Hausa Troops 



r 



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 



