Greek term, equivalent to klepalo (or variants) in Slav languages, for a wooden sounding-board or metal sounding-plate (the latter sometimes triangular in shape), suspended and struck rapidly with a hammer it is classified as an idiophone. It served universally as a call to prayer until it was supplanted (from the 7th century) in the West by the church bell. It is still used instead of, or in addition to, a bell in some Orthodox and other eastern Christian churches, especially monasteries (e.g. those on Mount Athos; cf Easter on Mount Athos, a recording by Abbot Alexios and the Community of the Xenophontos Monastery, Archiv 2533 413, 1979). In medieval castles in the west a similar device was struck by strangers requiring admittance.
GEOFFREY CHEW/THOMAS J. MATHIESEN