Andent Cymbals.— From HercnlanenuL
former probably consisted of four small plates of brass 1 ments, which are used at marriages and some odxr o^ 1 or of some other hard metal ; two plates were attached casions, accompany the cymbals, but th^e bft ^ to each hand of the performer, and were smitten to- ' more peculiarly appropriated to the service of ^ gether to produce a loud noise. The latter consisted , sheilcs, and the external ceremonies of vt&pm. « of two larger plates, one held in each hand, and struck among the ancient £g}'ptians ; and a femsk, vi^ together as an accompaniment to other instruments. ! cofin contained a pair of cymbals, was deecnbed is
the hieroglyphics of tbe «»• rior as the minstrel of td^Sr The cylindrical maces, er cU?- pers, wore also admitted m^ the instruments used on t^^ occasions, and they freqceci; formed part of the v^^ band, or reguUted the dasff They varied slightly in i^ and some were of wwd fi of shells ; others of bn», <? some sonorous metal haviK^ straight handle, smrnow^: by a head or other onuice^'*^ device. Sometimes tiie lu^ die was sli^tly curved, «5'. double, with two hesds at t^ upper extremity ; but ifl ^ Andent Egyptian CymbaLi (5i inches in diameter) From the British Moseom. coses the performer held os^^
CYPRESS
623
CYPRESS
sh hand ; and the sound depended on their size, and » material of which they were made. When of K>d they corresponded to the crotaia of the Greeks, mppoeed invention of the Sicilians, and reported to vo been used for lightening away the fabulous birds Stymphalus ; and the paintings of the Etruscans ow that they were adopted by them, as by the £g}'p- ins, in the dance (Wilkinson, Anc, Egypt, i, 99 sq.). mong the Greeks and Bomans cymbals of a similar scription -were anciently used in the worship of Cy- ile, Bacchus, Juno, and other earlier deities. They ere probably derived firom the East. At Rome they "e first mentioned in Livy*s account (xzxix,9) of the acchlc or^es introduced from Etmria (Smith, Did. '* Class, Antiq,y s. v. Cymbalnm). See Mendelssohn's reface to Boole qfPaalnu; Kimchi; Lewis, Origmet rebreB(B (Lond. 1724, 176-7); Forkel, Gesch. der Musik; ahn, ArchtBologgf Am. ed., cap. v, § 96, 2; Munk, Pal- itme, p. 456 ; Esendier, Diet, of Music, i, 112. Ldunpe as an excellent dissertation, De CynibaUs veterum (Tn^. d Rh. 1703 ; also in Ugolini Thes, xxxii). Mono- raphs on the subject have also been written in Latin y Ellis iFortuita Sacra, Rotterd. 1727, p. 267-878), la^us (Amst. 1664), Zom iCpuac, i, 111-16^). See IxjsicAij Instbuhexts.
Cypress (Mjnn, tinah^, from its hardnesi; Sept. iypio/3dXavog, but most copies omit; Vulg. ilex) is nentloned only in Isa. xliv, 14: **He (i. e. the car- >enter, ver. 18) heweth him down cedars, and taketh ;he cypress, * * for the purpose of making an idol. There is no doubt that the wood must have been of a texture St to be worked, as well as to retain the shape given to it. Though translated ** cypress," we have no proof that this tree was intended, but it is well suited for the purpose indicated. See Fir. The Greek translators, Aquila and Theodotion, have employed a word which denotes the wild or forest oak (aypiofSd- \avoQ), The oldest Latin version renders the Heb. word by ilex, "the evergreen oak" (RosenmuUer, p. 817). As the wood of this species is well fitted for being worked into images, and was so employed by the ancients, it is possible that it may be that intend- ed, though we have no satbfactory proof of its being so. Celsius (IBerob. ii, 269, 70) defends the rendering of the Vulg. in Isa. xliv, 14, but the etymology of the word from t^rt, to be hard (as in Latin we get robur, an oak), equally well suits the cypress, and there is great probability that the tree mentioned by Isaiah with the cedar and the oak is identical with the "cy- press" (Kvirapifftro^) of the Apocrypha. In Ecclus. xxiv, 13, it is described as growing upon the mount- ama of Hermon ; and it has been observed by Kitto (P^t. Hist, of Palest, p. ccxxiv) that if this be under- stood of the great Hermon, it is illustrated by Po-
The Cypress iCnprutus Sempervirens).
oocke, who tells ns that it is the only tree which grows towards the summit of Lebanon. In Ecclus. 1, 10, the high-priest is compared to a " cypress towering to the cloud," on account of his tall and noble figure. It is usually supposed that the words translated ** fir," "gopher-wood," and " thyine-wood," in our version of the Bible indicate varieties of the juniper or c^'press. (See each in its alphabetical order.)
Cypress, the kv-koqixjcoq of the Greeks and the suroo of the Arabs, called also by them shv^jrut-aJhyat, or tree of life, is the Cupressus sempervirens, or the evergreen cypress of botanists. This tree is well known as being tapering in form, in consequence of its branches growing upright and close to the stem, and also that in its genend appearance it resembles the Lombardy poplar, so that the one is often mistaken for the other when seen in Oriental drawings. In southern latitudes it usually grows to a height of fifty or sixty feet. Its branches are closely covered with