The kantele is the national instrument of Finland; it is a sort of harp held in the lap, like a zither, with 5 or more strings. The hero Väinämöinen played a magical kantele, made from the jawbone of a pike, in the Kalevala, which is Finland's most famous epic poem.
Traditional kanteles had only 5 strings, and were made either from a single block of wood or from separate boards. In 1920, Paul Salminen developed a more complicated kantele with a mechanism to raise or lower pitch, so that the player could change keys in the middle of a song. Modern kanteles usually have from 14 to 38 strings.