The first, or No. 22, is taken from Antiquités, Planches, Tom. I. pl. 70, No. 2, El Kab, or Elethyia, where it is found employed at a musical entertainment, in connexion with the double flute. It is of an oblong, circular form, having a kind of elliptical bend in the centre, is gradually swelled from the top to the bottom, is entirely destitute of ornaments, and has ten strings; all which may be seen from an inspection of the figure itself. In the original, it is apparently played on by a female who stands erect, with the harp nearly opposite to her right shoulder, and extending from the ground to some distance above her head.

Similar harps, referred to, according to the number of their strings, are to be found, (1) Antiquités, Planches, Tom. V. pl. 17, No. 6, Pyramids of Memphis; (2) Tom. I. pl. 23d, Nos. 2d and 3d, Ile de Philae; (3) Tom. IV. pl. 15, No. 9, Denderah or Tentyris; (4) Tom. I. pl. 15, No. 14, Ile de Philae ; (5) Tom. I. pl. 71, No. 7, El Kab, or Elethyia; to all which may be added, the fictitious musical procession already referred to, Ant. Planches, Tom. III. pl. 51, de Grands Formats, Thebes-Karnac; Rees, Cyclop. pls. Vol. III. pl. III. figs. 9 and 10; with which comp. Compreh. Comm. Gen. 4:21; and finally Hirt, Ueber die Bildung der Aegyptischen Gothheiten, Berlin, 1821, with plates, in the Desk of the And. Sem. Lib. pl. 10, figs. 75 and 76; described, p. 47th.

At No. (1) there is to be found something like a musical concert. The harp is the segment of a circle, all the way of a size, and has six strings. It is taken from the tomb, situated east of the second of the Pyramids of Memphis. The female who plays on it, is in a kneeling posture, while the harp stands on the ground and leans against her shoulder.

At No. (2) there are two harps. The second of the two is nearly a semi-circle, stands on a pedestal or block, is ornamented with a human head on the top, has nine strings, and is played on by a female who stands erect. The first almost entirely resembles the second, excepting that it is plain and has, perhaps, but eight strings,-there being something which bears the appearance of part of another string. It is played on, also, in the On the top of the female's head are to be seen the stalks and flowers of the lotus.

same way.

1 See the same instrument, and pretty accurately represented, in Abbildungen zu Friedrick Creuzers Symbolik und Mythologie der Alten Völker, Lipz. 1819, (Sein. Lib. Drawer 35), pl. 15, No. 3, with the explanation, Introd. p. 5, No. 14. The harp here, however, has ten strings.

No. (3) is another semi-circular harp, in every thing almost like the last, excepting that it has ten strings.

No. (4) differs not materially from the last, excepting that it is ornamented with a kind of horned serpent's or viper's head on the top, and has eleven strings.

No. (5) is also of the same description as the last, excepting that it has twelve strings. It rests on the ground and reaches above the head of the player, who stands erect.

In the fictitious musical procession, there are to be seen three harps, each of which is formed of the arc of a circle, has four strings, and is carried with the lower end in the left hand, being supported, at the same time, against the left shoulder, while it is played on with the right hand.

No. (9) referred to in Rees, has only four strings and is a very fanciful piece of work; being composed of a serpent with his head at the top and ornamented with a human head, while its tail rests on a hare, with his long ears turned back. A cut of this very harp is to be found in the Comp. Comm. at Gen. 4: 21. It was first drawn in connexion with other instruments, by M. de St. Non; and from him our information respecting it, is obtained. For a description of it, see Bruce's Travels, Vol. II. p. 289, Appendix, ed. 2d. Edinb. 1805. No. 10 in Rees, corresponds with number three, above. Harp No. 76 referred to in Hirt, has ten strings, and corresponds with No. (2) specimen 1, above. No. 75 of Hirt, has twelve strings, and corresponds very nearly with the preceding, excepting that it is ornamented with a human head and a winged globe.1

The second, or No. 23, is taken from Antiquités, Planches, Tom. II. pl. 44. No. 6, Thebes-Hypogées. It is what has been denominated the Theban harp, specimens of which have been so particularly described by Bruce. This entire species is ordinarily much larger than the other, and often extends in length, considerably beyond the human form; while it also, as a general thing, has a greater number of strings. The instruments themselves very nearly resemble that usually put into the

1 I go not into an explanation of the emblems; as my object does not particularly require it. The two last harps were taken from Philae. The player is performing, says Hirt, for the entertainment of Horus, or the Apollo of the Greeks, who sits on a throne near by ; and here he remarks that the Greeks made no use of the Egyptian harp, as the Egyptians made none of the Grecian lyre.

hands of David,' excepting that the front piece is wanting. They are sometimes so formed as to be nearly composed of the two sides of a triangle. At others, however, they vary but little from the segment of a circle or rather of an ellipse. In both cases, the back part is gradually swelled and curved as it descends, in order to form the belly or chest, and the basis or support. The instrument before me, is rather triangular than circular, as the figure shows; is gradually swelled and curved towards the bottom, is elegantly finished off; and it rests on a foot, ornamented with a hawk's head. It has twenty-one strings, and the player on it, in the original, is in a kneeling posture. Near by it there is to be seen the guitar.

Similar instruments, referred to, as in the last, according to the number of their strings, are to be seen (1) Antiquités, Planches, Tom. II. pl. 91. No. 1 and 2, two specimens, ThebesByban el Molauk; (2) Burney Hist. Mus. as already referred to, Tom. I. p. *221; (3) with which also compare Bruce's Trav. Vol. II. p. 36 sq. 2d ed. Edinburgh, 1805, Plates, No. 6; (4) Rees' Cyclopaedia, Plates, Vol. III. Ancient Music, pl. 3d.

No. (1), specimen 1, in form, comprises nearly the two sides of a triangle and is elegantly finished. The foot of it is ornamented with a human head. It stands on the ground, and reaches considerably above the head of the player, who is a female, in an erect position. It has but eleven strings. The second specimen differs not much from the preceding, only it has twenty-one strings. Near by there is a small harp, of five strings, with something like a finger board extending about half way down from the top. No. (2) to be found in Dr. Burney, has already been sufficiently noticed. It has thirteen strings. Bruce in his work, has described it in connexion with another, equally elegantly finished, but which has eighteen strings.

No. (3) which stands on the same plate with No. (2), differs not materially from figure 23 which I have given as a specimen; and like it, has twenty-one strings.

At No. (4) there are to be found two instruments. They were taken, as I suppose, from Denon, " Voyage dans la basse et la haute 'Egypte," pl. 135, Nos. 26 and 27; and in Rees, they are marked Nos. 6 and 7. Both of them are of the circular form, with the gradual swell, and elegantly wrought. The latter of them is ornamented with a human head, on the foot, is

1 See the Vignette, in Malcom's ed. of Thom. à Kempis.

played on by a person who stands up, though in a somewhat leaning posture, as if to be able to touch the most distant of the lowest strings, and without being able to reach the top of the harp with the head. It has thirty strings. The former has no ornament; but it is not otherwise less elegantly finished. It is played on by a female, who is seated on the ground.

All these harps are evidently of the same class, their general form being unquestionably the same. Enough of them has been given, and sufficient said, to show their general construction and great variety. From the large number of strings which some of them had, we should be inclined to think that the eastern scale of music was subjected to as minute divisions in ancient times, as Dr. Russell, Villoteau, and others, inform us it is in modern.

II. Tebouni in the form of the lyre. We have discovered instruments of this kind,' says Villoteau, in but two places, in the temple of Denderah.' Neither myself nor Dr. Harris, the librarian, were able to find any thing in the plates of the French Savans which we could certainly pronounce the instruments in question, though we found what seemed to resemble them. Villoteau, however, informs us, that the first had four strings, and the second three; and that they resemble the constellation of the same name. He remarks that it is the instrument described by Diodorus Siculus in his Universal History; also that it is the same described by Homer in his hymn to Mercury; and he concludes by adding, that it is now common in Africa, and there called the kussir.

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This last information, was unquestionably drawn from the same source, as Pfeiffer's already given in testimony of the modern existence of this instrument. The account of it, to be found in Homer's Hymn, Eis Equv, has often been repeated. The Hymn itself,' says H. N. Coleridge, is one of the most diverting in Greek literature.' From it we learn, that Mercury, the son of Jupiter and Maia, was born in a cave about day break; and that by noon he had made a lyre out of the shell of a tortoise, which he caught crawling at the entrance of the cavern, and had learned to play upon it. He afterwards made a present of it to Apollo, by way of soothing him for having stolen the cows of this god. The description as versified by Shelly, is as follows:

"And through the stone-shelled tortoise's strong skin
At proper distances small holes he made,

And fastened the cut stems of reeds within,
And with a piece of leather overlaid
The open space, and fixed the cubits in,
Fitting the bridge to both, and stretched o'er all
Symphonious chords of sheep-gut rhythmical.
When he had wrought the lovely instrument,
He tied the chords, and made division meet
Preluding with the plectrum, and there went
Up from beneath his hand a tumult sweet
Of mighty sounds, and from his lips he sent
A strain of unpremeditated wit
Joyous and wild and wanton."

The above scene is laid in Pieria, in Greece.1

By Diodorus Siculus, in his history referred to, above, Hermes is made one of the councillors of Osiris, in Egypt; and he is there said, among other useful things, To have invented the lyre, furnishing it with three strings in allusion to the seasons of the year. For these strings producing three different sounds, the grave, the mean, and the acute, he made the grave answer to winter, the mean to spring, and the acute to summer; and it is a well known fact, that not only the Egyptians, but the ancient Greeks, divided their year, into no more than three seasons, spring, summer, and winter, which were called ögat,according to the account of Hesiod:

"Three Hours to Jove, did lovely Themis bear,
Eunomia, Dice, and Irene fair;

O'er human labors, they the power possess,
With seasons kind, the fruits of earth to bless."

As to its form in the constellation which bears this name there can be no doubt. It was the same that is exhibited on maps or globes of the heavens, is to be found pourtrayed in the works of the venerable Bede,3 and also every where sculptured on the monuments of ancient Greece. Passow tells us that it had a deeper sounding board or chest, than the cithara, and that out

The original quotations, when quite common, are omitted. See Homer's Odyss. ed. Tauchn. 1828, p. 276. Coleridge's Introduction to Study of the Greek Classic Poets, I. p. 199 sq. Compare also, Horace, Od. X. Lib. 1, with Burney, Hist. Mus. Vol. I. p. 266.

2 Biblioth. Hist. Lib. I. c. 16. p. 27, ed. Tauchn. compare Bur. Hist. Music, Vol. I. p. 208 sq. and Passow's Handwörterbuch, sub. v. pa. Hesiod's Theog. line 901 sq.

3 Bede's Opp. I. p. 450, ed. Basil. 1563.

VOL. IX. No. 26.

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