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Story of the Flute
were not connected). (Figs. 5 and 8.) This is called the Subulo, or Greco-Etruscan flute, and no specimen is extant. The bulbs may have been merely for ornament, but Herman Smith suggests that they were detachable pieces, which could be arranged by the player, and that they contained a concealed reed, which could be transferred from one bulb to another in order to alter the pitch. The Hebrews also had a double flute, the "Mashrokitha," and we find double flutes depicted on Indian monuments, such as the Sanchi Tope Gate, c. 100 A.D.
The flute was employed by the ancient Greeks and Romans in almost every scene of life, public or private; Popularityof the
Flute
amongst
the
Ancientsabove all at the festivals of Artemis and Dionysius. The sacrificial auletes at Athens played a solemn air on the flute close to the ear of the priest during the sacrifice, in order to keep off inattention or distraction. (Fig. 6.) Flutes accompanied the chariot race in the Olympic games; the Etrurians boxed to the sound of flutes; Roman orators were wont to station flute-players behind them, so that when they raised their voices to too high a pitch the flute might sound a lower note (Caius Gracchus employed a slave named Liscinius for this purpose). They were played at death-beds (a custom found also among the Jews), hence the saying Jam licet ad tibicenes mittas: "Now you may send for the flute-players," when one was about to die. Tibicenes were also employed on vessels to cheer the
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