SINCE the first edition of this book went to press I have come across some fresh information of considerable importance which I have felt bound to include in my work. Further, I have thought it desirable to add descriptions of several practices which were omitted from my original draft. These additions appear below under the titles of the respective chapters in which they might otherwise have been incorporated. Foremost among these are those derived from the valuable Venda and Ndebele texts gathered from native informants, translated, and published in the form of Government blue books by Dr. N. J. Van Warmelo. I was not aware, when I wrote my book, that these texts contained musical information. This information, however, is of such value that I have considered it advisable to quote much of it verbatim, particularly as it was obtained, in the vernacular, from native informants.

CHAPTER I: RATTLES AND CLAPPERS

Bushman rattles.

A description of a rudimentary type of rattle was obtained by Dr. Bleek and Miss Lloyd from a /Xam Bushman between 1870 and 1880. It has been recently edited and published by Miss D. F. Bleek. ‘They strike sticks (upon each other), because they want the sun to come out. They also beat shoes together, when they see the sun getting small; they beat the shoes because they want the sun to come out, until it gets big, until it comes out, and stands outside in the sky. Then they leave off.’ This passage describes how the Bushmen behaved during an eclipse of the sun, and it is interesting to note that they deliberately attempted to attract the sun's attention by beating sticks together, for, as they said, ‘We fear the sun not alittle, for we know that if we should be on the hunting-ground and the sun were to go in, darkness would shut as out from home.’;

Venda rattles.

Dr. Van Warmelo has obtained and translated a number of original Tshivenda texts in which two types of Venda rattle are described. The first type is described in a passage which deals with one phase of the sungwi, or circumcision ceremony of the Venda girls.