We also hear of many other stringed instruments, of which we know only the names, some with a small number of strings--three or four, others with a large number--thirty to forty; but we know little or nothing about their shape, and, therefore, will not enter into details concerning them, especially as their use must have been very rare as compared with that of the instruments already described. We must just mention the _Barbiton_, since it seems probable that an instrument which appears very often on ancient monuments, very narrow and long, with a sounding-board closely resembling the lyre, but smaller, and with a very few strings, which was played with the hand and the plectrum, may have been the barbiton which was popular at festive gatherings, and for accompanying love-songs.
Among wind instruments we must, in the first instance, consider the flute. Although for a time this was not popular in the most fashionable circles at Athens, still it was much in use in Boeotia, and also in the rest of Greece, even among amateurs, and at all times was of great importance, especially for choruses
and festive performances, for entertainments during meals, dancing, and other such occasions. The form of this instrument which is commonest on the monuments is the double flute. The ancient flute ([Greek: aulos]) differed in shape and use from that which bears the name at the present day, since the players did not blow into it at the side, but made use of a mouthpiece like that of a clarinet. This mouthpiece, which was usually of the same material as the flute proper, has an easily vibrating tongue cut in its upper part, which vibrates within the mouth, as the greater part of the mouthpiece is taken right into the mouth by the player. The principal part of the flute, the pipe, which is either of the same thickness throughout, or else somewhat widened at the lower end, was sometimes formed of a single piece and sometimes of several component parts. Various notes were produced by the holes of which there were at first only three or four, but afterwards a larger number; there were also holes at the side, which helped to increase the compass of the flute, and various other helps, such as valves on the side, rings which in turning either opened or closed the holes, etc. In spite of the very numerous practical attempts instituted during the present century to procure some notion of the mode of playing and the effect of the ancient flute, it does not seem possible to obtain any proper conception of it.