From a rude instrument of this kind the true Greek lyre was in course of time evolved. I trace the intermediate stages still by the banks of the Nile. They call it in Nubia the _Kisirka_, and by other kindred names in the heart of Africa. That the bar slants is particularly a feature to be noticed, and that the tops of the uprights or horns pass through this bar. The construction of the sounding body is arranged in a square form as of a stretching framework of reeds or rods, and is covered by a skin usually. In fact the frame suggests to me the coracle or fishing punt, seen in the sculptured slabs from Assyria and Babylonia. The idea of the instrument may be originally based upon a shallow coracle, the supporting seat in the interior affording fixture for the uprights, in the same way as we have seen in boats. (_Fig. 47_). One of these slabs contains representations of three players upon harps having the same slant bar for the strings, the particular utility of which is in its enabling players to tune the strings by pushing them higher up, or pressing them a little lower in position, thus changing the tension as they desired for the pitch of any string, a method which we find was retained in Egypt during long periods. The slab from which this illustration is taken is one recovered from the palace of Ashur-nasir-pal at Nimroud. The slabs possessed by the British Museum date some of them as far back as 875 B.C., so that they are not nearly so old as the Egyptian pictures, although the character is apparently more archaic. Nevertheless the Babylonian Antiquities range back to dates almost as ancient, that is to 4500 B.C. So that there is justification for the belief that these harps were in use in that region in a very remote period, the relics whereof have perished; soil, and climate, and custom, have been favourable to the preservation of relics telling of the musical instruments of past life in Egypt from earliest times, advantages which Babylonia had not. [Illustration: _Fig. 53._] At the hands of the Egyptian the instrument soon took a refined ornamental form (_Fig. 54_), whilst still retaining its particular slant bar, and the horizontal method of holding, and the plectrum to sound it by. This is generally considered to be “_the magadis_,” but I do not see it so. I see only a square sounding box, with ornamental lines, but no pressure bar additional. More will be found upon “_magadizing_” further on. [Illustration: _Fig. 54._] [Illustration: _Fig. 55._]