admiration for things Egyptian and a corresponding contempt for things Asiatic--the latter bred probably of the constant wars between Hellas and Persia that began with the conquest of the Lydian kingdom by Cyrus the Great. In default, therefore, of any more specific evidence the statements of Greek writers on the origins of Greek music are of little value; nor does the intrinsic evidence lead us to any more definite conclusion than the conjecture that Greek music was influenced somewhat by both Egyptian and Assyrian music, though to what extent and in what proportions it is impossible to determine. We are equally ignorant of the nature of the Egyptian musical system. A well-defined system they had, without doubt--they systematized everything. The evidence seems to point to the fact that they used a diatonic scale, and the representations of their musical performances would indicate that they were acquainted with harmonic effects. A concert of eight flutes, for instance, in unison, or even in octaves, without other instruments of any sort to vary the monotony, would hardly have appealed to a taste as cultivated as theirs must have been. Fétis is of the opinion that the Egyptians possessed a system of musical notation, and sees in the resemblance to demotic characters of the musical notation used by the modern Greek Church evidence of the fact that it belonged to ancient Egypt.[31] The presence of a system of musical notation is no proof of the coincidence of an harmonic system, but it is _prima facie_ evidence of a stage of artistic development which included a sense of something more than primitive and haphazard concords. Such a stage of development we may probably credit with safety to the ancient Egyptians, and, whatever their music may have been, we can surely conclude that it had acquired at least the elementary proportions of an art. W. D. D. FOOTNOTES: [20] Antiphonal is here used in the sense that one part of the chorus answered the other. [21] Carl Engel: 'Music of the Most Ancient Nations.’ [22] A sort of rattle. [23] Translated from a summary by Jules Combarieu In his _Histoire de la musique_, Vol. V, Chap. XIV. [24] Concerning the influence of the temple and synagogue on the liturgical music of the early Christian church, see Chapter V, p. 157 ff. [25] 'Laws,’ Book II. [26] 'The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient World.’ (1862-67.) [27] _Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Ethiopien._ [28] Chas. Burney: 'History of Music.’ [29] Book X, Chap. 3. [30] 'Records of the Past.’ [31] F. J. Fétis: _Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique_. CHAPTER IV THE MUSIC OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS