200,000 trumpeters, we simply do not believe it. Then too
there is lack of unanimity in the matter of the essential
facts. One authority, describing the _machol_, says it is
a stringed instrument resembling a modern viola; another
describes it as a wind instrument somewhat like a bagpipe;
still another says it is a metal ring with a bell attachment
like an Egyptian sistrum; and finally an equally respected
authority claims that the _machol_ was not an instrument at
all, but a dance. Similarly the _maanim_ has been described
as a trumpet, a kind of rattle box with metal clappers, and
we even have a full account in which it figures as a violin.

The temple songs which we know have evidently been much
changed by surrounding influences, just as in modern synagogues
the architecture has not held fast to ancient Hebrew models
but has been greatly influenced by different countries and
peoples. David may be considered the founder of Hebrew music,
and his reign has been well called an "idyllic episode in the
otherwise rather grim history of Israel."

Of the instruments named in the Scriptures, that called the
harp in our English translation was probably the _kinnor_,
a kind of lyre played by means of a plectrum, which was a
small piece of metal, wood, or bone. The psaltery or _nebel_
(which was of course derived from the Egyptian _nabla_, just
as the _kinnor_ probably was in some mysterious manner derived
from the Chinese _kin_) was a kind of dulcimer or zither, an
oblong box with strings which were struck by small hammers. The
timbrel corresponds to our modern tambourine. The _schofar_
and _keren_ were horns. The former was the well-known ram's horn