NATIVES OF BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 467 
ivory horn. But with the increasing value and scarceness of ivory these 
trumpets have passed out of use in Nyasaland, where they chiefly use the 
horns of the kudu, eland, or reed-buck. 
The pango is made thus:—A long broad slip of wood is passed through 
a large hollow gourd which is carefully cut in half. A bridge is fixed trans¬ 
versely across this flat piece of wood, and four or five strings are then strung 
over the bridge and fastened at either end with a piece of wood which traverses 
the gourd or sounding-board. This instrument, which in a rude way answers 
to a fiddle, is played with a bow, and that is generally a piece of split and 
smoothed bamboo or stout reed. The bow is smeared with wax. 
The limba slightly resembles the guitar. It usually has six strings, and 
•is strung somewhat like a violin in appearance. The strings are struck with the 
thumb-nails. 
The kalirangwe is a one-stringed instrument stretched over a gourd- 
resonator. The string is twisted fibre dipped into melted wax. It is either 
played by twanging it with the fingers or with a reed-bow. 
The “wooden-piano,” as I call it for want of a better word, is rather a large 
instrument and is generally placed on the ground, the person who wishes to 
play squatting down before it. It consists of long slabs like huge “ keys,” made 
of the wood of the Mbwabwa tree. These slabs are laid athwart two long 
pieces of wood, and are kept in their places by wooden pegs on either side. 
When struck with a baton, being very resonant, they give out musical sounds, 
and as they are of different sizes and degrees of thickness appear to almost 
constitute a gamut. They are usually five or six in number, but may be more 
numerous. The instrument which I have illustrated, and which is known 
in Nyasaland as the Sansi, has a 
sounding-board of some hard wood, 
presumably ebony. Slips of smooth 
welded iron with a slight upward 
turn and flattened out at the musical 
end, are fastened to the top of the 
instrument and are raised up over 
the bridge. In some of the elaborate 
Sansis (only to be found now in the 
more remote interior, where native 
arts are carefully preserved) there 
are a great many of these iron keys 
— perhaps over forty — placed in 
separate rows; but ordinarily the 
instrument is as I have drawn it, 
with one row of keys graduated in 
size and length. The Sansi is played 
by the thumbs pressing down and 
releasing the flattened ends of the 
iron keys, the fingers being employed 
to hold the sounding-board. There 
are many melodies in the minor key 
(sounding somewhat like a Jews’ harp) obtained from the Sansi, which is one 
of the most pleasing of all African musical instruments. The Sansi is some¬ 
times made with keys of bamboo instead of iron. Slips of bamboo are pared 
down and fastened to the sounding-board much in the same way as the iron keys. 
