dulcimer

dulcimer
    n 1: a stringed instrument used in American folk music; an
         elliptical body and a fretted fingerboard and three strings
    2: a trapezoidal zither whose metal strings are struck with
       light hammers
    

Dulcimer \Dul"ci*mer\, n. [It. dolcemele,r Sp. dulcemele, fr. L.
   dulcis sweet + melos song, melody, Gr. ?; cf. OF. doulcemele.
   See {Dulcet}, and {Melody}.] (Mus.)
   (a) An instrument, having stretched metallic wires which are
       beaten with two light hammers held in the hands of the
       performer.
   (b) An ancient musical instrument in use among the Jews.
       --Dan. iii. 5. It is supposed to be the same with the
       psaltery.
       [1913 Webster]
    

Dulcimer
(Heb. sumphoniah), a musical instrument mentioned in Dan. 3:5,
15, along with other instruments there named, as sounded before
the golden image. It was not a Jewish instrument. In the margin
of the Revised Version it is styled the "bag-pipe." Luther
translated it "lute," and Grotius the "crooked trumpet." It is
probable that it was introduced into Babylon by some Greek or
Western-Asiatic musician. Some Rabbinical commentators render it
by "organ," the well-known instrument composed of a series of
pipes, others by "lyre." The most probable interpretation is
that it was a bag-pipe similar to the zampagna of Southern
Europe.