Crossword-Solution: MARIMBA 7 letters, 35 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 13

The orchestra consisted of two men sitting opposite each other,--one performed on a caisson, a log of hollowed wood, four feet high, skin-covered, and fancifully carved; the other on the national Anjyá, a rude "Marimba," the prototype of the pianoforte.

This form of the universal marimba is a sounding-board of light wood, measuring eight inches by five; some eight to eleven iron keys, flat strips of thin metal, pass over an upright bamboo bridge, fixed by thongs to the body, and rest at the further end upon a piece of skin which prevents "twanging." The tocador or performer brings out soft and pleasing tones with the sides of the thumbs and fingers.

Reade says of the musicians he met up the Senegal,-- "There are three classes of these public minstrels,--1, those who play such vulgar instruments as the flute and drum; 2, those who play on the ballafond, which is the marimba of Angola and South America, and on the harp; 3, those who sing the legends and battle-songs of their country, or who improvise satires or panegyrics.

All these are tuned in a peculiar manner, and with great nicety, especially the marimba[92]; but, as I am no musician, I cannot explain their methods.

The great marimba consists of a large wooden frame; in which a number of hollow canes, about nine inches long, are placed, with the mouth upwards; across these open ends are laid pieces of sonorous wood, which being struck with another yield a pleasant sound, like the wooden armonicas of Malacca.