In Assyria, if there was not so much variety as this, there were at any rate eight or nine quite different sorts, some stringed, some wind, some merely instruments of percussion.
In the early sculptures, indeed, only two or three musical instruments are represented.

One is a kind of harp, held between the left arm and the side, and played with one hand by means of a quill or _plectrum_.
[PLATE CXXVI., Fig.

3.] Another is a lyre, played by the hand; while a third is apparently cymbal.

But in the later times we see besides these instruments--a harp of a different make played with both hands, two or three kinds of lyre, the double pipe, the guitar or cithern, the tambourine, a nameless instrument, and more than one kind of drum.
The harp of the early ages was a triangular instrument, consisting of a horizontal board which seems to have been about three feet in length, an upright bar inserted into one end of the board, commonly surmounted by an imitation of the human hand, and a number of strings which crossed diagonally from the board to the bar, and, passing through the latter, hung down some way, terminating in tassels of no great size.

The strings were eight, nine, or ten in number, and (apparently) were made fast to the board, but could be tightened or relaxed by means of a row of pegs inserted into the upright bar, round which the strings were probably wound.