Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A small drum consisting of a section of bamboo covered at one end with sheepskin, formerly in use among slaves in Louisiana.
- noun A dance performed to the accompaniment of such a drum.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Square -- now Beauregard Square -- and here, on Sunday nights, wild dances used to occur -- the "bamboula" and "calinda" -- and sinister spells were cast.
American Adventures A Second Trip 'Abroad at home' Julian Street 1913
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Just inside, Congo Square -- where two centuries ago enslaved Africans and free people of color spent Sundays dancing and drumming to the bamboula rhythm, seeding the pulse of New Orleans jazz -- had been effectively off limits.
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It was then they danced the bamboula, incessantly.
The Flower of the Chapdelaines George Washington Cable 1884
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When the goombay -- a flour-barrel drum -- sounded, the town knew the bamboula had begun.
The Flower of the Chapdelaines George Washington Cable 1884
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It was the eastern bamboula of the Harems, to which was added all the elastic joyance, all the gay brilliancy of the blood of France.
Under Two Flags 1839-1908 Ouida 1873
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"I prefer a bamboula whose music is the cannon, bon pere."
Under Two Flags 1839-1908 Ouida 1873
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She thought of herself as she had danced that mad bacchic bamboula amid the crowd of shouting, stamping, drunken, half-infuriated soldiery; and for the moment she hated herself more even than she hated that patrician yonder.
Under Two Flags 1839-1908 Ouida 1873
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"Parbleu!" swore the vivandiere in her wrath, "you look on at a bamboula as if it were only a bear-cub dancing, and can only give one 'yes' and 'no,' as if one were a drummer-boy.
Under Two Flags 1839-1908 Ouida 1873
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