Books › Notice of Anthony Stradivari, the celebrated violin-maker, known by the name of Stradivarius:, 1864 › scan 26
Scan 26
Notice of Anthony Stradivari, the celebrated violin-maker, known by the name of Stradivarius:, 1864
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1head of the bow, at the first knot, for fastening a hank of hair, which is strained and fixed at the other end, by binding a very flexible rush string twenty times round it.
3Such is the primitive bow-instrument, now abandoned to people of the lowest class, and to the poor Buddhist monks, who go from door to door asking alms. Its sound is sweet, though muffled. According to Indian tradition, it was invented by Ravana, King of Ceylon, five thousand years before the Christian era.
5Other instruments, made in imitation of the ravanastron, are known among the poorer classes of Hindostan. The first, which we may consider as the base of that, is also made of a cylinder of sycamore, 16 centimètres [6.299 in.] long, and 11 centimètres [4.331 in.] in diameter, and hollowed throughout its length; so that the thickness of this sonorous body does not exceed 3 millimètres [.118 in.]. This body is crossed from side to side by a rod or shank of the total length of 86 centimètres [33.858 in.], which forms the neck, as in the ravanastron. A hole is bored vertically, at the lower extremity of this shank, into which is inserted a little pin of iron-wood, 9 centimètres [3.543 in.] long, terminated by a knob or button, which carries a strap of jackall leather, to which the strings are attached. The sound-board is formed of a thin plate of mounah-wood, which, in its longitudinal fibres, bears a resemblance to deal. This instrument, which is called the rouana, is mounted with two strings, like the ravanastron, to which it is in all other respects similar.
7To an epoch doubtless posterior to the invention of
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