Not only man, but some animals--among others a species of mouse found in South Africa--naturally uses his limbs to moderate or strengthen the light of vision. This mouse was observed to shade its eyes with its forepaws in order to look at some distant object under a blazing sun, as we should do in like conditions. In man, whose arms and hands are readily adapted to this primitive art, the habit is common, even among the rudest savages. Putting sight out of the question that we may consider hearing, which is our present theme, reflex movements, either casual or habitual, have certainly induced primitive men to place their hands on the mouth, either so as to suppress the sound or to augment it by using both hands as a kind of shell. It is easy to imagine the use of shells or other hollow objects as a vehicle of sound, either for amusement or some other cause, and these rude instruments might serve as the first step to the invention of wind instruments. Reflection on these spontaneous experiments would readily lead to the search for some mode of prolonging or imitating the voice. In these attempts men might be guided by their observation of the whistle and song of birds, whose beaks may have served as a model for the construction of the flute and reed-pipe. Pott traces the word for sound to the root _svar_, and hence, after some natural phonetic changes, we have in Lithuanian _szwilpti_ for the song of birds. Of all natural objects, different kinds of reeds and the hollow stalks of plants are, owing to their hollow and cylindrical form, best adapted for the imitation of a bird's beak and the sonorous transmission of breath. In many languages the word for a flute is the same as that for a reed. In Sanscrit, _vança_ and _vênu_ mean a flute and bamboo; in Persian, _nâ_ and _nây_ mean a flute and reed; in Greek [Greek: donas], and in Latin _calamus_, have the same double meaning, and many more examples might be given.
Stringed instruments are a more elaborate invention, and may have been suggested by the vibration of a bow-string when it is twanged. The bow is common to all modern savages, and was also found among extinct peoples and those which are now civilized, as well as in prehistoric times. The Sanscrit word for a stringed instrument, _tata_ or _vitata_, is derived from the root _tan_, to stretch. Pictet observes that one name for a lute is _rudri_, from _rud_, to lament, that is, a plaintive instrument; in Persian we have _rod_ for song, music, or a stringed instrument. The etymology of _arcus_ is the same; the root _arc_ not only means to hurl, but to sing or resound. Homer and Rannjana often allude to the sonorousness of the bow and its string. Homer says in speaking of the bow of Pandarus, "_stridit funis, et nervus valde sonuit_." And when Ulysses drew his avenging bow, the cord emitted a clear sound like the voice of a swallow. _Lôcàka_, another name for a cord, also means one who speaks, from _lòc_, _loqui_; and the Persian _rûd_, _rôda_, a bow-string, also means a song. In the Veda the root _arc'_ is used in speaking of the roaring wind, or of a long echoing sound. Again _tâvara_, a bow-string, is from _tan_, to stretch, to sound. The Greek [Greek: tonos] must be referred to the same root, and signifies, a bow-string, a sound, an accent, a tone. Benfey traces the Greek [Greek: lura], in which this root is wanting, through [Greek: ludra], or _rudra_. Kuhn confirms this transformation by the analogy between the Vedic god _Rudra_ and the Greek Apollo, both of whom are armed with a bow. Rudra, like Apollo, is a great physician; the former is called _kapardin_, from his mode of wearing his long hair, and _vanku_ from his tortuous gait as the god of storms; to the latter the epithets of [Greek: achers echomes] and [Greek: loxias] are applied; the mouse was sacred to Rudro, and Apollo had the surname of Smintheus, from the mouse, [Greek: Smintha], which was his symbol.