When figured on the coins of Henry
VIII., the artist seems to have taken the Italian harp of twenty-four
strings for his model; but in the national arms sketched on the map of
Ireland in the State Papers, executed in the year 1567, the form is more
correct. That the Irish possessed this musical instrument in
pre-Christian times, cannot be doubted. The ornamental cover of an Irish
MS., which Mr. Ferguson considers to date prior to A.D. 1064, contains
five examples of the harp of that period. This, and the sculptured harp
at Nieg, in Rosshire, are believed to be the earliest delineations of
the perfect harp. Dr. Bunting gives a sketch of a harp and harper, taken
from one of the compartments of a sculptured cross at Ullard, county
Kilkenny. This is a remarkable example. The cross is supposed to be
older than that of Monasterboice, which was erected A.D. 830, and this
is believed to be the first specimen of a harp without a fore pillar
that has been discovered out of Egypt. If the Irish harp be really a
variety of the cithara, derived through an Egyptian channel, it would
form another important link in the chain of evidence, which leads us
back to colonization from Egypt through Scythia. Captain Wilford
observes,[266] that there may be a clue to the Celtic word bard in the
Hindoo _bardatri_; but the Irish appellation appears to be of
comparatively modern use. It is, however, a noticeable fact, that the
farther we extend our inquiries, the more forcibly we are directed to
the East as the cradle of our music. Several recent travellers have
mentioned the remarkable similarity between Celtic airs and those which
they heard in different parts of Asia.[267] Sir W. Ouseley observed, at
the close of the last century, that many Hindoo melodies possessed the
plaintive simplicity of the Scotch and Irish.

A German scholar has written a work, to prove that the pentatonic scale
was brought over by the Celts from Asia, and that it was preserved
longer in Scotland than elsewhere, on account of the isolated position
of that country.[268] The Phoenicians are supposed to have invented the
_kinnor, trigonon_, and several other of the most remarkable instruments
of antiquity. Their skill as harpists, and their love of music, are
indicated by the prophetic denunciation in Ezechiel, where the ceasing
of songs and the sound of the harp are threatened as a calamity they
were likely specially to feel.

We give at least one evidence that the Irish