from Gath, and may refer to a mode, or singers, or instruments named after that town. Ewald understands it to be the March of the Gittite guard.'

The meaning Gittite instruments' is rendered not improbable if we translate ni (1 Ch 1520 and 46 times in Ps) with Wellhausen on Elamite instruments.' This term is, however, more generally taken to mean with women's voice' (lit. 'on or acc. to damsels'; RV 'set to' by as name of a tune, which is quite possible), i.e. soprano, and to refer to instruments of a higher pitch.

Něginōth (i) has sometimes been taken to denote a particular kind of instrument, but it is a general term for string music. In Ps 6825 we have contrasted with o, i.e. the singers with the players.

(c) This division of the orchestra is supplemented by instruments which occur only in the Book of Daniel (35). These are the pșanțērîn (1709), the kitharis (opp), and the sabbekha (870). The psanterin is the Greek aλThptor, and that is all we know definitely about it. It has been identified by some with the magadis, but this is itself only a general term for an instrument (most commonly, however, a lyre) which could be played in octaves; and with a dulcimer because of the retention of the word in the Arabic santir. But pṣanterin may just as well have kept its original force, and have denoted a harp played with both hands. There is nothing to lead us to identify it with the dulcimer represented on Assyrian monuments. The kitharişt is the Greek κιθάρα.

The sabbekhat is the Greek caußókn. But the sambuca is itself a word of very varied import. Stainer (Mus. of the Bible, p. 39) concludes that it was a large and powerful harp of a rich quality of tone, perhaps similar to, if not identical with, the great Egyptian harp. Weiss (Mus. Inst. p. 67) goes to the opposite extreme, and holds that it was a small trigon characterized by a high shrill tone, and used to accompany female voices. Chappell (Hist. of Mus. p. 255) summarizes the various meanings given to the word in Greek writers: it was either a trigon, a barbitos or many-stringed lyre, a lyrophenix or Phoenician lyre, a Greek lyre, a magadis, a pipe, a dulcimer, or a siege-ladder; in short, anything made of elder-wood. It was not, however, a sackbut,' i.e. a trombone.

2. Wind Instruments.—(a) Of these the one in most general use was the flute or halil (b). It has been denied that it was ever used to accompany

Flute-like instruments date from the very earliest times. From the first, two kinds are met with-the long flute, played by blowing in one end and held straight before the player, and the oblique flute, played by blowing in a hole at the side. Both these kinds are depicted on the Egyptian monuments. Double flutes are also shown in the Egyptian and Assyrian monuments; they were probably preferred as giving the performer a greater range or compass. The material of which flutes were made was at first the reed, then wood of various kinds, and lastly bone and ivory.

Wood-winds were of two kinds: those with and those without reeds or vibrating tongues. The former are represented by the oboe and clarinet, the latter by the flute proper. From specimens found in Pompeii and elsewhere it is known that the Greeks were familiar with reed instruments, especially those provided with a single tongue, and therefore of the clarinet class. If we are to trust the evidence of ancient myths (cf. legend of Apollo and Marsyas), the Greeks owed this instrument to the Phrygians, who may have acquired the double flute from the Assyrians.

Whether the halil was a single or double flute, or a flue or reed pipe, we do not know. It is certain that the Hebrews had every opportunity of becoming acquainted with all these kinds, but we have no information on the subject. In any case, the number of notes was limited to those produced by stopping the holes with the fingers, as the keyed flute is entirely a modern invention.

It has been held by some that neķeb (p) Ezk 2813 AV and RV pipes) designates the double flute; but this is inconsistent with the context, and is altogether erroneous. A. B. Davidson renders the word 'grooves.'

Again, něhilōth (nb) in the heading of Ps 5 is a term of very uncertain meaning.

(b) The 'ugab (ay or any) is a somewhat uncertain term. The LXX renders the word variously, Kiðápa (Gn 421), faλuós (Job 2112 3031), and opravov (Ps 150). It is not a general term for a musical instrument (opyavov), as we can see from the context. Some writers think it to have been a syrinx or Pan's pipe, others a bagpipe. But we have really no evidence in support of either view. If ay means to blow in (which, it must be confessed, is pure conjecture), then the noun would denote wind instruments in general, and this gives a good sense in all the above passages. Thus Jubal (Gn 42) is the inventor of string and wind instruments, and in Ps 150 minnim and 'ugab represent the same divisions of the orchestra.

(c) Mashrōkitha (ppi) is another of the instruments mentioned in Dn (35. 7. 15). The name is derived from a verb meaning to hiss, and is therefore applicable either to the oblique flute or Pan's pipe. Of course the hissing effect is more pronounced in playing the syrinx, and it is most probably the instrument meant.

(d) The symphonia () is also mentioned in Dn (35. 15) alone. The Greek ovμpwvla, from which

this word is derived, did not originally denote an instrument, but a concordant interval. Tradition applies it to the bagpipe. Originally the form of this instrument may have been developed from the double flute, one of the pipes being shorter and being used for the melody, while the longer furnished a droning bass accompaniment. We are told by Athenæus (Lib. x. p. 439) that Antiochus Epiphanes used to dance to the sound of the symphonia. To this day the Italians have a bagpipe called zampugna or sampogna, and a chifonie or symphonie was an instrument of the same class used in the Middle Ages. In Rome this instrument was introduced in the time of the Empire under the name of tibia utricularis or chorus, and soon became highly popular. Seneca (Ep. 76) is indignant at the applause bestowed on a bagpipe player.

(e) The horn (i shōphār, keren; AV trumpet, and so confused with hazōzerah except where they occur together, when is rendered cornet [see Driver, Joel and Amos, p. 146]) originally consisted of a ram's horn. It was afterwards sometimes made of metal, but the actual ram's horn was always retained for certain purposes. It had a loud piercing tone, was of limited compass, and was wholly unsuited to concerted music. It was used to summon the people to attention, and for making signals. The first mention of it in the OT is at the giving of the law (Ex 19). Its blasts proclaimed the year of Jubilee (Lv 259). The blowing' (g), commanded in Nu 291, was probably performed on the shophar, as it is still employed at that festival. It was also blown at the feast of the New Year and on fastdays. In time of war the shophar summoned and assembled the army (Jg 37 and often), and the prophet foretold that it should announce the recall of the people from exile (Is 2713).

been caused by their not tallying perfectly with the description given by Josephus (Ant. III. xii. 6). He says that the trumpet (asosra) was nearly a yard long, a little wider than a flute, with a slight expansion near the mouthpiece, to catch the breath, and ending in a bell, just as in the wartrumpets. This description corresponds with the form of trumpet shown on a coin of the time of the emperor Hadrian, which bears the inscription Deliverance of Jerusalem.' The instruments on the Arch of Titus, of which we do not see the mouthpiece, are very long, being supported by rests, and gradually swell out into a long and not very wide bell. See, further, TRUMPET.

The Silver Trumpets are said to have been made by Moses of beaten silver (Nu 10); they were blown by priests; and they belonged to the sacred vessels. The nature and meaning of the signals is indicated in Nu 102-10.

3. Percussion Instruments.-(a) The toph () or tabret is first mentioned in Gn 31. The LXX and other Greek versions render this word by TúμTavov; in Arab. we have duf, in Spanish aduffa. This instrument was a small hand-drum. The duf of the Arabs is made of a circle of light wood, over the edge of which is stretched a piece of goat-skin. The wood is pierced with five openings, in which thin metal discs are set, in order to give greater effect to the drum-beat. The duf is about 10 in. in diameter, and 2 in. in depth. It is usually played by women to accompany their dances and processions at weddings and public festivals. The hand-drum is frequently represented both in Egyptian and Assyrian monuments.

Some

MODERN SHOPHAR

The shophar is retained in the service of the modern synagogue: it is blown during the services on New Year's Day (except when that happens to be a Sabbath), at the conclusion of the Day of Atonement, on the 7th day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and during the entire month of Elul, after the recital of the supplications. The modern shophar is a real ram's horn, curved at the end, but otherwise straightened by heat.

(f) The trumpet or hazōzerah (7) is the only Heb. instrument of which we have an indubitably

TABLE OF SHEWBREAD AND TRUMPETS.
(From Arch of Titus).

authentic representation. On the Arch of Titus two specimens are depicted along with the golden Table of Shew bread. Some little difficulty has

ASSYRIAN HAND-DRUM.

times we have an approach to the modern use of the drum. In some cases it is attached to the player by a belt fastened round his waist, while his hands act as drumsticks. One form of this instrument is slightly bulged, like a little barrel. Perhaps the rudeness of the drawing alone accounts for its somewhat square appearance.

The modern Egyptian tabls are of two kinds. The one is like our common military drum, but not so deep; it is hung obliquely. The other is a kind of kettledrum, of tin-copper, with a parchment face; it is generally about 16 in. in diameter, and not more than 4 in depth in the centre, and is beaten with two slender sticks.

(b) Cymbals are mentioned in the OT under two names, meziltaim (p) and gelzelim (y); the latter only occurs in 2 S 65 and Ps 150. In Zec 1420 the RV translates on niby by the bells of the horses,' but there is no absolute necessity for departing here from the commoner rendering. The Egyptians at the present day decorate the breastleather and head-stalls of their horses with coins and other ornaments, and a metal disc would be better suited for inscriptions than a bell. The word used elsewhere for a bell is pays. In 1 Ch 1519 we are told that cymbals were made of brass.

Two varieties of cymbals have been found in

Egypt and Assyria: the one similar to a modern soup-plate, but having a somewhat larger rim; the other conical in form, with a handle at the peak. The flat cymbals have a hole through which a thong or cord was passed, and were played by clashing the instruments together sideways: of the second kind, the one was brought down on the top of the other. In Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as among the Hebrews, the cymbals were used by the conductor to mark the time.

It has been supposed that the you by of Ps 150° (AV loud cymbals') were castanets, or metal discs fixed to two fingers of one hand; but this is by no means certain, though such castanets are still used.

(c) The měna'an'îm (o'yy) are mentioned in 2 $ 65, where the RV renders castanets,' and in marg. sistra. The latter suits the root-meaning,

EGYPTIAN SISTRUM.

and is supported by the Vulg., where we have systra. The sistrum consisted of two thin metal plates, bent together at the top, and fitted with a handle at the bottom. The plates were pierced with holes, through which rods were passed having rings at their ends. This instrument was used in Egypt to call attention to the various acts of public worship, or to scare away malign influence. (d) The word shalishim (v) occurs, evidently as an instrument of some sort, in 1 S 186. It can hardly mean a trigon (but see Wellhausen, 'Psalms' in PB 230, and references in Driver, Joel and Amos, 236 n.); but what it does mean we do not know. We have no evidence of the existence of the triangle (to which it has been referred) in Assyria or Egypt.

LITERATURE.-Pfeiffer, Uber die Musik der alten Hebräer; Saalschütz, Form der heb. Poesie, etc.; Leyrer, art. 'Musik' in PRE2; Riehm's HWB des bibl. Alterthums; Ambros, Gesch. der Musik Fetis, Hist. de la Musique; Naumann, Rowbotham, and Chappell's Histories of Music; Wilkinson, Anc. Egyp. (ii. 222 ff.); Wetzstein in Del., Commentary on Isaiah; Stainer, The Music of the Bible; Edersheim, The Temple, etc.; Wellhausen, The Psalms, with App. on the Music of the Ancient Hebrews (in the Polychrome Bible'); Benzinger, Heb. Archäologie, 271 ff.; Nowack, Heb. Arch. i. 270ff.; Köberle, Die Tempelsänger im AT; Büchler, Zur Gesch. d. Tempelmusik und der Tempelpsalmen in ZATW, 1899-1900. But especially, J. Weiss, Die musikalischen Instrumente in den heiligen Schriften des Alten Testaments, 1895. JAMES MILLAR.

MUSTARD (alvamı, sinapis).—The conditions to be fulfilled by the mustard are that it should be a familiar plant, with a very small seed (Mt 1720, Lk 176), sown in the earth, i.e. annual, growing larger than garden herbs (Xúxavov, olus, Mt 1331),

having large branches (Mk 432), or, in the more exaggerated language of Luke (1319), becoming a great tree,' attractive to passing birds. The wild mustards of the Holy Land, Sinapis arvensis, L., the field mustard or charlock, and S. alba, L., the white mustard, are familiar weeds, growing in every part of the country. They would have been called olyan in the time of Christ, as they are now called khardal sinapis. The cultivated mustard is Sinapis nigra, L. The seed is well known for its minuteness. The plant grows to a size larger than the garden herbs, with which it is compared. The mustards are annuals, reproduced with extraordinary rapidity wherever the seed finds a lodgment, a particular which seems to be implied in the parable. In fat soil they often attain a height of 10 or 12 ft., and have branches which attract the passing birds. Many plants which attain a far less size than these are called shajar='tree' by the Arabs. One of the many examples of this is in the plants of the Borraginaceous genus Arnebia, which are only a few inches to a foot in height, but are known as shajaret el-arneb='the rabbit tree.' It would not seem at all strange to any native to speak of a mustard plant as shajaret el-khardal=mustard tree.' Finally, they are favourites of the birds, which alight upon them to devour their seeds. The Greek word Kaтeσкhvwoev does not refer to nesting, but to a temporary rest. We may, then, justly conclude that the traditional and obvious interpretation meets all the reasonable demands of the passage.

Owing to the expression 'great tree' (Lk 1319), some have sought for an arboreal plant. Salvadora Persica, Garcin, has been suggested by Royle, on the authority of Ameuny, who states that this plant is found all along the banks of the Jordan, near Damascus, and is called by the Arabs khardal ='mustard.' We unhesitatingly reject this plant for the following reasons. (1) It is not found in the localities mentioned, but only around the Dead Sea. It would have been quite unknown to most of the hearers of the parable, and to them only by chance. (2) We have not heard it called khardal, and doubt the fact of its being generally known by this name. But, admitting that it is known locally by this name, as attested by Ameuny, it would not have suggested itself at once to the simple hearers of the parable. (3) Its seed is never sown in gardens, while it is expressly stated that the mustard seed was so planted (Lk 1319). (4) It is a perennial shrub, and therefore not a plant conspicuous by its rapid propagation from seed, a point of prime importance in the parable. (5) Although a taller plant than the mustard usually is, it would not suit the literal requirements of a great tree.' It is a shrub, seldom more than 6 to 8 ft. tall, and grows in thickets. It would require as much exaggeration to call it a 'great tree' as to so designate the mustard. (6) Salvadora Persica could, by no stretch of the imagination, be called an herb, while of mustard it is expressly said that it is uеîšov тŵv λaxávwv, 'the greatest among herbs' (Mt 1332). G. E. POST.