Books › The story of the violin, 1904 › scan 49
Scan 49
The story of the violin, 1904
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Story of the Violin
3should have made this Ravana a King of Ceylon.¹ Now, it is well known that the Hindoo nation came ages ago from the country lying between Persia and the Indus, south of the province of Bactria, and occupied for an indefinitely long time the region south of the Himalayas, which to this day is called the Punjab. When grown in size too large to be accommodated there, they spread farther east and south to the Ganges and beyond, pressing on and conquering the aboriginal tribes which opposed their onward march.
5From these facts it would appear that this King Ravana was not of Hindoo origin at all, but belonged to some aboriginal people, the history and even memory of which is buried in antediluvian mystery. Perhaps he was of Sumerian or Accadian descent, hailing from that supposed first cradle of the human race, the fertile valley of the Euphrates; or from the Asiatic high plains which lie north-east of it.² Or why not go still a step farther with the hand of fancy, and see in him (Ravana) the very Jubal of the Bible, the father of musicians, the inventor of string and wind instruments, whom tradition in the course of ages has transformed—name and all—first into a mythical personage, a demi-god, and then into a king?³
7¹ So many ancient myths and traditions point to an insular origin o. heroes, gods, lawgivers, etc.
8² The Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea surely served at an early period as a medium of immigration.
9³ It is well known how many Eastern myths attribute the origin of music and musical instruments to superhuman agencies. The stories of
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