Amador ledger., 1900-02-09
The Beers Use This Method
Daily.
II IS ONE FORA OF WIRELESS TELEGRApHY
The Drum Language Is Heard at Its
Best in the Deep Silence Of
Night.

Much surprise has been expressed at
the quickness with which the natives
of South Africa have learned the re-
suits of the recent battles between the
Beers and British. These natives
know nothing of our method of tele-
graphing and yet, when victory has
been declared for either of the contend
ing parties. the news has been flashed
with amazing celebrity to very remote
parts of the country. The manner in
which the news is carried is novel and
most interesting. Throughout Africa,
the natives are expert in the use of
what is known as the drum language,
and they use it as we use the telegraph
and the telephone, namely. for the
purpose of sending message from one
place to another.
The most important events, as well
as the daily occurrences in every viii
lage, are transmitted in this way. In
the Congo region, near Stanley Falls,
some of the natives are so skilled in the
use of the drums that they can carry
on conversation with one another at
great distance just as easily as
though they we're standing side by
side. The chiefs or head men of the
various tribes converse daily in this
fashion, and thus each quickly learns
what has occurred in the surrounding
districts during the past twenty-four
hours. The drum used for this pur-
pose is fashioned, as a rule, out of a
hollow tree trunk, which is covered
with the skin of an antelope.
In regard to the quickness with
which news is transmitted in Africa,
Peter de Deken. the famous traveller,
tells two good stories. While Inspector
Five was in control of the station at
Basoka, he visited one day distant out
post, and found that it would be i'm
possible for him to reach home until
late at night. AS he looked forward
to hearty dinner, he requested head
man, who was with him, and who was
an expert drummer, to send word to
the station several miles away that
dinner was not to be served until he re-
turned. The head man drummed, and
straightway another drummer repeat
ed his message, and so the news was
flashed from point to point until it
eAot
Five reached home at night he found
the table laid and the dinner ready to
be served. This was the message his
servants had received: 1.-THE Bula
Matori governor or inspector) will be
home late in the evening. Don't eat
everything up"
Mistakes are sometimes made in tele-
graphing and telephoning, and Peter
de Deken's second story shows that one
may blunder also in using drum Ian
guage. This same Five took several
photographs during his stay at Bas-
oko, and on the day of his departure,
the thought struck him that it would
be we'll to take a photograph of all
those natives who, from time to time,
had acted as his domestic servants.
Accordingly, he ordered a drummer to
notify them that they were to appear
before him at certain hour in their
holiday clothes. The drummer at once
sent message, but what was Five's
surprise to find at the appointed hour
not his servants-but all the police
of the station drawn up in front of his
residence. The drummer, it seems,
had either misunderstood Five or had
blundered in sending the message. In
stead of summoning domestic servants
he had summoned state servants.
1t is in the evening and at night,
when deep silence reigns in the Afri-
can woods and villages, that the drum
language is heard at its best. Then
for hours the drummers of each vii
lage converse with one another and
long before dawn the news which one
communicates may be known to his fell
lows hundreds of miles away.-New
York Herald.