MUSICAL DIALOGUES. 
307 
As we had often heard that the natives could 
hold musical dialogues even at great distances, 
by means of little gourd flutes, (vide the plate of 
African instruments), we prevailed on them to separate, 
while by an interpreter one of them was desired to 
convey certain sentences, to those at a distance. To 
our surprise we found, on cross-examination that 
everything had been perfectly understood. They said 
they could communicate with one another, even at the 
distance of some miles, where the locality was favour- 
able to the resonance of the sounds. This facility of 
musical correspondence is not confined to these people 
alone, since that distinguished traveller, the late Mr. 
Bowdich, mentions a similar practice among the 
Ashantis, and he was also informed of its existence 
in the district of Accra. That the Oameroons people 
have also tutored their hearing with a similar result, we 
had an instance in the pilot Glasgow. He was in Captain 
Allen’s cabin one day, answering some queries relating 
to the river; suddenly he became totally abstracted, 
and remained for a while in the attitude of listening. 
On being taxed with inattention, he said, “ You no 
hear my son speak 1” As we had heard no voice, he 
was asked how he knew it. He said, “Drum speak 
me, tell me come up deck.” This seemed to be very 
singular, so Captain Allen desired him to remain 
below, and privately sent several messages to the per- 
former in the boat alongside, who executed them by a 
variety of taps on his wooden drum ; and these Glas- 
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