Dear Sir, In the past several months we have been hearing about our Gombeys touring in Switzerland, Spain Germany, USA and more recently off to St. Kitts.

I for one am pleased to see so much attention paid to what I understand to be a uniquely Bermudian tradition, in fact I have some friends who are Gombeys; let me explain.

The word Gombey comes from the town of that name in Central Nigeria, home to the famous "talking drums''. These are known for their rhythmic, almost hypnotic beat, which to the untrained ear sounds monotonous; but no masks.

Masks are found further south in Yorubaland, or modern day Western Nigeria with Ibadan and its University as its cultural, business and spiritual heart.

The Yorubas are famous for their masks and wood carvings used in their masks and wood carvings used in their ancient rituals, but no dancing.

Dancing comes from the Cameroons, Senegal and I believe, Sierra Leone. I visited the latter country only once, but they tried to kill me so I left in a hurry, but no costumes.

Costumes come from the Ashanti Kingdom, or modern day Ghana. This being the western end of the trans-Sahara trade route, with Egypt in the East and Accra on the Atlantic coast. Beads, bangles, bright shiny buttons and richly coloured cloth in exchange for gold, silver and slaves.

It was only when all these people reached the New World that their different cultures and traditions started to come together, culminating in what we know today as a "Gombey troupe''.

I am at a loss to explain the addition of peacock feathers, maybe someone saw an old Colonial Governor dressed in his plumes and said "Why not?'' That is the end of my story with our Gombeys greater than the sum of all its parts and deserve a place in our culture and hearts. To the Gombeys off to St.

Kitts I say "go for the gold''.

The ways of Africa are many, varied and mysterious. I love and respect my Africa, its people, traditions and customs. I also love and respect my Bermuda, its people, traditions and customs; keep the faith.

DOUGLAS C. ROBERTS Sandys Parish Where's the supervision? July 18, 2000 Dear Sir, Along with most businesses we have just received the Manpower Survey forms from the Government Statistical Department, covering the work week July 30 to August 5.

Also enclosed was an explanatory letter stating that (three) completed sample colour coded pages were included to show how the forms were to be filled out.

One of these colour coded pages has the word SAMPLE stamped in letters so huge that it obliterates much of the information provided by the Statistical office, as a guideline.

The other two colour coded pages also have the word SAMPLE stamped in huge letters across the front, but are not samples because no information has been filled in on these two pages. In other words, they have been sent out blank.

Finally, two public holidays occur in the week of July 30 to August 5 which makes the entire exercise complete nonsense.

Is there no supervision over such an important project? This is quite incredulous.

AMAZED Warwick Mistaken identity? July 20, 2000 Dear Sir, In response to your letter dated July 10, 2000. I would like to clarify that I was exceeding the speed limit due to personal reasons. I was not just joy riding.

To the man that wrote the letter, Mr. Russell Eddy, I wonder why you chose to sensationalise the story, by out and out lying and saying I was talking on a cell phone as I do not own one or have access to one.

Could you have somehow had the wrong license number? MAXINE Warwick Time to go Mr. Allen July 18, 2000 Dear Sir, While the PLP Government and their Civil Service employees were busy offending cruise ship passengers, yacht owners and crew, and overseas property owners, our May tourist figures were quietly released...revealing a fall of 1.4 percent in air arrivals.

These statistics (which are so terrible it is amazing the spin doctors found anything positive to talk about when preparing their release) are a clear indicator that we need to sack the Tourism Minister now -- and begin to utilise the services of professionals, before our tourism industry reaches the point of no return.

Before the '98 election David Allen was full of mouth about what he and his government would do to fix tourism. Well here it is eighteen months later -- and they have fixed it alright! This industry is now in total free-fall decline. I hope there is something left to save by the time we have another election. At the rate we are going it doesn't seem likely.

ROCKFISH A lesson in English July 19, 2000 Dear Sir, Regarding Peter Willcocks' letter to you (RG July 18th) about the word Govenor (sic).

This is just another example of haplology which is the contraction of a word by omission of one or more similar sounds or syllables. Sometimes it's just easier to drop a syllable and leave yourself with something that's become easier to say such as "pierced earrings'' instead of the correct "pierced-ear earrings''. Another example is the pronounciation libry instead of "library.

The American philologist Maurice Bloomfield recognised this tendency to drop one of a pair of similar sounds or syllables about 100 years ago and he is credited with combining forms of the Greek haplos (meaning `one') with -logy ( `word' or `speech').

Haplology is quite common in English,in fact it played a role in the naming of the nation that is the cradle of English : England' was condensed via haplology from `Engla land'.

BRIAN CALLAGHAN City of Hamilton