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The Mayas of old were wont to abandon the house where a person had died. Many still observe that same custom when they can afford to do so; for they believe that the spirit of the departed hovers round it. Among the musical instruments used by the Mayas there were two kinds of drums the Tunkul and the Zacatan. They are still used by the aborigines in their religious festivals and dances.
Du Chaillu asserts having seen one of these Ngoma, formed of a hollow log, nine feet long, at Apono; and describes a Fan drum which corresponds to the Zacatan of the Mayas as follows: “The cylinder was about four feet long and ten inches in diameter at one end, but only seven at the other. The wood was hollowed out quite thin, and the skin stretched over tightly.
It is by striking on those tongues with two balls of india-rubber, attached to the end of sticks, that the instrument is played. The Zacatan is another sort of drum, also hollowed from the trunk of a tree. This is opened at both ends. On one end a piece of skin is tightly stretched.
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