The lyre may be pronounced foreign, since it is unlike any other specimen; but its ornamentation with an animal head is sufficient to show that it is not Jewish.

And the Jewish _kinnor_ was rather a harp than a lyre, and had certainly more than four strings.
Still, the employment of captives as musicians is interesting, though we cannot say that the captives are Jews.

It shows us that the Assyrians, like the later Babylonians, were in the habit of "requiring" music from their prisoners, who, when transported into a "strange land," had to entertain their masters with their native melodies.
Another band of three exhibits to us a harper, a player on the lyre, and a player on the double pipe.

A third shows a harper, a player on the lyre, and a musician whose instrument is uncertain.

In this latter case it is quite possible that there may originally have been more musicians than three, for the sculpture is imperfect, terminating in the middle of a figure.
Bands of four performers are about as common as bands of three.