slit-log drum, slit log

System employing slit-log drums used by the Bissago people of Guinea-Bissau, described in Wilson (1963) (as “Bijagó”) along with surrogates of several related Bak languages and Sua. The instrument itself is a slit-log drum several feet in length, elevated on a stool; it is “deliberately wetted with buckets of water before use, and its hollow… half filled with dried palm leaves that had also been moistened” (807). It is beaten with two sticks over a foot in length, producing two pitches “several tones apart” (807). According to Wilson, the language has H and L tones, corresponding to high and low pitches on the drum (811). Content includes long distance communication.

Wilson (1963)