This is Scientific American 60 Second Science.

I'm Christopher Intagiyata.

Before the internet or cell phones, radio or telegraph,

long distance communication meant riders on horseback, carrier pigeons, or semaphore.

But various cultures also devised ways to produce audio messages that travel miles, like the

sounds of the monguaree drums of the Bora people in the Northwestern Amazon.

The drums look like wooden cannons with a slit on top. A player stands between two of them and beats out

a rhythm, either purely musical or a Morse code like message.

For example, bring the coca leaves for toasting.

They have this fantastic sound which resounds through the jungle and can be heard

up to 15 or 20 kilometers away.

Frank Seifard is a linguist at the University of Amsterdam

and the University of Cologne.

That extends the range of the human boys by about 100.

There's a drinking game in Bora culture,

who can drink the most Kawana, a non-alcoholic

kasava drink.

The winner might declare, I am finishing the Kawana.

Or broadcast that boast on the drums.

Saifard and his team analyze those beats and the corresponding spoken phrases.

Krakku Kühku Khaqkuenkunhe. corresponding spoken phrases, phrases,

and found that the pauses were related to the number of vowels and consonants in the phrases.

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