The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-06

"'iu sWo 5hiait oHe1s pcpi"S' .os"s~sSs" very small ones. just as had, been de- scribed to me from the drum-beats by
 my man. The fish did not look very inviting and must surely have been q day old. We padded to another point where the rival fisherman was beating his advertisement to the townsfolk.
 He had seven large fish In the bot tom of his boat. and he explained to my man that the other fisherman had been
 fishing up in the brachsh waters above
 the town and had been unsuccessful, whereupon he tried to dispose of some stock he had left over from the day be- fore. This was my first experience
 with talking drums, and It puzzled me to account for this method of communi- cation, inasmuch as the natives had not the least idea of an alphabet.
 Some little. time after this I was at a town and desired to get a boat and several men to take me further up the river. When told the natives what I wanted they told me that they would have a boat come down the river from town some twelve miles above, as this was the only boat which they knew of that would be suited for my purpose.
 "When they asked me how many men I wanted and had gotten the particu- lars, one of the natives took a drum to
 the shore of the river and began to beat 1t in a strange manner. sounding in rhythm something like the tick of the telegraph instrument. The drum was
 unlike those which they used for dan- cling. being more cylindrical in form.
 It was about three feet long and six inches in diameter. The shell was made of wood, burned out, and 1t looked like bamboo. There were holes in. the side and in the end, through which the sound passed. The head was covered with skin. The native sat down and placed the drum before him. Then he beat with hiA finger this strange tattoo, which he kept up con- tinually until, far in the distance away, I heard the faint noise of another drummer beating the same thing. The drummer, as soonas he found that his fellow up at the next town was re- beating the message correctly, stopped. I then listened, and soon the drumming above ceased, and away off, so faint
 that only occasional beats could be dis tinguished, I heard another drummer. I was then told that my message would be repeated from town to town until 1t arrived at its destination. s. .....
 T asked whether I would know whether the boat would come, and they told me I would receive an answer. Some time after this I again heard drum-beats and a native told me that they had received word that the boat would leave and arrive here at such a time. The boat arrived just when the drum messenger said it would, and this proved to me that the natives of Africa have a sure means of communication by drum-beats. They told me that all kinds of messages were repeated from town to town by drum-beats. The towns are from one to two miles apart, and the drumming can be heard dis tinctly at that distance. They can call names of an individual represent nouns and verbs and some few adjec- lives. Even after having this strange system of communication demonstra- ted to me, I doubted. So when I was spending my time with Captain Blu chan, who had lived in Africa for years and was we'll acquainted with the char acteristics of the various tribes. asked him concerning the matter. He veri- fled what I told him, and, to- demon strate more fully called his boy and told him to drum for a certain man in the town above. It was but g. short time until, the wanted person ap- peared Then some time after this I was talking with B. J.. Glave, who was six years with Stanley in the Congo basin. He told me of other tribes who used drum beating as a means of com munication. He named the Balola tribes as being quite expert He men, toned an experience he had while loca- ted at Lukalila. He heard of a herd of elephants which were on a rampage on the opposite side of the Congo, about twelve miles from the town. He went out to hunt them, but after searching for some time was unable to locate them. He had to go back to the town, so some of the natives of the town near the place where the elephants were supposed to be told him they would let him know if the herd came about again. That night he was awakened between ten and eleven o'clock by a native who told him that the herd of elephants had returned and was tear ing up the plantations on the outskirts of the town. The message had been received by drum-beats from one town to another. He started out and ar rived thare before the elephants de- parted. The message had been re- peated just four times in the twelve miles 1t had come.
 Tt is puzzling to form theory as to how these natives accomplish the re- suits which they do. If they had an alphabet, or the knowledge of one, you could find an explanation there. But, as matter of fact, they are. utterly devoid of the Knowledge of an alphabet. The only explanation which I can make of the matter is that they have a pho- netic formula of some kind They have certain drum-beats and combinations to represent certain phonetics and per haps syllables. It is certainly not all as our telegraph system is. A Alanguage has from forty to fifty pho- netic clements, so with combinations of beats to represent these and other natives are able to com The loudness or softness of the beats seemed to suggest more than tI,. V i,,+ o,.x,x, JA vrlpr6 WAS vArv 1fffla