To Sdnga-Tdnga and Back. 121 
The people have a long list of instruments, and 
their music, though monotonous, is soft and plain¬ 
tive : Bowdich gives a specimen of it (“ Sketch of 
Gaboon,” p. 449), and of a bard who seems to have 
been somewhat more frenzied than most poets. Cap¬ 
tain Allen (iii. 398) speaks of a harp at Bimbia (Ca- 
marones) tightly strung with the hard fibre of some 
creeping plant. The Bakele harp (M. du Chaillu, 
chap, xvi.) is called Ngombi; the handle opposite 
the bow often has a carved face, and it might be a 
GABOON HARP. 
beginning of the article used by civilized Europe 
—Wales for instance. 
The path plunged westward into the bush, 
spanned a dirty and grass-grown plantation of 
bananas, dived under thorn tunnels and arches of 
bush, and crossed six nullahs, Neropotamoi, then 
dry, but full of water on our return. The ant- 
nests were those of Yoruba and the Mendi country; 
not the tall, steepled edifices built by the termites 
with yellow clay, as in Eastern Africa, but an 
eruption of blue-black, hard-dried mud and mucus, 
resembling the miniature pagodas, policemans lan¬ 
terns, mushrooms, or umbrellas one or two feet 
