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Specimen label: Used by the Indians of Sao Gabriel, Brazil in
their Dabocuris or Festas. These drums are hollowed out by means of fire and the lower ends closed with fresh leaves
beaten hard with a pestle. The performers in the dances beat them on the ground in unison with the movements of their feet.
Richard Spruce's Journals from Barra to the Orinoco, from Barra to Tarapato and notes on the uses of
Amazon plants and on cryptograms. (Journal entry for 17-18 April 1851), p. 52:
Ambuaba, or drum, made of the trunk of Cecropia peltata; those of the men were about three ft long and five inches in
diameter; the diameter of the bore being about four inches; those of the boys were smaller. They had been bored by means
of fire, and the lower end closed with leaves beat down with a pestle. Two oblong holes were cut near each other adjacent
to upper end at tube, by which it was held, the thumb being inserted into one hole and the fingers into the other. The
lower end for the breadth of a few inches was painted black and about the space of a foot near middle was painted with
fantastic devices to taste of fabricator. At length they appeared in a file, beating the ground with their drums and
formed themselves in a ring still drumming away.
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