Scan 128
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
5 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 118. See the scan on archive.org.
1have strung their telyn originally with this sound-producing substance; likewise, the Fins, on their antiquated kantele, used, according to their old national epos, the Kalewala, "hair from the tail of a spirited horse."
2— Thus also the ancient Greeks and Romans, no doubt, had various kinds of strings. Even the disagreement in their old tradition respecting the invention of the chelys suggests this, since its strings are said to have been made of the dried sinews of a tortoise, and also of the intestines of cattle. It may, therefore, be surmised that the several lyres known by different names were distinguished from each other, not only by certain peculiarities in construction and shape, but in some instances also by the employment of peculiar strings. In order to describe any particular Greek or Roman lyre correctly, it is necessary to ascertain first, precisely the period from which it dates.
3Exactly the same is the case with the mediæval fiddle, as will be seen from the following statements.
4A representation of an Anglo-Saxon fithele is contained in a manuscript which dates from the eleventh century, and which is preserved in the British Museum (Cotton MSS., Tiberius, chap. vi.). There is not the slightest doubt about this illustration exhibiting a real instrument of the fiddle class, since the bow is depicted in it. The reader, should he have no opportunity to inspect the original illustration, will find a faithful copy and detailed description of it in Joseph Strutt's work, "The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, from the Earliest Period to the
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