material, the properties of which would
permit of the production of sustained sounds. Implements less
developed belong to a separate order of sound-producing contrivances,
namely plectra, and may be described as permitting strumming by
striking in place of twanging or twitching the strings. The imperfect
knowledge we have of instruments of the Fiddle kind in Europe,
belonging to a period many centuries later than that we are now
considering, points to their having been struck or strummed, and not
bowed with a view to the sounds being sustained.

The oldest known representation of a contrivance or instrument upon
which a string is stretched with a peg to adjust its tension, is
probably that described by Dr. Burney as having been seen by him at
Rome on an Egyptian obelisk. In a notice of Claudius Ptolemeus, an
Egyptian, who wrote upon harmonic sounds about the middle of the
second century, we have an illustration of an instrument of a similar
character to that found on the obelisk above noticed.[5] In all
probability neither of these contrivances was intended to be used as a
musical instrument further than for scientific purposes, as a means of
testing the tension of strings and the division of the scale: in
short, they were monochords and dichords.

[Footnote 5: Sir John Hawkins' History.]

In following the Eastern branch of our subject, it is necessary to
refer to the suggested Arabian origin of the Ribeca of the Italians
and the Rebec of the French--a little bowed instrument, shaped like
the half of a pear, and having therefore something of the character of
the mandoline. We have early mention of this particular view of Violin
history among the valuable and interesting manuscript notes of Sir
John Hawkins.[6] The author states that the Rebab was taken to Spain
by the Moors, "from whence it passed to Italy, and obtained the
appellation of Ribeca." He also refers to a work entitled "Shaw's
Travels," in which mention is made of the Rebeb or Rebab as an
instrument common in the East in the eighteenth century. It is,
however, upon turning to the dissertation on the invention and
improvement of stringed instruments by John Gunn, published in 1793,
that we first find a lucid account of Eastern influence in connection
with bowed instruments.[7] The author refers to the monochord as the
invention of the Arabians: he then says, "The early acquaintance which
it is probable the Egyptians had of the science and practice of music