Their chamber-music consists of a dulcimer[448], guittar[449], dervises flute[450], blown in a very particular manner; _Arab_ fiddle[451], a couple of small drums, and the diff[452], which serves chiefly to beat time to the voice, the worst of all their music; for they bellow so hideously, that it spoils what without it would be in some degree harmonious. This diff is a hoop, (sometimes with pieces of brass fixed in it to make a jingling) over which a piece of parchment is distended. It is beat with the fingers, and is the true tympanum of the ancients; as appears from its figure in several relievos, representing the orgies of _Bacchus_, and rites of _Cybele_. It is worth observing, that, according to _Juvenal_, the _Romans_ had this instrument first from hence[453]. They also have a kind of flute, like the ancient _syrinx_; but it is not much used among them, there being but few that can play upon it. Besides the above mentioned instruments, they have likewise a sort of bagpipe, which numbers of idle fellows play upon round the skirts of the town, making it a pretence to ask a present of such as pass. [Illustration: _facing page 95._ Pl. XIV _Miller Sc:_] Though they understand the different measures in music, and have names for them; yet they have no method of writing the notes. They learn entirely by the ear; yet it is observable, that when several persons play together they keep time very exactly. They have neither bass, nor other different parts in music, all playing the same. The print annexed represents a _Turkish_ concert, drawn from the life; in which care has been taken also to show, through a window, the inner court-yard of a house, with the little garden, fountain, _&c._ and through another is seen part of a mosque, with the minaret, from whence the _imaums_ call the people to prayers. The dress of the performers also show the different kinds wore by the ordinary people, according to their sect, _&c._ The first, who beats the diff, represents that of an ordinary _Turk_; the next a slovenly ordinary Christian; the middle figure is a Dervise; the fourth is a Christian of a middle rank, playing upon the _Arab_ fiddle. What is peculiar in his dress, is, that the sash of the turbant is strip’d with, blue, and his slippers red. The last is an ordinary fellow, beating the small drums with his fingers, as they often do, instead of drumsticks. His head-dress is such as is worn by many _Janizaries_, and commonly by the _Arabgarlees_, a race of _Armenians_, who attend upon the _Europeans_.