Hourglass drum

Single membrane variable tension hourglass-shaped drum. Wooden body with a long cylindrical waist and expanding conical ends, which are convex in profile. The open lower rim is carved with circular holes and is indented with U-shaped notches, suggesting that the notches may themselves have originally been circular holes, and the rim has broken in places. Monitor-lizard skin membrane, the edge lapped over a narrow concealed hoop. Short loops of vegetable fibre lacing tension the membrane directly beneath the hoop's edge and are sewn into the skin. The main lacing (also of vegetable fibre) passes between these loops and the holes and notches around the lower rim. A leather apron is tied round the front of the body. This consists of a wide lateral black leather band with a red leather sheet hanging beneath. The sheet has been cut vertically into a long fringe of narrow strips, some of which have discs, rings and pendants tied to the ends, one of them a 1/2 d British West African coin dating from 1952.