It had the form of a sieve,1 and is frequently to be met with on ancient monuments. In particular, we find it at the feasts of Bacchus and in the hands of both male and female Bacchantes, for whose diversions it was very well adapted. In this latter use, Suidas2 describes it as an instrument made out of wood and drawn over with leather; and Montfaucon3 gives the same idea of it. There is even now, no instrument more common in the East, than this. We find it among most nations, even the wildest. I will mention only the Negroes of the Gold Coast and the Slave Coast. As used among the Arabians, we find a description of it in Niebuhr: "It is," says he, " a broad hoop, covered on one side, with a stretched skin. In the rim, there are usually thin round pullies or wheels of metal which also make some noise, when this drum held on high with one hand on the lower side, is struck with the fingers of the other hand. No musical instrument is perhaps so much employed in Turkey as this. When the females in their harems, dance, or sing, the time is always beat upon this instrument. It is called döff."6 No one will, I think, fail here to recognize the adufe, the ancient. This, therefore, as given in figure 16th, is the instrument that belongs to the representations of the Hebrew playing-women, and not the kettle-drum, (Paucke,) which is generally hung about them; although I will not attempt to deny that this was known to the more ancient Hebrews. At least, we do not fail to recognize it in the East. The following instrument, fig. 17, either single or double, is sometimes common in still greater numbers in those regions. When they are not too large, they are hung obliquely around over the body. Niebuhr found them in Persia, and remarks that without them the Orientals never dance or sing. They are of wood or copper. On one side they were perfectly round, on the other, flat, and

1 Isidore, Orig. L. II. c. 21. "Tympanum est pellis vel corium ligno ex una parte extensum, est enim pars media in similitudinem cribri."

3 Τύμπανον, ἐκ δερμάτων, ἐστὶ γινόμενον καὶ κρονον (κρουόμενον Κ.) ὃ κατεῖχον αἱ Βάκχαι.

3 Ant. Expl. T. III. p. 346. Suppl. Tom. III. p. 197.

4 Allgem. Hist. der Reis. Th. IV. p. 158.

5 The same work, p. 322.

Reisebeschr. Th. I. p. 181.

7. Reisebeschr. Th. II. pp. 84, 173.

they resemble the precious stones, (Edelsteinen) which Pliny on this very account, calls tympania. Such a kind of kettledrum must that have been, of which the Gemara makes mention, which is said to have stood between the outer court and the altar in the temple, to have had 10 holes, and in each of these holes a pipe, which likewise had 10 holes, so that the sound would admit of a hundred variations. The occasions on which it was struck, were the calling together of the priests to prayer, of the Levites to singing, and the conducting away of leprous persons, to their purification. It was called 2 Other Rabbins, indeed, know not what form this instrument had; but they recognize it as respects the name. Kircher even goes on

to make out of it, a complete piece of organ-work; in the existence of which, however, we may justifiably doubt, until we are taught better by some testimony brought from the more ancient times, of Josephus, Philo, or others like them. The larger drums and kettle-drums of this kind are called tabbel among the Arabians of the present day; and the translator in Walton's Polyglot, has variously connected this name with the döff or adúfe. There was formerly, according to Suidas, a тÚμлανоν of wood, over which was drawn an ox-skin, also common among the East Indians. They made a powerful noise with it; and to increase this noise, they filled the cavity of it, with brass bells. Among the more ancient Persians, however, this instrument was called oάuua,-a word, in which we recognize the Hebrew name; for although Reland' is inclined here literally to find the sambuca, which he considers as our mashrokitha; yet Th. Siegfr. Bayer has shown, that the oάuua is the same thing as the du

1 Hist. Nat. L. IX. c. 34 [54. It is not to precious stones, however, but rather to a kind of pearls, that the term tympania, is applied, margaritae. TR.]

2 [It could be heard, when it was beat, as the Rabbins tell us, from Jerusalem clear to Jericho. See the word in Buxtorf's Lex. Rab.TR.]

3 Niebuhr, Reisebeschr. Th. I. p. 180.

4 Τύμπανον . . . εἶχον δὲ καὶ τύμπανα, φρικώδη τινὰ βόμβον ἐξ ἑαυ τῶν ἀνιέντα. ἦν δὲ ἡ κατασκευὴ τοιάδε. φιτρὸν ἐλάτης κοιλάναντες, ἐνήρμοζον εἰς αὐτὸν κώδωνας ὀρειχάλκου. τὸ γὰρ στόμα τοῦ ἄγγους ταυρείῳ δέρματι περικυτώσαντες, μετέωρον ἔφερον ἐς τὰς μάχας τοῦτο τὸ τύμπα vov. p. 516. T. III. [The East Indians are now very fond of drums.] 5 De Vet. L. Ind. Diss. VI. p. 228.

Indi Boreales par tympanorum appellant dumame seu dmam~

mame; and Hesychius, not being able otherwise to express the oriental dsal, was obliged to substitute a sigma for it. These were formerly instruments of war among the Persians.2 Plutarch3 has given us a description of them [and their effects as thus employed;] and they were brought to Spain by the Arabs.* Apollodorus attributes their invention to Salmoneus, who aimed in what he did, to imitate the thunder of Jupiter.

These words, and

in the singular, according to

Gesenius,] designate another kind of instruments, which were

played on, only with the hand. They are for the most part translated by bells (Schellen.) The last two appellations are more common than the first. They may hold about the same relation to each other, as does to bin, of which, I have treated above. The first appellation, 2 Sam. 6:5 excepted, occurs nowhere but in the 150th Psalm; and there it occurs twice, in the parallelism of the Hebrew poetry, so common in other places. The word, indeed, [so far as form is concerned] is also found in Isaiah ; but here it cannot designate an instrument; and I assent without hesitation, to the below quoted and the well sifted, translation of Doederlein, who here derives the word from 7.8 The radical word, as still common in the Arabic, means to tingle, ring, sound; and the idea of bells agrees as well with this radical word, as that of the otherwise so called castanets. When, however, I reflect that the metsilloth as well as the tseltselim, were warlike instruments, which is Hesych. Zuuua, etc. Primam litteram, quam nostrum aliquis accurate pronunciare non potest, mirum mihi non est, quod ita protulerit Hesychius. Vid. Hist. Regni Gr. Bactr. p. 3.

1 Σάμμα. ὄργανον μουσικὸν, παρὰ Ινδοῖς. 2 Arrian, De bello civil. L. V.

4 Scaliger, in Copam.

3 In Crasso.

5 Bibl. L. I.

6 [That is, as I suppose the author means, most exegets are inclined to adopt this meaning of these words. They are certainly not for the most part rendered by bells, in the English, or the German, nor even in the vulgate, but almost uniformly by cymbals. TR.]

7 Isa. 18: 1. Heus, regio stagnosa oris.

8 I do this so much the more readily, because I find that Aquila derives the related word nib, Zech. 14:20, from the same root, and with Theodotion translates it by fúdov.

evident from the 150th Psalm, where the word

2

is predicated of them, I cannot see what one would do there with bells, either great ones or small, (Glocken oder Schellen.) It is true that here there makes his appearance, a man, to whom, notwithstanding his early death, oriental literature is under uncommonly great obligations,-the late Faber,-who advocates the side of those who trauslate the metsilloth, by bells. He does it, however, for the sake of Zechariah 14: 20; and contests the explanation of Lowth and Harmer who follows him, who render it by horse-harness or trappings. He translates the word by, bells on the horses, and with them, compares the phalerati equi of the Romans. His reasons are, that the object of thought here cannot be the harness or trappings of a horse, but must be something metalic, on which stand the words hp, as they stood on the plate of Aaron's mitre; that moreover, the camels wear bells, the sound of which, their drivers accompany with singing; and finally, that bells are used as a real ornament; as is evident from the fact, that Aaron had them on the border of his garment; and even the royal princes were afterwards obliged to wear them, to express which bells, the Talmudists make use of the very same word. I candidly admit, that by these reasons I have not yet been convinced. Besides, they must all be taken together if they are to prove. I wonder, however, that Faber's mind did not recur to the ornaments which the Romans formerly had on their horses.3 The phalerae were not mere tinkling bells; they were also bosses or knobs on the horse-harness, which, if the figures of the Thesauri do not deceive us, were often very large, particularly upon the breast in front. On such bosses, which, in form, were very much like castanets, there may have stood the words, P

1 Beobachtungen ueber den Orient, Th. I. p. 437.

2 [Harmer's Observ. Vol. II. Observ. 32. p. 275, Lond. 1808. Lowth, from the Chaldee, supposes the word to mean the warlike trappings of horses. TR.]

3 For to the balls, which, at the ruins of Persepolis, are seen in sculpture, hanging down by chains from the horses, Faber's mind could not perhaps yet revert; as the second part of Niebuhr came out but a short time before. I almost believe that these balls, (unless perhaps, judging from the drawings which Niebuhr has given, they are rather to be understood as plates,) are the nib. See Niebuhr, Th. II. p. 157. Plate 33.

4 See Montfaucon, T. IV. p. 81 seq.

, long before they were inscribed on the little horse-bells, even if we should be obliged to admit the truth of this last position. None of the ancient translators, who are nevertheless as a body more ancient than the Talmudists, favor this explanation; and the bells on Aaron's garment have in the Hebrew, an entirely different name, in. This name is translated in the Greek, by xodov; in the Syriac and Chaldee, by

; in the Arabic, by dschuldschul; all which, as Golius has suggested, are literally, the little bells of the horses and the camels. The word niby, however, is never so translated. A horse-harness, particularly one on which silver had been lavished, appears to me, far more worthy of attention than mere little bells. The rest of Faber's explanation, this notwithstanding, remains correct; and my suggestion is indeed merely the correction of a trifle. From these remarks, the reader can see what kind of instruments I regard those here brought together. The meaning of their radical word, to tinkle, to sound, renders it necessary they should have been of metal. It is true that we find little bells of metal; but they in Hebrew have another It only remains for us, then, to choose between two instruments of antiquity,-between the crembala and the systra. The latter is known as properly an Egyptian3 instrument. It was of a round oval form, and on being moved hither and thither, gave forth its sound, by means of metalic bars. It was sacred to Isis; and to it, Isaiah is thought to allude. Isaiah, however, says something which is altogether inappropriate to the subject now in question. If, on the other hand, we resort to the passage in the 14th chapter of Zech. for our purpose, we 2 Chald..

name.

1 Ex. 28: 33. 39: 25, 26.

3 [Egypt has been called the country of systrums, and is often personified by ancient artists as a seated female, holding a sistrum in ber hand, etc.; while Greece has been said to be governed by the lyre. The former instrument will be farther defined below. Bruce found it very common in Abyssinia. It is there used in the quick measure or in allegros, in singing psalms of thanksgiving. It is shaken back and forth with great violence. The Abyssinians have a tradition that the systrum, lyre, and tambourine or kabaro, a kind of small drum, were brought to them from Egypt by Mercury or Thoth, in the very first ages of the world; but that the flute, kettle-drum, and trumpet were brought to them from Palestine with Menelek, a son of their queen Sheba by Solomon, and their first Jewish king. Burney, I. p. 217. Bruce's Travels, Vol. II. p. 278. ed. Edinb. 1805. 4 Isa. 18: 1.

TR.]