236 A TOET AND MINSTREL. Chap. XL 



Others, apparently by the powers of ventriloquism, or by 

 peculiar dexterity in throwing the spear, or shooting with 

 the bow, have been the wonder of their generation ; but the 

 total absence of literature leads to the loss of all former ex- 

 perience, and the wisdom of the wise has not been handed 

 down. They have had their minstrels too, but mere tradi- 

 tion preserves not their effusions. One of these, and ap- 

 parently a genuine poet, attached himself to our party for 

 several days, and, whenever we halted, sang our praises to 

 the villagers in smooth and harmonious numbers. It was a 

 sort of blank verse, and each line consisted of five syllables. 

 The song was short when it first began, but each day he picked, 

 up more information about us, and added to the poem until our 

 praises became an ode of respectable length. When distance 

 from home compelled his return, he expressed his regret at 

 leaving us, and was, of course, paid for his useful and pleasant 

 flatteries. Another, though a less gifted son of song, belonged 

 to the Batoka of our own party. Every evening, while the 

 others were cooking, talking, or sleeping, he rehearsed his 

 songs, containing a history of everything he had seen in the 

 land of the white men, and on the way back. In composing, 

 extempore, any new piece, he was never at a loss ; for if the 

 right word did not come, he halted not, but eked out the 

 measure with a peculiar musical sound meaning nothing at all. 

 He accompanied his recitations on the sansa, an instrument 

 figured in the woodcut (<?), the nine iron keys of which are 

 played with the thumbs, while the fingers pass behind to hold 

 it. The hollow end and ornaments face the breast of the 

 player. Persons of a musical turn, if too poor to buy a sansa, 

 may be seen playing vigorously on an instrument made with a 

 number of thick corn-stalks sewn together, as a sansa frame, 

 and keys of split bamboo, which, though making but little 



