sixth century, mentions in a poem the “Chrotta Britanna.” He does not, however, allude to the bow, and there is no reason to suppose that it existed in England. Howbeit, the Welsh _crwth_ (Anglo-saxon, _crudh_; English, _crowd_) is only known as a species of fiddle closely resembling the _rotta_, but having a finger-board in the middle of the open frame and being strung with only a few strings; while the _rotta_ had sometimes above twenty strings. As it may interest the reader to examine the form of the modern _crwth_ we give a woodcut of it. Edward Jones, in his “Musical and poetical relicks of the Welsh bards,” records that the Welsh had before this kind of _crwth_ a three-stringed one called “Crwth Trithant,” which was, he says, “a sort of violin, or more properly a rebeck.” The three-stringed _crwth_ was chiefly used by the inferior class of bards; and was probably the Moorish fiddle which is still the favourite instrument of the itinerant bards of the Bretons in France, who call it _rébek_. The Bretons, it will be remembered, are close kinsmen of the Welsh. [Illustration] A player on the _crwth_ or _crowd_ (a crowder) from a bas-relief on the under part of the seats of the choir in Worcester cathedral (engraved p. 95) dates from the twelfth or thirteenth century; and we give (p. 96) a copy of an illumination from a manuscript in the Bibliothèque royale at Paris of the eleventh century. The player wears a crown on his head; and in the original some musicians placed at his side are performing on the psalterium and other instruments. These last are figured with uncovered heads; whence M. de Coussemaker concludes that the _crout_ was considered by the artist who drew the figures as the noblest instrument. It was probably identical with the _rotta_ of the same century on the continent. [Illustration] An interesting drawing of an Anglo-saxon fiddle--or _fithele_, as it was called--is given in a manuscript of the eleventh century in the British museum (Cotton, Tiberius, c. 6). The instrument is of a pear shape, with four strings, and the bridge is not indicated. A German fiddle of the ninth century, called _lyra_, copied by Gerbert from the manuscript of St. Blasius, has only one string. These are shown in the woodcuts (p. 97). Other records of the employment of the fiddle-bow in Germany in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are not wanting. For instance, in the famous ‘Nibelungenlied’ Volker is described as wielding the fiddle-bow not less dexterously than the sword. And in ‘Chronicon picturatum Brunswicense’ of the year 1203, the following miraculous sign is recorded as having occurred in the village of Ossemer: “On Wednesday in Whitsun-week, while the parson was fiddling to his peasants who were dancing, there came a flash of lightning and struck the parson’s arm which held the fiddle-bow, and killed twenty-four people on the spot.” [Illustration]