Musical instruments > Chordophones > Musical bows These consist
of a string stretched between the two ends of a flexible stave.
There are three types: bows with a separate resonator; bows with
attached resonators; and mouth bows, which use the player's
mouth for resonance. Though it is conjectural whether all
varieties evolved from the shooting bow, the San of the Kalahari
often convert their hunting bows to musical use. Sometimes it is
held against the mouth, yielding a range of mouth-resonated
harmonics, as with the jew's harp, or it is pressed against a
hollow container. Apart from adapted shooting bows, more
specialized types of musical bows are widespread. Most are
sounded by plucking or striking the string, but the Xhosa
umrubhe is bowed with a friction stick, the xizambi of the
Tsonga has serrations along the stave that are scraped with a
rattle stick, and the Sotho lesiba (like the gora of the
Khoekhoe) is sounded by exhaling and inhaling across a piece of
quill connecting the string to the stave. Bow