It had probably a sounding-board at bottom, like the lyre just described, though this, being carried under the left elbow, is concealed in the representations.

Hence there branched out two curved arms, more or less ornamented, which were of very unequal length; and these were joined together by a cross-bar, also curved, and projecting considerably beyond the end of the longer of the two arms.
Owing to the inequality of the arms, the cross-bar sloped at an angle to the base, and the strings, which passed from the one to the other, consequently differed in length.

The number of the strings in this lyre seems to have been either five or seven.

[PLATE CXXVIII., Figs.

2, 3.] [Illustration: PLATE 128] The Assyrian guitar is remarkable for the small size of the hollow body or sounding-board, and the great proportionate length of the neck or handle.