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Scan 19
The violin, how to make it, 1880
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 13. See the scan on archive.org.
1generally and childishly believed in, viz., to refresh the memory of the Jewish Jehovah with the Patriarch and people.
3Another strange "freak of Nature" is this: In Southern California there are certain places on the sea-shore where the sand, on being disturbed, produces a loud musical ring. This is known as the "Musical Sand." The Editor of Marco Polo's travels thus observes:—"The sound of musical instruments, chiefly of drums, is a phenomenon of another class, and is really produced in certain situations among sandhills when the sand is disturbed." From Remusat's "Histoire du Khotan" I quote the following:—"A very striking account of a phenomenon of this kind, regarded as supernatural, is given by Friar Odoric, whose experience I have traced to the Reg Ruwán, or flowing sand, north of Kabul. Besides this celebrated example, I have noted that equally well-known one of the Jibal Nakics, or 'Hill of the Bell,' in the Sinai desert; Gibal-ul-Thabúl, or 'Hill of the Drums.' A Chinese narrator of the tenth century mentions the phenomenon as known near Kwachau, on the eastern border of the Lop desert, under the name of 'Singing Sands.'"
5But not to digress further, by a comparison between the instruments now in use in India and those played upon by the ancient Europeans, it can be easily demonstrated that the Indo-Celtic races must have transported the original models Westward from the East. The different sizes of this type, Violin, Viola, Violoncello, and Double Bass, have supplanted the whole host of Viols, whilst, from an identity of form, along with perfect intonation, a similarity of quality has been attained which renders this class of instruments to approximate closer to the human voice than any other. This excellency in the Violin arises chiefly from its power, quality, and flexibility, due chiefly to its outline, material, and proportions, greater thickness, with smaller number and increased tension of the strings, as well as to the improved form and greater strength of the bow used with the instrument. Rude approximations to the Violin are to be found decorating monumental tablets and illuminated manuscripts throughout Britain and the Continent at an early date, but those illustrations chiefly represent the Rebec with one, two, and three strings, although some
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