musical instruments, piano, karimba, instrument, thumb piano, marimba

"The sense depicted in Fig. 342 is an interesting and beautiful variant of this instrument. The wooden board, to which the 8 iron pegs (tone rods) are attached, is paddle-shaped and provided with two pins or projections, cut in the same piece as the board. In the middle of the disc is a round sound opening, covered with fine, tissue-like bark. I have information that in some parts of Rhodesia it is common to stick a spider web over the sound openings of the drums to improve the tone, thus a similar device as on the balenge people's sensory instruments, although of different materials. The bar bars are attached to the wooden board by means of two iron pegs in the manner shown in the picture. An almost globular gourd serves as the resonant bottom, on which about a quarter of the shell has been cut away. The gourd is around the mouth provided with a braid of fabric and bast to prevent the wooden board from slamming against the hard edge of the gourd, when the senses are played. The wickerwork is attached to the resonant bottom with the help of a string, which is pulled through a series of holes around the mouth of the gourd. The resonant bottom is attached to the sansa itself with a string so long that the sansa can be lifted off the gourd and placed next to it. The sense is adorned with two feathers and the gourd is provided with engraved ornaments, which consist of triangles and an attempt to depict a velocipede. Sansa is called by babisa for kirimba, by balenge for karimba." (pp. 417-419, von Rosen, 1916, translated from Swedish).