had much the same character.
Ctesias said that Annarus (or Nannarus), a Babylonian noble, entertained
his guests at a banquet with music performed by a company of 150 women.
Of these a part sang, while the rest played upon instruments, some using
the pipe, others the harp, and a certain number the psaltery. These same
instruments are assigned to the Babylonians by the prophet Daniel, who,
however, adds to them three more--viz., the horn, the sambuca, and an
instrument called the sumphonia, or "symphony." It is uncertain whether
the horn intended was straight, like the Assyrian, or curved, like the
Roman cornu and lituus. The pipe was probably the double instrument,
played at the end, which was familiar to the Susianians and Assyrians.
The harp would seem to have resembled the later harp of the Assyrians;
but it had fewer strings, if we may judge from a representation upon
a cylinder. Like the Assyrian, it was carried under one arm, and was
played by both hands, one on either side of the strings. [PLATE XXV.,
Fig. 3.]

[Illustration: PLATE XXV.]

The character of the remaining instruments is more doubtful. The sambuca
seems to have been a large harp, which rested on the ground, like the
harps of the Egyptians. The psaltery was also a stringed instrument,
and, if its legitimate descendant is the modern santour, we may presume
that it is represented in the hands of a Susianian musician on the
monument which is our chief authority for the Oriental music of the
period. The symphonia is thought by some to be the bagpipe, which is
called sampogna by the modern Italians: by others it is regarded as a
sort of organ.

The Babylonians used music, not merely in their private entertainments,
but also in their religious ceremonies. Daniel's account of their
instruments occurs casually in his mention of Nebuchadnezzar's
dedication of a colossal idol of gold. The worshippers were to prostrate
themselves before the idol as soon as they heard the music commence,
and were probably to continue in the attitude of worship until the sound
ceased.

The seclusion of women seems scarcely to have been practised in
Babylonia with as much strictness as in most Oriental countries. The
two peculiar customs on which Herodotus descants at length--the public
auction of the marriageable virgins in all the towns of the empire, and
the religious prostitution authorized in the worship of Beltis--were
wholly incompatible with the restraints to whic