ABSTRACT
The oldest extant written report of a European voyage of discovery is probably Hanno s Periplus, which survives in Greek records. The original, engraved in the Phoenician language on a tablet in a temple at Carthage, about 500 B .C . , described a voyage through the "Pillars of Hercules" (the Straits of Gibraltar), and down the west coast of Africa (Hodges 1876:35). It told of an island in a bay, near what guides identified as the "Horn of the West":
We could discover nothing in the day time except trees; but in the night we saw many fires burning, and heard the sound of pipes, cymbals, drums, and confused shouts. We were then afraid, and our diviners ordered us to abandon the island. (Palmer 1931:2)
This account mentions indigenous music, whose effect on Hanno and his diviners was to inspire fear. While the local populace may have directed their musical performance to that end, xenophobia informed other early representations of African music.
