Scan 24
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 14. See the scan on archive.org.
1Chinese communicated the bow to the Japanese, who have a fiddle called kokiū.
3We may observe here an unmistakable instance of the bow having been adopted with an instrument the strings of which were previously twanged. The Japanese kokiū closely resembles the Japanese samsien, which is played with a plectrum; the only difference being that the samsien is of larger dimensions, and that it has three strings, while the kokiū has four strings. Thus also, in China, the sanheen, mounted with three strings, which are twanged, has evidently suggested the construction of a four-stringed fiddle called woopu, which is a decided improvement upon the primitive urheen. The Japanese samsien was evidently originally the same instrument as the Chinese sanheen.
5The correctness of these statements is ascertainable from circumstantial evidence, which to enumerate here would take too much space. However, by way of example, one or two facts, suggesting the derivation of the urheen from India, may be mentioned.
7With the most ancient nations of which we possess historical records, certain musical instruments were intimately associated with religious ceremonies. This may be gathered, for instance, from the Assyrian sculptures. All the Hebrew instruments known to us from the Old Testament were used in sacred observances. The new musical instruments met with in China after the introduction of the Buddhist religion closely resemble certain instruments which are popular in India, where the Buddhist religion originated, and in some other Asiatic countries
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