THE HISTORY OF Musical Instruments

MUSIC histories written before the nineteenth century usually start with an account of the mythological invention of the earliest instruments. Cain’s descendant, Jubal, is said to be “ the father of all such as handle the harp and the organ,” Pan is credited with the invention of the pan-pipes, and Mercury is supposed to have devised the lyre when one day he found a driedout tortoise on the banks of the Nile.