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ef in Maori tradition. {133} See Essay on this Hymn. {136} In our illustration both the lyre with a tortoise shell for sounding-board, and the cithara, with no such sounding-board, are represented. Is it possible that "the tuneful shell" was primarily used _without_ chords, as an instrument for drumming upon? The drum, variously made, is the primitive musical instrument, and it is doubted whether any stringed instrument existed among native American races. But drawings in ancient Aztec MSS. (as Mr. Morse has recently observed) show the musician using a kind of drum made of a tortoise-shell, and some students have (probably with too much fancy) recognised a figure with a tortoise-shell fitted with chords, in Aztec MSS. It is possible enough that the early Greeks used the shell as a sort of drum, before some inventor (Hermes, in the Hymn) added chords and developed a stringed instrument. _Cf_. p. 39. {138} Such sandals are used to hide their tracks by Avengers of Blood among the tribes of Central Australia. {140} This piece of wood is that in which the other is twirled to make fire by friction. {141a} Otherwise written and interpreted, "as even now the skins are there," that is, are exhibited as relics. {141b} "Der Zweite Halbvers is mir absolut unverstandlich!"--_Gemoll_. {144} This is not likely to be the sense, but sense the text gives none. Allen, _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xvii. II. {153} "As if one walked with trees instead of feet."--_Allen_. {156} The passage which follows (409-414) is too corrupt to admit of any but conjectural rendering. Probably Apollo twisted bands, which fell off Hermes, turned to growing willows, and made a bower over the kine. See Mr. Allen, _op. cit_. {162a} This passage is a playing field of conjecture; some taking [Greek text] = Mediator, or Go-between: some as = pactum, "covenant." {162b} There seems to be a reference to the _caduceus_ of Hermes, which some have compared to the forked Divining Rod. The whole is corrupt and obscure. To myself it seems that, when he gave the lyre (463-495), Hermes was hinting at his wish to receive in exchange the gift of prophecy. If so, these passages are all disjointed, and 521, with what follows, should come after 495, where Hermes makes the gift of the lyre. {164} It appears from Philochorus that the prophetic lots were called _thriae_. They are then personified, as the prophetic Sisters, the Thria
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