CHAPTER CLX.
AFRICA—Continued.
THE MAKONDÉ.
DR. LIVINGSTONE’S LAST EXPEDITION — MAKONDÉ — JUNGLE — NATIVES WILLING TO WORK — THEIR FOOD — NUMBER REDUCED BY SLAVE TRADE — MODE OF SALUTATION — PERSONAL APPEARANCE — MAKONDÉ WITHOUT A PARAMOUNT CHIEF — METAMBWÉ — MATUMORA THEIR CHIEF — THEIR IDEA OF GOD — TATTOOING — RAIN SCARCELY KNOWN ON THE EAST COAST — THE MAKOA, KNOWN BY HALF-MOON FIGURE — A RAIN-MAKER — VILLAGES REMARKABLE FOR CLEANLINESS — POTTERY, HOW MADE — SINGULAR CUSTOM.
When this work was published, the celebrated explorer, Dr. David Livingstone, who had done so much in opening to the civilized world the great continent of Africa, had disappeared in its interior. In the beginning of 1866 he started from Zanzibar, on the East Coast, on that journey which at length terminated with his life in the village of Ilala, in April, 1873. By the providential preservation of his journal we are favored with the results of his explorations, and learn of the tribes and peoples whom he visited, and has described with so truthful and fascinating a pen.
No inconsiderable portion of this work is derived from the travels of Dr. Livingstone. It seems important, therefore, that his contribution to a knowledge of the uncivilized races, made since this work was issued, should, so far as our space will permit, be appended to it.
In March, 1866, Dr. Livingstone, having left Zanzibar, arrived in Mikindany Bay, which is about twenty-five miles north of the Rovuma River. Starting from Pemba, on the north side of the bay, April 4th, he entered the country of the Makondé.
The path lay in a valley with well-wooded heights on each side; and with the tall grass towering over the head, and now and then a jungle to be cleared, and no air stirring, the entrance upon his seven years’ journeying was difficult and oppressive.
In passing through the jungles, though they offered no obstruction to foot-passengers, it was necessary to heighten and widen the paths for the tall camels. The Makondé of the village were very willing to aid Livingstone in this work, as wood-cutters or carriers. He organized a party of about ten jolly young men, paying each a yard of calico per day. Being accustomed to make clearing-places for their gardens, they worked with a will. They were perfectly satisfied with their small compensation. Using tomahawks, climbing and young trees disappeared before their steady and vigorous blows like clouds before the sun. This work, however, told upon them in two or three days. The tallest men became exhausted soonest. Not being a meat-eating people, except one is fortunate enough to kill a wild hog or antelope, their physical strength was not equal to any prolonged demand for hard work. They will not eat the flesh of beasts like that of the leopard and lion, which is readily eaten by other tribes, and the reason they give is, that these animals devour men. Such a fact refutes the allegation that this tribe are guilty of cannibalism.
In the open spaces were cleared gardens for maize, cassava, and sorghum. The soil being very fertile and with no rocks, very heavy crops of these products are obtained. The cassava bushes grow to the height of six or seven feet. Food is very plenty and cheap. Just before Livingstone’s visit, they had been ravaged by the Mazitu, who had carried away many of their people as slaves. The Mehambwé, a branch of the Makondé tribe, had also three months before been invaded, and robbed of all their food, so that they were obliged to send in every direction for provisions.
The Makondé have been very greatly diminished in numbers since the slave trade was introduced, one village making war upon another, kidnapping as many as possible to sell them to the Arab slave-dealers. They ascribe diseases and death to witches, and when one of a village dies, the whole population move off, saying “That is a bad spot.” They pray to their mothers when dying or overtaken by any disaster. Livingstone’s Somalie guide, Ben Ali, represented that they had no idea of a deity or a future state, and believe in nothing but medicine. All the head men of the villages pretend to be or are really doctors. Livingstone, however, discovered some consciousness of the existence of a God. They get large quantities of the gum-copal, which attracts the coast Arabs as an article of commerce. The people have the belief that in the vicinity of the kumbé, or gum-copal trees, the more ancient trees stood and must have dropped their gum upon the ground. They therefore dig for it, and will give as a reason for want of success at any time, “In digging, none may be found one day, but Mulungu (God) may give it to us on the next.”
Bhang, which is a species of hemp, is not smoked, but only tobacco. They raise no sheep or goats, but only fowls, pigeons, and ducks. Honey is so abundant that a gallon-pot and four fowls were given for two yards of calico. One of their modes of salutation is to catch each others’ hands and say, “Ai! ai!” but the more common custom is to take hold of the right hand and say, “Marhaba” (welcome).
The Makondé are all independent of each other, and have no paramount chief. Their physical characteristics are well-formed limbs and body, small hands and feet, medium height, and manly bearing. Their lips are full but not excessively thick; their foreheads are compact, narrow, and low; the alæ nasi are expanded laterally.
THE MATAMBWÉ TRIBE.
The Matambwé, whose country extends up to Ngomano, seem to be a branch of the Makondé, and are very numerous. Their country stretches far to the south, and abounds with copal trees and elephants.
Matumora, the chief at Ngomano, was a tall, well-proportioned man, with a countenance severe in expression, on account of the wrinkles on his forehead. In character he is much superior to other chiefs. He is often resorted to for defence against oppression. He had been assailed on all sides by slave-hunters, but had never taken captives nor engaged in any way in the slave trade. His customary politeness was quite remarkable toward Livingstone and his party. He took them over the Loendi River. Sitting on the bank of the river till all their goods were carried over, and then going over with Livingstone in the same canoe, he opened a fish-basket in a weir and gave Livingstone the contents, and afterward some sorghum. And yet a short time previously he had been robbed of all his corn in an attack of the Mazitu, and was obliged to take refuge in Marumba, a rocky island in Rovuma. He had never seen a European before he met Livingstone.
When Matumora was asked whether the Matambwé believed in God, he replied that “he did not know him, and the people must not be asked if they pray to him, because they would imagine I desired them to be killed. When they pray they first offer a little meal.” They have great reverence for the Deity, and they say, “We don’t know him,” in order to avoid speaking irreverently, as that may injure the country. The name with them is “Mulungu.” Machochera, a head man, said afterward, that “God is not good because he kills so many people.”
The marks on their foreheads and bodies are intended as ornaments and to give beauty in the dance; they also have a sort of heraldic significance, for by them one can tell to what tribe or portion of a tribe a man belongs. The tattoo or tembo of the Matambwé of Upper Makondé is very similar to the drawings of the old Egyptians, wavy lines, such as the ancients used to indicate water, trees, and gardens, enclosed in squares. The tattoo has been transmitted from father to son, but the meaning seems now to be lost. It shows very clearly in persons of light complexion, who are quite common among these tribes.
The Matambwé file their front teeth to points, but the Machinga, a Waiyau tribe, leave two points on the front teeth, and knock out one of the middle incisors above and below.
It is quite remarkable that the trade in rum is almost unknown on the East Coast of Africa, though it is so common on the West Coast. It cannot be that the religious convictions of the Arabs have had any influence in producing this result. The Portuguese south of Cape Delgado are the personification of what is mercenary and mean. They would even “sell their grandfathers as well as rum,” Livingstone sharply says, “if they could make money by the transaction.” They have built distilleries for making a vile liquor from the fruit of the cashew and other fruits and grains; but the business is a failure. They will furnish their slaves with “mata bicho,” which signifies “kill the creature” or “craving within,” and the natives will drink it if given to them; but there is no such passion for intoxicating drinks as to render the manufacture profitable. The use of rum, so common in all political transactions on the West Coast, has no counterpart with the chiefs of the East Coast.
THE MAKOA TRIBE.
One part of the Makondé, known as Makoa or Makoané, are distinguished by a half-moon figure tattooed on the forehead or elsewhere. Many of the men have their faces tattooed in double raised lines about half an inch in length. Charcoal is rubbed into the incisions and the flesh is pressed out so that the cuts are raised above the surface. This gives them an ugly and ferocious look. The people, however, are kindly in their feelings, and conferred favors with no apparent object of being remunerated by calico and beads. They were in constant dread of the invasion of the Mahiba from across the Rovuma, who steal their women for the Ibo slave-market. It is impossible to realize the terror in young and old inspired by these Mazitu: if they shake their shields, the people are beside themselves and fly like frightened sheep.
A doctress or rain-maker in the village of Nyamba presented a large basket of soroko, or “mung” as it is called in India, and a fowl. Her tall and finely-proportioned form was profusely tattooed all over, her hips and buttocks being elaborately marked. There was no apparent shame in the exposure of these parts. The women as well as the men delight in the ornamentation of the tattoo.
The villages are remarkable for their cleanliness, and the people are intelligent, kindly, and courteous. One began to talk during a religious service, but when Livingstone said “Kusoma Mlungu,” “We wish to pray to God,” he immediately desisted, and all were silent and respectful. They seem to be free from the debasing and brutal wickedness, the selfishness and treachery, which characterize so many of the barbarous tribes in Africa and elsewhere.
Stone-boiling is not known to these tribes, but ovens are made in ant-hills. For baking the heads of large game, as the zebra, feet of the elephant, and hump of the rhinoceros, they excavate holes in the ground. Fire is produced by drilling between the hands, a custom universal among the natives. They wet the blunt end of the upright stick with the tongue, so that when dipped in the sand some particles of saliva will adhere, and this is then inserted into the horizontal stick. The wood of a wild fig-tree is generally used because igniting so readily.
Their pottery for cooking and other uses is made by the women, the form being fashioned by the eye, no machine ever being used. The foundation or bottom is first made, the clay being scraped by a piece of bone or bamboo. Leaving the vessel to dry during the night, a piece is added to the rim the next day, and according as the air is dry and favorable several rounds may be added. The whole is then carefully smoothed off and is ready to be thoroughly sun-dried. They usually embellish their pots for two or three inches near the rim before they are hardened. The ornamentation is in imitation of basket work.
The art of pottery seems to have been known to the Africans from the earliest times, for fragments are discovered everywhere among the oldest fossil bones of the country.
Near many of the villages may be seen a wand bent, with both ends inserted in the ground. A quantity of medicine is buried beneath it. If sickness occur in a village, the men go to the place, wash themselves with the medicine and water, creep through under the wand, and then bury the medicine, and, as they think, the evil influence too. The wand is thought to be a protection against evil spirits, enemies, and wild beasts.