Rebab; fiddle

Rebab, two-stringed fiddle, with bow. The waisted body and triangular neck are carved as a round-backed trough out of a solid piece of wood. Two small holes are cut into the sides at the point where the neck begins to taper. The pegbox is separate and is elongated into a sickle-shaped scroll, with elaborate carving in geometrical patterns. Two pegs with fat cylindrical ends are set laterally, one on each side. High bone nut. There is no separate fingerboard, but a wooden plate covers the hollow neck, carved with two roses in petal pattern and also with chipcarved roundels. A soundtable in the form of a parchment membrane is tacked over the lower body using brass nails. Flat bridge; one string may have functioned as a drone. No tailpiece, the strings are attached to an ivory dead-eye on the end of the instrument. The end of the scroll is broken, and the base of the pegbox is loose. The outcurved bow is a heavy stick of rectangular section. A truncated wedge of wood is attached by cords and can be used to tension the string. The hair is held flat by wool darned around the strands. The stick is decorated with carving coloured with composition, and also with scraps of woollen cloth under pieces of glass. The decoration is only found on the top and the side that would be held towards the player.