musical bow, musical instrument, gourd bow, bow, music instrument

"As a type for the Bangveolo people's music arches, I would like to describe the specimen depicted in fig. 174. It consists of two main parts, the bow, which spans the leading string, and the gourd, which is attached to the bow, and which has the task of amplifying the tone produced by strikes on the string. The gourd thus serves as the resonant bottom. The frame, which is made of some tough and resilient wood, has a length of 1.315 m. And in the middle a diameter of 1.5 cm. The arch tapers sharply towards the ends. Holes are drilled near these. The string is threaded through the holes and attached in the same way as on the hunting bow (see Fig. 62), only with the difference that the music bow is wound only one or another centimetre, while the hunting bows are provided with string winding a few decimetres long. At one end of the arch there is a notch on the very tip of the arch. When the bow is not in use, the string may run directly between the holes, but when someone wants to play, the bow is bent and the string is wound B one turn around the tip projecting over the string hole and is then placed in the mentioned groove (fig. 175). This tightens the string harder. When the musician has stopped playing, he relaxes the bow again so as not to unnecessarily hold the bow in such a strenuous bend that its resilience would soon diminish." (p. 261, von Rosen, 1916, translated from Swedish).