Crossword-Solution: NGOMA 5 letters, 1 clue 🏆 scrabble score: 8

The orchestra consisted of three monstrous drums (Ngoma Khu), caissons of cocoa-trunk, covered at both ends with goat-leather, and pounded, like the pulpit, with fist; and of Siwa or bassoons of hard blackwood, at least five feet long.

Many a morning and afternoon have I spent in their huts or yards, and succeeded in securing some good phonographic records of the songs sung at _ngoma_ dances, besides numerous solos and melodies played by members of various tribes on their national instruments.

After spending some time in the native quarter, watching the dances of various tribes—here a Manyema _ngoma_, there one of the Wazaramo, or yonder again that of some coast people’s club, and observing the costumes of the performers, sometimes hideous but always picturesque, I returned to my own quarters, at the head of a procession numbering some hundreds of the dancers, male and female, in order to take down the audible part of the proceedings.

The word _ngoma_, in its original signification means nothing more than a drum; in an extended sense it denotes all festivities carried on to the sound of the drum.

Tails of animals are supposed to have great efficacy in magic, and usually belong to a witch-doctor’s outfit, either forming part of his costume or carried in his hand.—[TR.] Footnote 41: The Makua word corresponding to _ngoma_.—[TR.] Footnote 42: This Nyanja word, here used for convenience sake, means the “village green,” or “forum,” where the affairs of the community are discussed, and all public transactions take place.—[TR.] Footnote 43: This action is called _ku luluta_ both in Yao and in Nyanja.