rommelpot, noun

/ˈrɔməlpɔt/
Forms:
Also romelpot.
Origin:
DutchShow more Dutch, ‘rumblepot’ (used also of a friction drum of the Low Countries).
historical
The colonial name given to a simple Khoikhoi drum, the khais; also called bambus. See also pot dance.
1790 tr. of F. Le Vaillant’s Trav. II. 107The romelpot is the most noisy of all the instruments...It is formed of a piece of the trunk of a tree made hollow, over one of the ends of which is stretched a sheep’s skin well tanned; on this the performer beats with his hands, or, to speak more accurately, with his fists, and sometimes even with a stick.
1841 B. Shaw Memorials 26The pot dance, in which rommel pots are made use of instead of reeds.
1841 B. Shaw Memorials 92In their state of ignorance, they had often danced to the sound of the rommel pot, while the moon was walking in brightness.
1861 P.B. Borcherds Auto-Biog. Mem. 103They (sc. the San) were enjoying themselves with playing their native music, produced by beating on a pot covered with skin, a rude drum known as the rommelpot.
1861 P.B. Borcherds Auto-Biog. Mem. 114Amongst their instruments is one known by the colonists as the rommel-pot. It is simply a vessel covered with skin, and played like a drum.
1881 Encycl. Brit. XII. 311The ‘rommel-pot’ was a kind of drum.
1934 P.R. Kirby Musical Instruments of Native Races (1965) 12The name rommelpot..was that by which the colonist described the Hottentot drum.
1948 L.G. Green To River’s End 153They (sc. the San) do not seem to have had drums of their own, but they copied the Hottentot ‘rommelpot’ and called it a ‘tam-tam’.
1976 A.P. Brink Instant in Wind 213They took out musical instruments and in the moonlight the reedflutes began their breathy shrill, accompanied by the sad monotony of the ghoera and the rumbling of the rommelpot.
[1980 D.B. Coplan Urbanization of African Performing Arts. 45The ramkie rapidly became a favorite with Cape Hottentots, who played on it the first blendings of Hottentot and European folk melodies. Other instruments included a Hottentot drum (khais; Dutch: rommelpot) and an imitation of the European bugle made of kelp and called the sea-weed trumpet. All three accompanied slave-Hottentot dances performed after the European fashion.]
The colonial name given to a simple Khoikhoi drum, the khais; also called bambus.
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Roman-Dutch, adjectiveadj.rondavel, nounn.
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