598 
DANCING. — VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 
blacksmith, who, as before stated, is barely able to hammer out a 
hatchet, a hoe, an adze, or a common hassagay: and his nation still 
continue to depend almost wholly on the north-eastern tribes for the 
supply of their wants in all articles manufactured from either iron or 
copper. -un r-, 
The amusements of the Bachapins appeared to consist only in 
dancing, if we except such employments as were sometimes to be 
viewed rather, as the means of passing away time, than as works of 
necessity. I have in the preceding pages described as much of their 
dancing * and music f , as came under my own observation ; nor do 
my inquiries on these subjects authorize me to suppose that they 
have any other kind. 
The lichdJca was the only musical instrument which I ever saw in 
the hands of any of the Bichuana tribes ; and if they are no better 
instrumental musicians than my own experience would lead me to 
conclude, they are in this respect inferior to the Hottentot race, who 
can, as it has been shown, produce on their goraa some little variety 
of notes ; while the Bachapin, with his reed-pipe, is unable to express 
more than a single tone. 
But it is not from this to be inferred that the Bichuanas have 
not an ear susceptible both of melody and harmony : the specimen 
\^hich I have given of their singing X) and the readiness with which 
they caught several European airs they had heard frequently played 
on the violin by my Hottentots, prove that there exists in them no 
natural inaptitude for either. The attention with which they listened 
to the flute, evinces that more varied music affords them pleasure, 
and renders it probable that he who should put into their hands the 
flageolet and teach them to play a few simple airs, or to combine 
together into one instrument, an octave of their reed pipes, would 
long be remembered among them. 
Some airs which I have occasionally heard them singing, incline 
me to a belief that it would not be impossible to find in these 
* See pages 411 — 4-13. f See page 410, % See page 438. 
