321.21 Bowl lyres (-5)

Kissar, bowl lyre with eight strings. The body of the instrument is a shallow wooden bowl enclosed by a snakeskin sound table that is laced with numerous thongs to an oblong piece of leather with hair displayed, covering the cente of the back. The playing strings are twisted cow sinews of varying thicknesses, wound around cloth tuning rings that encircle the crossbar of the wooden yoke. Five of the strings pass through one hole cut in the soundtable near the bottom of the resonator and are anchored to a nail. The other three of the strings pass through an adjacent hole and around another nail. A small circular sound hole is cut out of the left hand side of the soundtable. The ends of the yoke are trimmed with two swatches of cow tail hair.

Collection Information

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