and which appear in our other (classical) specimens. Of these the next engraving exhibits the most usual forms found in ancient paintings and sculptures, and the one that follows shows the manner in which they were played.

The principle of a tambourine, that of a prepared skin stretched on a hoop or frame, is well known. The only differ ence to be sought is in the compass and depth of the circle, the nature of the additions, the ornaments, and the manner of playing. All the specimens in the above cut, and many other varieties, are still in use in the East, where they doubtless originated. In fig. a, we see, attached to the frame, strings terminating in weights which, by the twirling of the tambourine, strike on the skin, and produce or assist the sound required. This one is probably covered on both sides, and is now known to us only as an Oriental instrument. One of the kind is given by Dr. Burney, in his History of Music; but he does not appear to have understood it, perhaps from being unacquainted with the similar Oriental tambourine. Fig. b is of a mixed character: it not only has these rappers, but what appear to be bells. It was probably struck by the haud, and the rappers only intended to vary the effect. This specimen, and the others, have the covering painted or stained in ornamental figures, as mentioned by ancient writers. Fig. c has the frame surrounded with bells, and is of the same kind as those in the hands of the opposite playing figures. This sort is very common in ancient remains. Fig. d is a large tambourine, without additions, as are many of those used in the East. Our common tambourine, with small cymbals inserted in the frame, also appears in some paintings, and is now very common in Western Asia, as appears in the cut below. We are told that the frame was either of metal or wood, and that the ass's skin was usually employed for the covering. They were not always played by the naked hand; but some were sometimes struck with small batons, or with a knotty whip with many thongs, instead of which, on particular festivals, a sprig of some tree or plant, considered suitable to the occasion, was sometimes employed.

We have not been able to discover that such instruments of this class as our cylindrical or kettle-drums appear on ancient monuments. But as they originated in the East, and were there known in ancient times, we shall perhaps take another opportunity of considering whether such forms were probably known to the Hebrews. Meanwhile, the vignette at the bottom of the page will serve to show the forms which instruments of this class now usually bear in Egypt and Western Asia.

Verse 5. "Upon their beds."-That is, upon the divans or couches (too frequently called "beds" in our version), on which they were wont to recline or sit, when at ease.

PSALM CL.

1 An exhortation to praise God, 3 with all kind of instruments.

'PRAISE ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.

2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.

3 Praise him with the sound of the 'trum

pet praise him with the psaltery and harp.

4 Praise him with the timbrel and 'dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.

5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals : praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.

6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

1 Heb. Hallelujah. 2 Or, cornet. 3 Or, pipe.

PSALM CL.-This appears to be a sequel to the preceding psalm, and forms a most appropriate conclusion to the whole book. The tradition of the Jews concerning this psalm, however, is that when the people of any place brought up their first-fruits to Jerusalem, as soon as they came to the mountain of the Temple, every one took his basket into his hand and sung this psalm, till they came to the court of the Lord's house, where the Levites met them singing the 30th Psalm.

Verse 4. "Organs."-In the note to Gen. iv. 21, we have stated the common opinion, which we see no reason to dispute, that the Hebrew yougab, mentioned as existing before the Deluge, was the still common instrument called a "mouth organ," or the syrinx of the ancients. The classical ancients ascribed the invention of it to Pan, the great sylvan god; and accordingly he was usually figured with the instrument in his hands. The fable states that he formed it of reeds that grew by the river, and caused it to produce all kinds of agreeable sounds, while his goats were skipping around him, and feeding on the banks. This shows that it was regarded as properly a sylvan and pastoral instrument; and so it seems to be mentioned by Job (ch. xxi. 11, 12). Another story shows that a very good opinion of this instrument was entertained by, at least, the alleged inventor. He even thought it superior to the lyre of Apollo, whom he challenged to the trial; and, the challenge being accepted, the umpire (being no other than Midas) decided in favour of Pan's pipe. It is indeed remarkable that the lyre (kinnor) and syrinx (ougab), were the two first instruments of music, the invention of which is recorded in Scripture, and the only ones that are mentioned before the Deluge; and that subsequently the ougub is almost always mentioned in connection with the kinnor. The principle of the instrument is so simple that it has been one of the most diffused of musical instruments. "A syrinx or fistula Panis, made of reeds tied together, exactly resembling that of the ancients, has been found to be in common use in the island of New Amsterdam, in the South Seas, as flutes and drums have been in Otaheite and New Zealand; which indisputably proves them to be instruments natural to every people in a state of barbarism. They were first used by the Egyptians and

Greeks, during the infancy of the musical art among them; and they seem to have been invented and practised at all times by nations remote from each other, and between whom it is hardly possible that there even could have been the least intercourse or communication." (Burney, vol. i. p. 267.) The combination of pipes in question is still used in different parts of Asia. The number of tubes which these instruments exhibit on ancient monuments varies from seven to eleven. Our cut exhibits the most usual forms. There is also another in which the tubes are square; and, in the larger and deeper sorts, the tubes are sometimes confined by three bands. Independently of the general opinion which considers the name ougab to refer to instruments of this class, it will be observed that from the general diffusion of the syrinx, it is scarcely possible that it could have been unknown to the Hebrews.

is

5. "The loud cymbals...the high-sounding cymbals.”—The original word, here and elsewhere translated by "cymbals," by tzeltzelim, which both the Septuagint and Vulgate render by cymbala. This singular name is undoubtedly intended to make an approach to the sound which the instruments afforded, as happens in several of our own names for musical instruments; and this sound we shall find in the instruments of the cymbal or sistrum kind. The present text speaks of two kinds of tzeltzelim, namely "the voice-tzeltzelim" (rendered "loud cymbals," though the contrary is probably meant), and the "high sounding tzeltzelim ;" and it therefore appears that there was more than one instrument of the class, and we may infer that tzeltzelim was a general name for all metallic instruments of agitation, including probably the cymbal and sistrum kinds. Some indeed think the sistrum to be exclusively meant by this word; and that cymbals, properly speaking, are denoted by the word by shalishim, in 1 Sam. xviii. 6, which is equally with the other rendered cymbala by the Septuagint and the Vulgate, and which our version translates, "instruments of music." We are not anxious to enquire minutely into those distinctions; but being satisfied with the admission involved in either alternative, that both cymbals and sistrums were in use among the Jews-and which, on any probable grounds, there is not the least reason to question-we take the opportunity of laying the more common ancient forms of both sorts of instruments before our readers.

The ancient cymbals were of sonorous brass or copper, and exhibit greater diversity of form than our own instruments of the same name. Most of these variations may be estimated from our miscellaneous engraving. The differences are in size, in the depth or shallowness of the bowl, in the presence or absence of the border or rim, and in the form and character of the handle by which the player held the instrument. All this is better seen by our engraving than from description. The variety most markedly different from our own is that, shown in our engraving (a), in which the cymbals not only want the brim, but their convexities terminate in erect points which furnished the player his required hold. Most of them have a deeper concavity than our own instruments of the same class.

VOL. II.

4 Q

665

Cymbals were much employed in the sacred mysteries and religious processions of the ancient pagans; so that those people who were the most noted for their mysteries were also the most celebrated for their skill with the cymbals They particularly figured in the services of Cybele and

Bacchus; and the aversion with which men of sense and reflection, among the Romans, regarded the disgraceful orgies of the Bacchanalia, seems to have extended in some degree to the instruments which were associated with them. Thus Cicero reproaches Piso for using the cymbals. Livy says that the reason why these and the tambourines were employed in the more ancient mysteries of paganism was, that their loud noise might drown the cries and complaints of those who were slain, or on whom other violence was committed.

Another set of instruments of the same class, and which were probably included under the name of tzeltzelim, or some one other of the undetermined names of the Hebrew, were the castagnets, or crotala, snapped with the fingers to mark the time in choral dances. The sound they gave is compared by some ancient writers to that which a stork makes by the concussion of its mandiblesa comparison which also, not unaptly, illustrates the mode in which they were used. Some of them were like our own, and others of the form which appears in the annexed engraving. We suspect that the small instruments in the left hands of the two standing figures in the engraving, at the end of this note, from a curious Egyptian painting, are intended for the same purpose, although of a different form from any that we have elsewhere seen.

We now come to the sistrum; the general form and character of which instrument will be best understood from the fig. b, of the annexed engraving. It is composed of a frame of sonorous metal, crossed by bars of the same. These bars move freely in the holes through which they are passed; and when the instrument is agitated, the reverted ends, striking upon the frame, produce the sound. It is sometimes crowned with the figure of a cat, as a symbol of Isis, by whom it was said to have been invented, and in whose worship it was abundantly employed. They are often, however, seen, very simple and even rude in form, and without any ornament, as in fig. 4, and also in those represented in the final engraving, where the performers appear to be delivering to the seated personage their sistrums in exchange for the other instruments which they have in their left hands. The engraving is copied from Rosellini, and would prove, if any proof were wanting, the great antiquity of the instrument among the Egyptians. But this, although questioned by Winckelmann, has long since been demonstrated by the evidence of most ancient Egyptian monuments. When employed at sacrifices, the agitation of the sistrum is said to have been understood to denote, mystically, the motion of the universe. It appears to have been sometimes used in war to give signals: and the Greeks also employed it to mark the rhythm in noted music, the sound given as the bars struck right and left, serving to mark the cadence.

It is remarkable that the Abyssinians, who confess that they derived the instrument from Egypt, employ it conspicuously in their religious services. Bruce says, "It is used in the quick measure, or in allegros of singing psalms or thanksgivings. Each priest has a sistrum which he shakes in a very threatening manner at his neighbour, leaping and turning round with such an indecent violence, that he resembles rather a priest of paganism, whence this instrument was derived, than a Christian."

We have now only to add, that some writers think that the Hebrews had a knowledge of an instrument of this class, consisting of a round, oval, or triangular metallic rod, which afforded its sound by being struck with another straight rod, like our "triangle." The last named instrument is indeed of Oriental origin, and some of the same kind (triangular) are supposed, both by Calmet and Gesenius, to be denoted by the Hebrew word shalishim, mentioned above. In some instruments of this class a jingling was produced by the insertion of moveable rings-as shown in one of the figures (e) of the central group of instruments (consisting of this, a pipe, and a pair of cymbals) given in the engraving at the head of the preceding page.

THE

PROVERBS.

2 Or, advisement. 3 Or, an eloquent speech. 4 Job 28. 28. Psal. 111. 10.
7 Isa 59.7. Rom. 3. 15. 8 Heb. in the eyes of every thing that hath a wing.
Jer. 7. 13. Ezek. 8. 18.
Job 27. 9. Isa 1.