The Silver Trumpets are said to have been made by Moses of beaten silver (Nu 10°); they were blown by priests; and they belonged to the sacred vessels. The nature and meaning of the signals is indicated in Nu 10°",
3. Percussion Instruments.—(a) The toph (A) or tabret is first mentioned in Gn 31%. The LXX and other Greek versions render this word by τύμπανον ; in Arab. we have dif, in Spanish aduffa. This instrument was a small hand-drum. The duf of the Arabs is made of a circle of light wood, over the edge of which is stretched a piece of goat-skin. The wood is pierced with five openings, in which thin metal dises are set, in order to give greater effect tothe drum-beat. The duf is about 10 in. in diameter, and 2in. indepth. It is usually played by women to accompany their dances and pro- cessions at weddings and public festivals.
The hand-drum is frequently represented both in Egyptian and Assyrian monuments, Some-
ASSYRIAN HAND-DRUM.
times we have an approach to the modern use of the drum. In some cases it is attached to the layer by a belt fastened round his waist, while 5 hands act as drumsticks. One form of this instrument is slightly bulged, like a little barrel. Perhaps the rudeness of the drawing alone accounts for its somewhat square appearance.
The modern Egyptian ¢ab/s are of two kinds. The one is like our common military drum, but not so deep; it is hung obliquely. The other is a kind of kettledrum, of tin-copper, with a parch- ment face ; it is generally about 16 in. in diameter, and not more than 4 in depth in the centre, and is beaten with two slender sticks.
(6) Cymbals are mentioned in the OT under two names, méziltaim (o:n?s>) and zelzélim (τ 2.) ; the latter only occurs in 2S 6° and Ps 150. In Zee 14” the RV translates 07 ni$yo by ‘the bells of the horses,’ but there is no absolute necessity for departing here from the commoner rendering. The Egyptians at the present day decorate the breast- leather and head-stalls of their horses with coins and other ornaments, and a metal dise would be better suited for inscriptions than a bell. The word used elsewhere for a bell is joys. In 1 Ch 15% we are told that cymbals were made of brass. — | Two varieties of cymbals have been found in
Egypt and Assyria: the one similar to a modern soup-plate, but ΠΑΥΤΌΡ 8. somewhat ΠΣ rim ; the other conical in form, with a handle at the peak. The flat cymbals have a hole through which a thong or cord was p , and were played by clashing the instruments together side- ways: of the second kind, the one was brought down on the top of the other. In Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as among the Hebrews, the cymbals were used by the conductor to mark the time.
It has been supposed that the μον *bsbx of Ps 150° (AV ‘loud cymbals’) were castanets, or metal discs fixed to two fingers of one hand ; but this is by no means certain, though such castanets are still used.
(c) The méndan'im (o'y3y3>) are mentioned in 2S 6°, where the RV renders ‘castanets,’ and in marg. sistra, The latter suits the root-meaning,
EGYPTIAN SISTRUM,
and is supported by the Vulg., where we have stra. ‘The sistrum consisted of two thin metal
p tes, bent together at the top, and fitted with a
andle at the bottom. The plates were pierced with holes, through which rods were passed having rings at their ends, This instrument was used in Egypt to call attention to the various acta of public worship, or to scare away malign influence.
(4) The word shdlishim (οὐ Ὁ) occurs, evidently as an instrument of some sort, in1S 18%. It can hardly mean a trigon (but see Wellhausen, ‘Psalms’ in PB 230, and references in Driver, Joel and Amos, 236n.); but what it does mean we do not know. Wehave no evidence of the existence of the triangle (to which it has been referred) in Assyria
or Egypt.
Lrrerators.—Pteiffer, Uber dis Musik der alten Hebrier; Baalschitz, Form der heb. Poesie, etc. ; Leyrer, art. ‘Musik’ in PRE; Riehm's H WB dea bibl. Alterthums ; Ambros, Geach. der Musik ; Fetis, Hist. dela Musi ; Naumann, Rowbotham, and Chappell’s Histories of Music; Wilkinson, Anc. Egyp. (ii. 222 ff.); Wetzstein in Del., Commentary on Isaiah; Stainer, The Music
the Bible; Edersheim, The Temple, etc.; Wellhausen, The salma, with App. on the Music of the Ancient Hebrews (in
e* Polychrome ible D5 Benzinger, Heb. Archdologie, 271 ff. ; Nowack, Heb. Arch, 1. 270ff.; Koberle, Die Tem er im AT; Bichler, ‘Zur Geach. d. Tempelmusik und der Tempel psalmen’ in ZA7'W, 1899-1900. But especially, J. Weiss, Di musikalischen Instrumente in den heiligen riften des Alten Testaments, 1895, JAMES MILLAR.
MUSTARD (σίναπι, sinapis).—The conditions to be fulfilled by the mustard are that it should be a familiar plant, with a very small seed (Mt 17%, Lk 17°), sown in the earth, ἐς. annual, growing larger than garden herbs (λάχανον, olus, Mt 13"),
having ἴτε branches (Mk 4%), or, in the more exaggerated language of Luke (13), becoming a ‘great tree,’ attractive to passing birds. The wild mustards of the Holy Land, Sinapis arvensis, L., the field mustard or charlock, and S. alba, L., the white mustard, are familiar weeds, growing in every part of the country. They would have been called σίναπι in the time of Christ, as they are now called khardal=sinapis. The cultivated mustard is Sinapis nigra, L. The seed is well known for its minuteness. The plant grows to a size larger than the garden herbs, with which it is compared. The mustards are annuals, repro- duced with extraordinary rapidity wherever the seed finds a lodgment, a particular which seems to be implied in the parable. In fat soil they often attain a height of 10 or 12 ft., and have branches which attract the passing birds. Many plants which attain a far less size than these are called shajar=‘tree’ by the Arabs. One of the many examples of this is in the plants of the Borraginaceous genus Arnebia, which are only a few inches to a foot in height, but are known as shajaret el-arneb=‘the rabbit tree.’ It would not seem at all strange to any native to speak of a mustard plant as shajaret el-khardal=‘ mustard tree.’ Finally, they are favourites of the birds, which alight upon them to devour their seeds. The Greek word κατεσκήνωσεν does not refer to nesting, but to a temporary rest. We may, then, justly conclude that the traditional and obvious interpretation meets all the reasonable demands of the passage.