Anthropology; an introduction to the study of man and civilization . v compact of wood and horn, gives the stretchedstring a twang that makes it sing like a swallow in a softtone beautifully. One might well guess that the strung bowof the warrior would naturally become a musical instrument,but what is more, it really is so used. The Damara in SouthAfrica finds pleasure in the faint tones heard by striking thetight bowstring with a little stick. The Zulu despises thebow as a cowardly weapon, but he still uses it for music;jiis music-bow, shown in Fig. 75 a, has a ring slid along thestring to al
Anthropology; an introduction to the study of man and civilization . v compact of wood and horn, gives the stretchedstring a twang that makes it sing like a swallow in a softtone beautifully. One might well guess that the strung bowof the warrior would naturally become a musical instrument,but what is more, it really is so used. The Damara in SouthAfrica finds pleasure in the faint tones heard by striking thetight bowstring with a little stick. The Zulu despises thebow as a cowardly weapon, but he still uses it for music;jiis music-bow, shown in Fig. 75 a, has a ring slid along thestring to alter the note, and is also provided with a hollow XII.] ARTS OF PLEASURE. 295 gourd acting as a resonator or sounding-box to strengthenthe feeble twang. Next, looking at h in the figure, it is seenhow the ancient Egyptian harp may have been developedfrom such a rude music-bow, the wooden back being nowmade hollow so as to be bow and resonator in one, whileacross it are strung several strings of different ancient harps, Assyrian, Persian, even old Irish,. Fig. 75.—rDevelopment of the Harp, a, music-bow with gourd resonator (SouthAfrica); b, ancient harp (Egypt) ; c, mediaeval harp with front-pillar (Enj^land). were made on this plan, yet we can see at a glancethat it was defective, the bending of the wooden backputting the strings out of tune. It was not till modernages that the improvement was made of completing theharp with the front-pillar, as seen in r, which makes thewhole frame rigid and firm. Looking at the three figures, it 296 ANTHROPOLOGY, [chap, is seen how the course of invention was by gradual growth;the harp with the pillar could not have been first invented,for no men could have been so stupid as to go on makingharps and leave out the front-pillar when once the idea of ithad come into their minds. The harp, though now mademore perfect than of old, is losing its ancient pjlace in music ;but the reason of this is easy to see, it has been supplantedby mo
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