Scan 98
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 88. See the scan on archive.org.
1sometimes called rebab. Its body consists of half a cocoanut shell, covered at the top with bladder or thin skin, and being perforated at the back with a number of soundholes. It generally measures about three feet in length, and is not unfrequently tastefully embellished with designs in gold on a green ground. The Persian kemangeh-a-gouz has generally three strings of horsehair. That of the Arabs, Syrians, and Egyptians is usually two-stringed, each string containing about sixty black horsehairs, which are not twisted together, but run parallel, like the hairs of a violin bow. Attention must be drawn to the peculiar manner in which the player holds his bow, shown in the present illustration. It must be remembered that the holding of the bow by our violinists and violoncello-players is comparatively modern; at any rate, the viola-da-gamba players about two centuries ago still grasped the bow somewhat in the oriental fashion.
3The rebab-esh-sha'er hardly requires a further description, since the illustration here given sufficiently indicates its construction. The body of the rebab-esh-sha'er consists of a wooden frame, over which a parchment is stretched, both on the back and front, and which terminates in an iron foot on which it rests. It is usually mounted with only one string, consisting of a number of black horsehairs; but it is usually constructed with two tuning-peggs, to enable the player to add a second string at his option. The rebab-esh-sha'er is principally used to accompany the recitations of the "sha'er," or poet, in the Egyptian coffee-houses: hence its name, which signifies "the poet's viol." The rebab-el-mughanee—i.e., "the singer's viol"—before adverted to is a two-stringed instrument almost identical with the rebab-esh-sha'er, and is used by poor perambulating singers to accom-
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