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)

FLUTE.-GUITAK.

25

latter was, in later times, bound with brass; -when it was said,
by Horace, to bave " emulated the trumpet;" and I have seen
one found at Rome, of bone, sheathed entirely with brass, which
had only a diameter of an inch and a half, and measured five
and a half inches from the top to the fifth hole, where it was
broken off. The first hole was an inch and a half from that
for the mouth ; and it had five holes on the upper and two on
the under side, and may, when entire, have been about nine
inches in length; showing that its power as an instrument was
very limited, and that it depended for its effect rather on its
shrillness than the fullness of its tones. It was also much smaller

(W. 11.)

than the Egyptian flute, which exceeded two feet in length.
This was played by men, who stood, or sat on the ground ; and
an instance is met with of a man playing on one at Thebes,
which must have been about four feet long.

(W. 12.)

l!M>

To discover, rather than to invent, these simple instruments,
required little skill ? but before they could devise the means of
obtaining various notes from a small number of strings, by
shortcning them on a neck, as in our modem guitar and violin,