ABSTRACT
Music, dancing, and song are an integral part of nearly all the social activities of the BaVenda. Drums and wind instruments, chiefly pipes and horns, form a band for most dances, and are, with the mbila, the instruments of social value, played primarily for the benefit of the community, and not for the aesthetic enjoyment of the musician himself. There are two tribal dances of special interest and significance accompanied by the music of drums and flutes, the tshikona and ma-thanngwa. Songs are extemporized to commemorate almost every incident of unusual interest or significance. A girl asked a young man, Gabara, for a pinch of snuff, which he gave to her although she was a stranger. As a result of breaking the snuff tabu he became a vicious character and worried her with indecent suggestions until, finally, he committed adultery with her.
