458 
A HOTTENTOT MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. 16, 17 Nov. 
With this they expressed themselves pleased ; and even took the 
trouble of coming to the waggon, to see by what means, and in what 
manner, the music was produced : but the airs, though some of the 
liveliest, inspired no visible gaiety ; nor was the least demonstration 
of keeping time, by any motion of the body, observable. Yet they 
certainly felt some gratification ; especially an old man, their chief, 
who was considered a good performer on the Gordh, an instrument 
of the greatest antiquity of all those which are now to be found in 
the hands of any tribe of the Hottentot race. Curious to see and to 
hear a genuine Hottentot musical instrument, I gave him to under- 
stand that I wished him to bring it on the morrow, and give me a 
specimen of his playing ; to which he readily agreed. 
11 til. On the morrow he returned ; bringing with him, not only 
his Gorah, but several women, and all his family ; who, till now, 
had not ventured to approach us, or, more probably, had been 
restrained by the men from coming. All his companions, whom we 
had entertained the day before, together with his two sons, repeated 
their visit, and were again well feasted. 
The GordJi, as to its appearance and form, may be more aptly 
compared to the bow of a violin, than to any other thing ; but, in 
its principle and use, it is quite different ; being, in fact, that of a 
stringed, and a wind instrument combined : and thus it agrees 
with the iEolian harp. But with respect to the principle on which 
its different tones are produced, it may be classed with the trumpet, 
or French horn ; while in the nature and quality of the sound 
which it gives, at least in the hands of one who is master of it, this 
strange instrument approaches to the violin. 
It consists merely of a slender stick, or bow, on which a string 
of catgut is strained. But to the lower end of this string, a flat 
piece, of about an inch and a half long, of the quill of an ostrich, is 
attached, so as to constitute a part of the length of the string. * 
* See the representation of this part of the Goruh of the natural size, at the end of 
the present chapter 
