Most prominent among other forms of string instruments was the _magadis_, a larger harp-like instrument with twenty strings, which was played without plectrum, and, if we read ancient writers correctly, in octaves.[42] Likewise the _barbiton_ (similar to the _kithara_), the harp-like _pectis_, _simikion_, and _epigoneion_, and the lute-like _pandura_ and _nabla_ (of archaic origin), were played without plectrum, as indeed the lyre and kithara were also played in earliest times. The harp, though known to the Greeks, was not used by them. There only remains to mention the monochord, an instrument of one string stretched over a soundbox, which could be arbitrarily divided by a movable 'bridge.’ It was used purely for experimental purposes, as we have already seen. Later it was constructed with several strings in order to demonstrate the consonance of intervals; in modern times it became the basis from which the clavichord, and finally the piano, was evolved. The chief Greek _wind_ instrument, as already indicated, was the _aulos_, or flute--not, however, a flute in the modern sense, but a reed instrument resembling an oboe, and having a double reed. It was often used in pairs, of equal intonation, but of different size, the larger instrument playing the soli, the smaller the accompaniment. The aulos had as many as fifteen or sixteen holes, but not sufficient to produce all the chromatic degrees of the scale, which, as well as the different _genera_, were produced by half stops and similar technical manipulations. There were also rings attached near the holes, by the turning of which the pitch could be altered. Overblowing was also practised, by means of a small hole (syrinx) near the mouthpiece. There was a whole family of _auloi_ corresponding to the varying ranges of the human voice. The entire compass from the lowest note of the bass aulos to the highest of the soprano was three octaves. It is recorded that _auloi_ were tuned differently according to the various modes, and that players were usually equipped with an entire set of seven. Other wind instruments used by the Greeks were the Libyan flute (played sideways), the _elymos_, and the _syrinx_--the familiar 'pipes of Pan’--consisting of a number of rush reeds of different lengths fastened together with wax. Trumpets, straight (_sapinx_) and crooked horn-like (_keras_), were also common as instruments of war and priestly ceremony. The former variety even attained the rank of a contest (agonistic) instrument. A female exponent of Sapinx playing is recorded in the person of Aglais, the daughter of Megalocles. * * * * *