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.
The festivities of the Bubis - dances, weddings, feasts, etc., - at
which this miscellaneous collection of instruments are used in
concert, usually take place in November, the dry season; but the
Bubi is liable to pour forth his soul in the bosom of his family at
any time of the day or night, from June to January, and when he
pours it forth on that bow affair it makes the lonely European long
for home.
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