"Did you hear the singular drum-like sounds this afternoon?"
"They were drums," answered John, "and most peculiar ones, too. I have not seen the ones used by the natives here, but they have the same resonant sounds made by certain African tribes, and also by some South American savages."
"What is it like?" was Harry's next question.
"They are made of flat pieces of wood, very thin, laid over open-topped gourds. The gourds are, of course, dried, and the dryer they are, the more resonant the sound."
"Why, that is something like the Xylophone."
"Exactly so. That instrument is of savage origin. Instead of gourds some tribes use calabashes, which grow to enormous size, and they are highly prized owing to the quality of the sound they produce when used in this way."
"But the ones we heard had different tones."
"They use wooden strips of different lengths, exactly like the Xylophone. They are called Marimbas, balafongs and sansas, by the various tribes."
While George, Harry and Uraso, were scouting to the north they unexpectedly came around the corner of a hill, from which they could see a beautiful valley running to the north, and directly opposite, on a little plateau, was a type of mountain deer, standing like a sentinel near the precipitous edge, while below were dozens feeding.
The boys dared not shoot at them, but they remembered the place, and made up their minds that as soon as they had made friends of the natives they would have a hunt in this section.