African Lyre (Valga)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 5 Mar 1895
name: label: Donor Name
content: Capt. John H. Camp
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "See Engel, p. 307, valga. See 76,250 & 95,224. Mahillon, vol. 1, p.193, No. 154, vol. 2, p.178, No. 871 vol. 3, p.357, & 359, Nos. 1827 & 1930." "The body is carved from a block of wood in the form of a decked bow of a round nosed canoe. The rear end is left open and the deck, belly is slightly arched with a rounded projecting leg at its lower end which serves as a tail piece to fasten the lower end of the strings. On the bottom of the body a flat place is cut away from about half its length, leaving a ledge about 3 1/2 in. wide and half an inch deep. Five holes are made in the face of this ledge and five slender round sticks have their lower end pointed and driven in these holes. About 7 in. from the ledge these sticks form as many separate nicks and are bent up and above the belly. Each stick has its string, a grass root or something similar. Its lower end fastened to the belly, its upper end wound around one of the sticks They are tuned by sliding them up or down the necks."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 28 Dec 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 028914
label: USNM Number
content: E95806-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Lyre
physicalDescription: label: Length
content: 57.1 cm
label: Height
content: 30 cm
label: Length - Body
content: 22.542 cm
label: Width - Body
content: 15 cm
label: Height - Body
content: 6.99 cm