The decree which forbade the Hebrews the making of graven images, salutary as it may have been as a theological safeguard, must always prove a source of regret to the archæologist and historian. Because of it we cannot now visually reconstruct the life of the chosen people in Biblical times with the same satisfactory vividness as we can that of the Assyrians and Egyptians. We are thus deprived of what has been our chief source of information in considering the state of musical culture among the other civilized nations of the ancient East. A few illustrations of what may have been Hebrew musical instruments have, it is true, come down to us; but they are very doubtful and far from enlightening. There is an Egyptian painting of the time of Osirtasen II (about 1800 B. C.), discovered in a tomb at Beni-Hassan, which shows three men--obviously captives--playing on lyres. The hieroglyphics refer to these men as 'strangers,’ and it is the opinion of Sir Gardner Wilkinson that they were Jews. We also possess some coins of the time of Simon Maccabæus (second century B. C.), on some of which are pictured lyres of different shapes and sizes, while on others are shown a couple of small figures which may represent trumpets or drums. Possibly the musical instruments carved on the Arch of Titus were exact copies of Hebrew originals, but, for all we know to the contrary, the sculptor of the arch may never even have seen a Hebrew instrument. Apart from these scanty and problematical remains, pictorial evidence of the musical culture of the ancient Hebrews is, as far as we know, non-existent.