Shinte had never done harm to any one,
he had better receive the white man well, and send him on his way.
Sambanza was gayly attired, and, besides a profusion of beads,
had a cloth so long that a boy carried it after him as a train.
Behind Shinte sat about a hundred women, clothed in their best,
which happened to be a profusion of red baize. The chief wife of Shinte,
one of the Matebele or Zulus, sat in front with a curious red cap on her head.
During the intervals between the speeches, these ladies burst forth
into a sort of plaintive ditty; but it was impossible for any of us to catch
whether it was in praise of the speaker, of Shinte, or of themselves.
This was the first time I had ever seen females present in a public assembly.
In the south the women are not permitted to enter the kotla;
and even when invited to come to a religious service there, would not enter
until ordered to do so by the chief; but here they expressed approbation
by clapping their hands, and laughing to different speakers;
and Shinte frequently turned round and spoke to them.
A party of musicians, consisting of three drummers and four performers
on the piano, went round the kotla several times, regaling us
with their music. Their drums are neatly carved from the trunk of a tree,
and have a small hole in the side covered with a bit of spider's web:
the ends are covered with the skin of an antelope pegged on;
and when they wish to tighten it, they hold it to the fire
to make it contract: the instruments are beaten with the hands.
The piano, named "marimba", consists of two bars of wood placed side by side,
here quite straight, but, farther north, bent round so as to resemble
half the tire of a carriage-wheel; across these are placed
about fifteen wooden keys, each of which is two or three inches broad,
and fifteen or eighteen inches long; their thickness is regulated
according to the deepness of the note required: each of the keys
has a calabash beneath it; from the upper part of each a portion is cut off
to enable them to embrace the bars, and form hollow sounding-boards
to the keys, which also are of different sizes, according to
the note required; and little drumsticks elicit the music.
Rapidity of execution seems much admired among them, and the music
is pleasant to the ear. In Angola the Portuguese use the marimba
in their dances.
When nine speakers had concluded their orations, Shinte stood up,
and so did all the people. He had maintained true African dignity of manner
all the while, but my people remarked that he scarcely ever
took his eyes off me for a moment.
