“It was in fifty pieces, but the fragments could be so put together as to leave no doubt of its figure and action. The wood is of cedar, and in size similar to that held in the hand of Apollo. Having laid in the earth about three thousand years, it was surprising that the woodwork was not all decayed, for the metallic parts were completely dissolved. This lyre evidently had eight strings, from the number of little rollers which had turned upon the cross bar. On each roller there was a small projecting peg, upon which the string was looped; and then by turning the roller it was raised in pitch, and the mode of fixing it was by slipping the end of the roller, which was notched, upon a fastened piece of wood of corresponding shape.” This clearly was a clutch method, and a fairly good mechanical invention, and possibly some details are wanting, if fine tuning according to our notions was required; and we are led to suppose that the Greeks were very exacting about pitch. Yet for all the ancient writers tell of subtle divisions of tones, I have my doubts of the practical exercise of discrimination of pitch to the imagined degree of sensitiveness of ear, generally assumed to be a natural gift of the people of Greece; the instruments were not fitted with sufficient mechanical exactness to produce and retain such fine distinctions. Another advance in lyre-making consisted in the adaptation of a projecting box affixed to the front of the larger body of the lyre; this was an Egyptian invention, for which, see _ante_ Fig. 56. The strings were attached to this little box, and it is probable that within it there were means for tightening and relaxing the tension of each. This was also a useful device for bringing the strings forward from the face of the instrument. Let us hope that some forgotten tomb still holds a perfect lyre in its keeping. Greek writers make mention of lyres of many strings, with strange sounding names, but examples are rare of such, indeed they are more Asian than Greek. Pompeii and Herculanæum have preserved for us pictures of some, but the period is late.