Ta iye (?) zi ri kwa Matewere chinkumbaleza—Ga da o ho!
Ndimana ine, ndimana cha ng’ombe chikopa tu!
The rhythm of the songs is rather indefinite; it resembles that of some sailors’ chanties—e.g. the well-known Rio Grande. They often consist of only a few words, repeated ad infinitum, with a refrain of meaningless syllables, sometimes mere open vowel sounds—as: e, e, e, e, o, o, o, o—wo ya yo ho, etc. In canoe-songs and the like, time is marked by the beat of the paddles, the rise and fall of the women’s pestles, and so on; at a dance, it is given by the drums. Some soloist usually leads off with an improvised line, which is either taken up and sung in chorus, or a response to it is so sung, and the principal performer continues till he has exhausted his idea. If the song ‘catches on,’ it is remembered and repeated, and passes into the common stock. Some dances have their recognised songs, as ‘Kanonomera e! e!’ at the Angoni women’s kunju dance, and ‘Leka ululuza mwana hiye! (Stop winnowing, child!)—e! e! e! e!—o! o! o! o!’ at the chamba dance.
The Dancing-man
Singing, music, and dancing, or other rhythmic action, are very much mixed up together, as is always the case in the elementary stages of those arts; and a combination of all three is practised by the itinerant poet known as the ‘dancing-man.’ Of his instrument, the chimwenyumwenyu, Mr. Barnes says that ‘performers on it are rare and are most welcome guests in any village.’ It is a primitive kind of fiddle, with one string and a gourd resonator, played with a bow, which, when made, has its string passed over the string of the instrument, and so can never be taken off. The man in the illustration, however, appears to be playing on the limba, which has six strings strung on a piece of wood across the mouth of a large gourd, and is played with both thumbs. The gourd is hung round with bits of metal or of shells, to jingle and rattle when it is shaken. The ‘dancing-man’ teaches the children the chorus of his songs, and then, ‘carries on a dialogue of song with his audience, with the excitement and rhythm of an inspired improvisatore.’ Another kind of limba is that shown in the illustration, which was obtained from some Atonga:—a shallow wooden trough with a handle at one end, and pierced at top and bottom with six holes, through which a cord is strung backwards and forwards, and tightened up by winding round the handle. Like the other kind of limba, it is played with the thumbs. But the word limba is of wide application; it (or its plural malimba, marimba) sometimes denotes the xylophone or ‘Kafir piano’ (Ronga timbila), while natives use it for a harmonium, organ, or piano.
Other stringed instruments are the pango, resembling the dancing-man’s limba, but played with a stick or plectrum instead of the thumbs; the mngoli, the body of which is made like a small drum—it has one string with a bridge, and is played with a bow; the kalirangwe, with one string and a gourd resonator, played either with the fingers or a bit of grass; and the very primitive one (mtangala) represented in the illustration, which is played by women only, and is simply a piece of reed, slightly bent, with a string fastened at one end and wound on the other, so that it can be tightened up at pleasure. One end of this is held in the mouth and the string twanged with the finger, producing a very slight but not unpleasant sound, which, as Bishop Colenso remarked of a somewhat similar instrument in Natal, ‘gratifies the performer and annoys nobody else.’
The sansi has a set of iron keys fixed on a wooden sounding-box, and played with the thumbs; it has a piece of metal fixed on the front of the box, to which are attached small discs cut from the shells of the great Achatina snail, so as to clash when shaken, like the bells on a tambourine. A very similar instrument has the keys made of bamboo.
Musical Instruments