New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-03-17

outskirts and the lower class Of white
Creoles made it the ground Of their
wild ball game of raq7lette. Sunday
afternoons we're the time for it,
The hour was the slaves term of mo-
mentary liberty, and his simple, saw
age, musical and superstitious nature
dedicated it to amatory song and dance
tinctured with his rude notions of
supernatural Influences"
Having thus described the scene of
the dances, Mr.. Cable tells US some
thing of the dancers and the instru-
ments employed in making the music,
and his description prompts us to re-
mind the readers Of a fact that was
enforced upon them in the essays on
Afro-American music. Not all the
slaves were negroes-that is, people of
the negroid type. There were "tall,
well-knit Senegalese black or
ebony, with intelligent, kindly eyes
and long, straight, shapely noses;
Mandingoes from the Gambia River,
lighter of color, of cruder form and a
cunning that shows in their counte-
nance" Plainly all was fish that came
into the slaver's net, for these Man
dlngoes were not savages, but "the
merchants of Africa, dwelling in towns,
Industrious, thrifty, skilled in COM
mercc and husbandry and expert in
the working of metals, even to silver
and gold" Nor were all of the slaves
black. The Foulahs had "a percepti-
Bile rose tint in their cheeks" There
were tawny Awassas, Iboes, light col
ored as mulattoes, copper~colored Ag-
was and many others besides who had
been brought from the Congo coast.
AS for their dress, though it was scant
as rule, a cotton shirt and panta-
looms, generally in tatters, for the
men, coarse chemise and pctticoat for
the women, but with dash of color
in the tignon-the gay kerchief twisted
into turban. House servants were
better clad, especially the women who
had met with favor in the ewes of the
master.
Mr.. Bartik, therefore, has consider
able license in the attiring of his
dancers.
Musical Instruments of the Africans
The orchestra described by Mr.. Cable
is not large, but the information can
be helped out by the descriptions of
African travellers. The drum predomi-
mated; for the drum, of many shapes
and sizes, was and is the chief Of all
instruments among African races, in
whom the rhythmical instinct is more
strongly developed than in any other
known peoples. The band of drums and
iron bells which we heard at the
Worlds Fair in Chicago, and described
in The Tribune, was wonderful, and
thrice wonderful the manner in which
they were manipulated. Mr.. Hearn in
French West Indies" tells about the
drumming in the African dances,
which arc still practiscd on Sundays in
Martinique. The kn Creole patos for
lowed log, but in these degenerate but
more comfortable times a barrel fur
nishes a good substitute The heads
removed, green hide is stretched over
one end and permitted to dry. A string
tightly drawn across the hide has bits
Of bamboo Or the guile of large feath-
ers fastened to it to act like the snare
of the small military drum. Pere Lubut
describes two kinds Of drums used in
| the dances, one made Of Il followed
tree stem three or four feet long and
fifteen or sixteen inches in diameter,
and one Of the same length, but only II
little more than half the diameter.
Tho latter was called Bnbouln. We
sAall presently meet y variation Of
the name in the description of dance.
Mr. Hearn'a account of how it was
played is worth quoting:
THE skilful player Ctg tambouuG)