A masenqo has a wooden frame shaped like a diamond, covered with stretched skin to make a sound box. A long wooden neck reaches up from the box, with one single string of horsehair stretched along it. The bow is just a curved wooden stick with more horsehair tied across it.
Even with one string, the player can sound joyful, sad, funny, or telling a whole story without saying a word. They press the string lightly at different points with their fingers, the way you do on a guitar - and they slide between notes for that distinctive, voice-like Ethiopian sound.
Masenqo players are called azmari. For hundreds of years, azmaris have been wandering musicians and storytellers in Ethiopia, going from town to town singing songs about the news, telling jokes, and inviting whole rooms to dance. A good azmari can make up a song on the spot about whoever has walked into the room.
You can still go to special little restaurants in Ethiopia - called azmari bets - where azmaris play, the audience claps and shouts along, and sometimes the singer makes up a verse about you sitting at your table. It is half concert, half stand-up comedy, all music.