CENTRAL AFRICAN GONG-LANGUAGES

18 A C O M P A R A T IV E S T U D YHe adds :The other letters are formed in combination with thesevowel sounds by striking the line with a second drum ­stick with more or less of emphasis or précision.From a priori considérations however, we should doubtIhe validity of this « explanation », since the CentralAfrican native with bis characteristic oral tradition doesnot differentiate between vowels and consonants in theway Dennett’s analysis suggests (x).lu an account given by T r i l l e s (95, p. 349) signallingmethods used hv some tribes of French Equatorial Africaare record ed as :pa-ta panpan ............................ a chief, so-and-so.pa-ta panpan ............................ the village is in danger.pan-pan pan-patapan ........... .... women fly immediately.pan... panpanpanpan... pan. warriors ail run to arms.pa-ta panpan ......................... .... to chief so-and-so.We know that the gongs of this région often havesignais with a tonal basis such as those described laterin this present study and that therefore the account givenabove has probably missed the true technique of messagetransmission. It is suggestive that somewhat similarrecords of gong-signalling with a basis which is at presentunknown may vield to further analysis and be shown tohave some connection with the linguistic phrases whichare said to describe them.lt may not be out of place to note finally a more recentattempt to « explain » drum-signalling in Africa whichinvokes the aid of telepathy as the means of theconvoyance of ihe message. After rightly appreciatingthe difficulty for Europeans of learning the drum-(l) Crawley (17, p. 252) recommends this account of messagetransmission by drums as being « ail the more valuable because it isfree from any attempt to heighten the effect ».