" Thus
Owen tells us (p. 308) "that at the mouth of the Zambesi it is
called 'Tabbelah,'" evidently the Arabic "Tablah" Another
favourite instrument is a clapper, made of two bamboos some five
feet long, and thick as capstan bars,--it is truly the castanet
en grand.
Highly gratified by the honour, but somewhat overpowered by the
presence and by that vile scourge the sandfly, I retired after
the first review, leaving the song, the drum, and the dance to
continue till midnight. Accustomed to the frantic noises of
African village-life in general, my ears here recognized an
excess of bawl and shout, and subsequent experience did not
efface the impression. But, in the savage and the barbarian,
noise, like curiosity, is a healthy sign; the lowest tribes are
moping and apathetic as sick children; they will hardly look at
anything, however strange to them.
The rest of my day and week was devoted to the study of this
quaint people, and the following are the results. Those who have
dealings with the Fan universally prefer them in point of honesty
and manliness to the Mpongwe and Coast races; they have not had
time to become thoroughly corrupt, to lose all the lesser without
gaining anything of the greater virtues.
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