Fig. 53.

that region in a very remote period, the relics whereof have perished; soil, and climate, and custom, have been favourable to the preservation of relics telling of the musical instruments of past life in Egypt from earliest times, advantages which Babylonia had not.

At the hands of the Egyptian the instrument soon took a refined ornamental form (Fig. [54]), whilst still retaining its particular slant bar, and the horizontal method of holding, and the plectrum to sound it by. This is generally considered to be “the magadis,” but I do not see it so. I see only a square sounding box, with ornamental lines, but no pressure bar additional. More will be found upon “magadizing” further on.

Fig. 54. Fig. 55.

The next transition undergone proves to be one of great importance and significance in history, the old method is discarded, and an upright position adopted (Fig. [55]), the fingers of both hands being brought into use as in the larger lyres of the boat type. Thus the two styles are brought into accordance also, the performers benefitting by the change. Likewise we should notice that the number of the strings has increased to eleven or twelve, and there is a constant tendency in this direction, so that lyres become hand harps, light and portable, yet having many strings.

The
Berlin
Lyre.
Fig. 56.

In the Marbles from the North West Frieze of the Parthenon at the British Museum, harps of this kind are represented, and are seen carried in the same way as in Fig. 55; though the remains are fragmentary the lyres are still clearly standing out in relief, and close beside them the flutes, and though but little of the carving of these remains, yet looked at from beneath, the under cut plainly shews that the flutes are double flutes as I mentioned earlier (page 75).

This pattern was further improved, artists exercised their skill in new designs, decorative, and constructive, the greater fulness of the sounding body of the instrument augmenting the sounds in like degree.

Fortunately two complete specimens are existing, one in the Berlin, the other in the Leyden collection, is perfectly preserved with exception of the strings. Here places for 13 strings are shewn. The body of the instrument is of thin wood and is ten inches high, the total height being two feet. The air holes are at the bottom of the lyre.