At 07:34 10-09-2005 -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >Arne wrote: >>At 11:48 10-09-2005 +0200, Bernd Haegemann wrote: >> > >> >Anyway, the first (tortoise) lute was stringed with the totoise's >> >intestines :) >> >>Dear Bernd, >> >>do you know the source of this entertaining legend? > >Dear Arne, > >This legend originates with the ancient Greeks. It's the tale of one of >their gods, Apollo or Orpheus, who found a dead tortoise and strung it with >the strings that were once the ligaments that made up its nervous system >and thence the kithara was invented. > >This of course is not at all like the od Mongolian tale of the singing >horse and the invention of the morin khuur (the horse headed fiddle). > >Regards, >Craig
Thanks, Craig. Benedictus de Drusina, writing in 1556, has it that it was the Ancient Egyptians, who found such self-strung tortoises on the eddied banks of the Nile. The truth is out there. Arne. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
