Kanklės
Archaic Lithuanian plucked box zither, a trapezoid of solid wood — maple, linden or ash — hollowed from a single piece and strung with parallel strings, of the same Baltic psaltery family as the Latvian kokle and the Estonian kannel. Old belief held that the bards, the vaidilos, sang heroic songs and served the gods to its music, and that the best instrument wood was cut between a person's death and funeral, for a mourned tree lent the kanklės a sorrowful, spirit-voiced tone. The instrument accompanied wedding songs and dances, its players, the kanklininkai, being honoured guests, and it was r