—To the end that old Æolus may play the harp to the best of his ability set it on the sill of an open window so that the wind strikes the strings at a slant. Pull the window down on the harp in order to make all of the wind pass between the cover and the strings.
When the wind blows softly beautiful tones will be emitted and when the wind blows hard discords will be produced but as the wind subsides exquisite harmonies will again prevail.
An Egyptian Fiddle.
—How to Make It.
—The early Egyptians invented the fiddle, or rebab as they called it, but they did not play it with a bow. Later in medieval times, that is in about the 9th century, this fiddle came to be called a rebec and it was then played with a bow. I’ll bet though that the fiddle I shall tell you how to make and play sounds better than any Egyptian rebab ever made—though it is not exactly a Stradivarius.[115]
[115] The priceless fiddles made by the famous old violin maker Antonio Stradivari of Cremona, Italy, in the early part of the 17th century.
To make a fiddle of this kind—it only has one string and only one is needed by a master violinist—make a sounding box of ¹⁄₈ or ³⁄₁₆ inch thick wood except the ends which should be of ³⁄₈ inch thick stuff; this box should be 4 inches high, 6 inches wide at one end, 8 inches wide at the other end and 12 inches long. Cut a hole 6 inches in diameter in the center of the board which you are going to use for the sounding board, and then glue all of the pieces together using wood clamps to hold them tight.
For the neck take a stick of wood 1¹⁄₂ inches wide, 2¹⁄₂ inches thick and 15 inches long; cut it down until one end is 1 inch thick and cut a piece out of this end ³⁄₄ inch wide and 1 inch deep; bore a conical hole through this end and fit in a peg. Next saw out the other end 2 inches deep for a length of 3 inches back and glue and screw this end of the neck to the narrow end of the box. The shape of the neck with the peg in it and the way it is fixed to the sounding box is clearly shown in the top view A and the side view B in [Fig. 115].
Cut out a bridge of a piece of hard wood ¹⁄₈ inch thick, 1 inch high and 1¹⁄₂ inches long as shown at [C]; and, finally, make a tail-piece of a bit of hard wood ¹⁄₈ inch thick ¹⁄₂ an inch wide at one end, 1 inch wide at the other end and 2 inches long. Drill a hole in each end and whittle or plane the large end to a sharp edge.
In the middle of the large end of the sounding box bore a ¹⁄₄ inch hole and glue in a hard wood peg for a hitch-pin. Fasten the tail-piece to the hitch-pin with a piece of catgut string. Slip the end of an A violin string through the hole in the sharp end of the tail-piece; knot it to keep it from pulling through, and bring the other end up and thread it through the hole in the peg in the neck. Finally put the bridge under the string and tighten it up. Tune it to the treble, or G clef, if you know enough about music to do it, or if not tune it so that it gives a pleasing tone.