64 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
tors and consigned to everlasting fire by public opinion^ their 
calumny is so ingenious that it always injures the character 
of those against whom it is aimed. The marabouts have the 
greatest contempt for the guehues^ but they always receive 
them politely when they make their appearance, for fear of 
the false reports which they would raise if they were offended. 
The instruments which the guehues use to accompany their 
songs are of two kinds. One, in the form of a guitar^ is no- 
thing but an oval gourd, covered with a well dried sheep- 
skin ; this is crossed horizontally by a stick a foot long, 
upon which the strings of the instrument, five in number, 
are fastened : these strings are made of twisted hair, and 
the tone of this instrument, which is touched by the hand, 
is pleasing enough. The second is a sort of harp with 
fourteen strings of sheep's gut, mounted upon a stick two 
feet long, and placed obliquely in a round calabash of much 
larger dimensions than the other. A leather thong, stretched 
horizontally over the skin which covers the gourd, serves 
to fasten the lower end of the strings, or sometimes they 
are attached to a bit of wood placed across. At the edge 
of the calabash and under the last string is a piece of iron, 
flat and oval, about five inches long, and set round with 
small iron rings, which tinkle when the harp is played 
upon, and add to the effect. The musicians never fail 
to ask for presents from the princes whose praises they 
sing, and as they are seldom refused they have numerous 
flocks and good beasts of burden. Sometimes they make 
presents to the marabouts to conciliate their esteem; and 
the marabouts accept the gift and despise them never- 
theless. 
During the month that I passed with the king, I never 
once saw him take any solid food, or drink any thing but 
milk. When I asked him why he took neither sangleh nor 
meat, he replied that he preferred milk to all other food. To 
distinguish themselves from the common people, the king 
and his nobles always drank camel's milk, and said they pre^ 
