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REBEC

Volume 18 · 59 words · 1860 Edition

a three-stringed instrument, tuned in fifths, and played with a bow, similar to the violin. It was introduced by the Moors into Spain, where it seems to have been much used on festive occasions. Milton represents, in his L'Allegro, youth and maid dancing to "the jocund rebec's sound;" and Byron, speaking of Seville, says that here "love's rebec sounds."