321.321-71 Necked bowl lutes sounded by bowing with a bow

Gadulka, type of fiddle. Rebec-shaped, the body, head and neck carved from a single piece of wood. Five spear-shaped pegs set from back to front of the leaf-shaped peg-box. Two gut and one overspun bowed strings and two thin wire sympathetic strings. A piece of dowel stuck into the lower end of the peg-box acts as a nut for the central gut string and also directs the sympathetics. No separate fingerboard. Deep grooves under the treble string on the fingerboard and onto the belly. This feature and the flattish shape of the bridge suggest that the strings were used as one melody and two drones. Two semicircular sound-holes leave a straight strip on which the bridge stands. The strings are attached to a short tailpiece tied with wire to a knob on the end of the instrument. There is a sound-post (loose). Bow: Made from a forked twig. The fork provides the grip and an anchor for the hair while the longer side forms the highly arched stick. Made of birch (?). The hairs are lashed to the point with string, while at the heel they pass through a hole burnt into the wood and are tied off and secured with cord. Label: GADULKA. c. 1860. Bulgaria. From the Pirin mountain district.