MUSIC. 
365 
are peculiar to themselves, and very much resemble the chants used 
in cathedrals, but as they are all made for the moment, I have not 
been able to retain any of them . 
To have attempted any thing hke arrangement, beyond what the 
annexed airs naturally possess, would have altered them, and de- 
stroyed the intention of making them known in their original 
character. I have not even dared to insert a flat or a sharp. 
No. 1. is the oldest air in the whole collection, and common 
both to Ashantees and Warsaws; I could trace it through four 
generations, but the answer made to my enquiries will give the 
best idea of its antiquity; " it was made when the country was 
made.'' The key appears to be E minor. 
The old and simple air No. 2, is almost spoiled from the quick 
method of playing it, but when slow it has a melancholy rarely 
found in African music, and it is one of the very few in which the 
words are adapted to the tune. I think it is decidedly in the key 
of C major. The noun aganka, an orphan, is from the verb agan 
to leave. Oboibee is a bird that sings only at night, for which I 
know no otlier name than the Ashantee. The Warsaw air, No. 3, 
also in C major, was composed in consequence of a contest between 
the two principal caboceers of that country, Intilfa and Attobra ; 
one extremely thin and the other very fat ; y\Uobra ran away, and 
is derided by Intiffa in the following satirical words: 
Asoom co5c6oroocoo oninny agwanny. 
Asoom is a dolphin, which, as a beardless creature, is an epithet of 
the strongest contempt. The literal translation is. 
The big dolphin runs away from the small man. 
No. 5, which { should conjecture to begin in E minor, and to 
end in D minor, was occasioned by an English vessel bringing 
the report of a battle, in which the French were defeated and their 
town burned. The words are allegorical. 
