Arne wrote: >At 11:48 10-09-2005 +0200, Bernd Haegemann wrote: > > > >Anyway, the first (tortoise) lute was stringed with the totoise's > >intestines :) > >Dear Bernd, > >do you know the source of this entertaining legend?
Dear Arne, This legend originates with the ancient Greeks. It's the tale of one of their gods, Apollo or Orpheus, who found a dead tortoise and strung it with the strings that were once the ligaments that made up its nervous system and thence the kithara was invented. This of course is not at all like the od Mongolian tale of the singing horse and the invention of the morin khuur (the horse headed fiddle). Regards, Craig To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
