Musical Instruments of the Indigenous People of South Africa. Percival Kirby

      They also carry on this shouting without stopping for fully quarter of an hour or more, according as it pleases them.

      Kolbe’s description of the actual drum is, of course, quite correct, as also is his version of the manner of playing upon it. It should, however, be pointed out that Kolbe stated that the Hottentot drum was a substitute for drums and kettledrums, and in so doing used the identical names for the latter instruments employed by Schreyer thirty-eight years earlier! But his unfortunate analogy, for which Dapper seems to have been originally responsible, has caused many later writers to adopt the name rommelpot when referring to the Hottentot drum, and in this they have been followed by the Dutch colonists, so much so that the word has been incorporated into the Afrikaans language in spite of the fact that its meaning has been completely changed. It will be seen that Kolbe pointed out that the Cape Hottentots used their drum on festive occasions as the people in certain European areas were wont to use the ‘rommel-topff ’, when a real drum was not available. For the true rommelpot was a friction drum made from a clay pot or wooden cylinder covered with a thin membrane, with a tiny perforation in the centre through which a straw was passed and secured on the under side. The performer, wetting his fingers, drew them along the straw, and the strong vibration thus begun was communicated to the membrane, which gave forth a roaring sound of variable pitch, according to the variation in pressure and the speed with which the fingers were drawn along the straw. This instrument was very popular in the Low Countries and it is still used by the children of Holland and Belgium at Christmas time as an accompaniment to certain songs performed by them at that season. The words and music of one of these songs have been quoted by Mahillon.¹⁵ He also shows that the instrument is popular in Germany.

      I have described Kolbe’s analogy as unfortunate because several types of true friction drum are to be found in use among various native tribes in South Africa. These I have described later on in this work. The mistake in nomenclature on the part of subsequent writers, including Le Vaillant (who stated that the drum was made from the hollowed trunk of a tree, and erred in saying that it was played with a stick) and Borcherds, who, however, attributed the name to the colonists, would appear to have originated from the fact that the illustration of the instrument in Kolbe was definitely labelled ‘Ihr Romel-Topf.

      Arbousset’s description¹⁶ of the drum of the Korana women is worth recalling here.

      Consuming a great part of the day in smoking, and leaving their children covered with vermin, and their houses in a state of the most disgusting filth, like the men they reserve all their activity and vigour for the sukeis or pot-dance. When the moon enters her first quarter, all the kraal assemble on some favourite elevation; then they dance to the sound of the tang-tang, all the night long, and sometimes for eight nights in succession. In this amusement the Korannas place no control on their passions, and abandon themselves to excesses of which it would be a shame even to speak.

The so-called ‘tang-tang’ in this description is explained in another passage by Arbousset,¹⁷ in which he described a similar dance by the Baroa (Bushmen) of Mokoma: ‘Supper being over, the women with their children and the young men set themselves to dance during the first watches of the night, to the sound of a wretched tam-tam [the French term for a gong, but occasionally applied to drums by some writers, e.g. Mahillon]¹⁸ made of a small earthen pot, in the form of a quoit [disque in the original], and covered with the skin of a gazelle, well softened after having been stript of its hair.’

      My personal investigations among the Korana Hottentots¹⁹ have resulted in my obtaining full descriptions of the method of making the true Hottentot drum and of playing upon it. This information was obtained direct from certain Korana women at Bloemhof in February 1932. The instrument was called /khais, and it was made from the wooden jar or pot called //hoes, of willow (Salix capensis) wood, which was used by the Korana for containing milk. This jar is, of course, the well-known bambus of earlier writers. A goatskin was procured, and all the hair was removed. While wet and soft, this skin was stretched over the mouth of the //hoes, secured in position by a piece of riem, and allowed to dry. The performer seated herself upon the ground, placed the /khais on the earth before her, and struck it with the flat palm of her right hand. It was used as a rhythmical accompaniment to the songs which were sung during certain dances. I was unable to ascertain whether any attempt was made to tune the instrument to a particular note, as was suggested by Burchell in the case of the ‘water-drum’ which he saw played by Bushmen; but it is quite conceivable that such tuning may have been practised by the Korana, when one considers their use of stringed instruments. As these old Korana women did not possess either an actual specimen of the /khais or suitable materials from which to make one, I was unable to secure a photograph, but a picture of an old Hottentot woman playing a similar instrument was drawn by Charles Bell, who accompanied the Andrew Smith Expedition to the Transvaal in 1834, and it is reproduced in Figure 2.2. Figure 2.1 shows a Hottentot woman, photographed some years ago by Miss D. F. Bleek at Prieska, playing upon the /khais.

      Figure 2.2.Hottentot woman playing upon the /khais. From a drawing by CHARLES BELL, 1834.

      The licence which accompanied the dances in which use was made of the /khais is referred to in the Berliner Missionsberichte²⁰ in the passage — ‘What has he done now? He has organized a so-called pot-dance, at which animals are killed, and they dance to the sound of a drum (a pot over which a skin is stretched). All sorts of licences are allowed at it which men can indulge in. This well suits the youths and girls who go to it in great numbers.’ The passage refers to an old and rich, though ‘godless and entirely hateful’ old man, who lived near the farm of the missionary (who was probably August Schmidt from Platberg). The people described were the ‘Right Hand’ Korana and the ‘Sorcerers’.

      The employment of the skin-covered bambus drum by the Nama Hottentots was well described by Sir J. E. Alexander:²¹

      The pot-dance, which I had not yet seen, was performed. About thirty Namaqua women seated themselves in a hut, from the arched roof of which hung two cords; these were grasped by a man, who commenced stamping the ground, first with one foot, and when that was tired, changing it for the other. He also sung in low chorus, ‘Uwahu’, to the ‘Ei, oh; ei, oh! ei, oh! ei, oh! ei, oh—oh! oh! oh!’ and clapping of the hands of the women. One of these held before her a bambus, in which was a little water, and over the top of it was stretched a piece of sheepskin. This was occasionally wetted with the water inside, and was beaten with the forefinger of the right-hand, whilst the pitch was regulated by the forefinger and thumb of the left.

      Lieutenant Moodie²² described a drum which he saw the ‘Kaffirs’ playing at the Fish River between 1819 and 1829, as an accompaniment to a song of the men who were quite naked, and, holding assegais in their hands, leapt in the air in turns. ‘The women were drawn up at a hundred yards distance; they sang, clapped their hands, beat a kind of rude drum made of a calabash, and showed every token of the most extravagant joy.’ There seems to me little doubt that the Xhosa in this instance had adopted the Hottentot drum, for such a drum is quite unknown among them, and is radically different from the percussion instruments used by them in their ceremonies. Further, the particular district where Moodie saw the incident borders upon the territory formerly occupied by Hottentots.

      A drum of similar type is found among the Berg-Dama in South-west Africa. Dr. Vedder of Okahandja, to whom I am indebted for information regarding this drum, describes it as follows. The drum of the Berg-Dama, which is called /arub, consists of a vessel of the shape and size