Nineveh and Babylon - a narrative of a second expedition to Assyria during the years 1849, 1850, and 1851 (1882) (14767008652)

Identifier: ninevehbabylonna00laya (find matches)
Title: Nineveh and Babylon : a narrative of a second expedition to Assyria during the years 1849, 1850, & 1851
Year: 1882 (1880s)
Authors: Layard, Austen Henry, Sir, 1817-1894
Subjects: Nineveh (Extinct city) Babylon (Extinct city) Middle East -- Description and travel
Publisher: London : J. Murray
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



Text Appearing Before Image:
, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, are men- X.) MUSICIANS AND SINGERS. ^S3 those represented in the bas-reUefs. First came five men ;three carried harps of many strings, which tliey struck withboth hands, dancing at thesame time to the measure;a fourth played on thedouble-pipes, such as areseen on the monuments ofEgypt,* and were used bythe Greeks and Romans,The fifth carried an instru-ment not unlike the modernsantour of the East, consist-ing of a number of stringsstretched over a soundingboard. The strings, pressedwith the fingers of the lefthand to produce the notes,were struck with a smallwand or hammer held inthe right. The men werefollowed by six female mu-sicians, four playing onharps, one on the double-pipes, and the sixth on akind of drum beaten withboth hands, resembling thetabbul still used by Easterndancing girls. The musicians were ac-companied by women andboys and girls, singing andclapping their hands to themeasure. The women wore various head-dresses. Some
Text Appearing After Image:
tioned; hut it is scarcely possible to determine what the instrumentsreally were : they probably resembled those represented in the bas-rehefsdescribed in the text. The instrument of ten strings mentioned inPsalm xxxiii. 2, xlii. 3, and cxliv. 9, may have been the harp of thesculptures, and the psaltery the smaller stringed instrument.* Wilkinsons Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii. p. 232—234, &c. 254 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. (Chap. had their hair in long ringlets, some platted or braided, andothers confined in a net.* One held her hands to her throat,as the Arab and Persian women still do when they makethose shrill and vibrating sounds peculiar to the vocal musicof the East The whole scene, indeed, was curiously illus-trative of modern Eastern customs. Behind the two Assyrian generals were cavalry, chariots,led horses, and armed warriors. > 7 1^^^^