This Agrees
With My Own Observations Of All Bantu Native Songs.
I have always
found that the words of these songs were either the repetition of
some such phrase as this, or a set of words referring to the recent
adventures or experiences of the singer or the present company's
little peculiarities; with a very frequent chorus, old and
conventional.
The native tunes used with these songs are far superior, and I
expect many of them are very old. They are often full of variety
and beauty, particularly those of the M'pongwe and Igalwa, of which
I will speak later.
The dances I have no personal knowledge of, but there is nothing in
Baumann's description to make one think they are distinct in
themselves from the mainland dances. I once saw a dance at Fernando
Po, but that was among Portos, and it was my old friend the Batuco
in all its beauty. But there is a distinct peculiarity about the
places the dances are held on, every village having a kept piece of
ground outside it which is the dancing place for the village - the
ball-room as it were; and exceedingly picturesque these dances must
be, for they are mostly held during the nights of full moon. These
kept grounds remind one very much of the similar looking patches of
kept grass one sees in villages in Ka Congo, but there is no
similarity in their use, for the Ka Congo lawns are of fetish, not
frivolous, import.
The Bubis have an instrument I have never seen in an identical form
on the mainland. It is made like a bow, with a tense string of
fibre. One end of the bow is placed against the mouth, and the
string is then struck by the right hand with a small round stick,
while with the left it is scraped with a piece of shell or a knife-
blade. This excruciating instrument, I warn any one who may think
of living among the Bubis, is very popular. The drums used are both
the Dualla form - all wood - and the ordinary skin-covered drum, and I
think if I catalogue fifes made of wood, I shall have nearly
finished the Bubi orchestra. I have doubts on this point because I
rather question whether I may be allowed to refer to a very old
bullock hide - unmounted - as a musical instrument without bringing
down the wrath of musicians on my head. These stiff, dry pelts are
much thought of, and played by the artistes by being shaken as
accompaniments to other instruments - they make a noise, and that is
after all the soul of most African instrumental music. These
instruments are all that is left of certain bullocks which many
years ago the Spaniards introduced, hoping to improve the food
supply. They seemed as if they would have flourished well on the
island, on the stretches of grass land in the Cordillera and the
East, but the Bubis, being great sportsmen, killed them all off.
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