The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-03-29

verbally. If, however, the messa1. g., >,-
INSTANT part, he repeats it on his 9ourd
anu 80 II IS carried from village to village
WIN very little loss of time. until il reaches
I tne person for whom It is intended
was granted the privilege bv kim t..
rothodi Of using his gourd telesranh .vs-
TEN TO send any messages to our other
workers whenever wished and often
awaited myself of it.
IT is not considered necessary to repeat
No, III me .ns message to the sender. 1t is sim
ply carried along from gourd to rourd AM,
l cont know of a single instance where II
ialed 10 reach its destination properly.
RAPID TRANSMISSION OF NEWS
Turing the war between the British and
the Beers we who were hundreds of miles
distant from the scene Of hostilities got all
the news with surprising rapdity. We knew
Oh every victory and every reverse which
look place In the Orange Free State and
the Transyaal. and have known of several
instances where the news came by the eourd
ar line hours ahead Of the message by field
teiesrapn. You can readily understand how
this surprised the military officers
The same system is common to MANY of
the African tribes. and the secret ia aIwavs
connned to the few trained men In each vii
lage, VINO are chosen for their fidelity 10
the head man or chief. Who first devised
this system nobody seems to know. It has
peeh IN use 1or centuries. Among the Pom
oos the Tembis and the Bechuanas whose
tribes visited in connection with INV work
In Africa. I frequently observed the xourd
communication in operation
Inc drummer receives the orders from the
mead man to send certain message and
ne goes out. and In few minutes he can be
heard pounding out on the gourd short taps.
long taps and taps in little groups, taps
wife pauses between them and taps close
together. like the roll Of drum
Tnere appeared to be no difficulty in
sending any kind Of a message by the
code. and it was just as easy for the opera
tor. comparatively, as 1t is for the man
who sits at the key in a telegraph office. I
have known Of messages being sent nearly
a thousand miles, and which must have
been repeated in almost a hundred villages
before they reached the person for whom
they were intended
There Is another way in which the Rourd
is applied almost universally in Africa It is
In the construction of what is widely known
as the African piano. The piano. or
marimba, which is the native name. is con-
structed Of a series Of gourds. the shells Of
which have been followed out and dried by
exposure to the sun.
These gourds "a vegetable growth. not
unlike a squash or elongated pumpkin in
appearance) are chosen of graduated sizes
and ranged along frame after the man
ner Of a xylophone. the smallest gourd to
the right and the largest to the left.
THE player strikes them sharply with a
wooden mallet or drumstick. and they give
out peculiar yet not unpleasant sound.
Some marimba players are very clever.
1.-The group of Kings among whose sub
jects 1 have travelled" said Mr.. Rideout in
conclusion. were by no means the savage
and ignorant heather that many people
here believe.
Each King has his secretaries. his chief
head men, his Premier and his Council
and every tribe has its laws and customs" -.