It is played by striking the keys with two sticks; the performer holds one in each hand and squats on his heels in front of it: sometimes there are two players, who face each other; the first leads, and the second is said to ‘make a harmony with the one who is playing.’ But the drum is perhaps the commonest and most characteristic instrument, and the one which has been brought to the greatest perfection. There are many different kinds, from the little _kandimbe_, a mere toy for children, four or five inches across, and tapped with the fingers, to the great _mpanje_ and _kunta_, five feet or more in length, or the _mgulugulu_ war-drum, which is beaten with sticks to call the people together. None of them have two heads; the body is made of a single piece of wood hollowed out, and the head of goat-skin, or perhaps oxhide; some small drums (more like tambourines) are covered with snake or lizard skin. The sound of the large ones can be heard five or six miles away. Some are beaten with sticks, some with the hand—either with the fist (as the big _mpangula_, which is supported on a forked piece of wood), or the open palm, or the fingers. Some of the smaller drums are held against the chest and beaten with the open hands, which gives a peculiar, soft, booming sound; one kind is held under the arm; another is laid lengthwise on the ground, and the drummer sits astride it. Still another has legs like a small round stool, and is beaten with two sticks as it stands on the ground. The _mfinta_ drum (large, but not the largest kind) calls the people together when the _mabisalila_ is investigating a case of witchcraft; it is also used in a dance where the performers carry hoes and strike them together. There is a wonderful variety in the notes; ‘the smaller drums are made to answer the big ones, the rapid and slower beats blending in the most perfect time.... There are skilled drummers who go to the dances like a piper at a Scotch wedding’ (Scott). Drums are tuned when necessary by leaving them in front of a fire, or burning some grass inside them to dry the skin and draw it tighter. The skin is fastened on by small wooden pegs, and has a piece of rubber fastened to the middle of its underside. Besides the drums, most dances require an additional sound-producing agency in the shape of rattles. These are worn on the arms and legs of the dancers, or shaken in their hands. The commonest kind are made of a hard-shelled fruit called _tseche_, about two inches or less in diameter; it is allowed to dry till the seeds shake about inside it, and then four or five are strung on a stick, and several of these sticks attached round the ankles of the dancers. Women never wear these _maseche_ at their _chamba_ dance, above referred to; but men always do at their corresponding one, called _chitoto_.