50 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTRAL AFRICA 



each period of the year has a different style of music 

 allotted to it, and the performers gather every evening 

 to play outside the palace. This v^^as the season of the 

 small tom-tom, and on going out we saw a man soberly 

 beating a little drum that stood about four feet high 

 on a pedestal. He was surrounded by a circle of men, 

 many of whom were blowing flutes that 

 M had four or five stops, and were gyrating 



slowly round and round him. The tone 

 of these pipes was impure, probably 

 owing as much to the thickness of the 

 negroid lips as to the imperfections of 

 the instrument, and the whole effect 

 was dreary and monotonous. 



That night the moon shone clear and 

 radiant, and filled us with a restlessness 

 that demanded action. Without word 

 spoken, we wandered into the quiet city, 

 that seemed in the white light and deep 

 shadows as if it were some fairy king- 

 dom. Silence was over all, and mystery. 

 Habitation after habitation lay bare and 

 tenantless, but outside still forms were 

 stretched in sleep, though sometimes a figure, crouch- 

 ing over the glowing embers of a wood fire, would rise 

 to add a log, that crackled and blazed as it started a 

 new flame into life. 



At the summit of a gentle eminence we found our- 

 selves suddenly free of houses, in a clear space of 

 unshadowed moonlight, where fields of maize rustled 

 in answer to the murmuring breeze, and in the 

 shelter of their stems crickets chirruped. The 

 river gleamed mysteriously as it wound in great 



MuNDONNG Flute. 



