[Illustration: Fig. 194.--King David playing on a _Rote_. From a Painted Window of the Thirteenth Century. (Chapel of the Virgin, Cathedral of Troyes.)] In the earliest _rotes_ (Fig. 194), those made in the thirteenth century, there is an evident intention of combining the two modes of playing on the strings--rubbing with a bow and touching with the fingers. The box, which was not hollowed out and rounded at the two ends, was much deeper at the lower end, where the strings commenced, than higher up, near the pegs, where these strings are sounded open under the action of the finger, which reaches them through an aperture; the bow acting on them near the string-bridge in front of the sounding-holes. It must have been difficult to touch with the bow one string alone, but it should be remarked that the harmonic ideal of this instrument consisted in forming accords by consonances of thirds, fifths, and eighths. The _rote_ was soon developed into a new instrument, assuming the form that our violoncellos have almost exactly retained. The box was increased in size, the handle was lengthened beyond the body of the instrument, the number of strings was reduced to three or four, stretched over a bridge, and the sounding-holes were made in the shape of a crescent. From this time the _rote_ acquired a special character it had not lost even in the sixteenth century, when it became the bass-viol. This was its true destination. The size of the instrument dictated the manner in which it was held, either on the knees or on the ground between the legs (Fig. 195). [Illustration: Fig. 195.--German Musicians playing on the Violin and Bass-Viol. Drawn and Engraved by J. Amman.] The _vielle_ or _viole_, which had no affinity except in shape with the _vielle_ (hurdy-gurdy) of the present day, was at first a small _rote_ held by the performer against his chin or his breast, in much the same way as the violin is now used (Fig. 196). The box, which was at first conical and convex, became gradually oval in shape, and the handle remained short and wide. It was, perhaps, this handle which terminated in a kind of ornamental scroll in the shape of a violet (_viola_), that originated the name of the instrument. The _viole_, just as the _rote_, formed the accompaniment _obligato_ of certain songs; and among the jugglers who played upon it good performers were rare (Figs. 197, 198). Improvements in the _vielle_ came for the most part from Italy, where the co-operation of a number of skilful lute-players was the means of gradually forming the violin. Even before the famous Dnifloprugar, born in the Italian Tyrol, had hit upon the model of his admirable violins, the handle of the _vielle_ had been lengthened, [Illustration: Fig. 196.--Oval _Vielle_ with Three Strings, of the Thirteenth Century. (Sculpture on the Cathedral of Amiens.)]