Part 7
The women, like all women in the Mohammedan world, delight in jewelry and ornaments, and as they are not wearers of veils they have a good chance to display their treasures. Couscous is a favorite food in Northern Africa, not only among Kabyles, but Arabs and other peoples. Kabyl women spend much of their time in its preparation. Flour is mixed with water into a sort of thick dough, which is divided into little masses which are rolled between the fingers. These little pellets, almost like seeds, they steam and eat with bits of meat and hot, peppery sauce.
The Kabyles love horseback riding, and are bold hunters. They fight bravely in defence of their homes. Among their amusements, perhaps falconry stands first. The falcon, you know, is a bird much like a hawk, which is trained to chase and kill or capture smaller birds or animals. It is carried to the field by the hunter on horseback. The bird is perched upon its master’s wrist, and is blinded by a hood over its head. When the hunter sees game, he unhoods the falcon and lets it fly after the victim.
XXIII. NEGROES.
We have already spoken of the district of true negroes. In the Sudan they are at their best and purest type. The skin is almost black; the head long and narrow; the face narrow; the hair kinky and woolly. The lower part of the face projects far beyond the upper part. The lips are thick. Negroes have an odor which is peculiar to them, and which most white persons dislike. Many of the negro tribes are composed of persons who are tall, strong, and well built.
Almost all negroes are agriculturists, living in settled villages. Their houses are usually round huts. The Bongo of the upper Nile build huts about twenty feet in diameter and the same in height, which are firm and well built, though made only of poles and thatch. The entrance is so low that one crawls into the hut on hands and knees. On the conical roof are built benches of straw, on which persons sit to overlook and guard the planted fields. The floor inside the hut is made of hard, well-beaten clay. Skins of animals serve as beds. The Wolofs of the Sudan make very similar huts, but do not construct the seats on the roof. Among both tribes they build little granaries near the huts; these are made of basketwork and are set up on posts to place them out of reach of animals.
The African negroes are fond of bright colors and tawdry ornaments. Objects of metal and glass beads are particularly prized. They use rings of iron, copper, and brass of all sizes for the arms, legs, and fingers. Sometimes so many rings will be put upon the arms that they completely cover them. The negroes in some tribes pierce ears, noses, and lips for inserting ornaments. The Bongo women, for example, pierce a series of holes along the rim of each ear, along the edges of the nose, and at the corners of the mouth, and through each hole they thrust a short bit of grass stalk. The men in negro tribes often bear a tribal mark; this is usually the scar or scars left by cutting lines or patterns on the face or chest. Thus the mark of one tribe might be three cuts across each cheek; that of another a pattern of criss-cross lines upon the forehead; another tribe in the central lake district had a line of wart-like swellings, at equal distances from each other, extending from the root of the nose to the top of the forehead. All these tribal marks were cut in childhood, and the cutting must have been painful. It is said that the Bornu baby boys have one hundred and three cuts made on their little bodies for their tribal sign.
African negroes often dress their hair into strange and curious forms, as do also the neighboring negroids. They build it up into great horns, train it out in little strings, the ends of which they fasten to a wooden ring, build it into thick mats or wigs, and insert all sorts of fibres, beads, and ornaments in it. Of course such carefully trained hair must not be spoiled by lying on it, so they have the same sort of wooden pillows as the Fiji Islanders, to keep the head off the ground.
These wooden pillows are often decorated with carvings of human and animal figures. Many negroes delight in wood-carving and sometimes make strange masses of many human and animal figures crowded together in the most curious way. These they paint in bright colors. Near the west coast of Africa several tribes are ivory carvers, and their artists will cover an elephant’s tusk with human figures, animal forms, and geometrical designs; no space will be lost; every spot will be filled.
Most of the negro tribes know how to weave, and some of their cloth made from grass or vegetable fibres is closely and well woven. The most remarkable art of the negroes, however, is their working of iron. They know how to get iron from its ore and to work it into desired forms. They build a little conical smelting furnace or oven of clay, into which they put their fuel and ore. They then blow air through the fire with their rude bellows. This consists of two earthen vessels, or boxes of some sort, over the top of which bladders or skin are tied; tubes lead from these vessels and the lower end of a stick is tied to the middle of each bladder covering. The smith takes the upper ends of the sticks in his hands and works them up and down, first one and then the other. He thus forces air first into one tube and then into the other: these two tubes end in a single clay tube which conducts the air into the furnace. After the blacksmith gets his iron from the ore he works it with heat and beating to the forms wanted. At Benin City, which was at the head of a dreadful negro kingdom, they had learned how to cast bronze and made wonderful objects in it. They made rings, bells, animal figures, plaques with human figures represented on them, and masks of the human head of life size.
Negroes love music and have many instruments, not only rattles, drums, whistles, flutes, and trumpets, but stringed instruments also. In some tribes there are wandering minstrels, who go from place to place playing on their three-stringed guitar and singing songs in praise of the chief or king whom they visit. They sing in his praise if he pays them well; if, however, he is stingy, their songs make bitter fun of him. These minstrels are either men or women: they are feared and disliked, but well treated, as no one wishes to gain their ill will.
Some of the most brutal and cruel acts in the world are done among negro kingdoms like Ashanti, Dahomey, and Benin. No human life is there safe. The king orders instant death to those who offend him. The executioner’s knife is kept busy. Cruel butcheries are connected with their religion, and sometimes the king will have dozens, scores, or even hundreds of men killed to carry messages to his dead father. It is also among negroes that we find cannibalism existing in revolting forms and frightful belief in witchcraft. Any old man or old woman may be accused, at any time, of being a witch: it takes little to prove their guilt, and they are speedily executed.
Negroes often believe that some men can change themselves into wild animals and then resume their own form. They are especially afraid of man-leopards: not unfrequently men who have been thought to be such have been executed. We cannot, however, blame the negroes much for such ideas. Not long ago white Europeans generally believed in werewolves (or manwolves), and there are still districts in Europe where such beliefs exist.
Many African negroes wear charms to protect themselves against harm. Such charms are called _gri-gris_. Almost anything may be a gri-gri: a part of some animal, a plant, a curious stone. Where the negroes have had much to do with Arabs or other Mohammedans a favorite gri-gri is a verse from the Koran, written on paper done up in a little leathern pouch and hung about the neck. Sometimes a man will be almost covered with gri-gris. He may have so many “as to weigh thirty pounds,” and they may hamper him so “that he must be helped in mounting a horse.”
We have already told you that the Arabs still hunt negro slaves. Many of the negro tribes themselves keep slaves—thus the Wolofs do so. They, however, treat their slaves more kindly than the Arabs do.
XXIV. NEGROIDS.
The negroids of Southern and Eastern Africa resemble the negroes. They are generally tall; they have a fine dark brown color, long narrow heads, hair less kinky and woolly than the negroes, flat nose and thick lips. They do not have the negro’s odor. The negroids comprise many different tribes, but all speak related languages known as the Bantu languages. The tribes we shall consider are the Zulus, Kaffirs, and Waganda.
The Zulus and Kaffirs wear generally but little clothing. A man wears a cord about the waist with flaps of leather hanging from it in front and behind; the woman wears a fringed girdle about her waist. Sometimes they wear a mantle of hairy skins. At great festivals the men deck themselves finely. A traveller, describing a young man who was going visiting, says: “He will wear furs, among them the Angora goat; feathers in his head-dress; globular tufts of beautiful feathers on his forehead or at the back of his head; eagle feathers in fine head-dresses, as also ostrich, lory, and peacock feathers. He ties so many tufts and tails to his waist girdle that he may almost be said to wear a kilt.”
The negroids, like the negroes, are agriculturists and live in towns of huts. Some tribes are raisers of cattle and have large herds that yield milk, meat, and skins. They are hunters, too, and that on a large scale. They set up long hedges or lines of brush and stakes, which converge toward certain points where they dig pits and cover them. They then scatter over a large district and beat it, scaring in the animals and driving them between the lines of brush into the pits, where they easily kill them.
The two great weapons of the southern negroids are the _kerry_ and the _assegai_. The kerry is a short wooden club with a knob at the end. This is thrown at the game. The assegai is a spear, the shaft of which is long and slender and the head of which, made of iron, is long and wide. Assegais are used all through South and Central Africa. The form and size of the blade varies with tribes: sometimes it is two feet in length and several inches across. Mrs. French-Sheldon saw the assegai maker, in one tribe she visited, using a natural leaf as his pattern, and he was careful to exactly copy its form. Both negro and negroid tribes in some parts of Africa, especially Western Central Africa, use throwing-knives; they are made from a flat piece of iron, worked into several blades projecting in different directions. They are thrown through the air, and some one of the ugly blades is quite sure to strike.
Kaffirs and Zulus make long oval shields almost as tall as themselves, for protection in battle. A cowskin, with the hair on, is stretched over a light and simple wooden frame. Each great section of Africans has its own kind of shield. The Niam-Niams and some Congo tribes weave beautiful close and light shields of wicker or basket work; they are long and narrow, and protect the whole body. The splints of which they are woven differ in color and are worked into rather handsome patterns. In Nubia they use shields made of thick and heavy hide, like elephant or rhinoceros hide; these are circular, not very large, and have a round or conical knob or boss raised at the centre.
Kaffirs and Zulus are fond of war and are brave in battle. They have war dances in which they are inflamed for the fray. A Kaffir who slays an enemy may have a great gash cut in his leg on his return home to show that fact. The scars of such gashes are objects of great pride. The Kaffirs are fine speakers and their speeches on important occasions are stirring and impressive. Like negroes, the negroids delight in music and have many instruments. None, however, is a greater favorite than the noisy drum.
Among Zulus and Kaffirs, the sorcerer is much feared and dreaded. When men are ill, or in trouble, they go to him for help and advice. He goes through with many strange performances. The people believe that he can detect thieves and find stolen property, that he can bewitch and cure bewitchment; he is frequently, also, a rain-maker. There is much jealousy between the sorcerers or rain-makers in a tribe, and they sometimes challenge each other to tests of their power. The description of such a test between two rain-makers, in one of Rider Haggard’s books, is probably true to life.
XXV. PYGMIES.
Many centuries ago, the Greek writers, Homer, Herodotus, and Aristotle, spoke of dwarf peoples, whom they called _Pygmies_, living in Africa. On an ancient Egyptian wall there is painted a queer little dwarf-like figure with the word _Akka_ written near it. It is plain that little African peoples were known both to the Greeks and Egyptians. But for hundreds of years after the old Greek writers and Egyptian artists were dead, no one believed in real Pygmies. Every one felt that the accounts of them were “travellers’ lies,” told to amuse people. But travellers who have been going into Africa during the last two hundred years and more have from time to time told us of such tribes, and to-day there can be no doubt of their existence. There are really Pygmies, and they are curious and interesting.
When the great German traveller Schweinfurth was visiting King Munza of the Monbuttus in “the heart of Africa,” he learned that tribes of Pygmies lived near. There were nine clusters of them, and they were called _Akkas_—just like the little creature represented on the old Egyptian wall—and each cluster had its own chief. At one time Schweinfurth saw several hundred of these little people together. Munza traded one of these Pygmies, whose name was Neevoué, to Schweinfurth. The traveller was kind to the little fellow, and wanted to take him to Germany, but Neevoué died in Egypt. He was a cruel little creature, not very bright, and had great difficulty in learning. Later on, in Ashango Land, much farther to the west, Du Chaillu found the dwarf Obongos, whom he described, and whose houses he pictured. An Italian traveller named Miani secured two Akkas in trade. He planned to take them to Italy, but he died on his journey home. His two Pygmies, however, reached Italy, where a kind-hearted nobleman took care of them. They were gay and happy, though fitful, and were rather quick to learn; they learned to speak, read, and write Italian.
So much was known about the Pygmies before Stanley’s journey. He saw many of them, and tells a good deal about them and their life. The Akkas were the tribe he saw. They measure from three feet to four feet and six inches; a full-grown man weighs about ninety pounds. Some of them have long heads, long, narrow faces, small, reddish eyes placed near together, and are sour looking and morose. The others have round faces with fine, large, bright eyes placed wide apart, high foreheads, skin of a rich ivory-yellow color. All African Pygmies seem to have their bodies covered with short, rather stiff, grayish hair. Stanley says the Akkas place their villages near the towns of bigger people, and that sometimes eight to twelve Pygmy villages will surround one negro (or negroid) town. These Pygmies are lively and active; they do not cultivate any plants, but devote themselves to hunting.
They use little bows and arrows, and small spears. The tips of the arrows and spears are often poisoned. With these weapons these little folk attack and kill antelopes, buffalo, and even elephants. They dig pitfalls and make traps. Some of their traps are like sheds, the roofs of which are held in place by vines; bananas and nuts are placed in these as bait; when chimpanzees or other animals try to take the bait, the roof falls. The Pygmies catch birds for their feathers, and hunt for wild honey.
The Pygmies use two kinds of arrow poison. One is dark and thick and made from the leaves of a plant quite like our Jack-in-the-pulpit or Indian turnip. The other is believed to be made from red ants,—which are dried and crushed to powder,—mixed with palm oil. Both are said to act quickly when fresh. Stanley mentions one man who died within one minute from a small wound in his right arm and chest. When the poison is old it acts less rapidly.
These Pygmies live in low oval huts, with doors two or three feet high. The houses are arranged in a circle about an open cleared space, in which the chief’s house stands. About one hundred yards from the village, along every path that leads to it, is a little guard house, only big enough for two Pygmies. These are guard houses and toll stations, and all strangers who pass must pay toll. The Pygmies are usually on good terms with their big neighbors, and both are useful to the other. The little people sell their ivory, skins, honey, and poison to their neighbors, or trade them for vegetable food. The Pygmies, keen and watchful, are good pickets for the others, and often warn them of danger from approaching enemies.
XXVI. BUSHMEN AND HOTTENTOTS.
Far to the south in Africa, in and about the Desert of Kalahari, live the Bushmen. They are somewhat like the Pygmies. They are little—full-grown men being from four feet to four feet six inches in stature. They are of a yellow-brown color; their hair is black and kinky, but appears to grow in little tufts with bare spaces between; the jaws project and the lips are thick; they wrinkle early. They are quick and lively in movements, and are bold hunters.
Little bands of them wander from place to place, without any fixed home. They build no houses. Usually they live in holes among the rocks; at most, they build rude, temporary shelters. They live chiefly on game, which they kill with the bow and arrow, or sometimes with the spear. They sometimes trail an animal a long distance, and when they overtake and kill it, stop at the spot to eat it. They are wonderful at following the trail of either animals or men, and see signs of their having passed which a white man would never notice. They get a hard living; they gather seeds and roots, fruits and gums; they hunt the honey of wild bees; they catch lizards and snakes. They are so fond of the white grubs, or pupæ of ants—which we usually, but wrongly, call ants’ eggs—that the Boers, living near the little people, call them “Bushmen’s rice.” They also eat the huge eggs of the ostrich, and make water vessels out of the empty shells.
Their bows are small and their arrows are hardly more than a foot in length; the points of bone, stone, or iron are poisoned, and are so attached to the shaft that they separate and remain in the wound. The spear and darts which they use are also small and have poisoned tips. In the quivers with their arrows they carry a little sharpening stone for grinding the points and a brush for applying the poison. For digging roots the Bushmen use a pointed stick, which is weighted with a stone ring. These few simple weapons and tools are all that these poor people possess, except a few wooden dishes and a smoking pipe, which is said to be owned by a whole family or band.
Livingstone says that their arrow poison comes from a sort of caterpillar or grub, which they crush and dip the arrow tip into. They always clean their nails carefully after handling the poison, as it causes damage if it comes into contact with any scratch or cut. The pain caused by the poison is so great as almost to make the man who has been wounded crazy. When a lion has been struck with one of these poisoned arrows he roars terribly and bites and tears the ground and trees. To cure a person who has been bitten they use an ointment made of the crushed caterpillar mixed with grease. They believe that the caterpillar is hungry for grease; when it does not find fat in a person it kills him; when they supply it the fat it wants, it does no harm. It is said that this caterpillar is sacred and that they pray to it, asking it to give them plenty of game when they are hunting.
These little people are fond of music and drawing. Their finest musical instrument is a _gora_. This is a hunter’s bow, with a ring on the bow string. By sliding this ring they change the note which it gives when twanged. The twang of a bowstring is not a very loud sound; to increase it a gourd is hung to the lower end of the bow. All over the country of the Bushmen cliffs and the walls of caves are covered with their pictures, which represent animals, birds, and men; hunting scenes and battles are also represented. These pictures are sometimes just pecked out in the rock; sometimes they are painted; sometimes they are first pecked out and then filled with color. The colors most used in these pictures are red, yellow, and black.
The negroid Kaffirs and the Hottentots who live near the poor Bushmen hate them and harm them. Meeting them on the road, they sometimes kill them without pity. In 1804 a Kaffir who went to Cape Town on business found a Bushman boy eleven years old working as a servant in the government building. He killed the little fellow with a spear. This, of course, was long ago, but it shows how the Kaffirs despise the Bushmen.
The Hottentots live near the Bushmen and are a mixture between them and the negroids. They are taller than the Bushmen, but have much the same yellowish brown skin color and the same sort of hair. Their language, too, is much like that of the Bushmen. In both languages there are some strange sounds, hard for white men to pronounce, called “clicks.” These sounds come in the middle of words, and are called “clicks” because they sound something like the sound made in driving horses. Among the Bushmen there are nine different sounds of this kind; the Hottentots have only four.
The Hottentots are cattle-raisers, but do not cultivate plants. They gather wild fruits and dig roots. They move with their herds from one pasture to another; their settlements are called _kraals_. Their huts are dome-shaped and consist of a light framework of poles over which mattings are hung. When they move it takes only a few minutes to take the houses to pieces and pack them on to their cattle. The huts are always set up in a circle, enclosing a clear space where the cattle are herded.
Both men and women of the Hottentots wear fur caps, and it is considered indecent for a woman to be seen with her head bare. Hottentot clothing consists of leather aprons and cloaks. Hottentots rarely kill their cattle, which they keep for milk rather than for meat.
They are quite warlike, and each tribe has a leader. They honor brave warriors. They are gay in disposition and like to say sharp and funny things about each other; this often leads to quarrels and fights. When a man is angry with another, he takes a handful of dust and offers it to him; if the offender is willing to fight, he seizes the hand and scatters the dust on the ground; if he refuses to fight, the angry man throws the dust upon him to show that he is a coward. In fighting to settle quarrels, they kick and club each other and even use spears.