im trying t find a little more out about it before i buy it
Hi … That’s not going to work. You’re trying to post an image attachment from your private GMail account as an https link.
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sorry lol…hopefully i did this right
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Hmmm, interesting. Some kind of zither with movable bridges, double courses (?), European (?). The “balloon lady” artwork is curious. A bit similar to this Madagascar “valiha vata” zither below, but I doubt that’s it. Pure guesswork.
http://roland.ratsimiseta.free.fr/madasite/culture/images/ins-valiha.jpg
What do you know about it from the seller?
nothing she thinks its asian she got it at a yard sale
The artwork tells me it’s really probably not. But, who knows. If it’s Asian, maybe Filipino.
The resemblance to the Malagasy instrument is striking, other details aside. I’ve never seen anything like it.
it has 10 strings on each side and you tune it (guessing) by moving these floating bridges of which there are eight on each side maybe there are some missing i dont know the previous owner got it at a flea market. the markings are made by some sort of heat stamping process and look to me like what we call mimosa trees(persian silk tree) and some sort of palm most likely date palm there is a handle and some trim made of animal hide most likely goat all the strings are the same gauge except for the top on each side which is two strings twisted together
i get the feeling its north african middle eastern or west asian somewhere in that general area
I’d doubt that you would tune it by moving the bridges. It’s likely that you’d use the tuning pegs with the tuning key - is that with the instrument? If the tuning key is missing, it should be easy enough to get a replacement one to fit, I would have thought.
I would think the moveable bridges serve the usual purpose of such things - to be able to play in different scale patterns.
Having said all that, I have no idea what the instrument is. 
im not sure what a tuning key is but i know that the strings are all wrapped around little nails i doubt it was made to be an instrument of any playing quality but it is playable and i cant discern any thing to change the string pitch than moving them if it was originally just a tourist item itll make a good conversation piece it can go next to my unknown banjo/lute/somethingorother of vaguely african design.
The strings should be fixed immoveably at one end - by the look of it, the left side of the picture you posted. To the right of the picture, they appear, to me at least, to be wrapped around standard tuning pegs. Do those pegs have sides, allowing a spanner or something to turn them? A bit like the pegs inside a piano?
I’ve tried to find a close-up of ordinary zither or hammered dulcimer tuning pegs, but failed 
. However, at the bottom of this page are pictures of a couple of tuning keys.
There must be pegs to tune it, because otherwise it wouldn’t be possible to get the strings up to pitch, and those things on the right look just like tuning pegs to me.
This page shows zither pins mounted on a harp neck (scroll down past the picture of the tuning key):
http://www.harpcenter.com/page/SWHC/PROD/ACC/9115K
And here’s a close-up of a standard zither pin:
http://howardpianoindustries.com/50-tuning-pins-for-dulcimer-zither-harpsichord-or-harp.html
Redwolf
I think it’s a Shaker Koto… 