The National Music of Wales ... continued xxxxxxxxxxxxxxpage 4
John Thomas (Pencerdd Gwalia). From Y Cymmrodor, 1878

Even up to the time of the Christian era, the harp was regarded with peculiar veneration; for we find John the Apostle making frequent mention of it in the Revelations, from which we select the following remarkable passage:-

"And I heard a voice from Heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping upon their harps."

It is not to be wondered at, then, that the Welsh, as a people, should have retained their fondness for their national instrument, if my conjecture, as to the source from which they derived it, be correct.

Recent discoveries made in Egypt and Assyria, by Bruce, Layard, and others, show that the harp was equally popular in all these countries in ancient times; and it is to be found in every Eastern country, even to this day, in one form or another. It is generally found without the front pillar; but Bruce, in a letter to Dr. Burney, also alludes to the representation of a harp upon a basso-relievo at Ptolemais, in Cyrenaicum, a city built by Ptolemy Philadelphus, where it is twice represented with fifteen strings or two octaves, and with the front pillar; the use of which he attributes to the additional strain of the extra strings - most other harps having less than that number.

Greek historians clearly show that the ancient Britons and the ancient Greeks were well known to each other; and they mention Abaris, a British druid and philosopher, who visited Greece in the time of Pythagoras.

Himerius , a Greek orator, gives the following description of him:

"Abaris came to Athens, not clad in skins like a Scythian, but with a bow in his hand, a quiver hanging from his shoulder, a plaid wrapped about his body, a gilded belt encircling his loins, and pantaloons reaching from his waist to the sole of his feet. Moreover, he addressed us in our own tongue."

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