The laurel shade of the thick leafy grove,
Striking the clear three-corner'd pectis, and
Raising responsive airs upon the magadis,
While flutes in Persian manner neatly join'd
Accompany the chorus.
And Phillis the Delian, in the second book of his treatise on Music, also asserts that the pectis is different from the magadis. And his words are these—"There are the phœnices, the pectides, the magadides, the sambucæ, the iambycæ, the triangles, the clepsiambi, the scindapsi, the nine-string." For, he says that "the lyre to which they sang iambics, they called the iambyca, and the instrument to which they sang them in such a manner as to vary the metre a little, they called the clepsiambus,[1] while the magadis was an instrument uttering a diapason sound, and equally in tune for every portion of the singers. And besides these there were instruments of other kinds also; for there was the barbitos, or barmus, and many others, some with strings, and some with sounding-boards."
39. There were also some instruments besides those which were blown into, and those which were used with different strings, which gave forth only sounds of a simple nature, such as the castanets ([Greek: krembala]), which are mentioned by Dicæarchus, in his essay on the Manners and Customs of Greece, where he says, that formerly certain instruments were in very frequent use, in order to accompany women while dancing and singing; and when any one touched these instruments with their fingers they uttered a shrill sound. And he says that this is plainly shown in the hymn to Diana, which begins thus—
Diana, now my mind will have me utter
A pleasing song in honour of your deity,
While this my comrade strikes with nimble hand
The well-gilt brazen-sounding castanets.
And Hermippus, in his play called The Gods, gives the word for rattling the castanets, [Greek: krembalizein], saying—
And beating down the limpets from the rocks,
They make a noise like castanets ([Greek: krembalizousi]).
But Didymus says, that some people, instead of the lyre, are in the habit of striking oyster-shells and cockle-shells against, to steal,—to injure privily.]
- ↑ From [Greek: kleptô
