Regarding the bones, there's a wonderful painting in the Naples Art Museum, the head and shoulders of an 18th-century black (yes!) musician, probably Neapolitan, maybe in his early twenties, dressed in the loose, flowing clothes of the times, laughing and playing the bones. I loved it. A beautiful, life-filled portrait.

I'm pretty sure that playing the bones, in America at least, was originally an African-American tradition, so this painting makes me suspect that it originated in Africa. (I'm tempted to claim that the painting proves it originated in Italy, but I don't think I can get away with it.) Anyone know anything?