his tribe, these extravagant acts of
lamentation continue for months together.

_On the Amusements, Musical Instruments, &c. of the Africans._

Upon all occasions of mirth or sorrow, the dance is uniformly introduced,
with monotonous songs, sometimes tender and agreeable, at other times
savage and ferocious, but always accompanied by a slow movement; and it may
with propriety be said, that all the nights in Africa are spent in dancing;
for after the setting of the sun, every village resounds with songs, and
music; and I have often listened to them with attention and pleasure,
during the tranquil evenings of the dry season.

Villages a league distant from each other frequently perform the same song,
and alternately change it, for hours together. While this harmonic
correspondence continues, and the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages
chaunt their couplets, the youth of both sexes listen with the greatest
attention and pleasure.

Among the several kinds of instruments of music which accompany the
ceremonies of mourning or mirth among the Africans, the drum is the
principal. It is made from a hard thin wood, about three feet long, which
is covered with a skin distended to the utmost. They strike it with the
fingers of the right hand collected together, which serves to beat time in
all their dances. Among the Foulahs and Soosees they have a kind of flute,
made of a hard reed, which produces sounds both unmusical and harsh: but
all the Africans of the Windward district are the most barbarous musicians
that can be conceived.

They have also a kind of guitar, formed from the calabash, which they call
_kilara_. Some of these are of an enormous size, and the musician performs
upon it by placing himself on the ground, and putting the _kilara_ between
his thighs; he performs on it with both his hands, in a manner similar to
the playing on the harp in this country.

They have another instrument of a very complicated construction, about two
feet deep, four feet long, and eighteen inches wide, which they call
_balafau_. It is constructed by parallel intervals, covered with bits of
hard polished wood, so as to give each a different tone, and are connected
by cords of catgut fastened at each extremity of the instrument. The
musician strikes these pieces of wood with knobbed sticks covered with
skin, which produces a most detestable jargon of confused noise.

Jugglers and buffoons are very common, and are the constant attenda