f the word Lyre as used by them, the tendency of his
remarks apparently being to establish a connection between the German
Fiddle named a Lyre in the manuscript and the Rebec. The
representation we have of the instrument certainly conveys the idea of
its having been a progenitor of the Rebec of the French, the Ribeca of
the Italians, and the Fithele and the Geige of the Germans. The
mention of an instrument of the kind in a German manuscript,
discovered in an ancient German monastery, together with the record
being dated by Gerbertus as not far removed from the sixth century,
lends much weight to the opinion of Roger North with regard to the
part played by the Teutonic race in the early history of bowed
instruments.

[Footnote 14: The ancient name of corded instruments of the Lute,
Mandoline, and Guitar kinds. Tradition has it that the Nile, having
overflowed Egypt, left on shore a dead _Cheli_ (tortoise), the flesh
of which being dried in the sun, nothing was left within the shell but
nerves and cartilages, and these being braced and contracted were
rendered sonorous. Mercury, in walking, struck his foot against the
shell of the tortoise, and was delighted with the sound produced,
which gave him the idea of a Lyre that he later constructed in the
form of a tortoise, and strung with the dried sinews of dead animals.
This account of the origin of Lutes, Fiddles, and catgut is classic
and picturesque. Tradition and myth have played parts of much
consequence in the work of civilisation: they have, however, at length
fallen upon a critical and remarkably sceptical age, and rapidly fade
and die under the inquisitorial torture of modern inquiry--a result at
least to be expected from the contact of their own dreamy and delicate
nature with unromantic matter. It is perhaps safer to refer the origin
of the name Cheli or tortoise, as applied to corded instruments, to
the fact of their having sound chambers, constructed with
tortoise-shell, as was the case with the Greek Lyre, or to the
circumstance of the bodies of the instruments being shaped like the
tortoise. The Germans used the word Chelys to designate their Viols;
and Christopher Simpson, in his famous treatise on the "Viol da
Gamba," names it Chelys. The application of the word Chelys to bowed
instruments is suggestive of their remote connection with the ancient
Lyre.]

[Illustration: _Plate I_. ANTONIO STRADIVARI VIOLA. 1672.]

It is now necessary to refer to the well