was likewise an excellent
performer--especially on the _Nakkarah!_

[Illustration: Nakkaras. (From a Chinese original.)]

The privilege of employing the Nakkara in personal state was one granted
by the sovereign as a high honour and reward.

The crusades naturalised the word in some form or other in most European
languages, but in our own apparently with a transfer of meaning. For
Wright defines _Naker_ as "a cornet or horn of brass." And Chaucer's use
seems to countenance this:--

"Pipes, Trompes, Nakeres, and Clariounes,
That in the Bataille blowen blody sounes."
--_The Knight's Tale_.

On the other hand, Nacchera, in Italian, seems always to have retained the
meaning of _kettle-drum_, with the slight exception of a local application
at Siena to a metal circle or triangle struck with a rod. The fact seems
to be that there is a double origin, for the Arabic dictionaries not only
have _Nakkarah_, but _Nakir_ and _Nakur_, "cornu, tuba." The orchestra of
Bibars Bundukdari, we are told, consisted of 40 pairs of kettle-drums, 4
drums, 4 hautbois, and 20 trumpets (_Nakir_). (_Sir B. Frere; Della
Valle_, II. 21; _Tod's Rajasthan_, I. 328; _Joinville_, p. 83; _N. et E._
XIV. 129, and following note; Blochmann's _Ain-i-Akbari_, pp. 50-51;
_Ducange_, by Haenschel, s.v.; _Makrizi_, I. 173.)

[Dozy (_Supp. aux Dict. Arabes_) has [Arabic] [_naqqare_] "petit tambour
ou timbale, bassin de cuivre ou de terre recouvert d'une peau tendue," and
"grosses timbales en cuivre portees sur un chameau ou un mulet."--Devic
(_Dict. Etym._) writes: "Bas Latin, _nacara_; bas grec, [Greek: anachara].
Ce n'est point comme on l'a dit, l'Arabe [Arabic] _naqir_ ou [Arabic]
_naqoer_, qui signifient _trompette_, _clairon_, mais le persan [Arabic] en
arabe, [Arabic] _naqara_, _timbale_." It is to be found also in Abyssinia
and south of Gondokoro; it is mentioned in the _Sedjarat Malayu_.

In French, it gives _nacaire_ and _gnacare_ from the Italian _gnacare_.
"Quatre jouent de la guitare, quatre des castagnettes, quatre des
gnacares." (MOLIERE, _Pastorale Comique_.)--H. C.]

[Illustration: Nakkaras. (From an Indian original.)]

NOTE 4.--This description of a fight will recur again and again till we
are very tired of it. It is difficult to say whether the style is borrowed
from the historians of the East or the romancers of the West. Compare the
two following parallels. First from an Oriental history:--

"The Ear of Heaven was deafened