ed by the Gigeours of Germany, to accompany their lays
with their Geigen and kindred instruments.

[Footnote 10: It need scarcely be said that the Eastern and Spanish
ancestor of Bach's Chaconne was terpsichorean, and was unconnected
with any kind of scientific musical treatment.]

The foregoing remarks point to the absence of reliable evidence of the
existence of a bow--worthy of the name from the point of view of a
Violinist--among the Asiatic nations in the early centuries of our
era. The Ravanastron of India, the Rebab of Arabia, and other stringed
instruments used by the Persians and the Chinese, hardly admit of
being looked upon as links in the genealogical Fiddle chain. Whatever
the shape and use of ancient Eastern instruments--having something in
common with the European Violin--may have been, the slight apparent
affinity is accidental, and no real relationship exists between the
European and the Asiatic Fiddle.[11]

[Footnote 11: Mr. Engel, "Researches into the Early History of the
Violin Family," page 104, remarks: "It is rarely that the name of an
Asiatic musical instrument can be traced to a European origin. There
are, however, one or two instances in which this seems to be possible.
Thus, the Chinese name Ye-Yia, by which they occasionally designate
their Fiddle, may possibly be a corruption of _giga_ or _geige_,
considering that the common name of the Chinese Fiddle is Unheen, and
that Macao, where this instrument is said to be called Ye-Yin, has
been above three hundred years in the possession of the Portuguese,
and in constant communication with European nations." This seems to
deprive the argument of the Eastern origin of the Fiddle of weight,
and favours the already strong evidence of Scandinavian origin centred
in the word Geige.]

2.

The survey of the early history of bowed instruments in the North of
Europe necessarily discovers a broader field of ostensible data than
is possible to be found in the Asiatic view of the subject. Tradition,
accompanied by its attendant uncertainties, gives place to facts
recorded in illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, on sculptured
stone, on engraved brasses, in the lay of the minstrel, in the song of
the poet, and, finally, in the works of the painter and of the
musician. The information obtainable from these several sources is
often of the slightest kind, and admits of little else than a rude
historical outline being drawn. The varied character of th