Hausa ‘Troops 
become so proficient that they dismounted and 
reassembled the gun in one minute thirty-seven 
seconds, as timed by my watch. 
I was at Calabar, too, when the first regimental 
band was formed. A bandmaster had _ been 
obtained from one of the West Indian regiments, 
who at first taught his men to play by ear. All 
niggers have an extraordinary ear for time and 
sound, and in less than three months the en- 
thusiastic musicians could play a bugle march 
quite respectably. It was not long before a full 
band of brass instruments, drums, etc., came to 
serenade Sir Claude Macdonald, and if the 
result was a little harsh at times, it was very 
creditable, seeing that the players had known 
nothing of music previously, and were now 
attempting Gilbert and Sullivan’s operas with all 
the nonchalance in the world. I have heard 
German bands in London whose efforts would 
have been put to shame by the black men. 
One of the sub-chiefs in the district of Calabar 
came into the Consulate Court one day to decide 
some petty quarrel, and I happened to meet him. 
He rejoiced in the poetical name of ‘“ Jock of 
Acarnametian,”” and came from a wild village 
on a small river called the Akpiafi—a district 
famous for elephants. So I adroitly offered Jock 
a drink by way of a beginning, and before long 
he told me in his pidgin-English that plenty of 
elephants were about his place. 
51 
