Fig. 4.—Bronze Sistra. Ancient Egyptian.
XXIInd-XXVIth dynasty (B.C. 1000-600).
British Museum.
The Sistrum consisted of a frame of bronze into which three or four metal bars were loosely inserted, so as to produce a jingling noise when the instrument was shaken. ([Fig. 4].) The bars were often made in the form of snakes, or they terminated in the head of a goose. Not unfrequently a few metal rings were strung on the bars, to increase the noise. The frame was sometimes ornamented with the figure of a cat. The largest sistra which have been found are about eighteen inches in length, and the smallest about nine inches. The sistrum was principally used by females in religious performances. Its Egyptian name was seshesh.
The Egyptian cymbals closely resembled our own in shape. There are several pairs of them in the British museum. One pair was found in a coffin enclosing the mummy of a sacred musician, and is deposited in the same case with the mummy and coffin. Among the Egyptian antiquities in the British museum are also several small bells of bronze ([Fig. 5]). The largest is 2¼ inches in height, and the smallest three-quarters of an inch. Some of them have a hole at the side near the top wherein the clapper was fastened.
Fig. 5.—Series of Bells. Ancient Egyptian. Late Period.
The smaller examples were sewn on wearing apparel.
British Museum.
III.
ASSYRIAN AND HEBREW.
The Assyrians.