Can you imagine going through a large portion of your life confusing the hammer dulcimer with the zither? It's a reality for some, arising from SEEING a zither then HEARING a hammer dulcimer and not realizing that these two, fairly distinct, stringed instruments were not one and the same. If you only have the sight of a zither, without truly knowing what it sounds like, and only the sound of the dulcimer, without truly knowing what it looks like, would you make the same assumption? I know I did.