DRUM-SIGNALLING IN CENTRAL AFRICA.
TO THE EDITOR OF rus" SPECTATOR.".1 SIE,—I thought an experience of mine in Uganda at the beginning of the year might interest you. It was on a shooting trip up country from Entebbe in January, when I was taken down with fever and had to hurry back to head- quarters. I had been told there, before I set out, that the drum was a great feature among the Mugandas, both on the march and in their " shambas " or kraals ; so much so, that I was advised to take a drum, and did so, to announce the hour for sleep and to rouse the carriers in the morning. But I bad yet to learn the potent effect of the drum of the native chief ! The night but one before reaching Entebbe I pulled up at the kraal of a big chief, Kitunzi, who was well enough educated to speak quite good English. I was by this time very bad with fever and anxious to get within reach of Entebbe, which was still quite fifty miles off. I sent for Kitunzi, who
promptly turned up with several of his headmen. The first thing that struck me was his absolute deference as he stood bareheaded at the tent-door, his headmen all standing with chairs in their hands. I invited the chief into my tent, telling my Swahili servant to hand him my chair. I then asked him if he would like a drink, but be would not take anything stronger than a cup of tea well sugared. He spoke in quite good English, asking me how many days the fever had been on me. I told him I wished to push on as quickly as possible in the morning and to be supplied with relays of natives. His bearing throughout was intelligent in the extreme and most respectful. Having obtained my per- mission to leave, he departed with his councillors. Soon after, I heard a drum begin to beat; it was still beating when time came to turn in, the sound seeming to circle round and round, now far away, now near. I asked my servant what it meant, and Wild told it was the chief calling in his tribesmen to carry me. Whenever I awoke in the night the drum was still beating, and at 4 a.m., when I roused the carriers so that they should get ahead of me, the same weird signal was still booming its solemn call.
At 6 a.m. I signified my intention of leaving, and im- mediately some natives appeared to take me up. Just an ordinary number ; nothing to denote that the drum had Caused anything out of the way. But its magic influence soon appeared, for I found the road lined with natives, not tens or twenties, but hundreds kept streaming along with me, a huge drum beating in front, while a man as spokesman or leader of the chorus shouted his questions, the crowd answering in unison: "Is he not sick ?"—" Yes." "Is he not of Princes ? "—" Yes." "Is he not of the Sebowa (native Princes) P "—" Yes." So they chanted on, hands changing with hands, carrying me at a swinging trot, so that by 2 p.m., in spite of an hour's break whilg my servant prepared me some food, they had covered a distance of forty miles. The willingness and good humour with which these natives carried me, an utter stranger, and without the insignia of officialism, will ever remain in my memory as a happy feature of my trip
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