The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-10-25


Zulus, who call ii the GUIDO, the bow be-
ing less than two feet long, The KAT
frs. who use a five-foot bow. attach
thereto a resonant gourd, The Bechu-
anas have a hollow calabash fitted to
one end Of the bow, and the string Is
made of twisted sinews which they
strike with a thin stick, modifying the
tones by running the fingers along the
string Like the Bongo, they hold one
end of the bow in the teeth while play
ing upon 1t, the other end resting upon
the ground.
The manga OF the Niam-Niams has a
sounding board, neck and screws for
tightening the strings, The Karague
of Central Africa have a species of gull
tar with seven strings. The lakanga OF
Madagascar has four strings and a
wooden body grotesquely carved, paint
ed and decorated with feathers. Bow
dch found among the Ashantees an in
strument called the sanko, constructed
of a narrow box open at the top and
covered with alligator or antelope skin,
with bridge over which pass eight
vegetable fibre strings conducted to the
end of long handle, which is fastened
notched; the strings are raised or de-
pressed into these notches. as occasion
requires, and are tuned at random.
The zeze, from Mambasa, East Afri-
ca, has a wooden handle a little over
inches in diameter is attached; it Is fur
nished with single string of vegetable
fibre.
Zeze No. 2 has two strings, one in
front and one on the side of the instru-
ment that runs over a bridge of hard
quill 1t Is certainly an incipient banjo.
An Algerian instrument, known as the
kuniberi, has its head of the shell of a
tortoise covered with skin and orna-
mented with dependant, narrow strips
of leather, to the ends of which are at
tached small shells; the handle Is round
and of wood painted in many bright
colors. 1t is one of the hosts of instru-
ments bearing resemblance to the BAN
10.
A visit to the musical instrument de-
partment of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in Central Park will amply repay
one, and furnish wide scope for investi-
cation and deduction. 1t is recorded In
song, mayhap it was inspired, that the
banjo is as old as the Ark. One verse
runs somewhat after this fashion:
Noah he sent out dove to look for dry
land,
An de dove he come back wild a banjo
in his hand;
He picked up de banjo an played dis
yer tune.
An all of de animiles dey fell down in a
swoon.
Be it's antiquity and parentage what
they may, the banjo appeared among
the negroes in the United States with g
neck, handle, or finger board affixed to
a gourd, and is said to have originally
had but three strings; fourth one sub
sequently appeared. The head was
made of the skin of animals or snakes
and was tackled to or stuck on the
gourd.
It'remained for "Joe" Sweeney to add
fifth string to the banjo, and though
any number of strings have since been
at times essayed, the orthodox instru-
ment of to-day still holds to Sweeney's
arithmetic There is some doubt as to
whether it was the fifth string (known
as the melody" or "chanterelle), or
was adopted by Joe" but more proba-
bly, the bass, because the other strings
as tuned give the intervals do, mi, sol,
do of the octave, and the need of the ad-
dition of a lower or bass sound would
naturally have occurred to one musical
ly inclined and seeking to improve the
instrument.
1t is generally current in banjo lore
that "Joe" Sweeney. or "Old Band Joe"
as he was called among the negroes
(some say the name banjo came from a
corruption of this title) was born near
Appomattox Court House, in Virginia,
and that his cognomen was acquired by
his forming a sort of musical band
among the slaves, and from whom he
derived many quaint and characteristic
ideas, which he applied to his songs and
music on the banjo. He made the first
departure from the old gourd instru-
ment by using a section of cheese box
for a rim, covering this with a head of
skin. The innovation was regarded as
one of the marked curiosities of the
| times.
Negro minstrelsy was of gradual
| growth, and though the banjo has al
| ways been closely associated Herewith,
| there seems to be no evidence that eth
| er Thomas d. Rice the original Jim
| Crow, or such pioneers as Edwin For
| rest, Edwin Booth Barney Williams,
| George Holland or Joseph Jefferson
| though in their earliest histrionic days
| they appeared in burnt cork--ever in
voked the tuneful and enlivening aid of
| the banjo in their dellneation of negro
| character, or were players of the in
| strument.
| The first regularly organized band of
MINISTRIES in the world was styled THE
| Virginia Minstrels," and contained four
| members-quite a contrast to the many
now incorporated in Primrose & Vests
company! Dan" Emmett, Frank
Brewer, ''Dick" Pelham and "Billy''
| Whitlock were its component parts; the
| latter being a banjo player of no spec
| ial proficiency. Dan" Emmett was
quite performer on both the violin and
| banjo, his early training having been in
dance music of the reel, jig and horn
pipe order. Among the best known of
| his many popular songs are "Old Dan
! Tucker" Jordan Am a Hard Road to
Trabble," Whose Foot Am Dat
Albumin and Dixie" which was
written for Bryants Minstrels when