Talking drum

Young drummers in a street procession, each carrying an hourglass-shaped talking drum slung at the hip. Tension cords join its two heads, and squeezing them under the arm while striking with a curved stick bends the pitch up and down. Among the Yoruba, where the drum is called the dùndún, skilled players use that glide to copy the three tones of the spoken language, so a drummed phrase can be heard as words.