THE SECRET TRANSMISSION OF NEWS.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sia,—With reference to your article on "The Secret Trans- mission of News " in the Spectator of August 16th, I find Mr•. S. L. Hinde on p. 58 of " The Fall of the Congo Arabs " writes :—
" Up the Sunkurn we found ourselves always expected, the steamer having been signalled two or three days in advance. When we arrived at our destination we found that the whole native population at Lusumto had known that we were coming a couple of days be;ore our arrival. Here, as elsewhere in Africa, the natives have such a perfect system of telegraphing or signal- ling by means of their drums that they are able to make any com- munications as far as a drum can be heard, which is often several miles. As the information is usually repeated by all the drummers who hear it, a whole district knows of an event a very few minutes, or hours, after it has occurred. This system of telegraphing is most interesting. Though different tribes and parts of tribes have their own codes, there seems to be some method running through all the codes; for, when interrogating a drummer on the subject of another chief's signals, he often replied that he had never heard that particular drum, or would, of course, know it. We were by means of these drums able to keep up a constant communication day and night with our allies and natives for miles round the camp. Every evening some member of our com- pany would amuse himself by rapping out abuse at the enemy, which was returned with zest from the hostile camp. Occasionally a friendly gossip would be kept up, one side telling the other news of its respective harems, what food they had to eat, and bow many hours the chief had slept that day. The native instinct for boasting and exaggeration generally became a predominant feature on these occasions, and the conversation would almost invariably degenerate into a lying match, each drummer trying to cap his opponent's last message. Everything that happened was so well known in both camps that by simply telling a piece of news to one's servant it immediately spread throughout the whole Arab camp."
I am under the impression that frequent drumming is a noticeable fact on the enemy's part in frontier and other native wars, and if it is once realised that it is all part of a clear signalling system, the key will be discovered in due
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