Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 133, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1912 — TELEGRAPH OF SAVAGE [ARTICLE]

TELEGRAPH OF SAVAGE

■ BENDB NEWS SWIFtLY OVER GREAT DISTANCES. - Natives of toe Sudan Use towns of Elephant Tusks, Tomtoms and Whistles Bssutos Employ Large Gourd Drums. V • v>v The principle of telegraphy would appear to ’ have been anticipated by the savage tribee of Africa in the heart of Africa. This barbaric system of communication, at once practical and effective, survives to this day and its value has been tested many times. French explorers seem to have been the first to bring this system to the knowledge of civilized people. By means of It sews important events in the Interior of the Sudan reaches all the trading ports on tbe coast to a very short time. The communication Is made by means of various instruments, the* most common ones being horns, tomtoms and whistles. Tbe horns are made of solid ivory, hollowed out ofelephants’ tusks. Tbe mouthpiece Is at the side. These trumpets are of various sizes, but the favorite ones are very long and give seven distinct notes, produced by plugging the mouthpiece with corks of different sizes. The ordinary tomtom Is a hoi* ow bit of wood, with a goatskin stretched over one end. The following instance Illustrates tbe manner in which this native telegraph is employed. The post commander at Stanley Phils was ©nee Informed by a native of a neighboring village that a provision train had been attacked two days before at a potot 180 miles further down the Congo. A week later tbe party arrived and confirmed the story In part. > , They had reached the scene of tbO alleged attack at the time reported, but the shots that the natives bad taken as indications of a conflict with robbers bad been fired at a herd of antelope. At a later period, when an officer of the French Congo came to grief in the rapids, the accident was reported tbe next morning at a village 186 miles difitftllt* Among the Bengala tribe a sort of xylophone Is used with four notes, by means of which the natives communicate over great distances In a kind of telegraphic language. } :j An American missionary working , among tbe Basutos discovered that the villages had means of conveying messages from one chief to another or of transmitting the intelligence of defeat or victory. The Basutos hollow out a large gourd and thoroughly dry 1L Theta kidskin, as hard and as thin as parchment, is stretched across the hollow at this gourd. When- beaten with a padded drum stick this gives forth a sound that can be distinctly heard at a distance of from five to eight mile*. In every village there is a class of men who are utilized as scouts. Among these there are always some trained to use the gourd drum. Tbe code Is what might be called an African Morse alphabet and is beaten on the drum In the open air. - The sound Is carried across toe valleys and glens to the next village, where it is Interpreted by another scout If the message Is for a distant village he repeats it on his drum and In this way It Is carried .from village to village, with very litUoloss of time until it reaches the person for j whom It Is Intended.