habitants are mostly Dyaks.

BANJO, a musical instrument with strings plucked by fingers or plectrum,
popular among the American negroes and introduced by them into Europe. The
word is either a corruption of "bandore" or "pandura" (_q.v._), an
instrument of the guitar type, or is derived from "bania," the name of a
similar primitive Senegambian instrument.

The banjo consists of a body composed of a single piece of vellum stretched
like a drum-head over a wooden or metal hoop to ensure the requisite degree
of resonance; the parchment may be tightened or slackened by means of a
series of screws disposed round the circumference of the hoop. Attached to
the body, which has no back, is a long neck, terminating in a flat head
acting as a peg-box and bent back slightly at an obtuse angle from the
neck. There are five, six or nine strings to the banjo; they are fastened
to a tail-piece as in the violin, pass over a low bridge, on the body, and
are strained over the nut or ridge at the end of the neck, where they are
threaded through holes and wound round the tuning-pegs fixed in the back of
the head in Oriental fashion, as in the lute (_q.v._). The strings are
stopped [v.03 p.0318] by the pressure of the fingers against the
finger-board which lies over the front of the neck; the correct positions
for the formation of the intervals of the scale are indicated in some
banjos by frets consisting of metal or wooden bands inlaid in the
finger-board. The vibrating length of the strings from bridge to nut is 24
in. for all except the highest in pitch, known as the "chanterelle,"
"melody" or "thumb string," which is only 16 in. long; its tuning peg is
inserted half-way up the neck. The chanterelle is not, as in other stringed
instruments, in its position as the highest in pitch, but is placed next
the lowest string for convenience in playing it with the thumb. In the
tables of accordance here given, the chanterelle is indicated by a X. The
five-stringed banjo is tuned either

[Notation: 5:E5X 4:A3 3:E4 2:G4# 1:B4.] or [Notation: 5:D5X 4:G3 3:D4 2:F4#
1:A4.]

The six-stringed is tuned [Notation: 6:G5X 5:G3 4:D4 3:G4 2:B4 1:D5.]

The nine-stringed banjo has three thumb strings thus [Notation: 9:F5#X
8:G5X 7:A5X 6:G3 5:C4 4:D4 3:G4 2:B4 1:D5.]

The G clef is used in notation, but the notes sound an octave lower than
they are written. The banjo is usually a transposing instrument in the
sense that, when playing with other instruments,