This cane-harp yields sounds bright and delicate and clear, it is held tambourine fashion over the head, and played by the finger nails of the right hand gliding at will over the strings, producing a succession of sounds rhythmical and wild, incessantly varied: four or five sounds repeatedly renewed over the series of strings, and intermingled with these, little bells strung on cords at each side, rattle against them. Imagine the native scene, groups of young girls decked with flowers, their brown skins flashing with the sunlight, dancing with the abandon of youthful vigour, in full exuberance of the joy of living, striking their uplifted harps in a wild frequency of orderly confusion, guided by instinct yet the while obeying the rules their mothers had taught them, dancing in heedless delight in the ways made imperative by tradition, rushing hither and thither, in and out, and around, weaving circle within circle, a dazzling maze of lithe bodies, of rapid feet, and laughing voices, eyes flashing as jewels, brown arms and hands swinging a cloud of harps over a restless sea of sound,—bring to the mind’s eye a scene like this, then you will understand how the multitudinous music of the ancient days, simple as were its means, satisfied by the wealth of sensuous excitement it created in young and old. The Kings of old had a pride in the number of their trained musicians, as in the number of their horsemen and war-chariots. Music added to the pomp of ceremonial days; it testified to greatness, the throne and the temple alike demanded its aid. In the intervals when wars had ceased, the court had to be provided with music for pastime, and the people to be gratified with spectacles and feastings. The priesthood seem to have been the managers of the shows and to have held control of the music to be played, they being the men of learning; yet so far as I am aware, no record remains to tell what that music was, no indication exists, no hint even that it ever was written down, or a method of notation devised for the guidance of the multitude of players. Surmises there have been that some unexplained markings occurring in Egyptian writings have reference to musical usages, but later authorities do not favour the guesses, which have led to nothing. The temple being the focus of the musical life the music would have been chiefly of the processional kind, and the wonder to us is how it was managed unless there had been an Art of Music in force in those days, remote though they were. How did King Solomon manage his four thousand musicians? [Illustration: THE CANE HARP FROM BORNEO, WITH TAMBURINE BELLS. _Fig. 59_ (described page 302-4.)]