Wilkinson, John Gardner; Birch, Samuel [Mitarb.]: The Egyptians in the time of the pharaohs: being a companion to the Crystal Palace Egyptian collections (London, 1857)

TUNING THE HARP AND LYRE.

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that of Greece, it was played with the two hands, or with the
plectrum, a small implement, made of bone, ivory, or hard
wood; or with this, and one hand. It was held under one arm,
and sometimes supported by a strap over the shoulders; but
there is no indication of the band across the left hand, used by
the Greeks.

Neither in the harp, nor in the lyre, had they any means of
shortening the strings, during the performance, by any con-
trivance like our pedals; they could therefore only play in
one key; but this want was less felt when the instruments
were chiefly accompaniments to the voice. The harp was
tuned by pegs; the chords of the lyre by sliding them up the
inclined bar, when the two limbs were of different lengths.
This was a very common form; and a lyre, which was in the

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(W. 10.)

■centre twenty-two inches high, measured on one side with its
bmb about two feet j on the other, one foot eight inches in
height. -When the limbs were equal, the strings were tightened
by rolling them round the transverse bar, as in the hisirha, or
modern Nubian lyre.