Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/357

Rh to a song or a domestic dance. The great bull-hide drum of heathen revelry is very simple in its construction. A hide, while wet, is firmly stretched between stakes securely fixed in the ground. This, as it dries in the sun, contracts violently, so that when ready for use it is pulled tighter than any drum of European manufacture. When beaten with suitable sticks its sound is both loud and penetrating; simply ear-splitting. On festive occasions relays of women beat it, without intermission, from dusk to dawn, giving the dancers their time, and making the neighbouring forests resound again. This is the popular musical instrument at large gatherings. It is to the African what his beloved bagpipes is to the Scottish Celt.

Next in popularity comes a variety of the so-called Jewish harp. On this skilful performers can play airs to be rivalled only by an Irishman with the penny-whistle at a great horse-fair in the Western Counties. I have, on still nights, sat for hours under the verandah listening to the playing of a Kaffir neighbour, who, in the still moonlight, used to sit outside his hut practising on his instrument and composing new airs, and often felt delighted with his performances. He, in turn, got some benefit from the mission. I have known him crouch outside the compound fence listening to the piano, and now and then try snatches of the music played on his own modest instrument. He picked up quite a number of Scotch airs and Highland pibrochs, and could reproduce them correctly. I am afraid, when he went on his travels, he palmed a few of them on his countrymen as his own composition.

Another instrument, played chiefly by women, consists of a bow and bow-string. To the latter is attached a small calabash, perforated in a peculiar manner, and which acts as sounding-board. The string is twanged with the fingers of the right hand, while the left regulates the length of the vibration. The music is not of much account, but the time is perfect, and for their domestic amusements nothing could be better adapted.