80 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT — THE MAEIMBA. 
Book I. 
instrument called marimba. In its present structure, 
improved upon the old Indian design, this instrument is 
composed of twenty-five narrow steel plates of increasing 
length, laid side by side like the keys of a piano, and each 
of them resting on the open upper end of a wide vertical 
wooden tube. The length of these tubes increases in pro- 
portion to the length of the plates. Each tube, closed at 
its lower end, has a side opening which, being made wider 
or narrower by a piece of wax, regulates the pitch of the 
sound produced by the steel plate on being struck with a 
small hammer constructed for the purpose. The whole is 
kept together by a wooden frame, and rests on a stick 
which the musician, who is in a sitting posture, keeps 
between his knees 5 while a strap, fixed on the frame, 
passes round his shoulders. To produce the music, he 
holds a little stick of elastic wood in each hand, and with 
them strikes the steel plates. For this purpose one of the 
sticks has one, the other two, leather buttons at its end, 
one of them thus forming a single, the other a double 
hammer. The two buttons of the latter are placed at such 
a distance that two keys can be touched at once. In the 
original Indian x construction of the instrument the keys 
are made of wood instead of steel, and calabash shells 
1 Since the above was written I have 
read the following passage in Living- 
stone's ' Travels in Africa,' from winch 
it appears that the marimba is of 
African origin, though in Nicaragua it 
was called an old Indian instrument. 
The passage, from the xvi th chapter of 
Livingstone, is as follows : — " The 
piano, named marimba, consists of two 
bars of wood placed side by side ; here 
quite straight, but farther north, bent 
round, so as to resemble half the tire of 
a carriage -wheel ; across these are 
placed about fifteen wooden keys, each 
of which is two or three inches broad, 
and fifteen or eighteen inches long; 
their thickness is regulated according 
to the deepness of the note required : 
each of the keys has a calabash beneath 
it ; from the upper part of each a por- 
tion is cut off to enable them to embrace 
the bars, and form hollow sounding- 
boards to the keys, which also are of 
different sizes, according to the note 
required; and little drumsticks elicit 
the music. Rapidity of execution seems 
much admired among them, and the 
music is pleasant to the ear. In Angola 
the Portuguese use the marimba in 
their dances."— Dr. Livingstone gives 
a drawing of the instrument as used 
amongst the Baton-da. 
