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.  About a thousand people were present, according to my calculation, and three hundred soldiers.  The sun had now become hot; and the scene ended by the Mambari discharging their guns.

18Th.  We were awakened during the night by a message from Shinte, requesting a visit at a very unseasonable hour.  As I was just in the sweating stage of an intermittent, and the path to the town lay through a wet valley, I declined going.  Kolimbota, who knows their customs best, urged me to go; but, independent of sickness, I hated words of the night and deeds of darkness.  “I was neither a hyaena nor a witch.”  Kolimbota thought that we ought to conform to their wishes in every thing:  I thought we ought to have some choice in the matter as well, which put him into high dudgeon.  However, at ten next morning we went, and were led into the courts of Shinte, the walls of which were woven rods, all very neat and high.  Many trees stood within the inclosure and afforded a grateful shade.  These had been planted, for we saw some recently put in, with grass wound round the trunk to protect them from the sun.  The otherwise waste corners of the streets were planted with sugar-cane and bananas, which spread their large light leaves over the walls.

The Ficus Indica tree, under which we now sat, had very large leaves, but showed its relationship to the Indian banian by sending down shoots toward the ground.  Shinte soon came, and appeared a man of upward of fifty-five years of age, of frank and open countenance, and about the middle height.  He seemed in good humor, and said he had expected yesterday “that a man who came from the gods would have approached and talked to him.”  That had been my own intention in going to the reception; but when we came and saw the formidable preparations, and all his own men keeping at least forty yards off from him, I yielded to the solicitations of my men, and remained by the tree opposite to that under which he sat.  His remark confirmed my previous belief that a frank, open, fearless manner is the most winning with all these Africans.  I stated the object of my journey and mission, and to all I advanced the old gentleman clapped his hands in approbation.  He replied through a spokesman; then all the company joined in the response by clapping of hands too.