Die Kopien der Weltkarte des Museum Borgia, etc. (Nachrichten von der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften und der Georg-August-Universität zu Göttingen, 22. Juni. 1892.)

Front matter

the Races of Mankind A GROUP OF MOHAMMEDAN AFRICAN CHIKFS. THE RACES of MANKIND: BEING A POPULAR DESCRIPTION OF THE CHARACTERISTICS, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PRINCIPAL VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN FA M I L Y. BY Robert Brown, m.a., PH.D., F. L.S., F. R. G. S.. Honorary Secretary of the Royal Physical Society, Edinburgh, crt". Vol. III. WITH UPWARDS OF ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY ILLUSTRATIONS. CASSELL FETTER & GALPIN: LONDON, PARIS & NEW YORK. CONTENTS. PAGK PAGE The Central Africans : Tribes of the Fernand Vaz, &c. — continued.

Obongos 151 Etiquette ------ 1 Cruelty ------ 6 Apono - - - - - - - 152 FlLTHINESS 7 Apingi 15- Dress -------10 Ashira - - 155 Food 18 General Remarks on the Tribes of Western Equatorial Africa - - 159 Houses 22 Government 23 Kroomen, Angolese, Congoese, and Mandingoes 162 Implements, Employments, &c. - - 30 Kroomen ------ 162 Marriage ------ 33 Angolese ------ 166 Birth, Death, and Burial 35 Congoese - - -■- - -167 Amusements ------ 38 Mandingoes ------ 172 War 38 The Slave Trade ------ 177 West African - - - - - 178 Religion and Superstition 39 The West African Negroes 46 White Nile ------ 187 Fantis 47 East African 190 ASHANTIS 56 The African Freedman - - - - 195 Ashanti Government 68 The Decay of Wild Races - - - - 198 The Ffons, or People of Dahomey - - 86 Constitution and Government - - 87 The Amazons 90 The Persian Group — Persians Proper - - 221 Character and Customs - 222 Government - 242 Religion and Superstition - - - 92 Religion and Learning - - - - 246 The "Customs" ----- 98 Kurds, Beluchi, Afghans, Paropamisans, &c. - 250 General Habits, Character, &c. - - 103 Kurds 250 Shell-money - - - - - -110 Beluchi 252 The Egbas and Tribes of the Bonny River - 111 Bonnjt 116 Afghans ------- 254 Paropamisans ------ 276 The Gaboon Tribes 122 Armenians ------ 287 M'poNGVfiss - - - - - - 125 Shekiani 134 The Indian Stock : The Aboriginal Races - 288 The Bakalais 136 General Remarks ----- 290 The Fans 141 Khasias 302 Tribes of the Fernand Vaz and Country to the Eastward 144 Garrows 304 Kookies 309 Puharries 312 Camma ..----- 146 Ishogos 148 Khatties - - - - - -315 Ashangos 151 Kholies PAGE PAGE A Group of Mohammedan African Chiefs Frontispiece.

Bird's-eye View of the Gaboon Settlement - - 100 Bambara Man and Woman 4 Catholic Mission House at the Gaboon - - 101 King of Cazembe 5 M'pongwes — Natives of the Gaboon - - - 104 African Hippopotami ------ 8 Akera, a Young Girl of the Gaboon - 105 Mud Village of the Weeze 9 English.Trading Settlement at the Gaboon - - 108 Natives of the Grand-Bassam - - - - 1 2 Charcoal Stores at the Gaboon - - - - 109 Women of the Grand-Bassam - - - - 13 A Gaboon Village - - - - - -113 A Cape-Coast King and his Court - - - 1 7 Gorilla - - 117 Assinie, Central Afiica ----- 20 Fetish Banana Trees 120 Young " Fetish" Man of the Lake District - - 21 Tree in the Dahomey Country laden with Bats - 25 The Chief Kringer of the Gaboon, and his Family 121 Sacred Isles of the Ionanga - - - - 124 Niam-Niam Natives ------ 28 Daughters of King Louis - - - - - 128 River View in Central Africa - . - - - 29 Bakalais Woman and Children - To face page 129 Women of Elmina (Ashanti) - To face page 33 Ivory Dealer of the Gaboon - - - - 133 Mode of Execution at Segon 37 Bakalais Warriors - - - - - -137 Elmina Coiffures - - - - - -40 Village in Equatorial Africa - 140 West African Fishermen (Upper Senegal) - - 41 Fan Warriors - - - - - - -141 A West African River Ferry 45 Street in a Tropical African Village - - - 145 The Black Dance 48 Fortified Native Village ----- 148 Negro Child of Senegal 49 An African Danseuse ------ 149 Woman of Senegal ------ 52 Sport in the Forest - - - - - - 153 Youth of Senegal - - - - - -53 West African Village ------ 156 Scene in an African Swamp - - - - 57 West African Chief 157 A Senegal Musician ------ 60 Bambara Pilgiims - To face page 161 West African Soldier of the Senegal Corps - - 61 View on Coast of Guinea ----- 165 Woman of Macina ------ 64 Mousgou Chief 168 A "Palaver" in North-west Africa To face page 65 San Paolo de Loando - - - - - -169 Ashanti Girl ------- 65 Euphorbia Tree of Northern Africa - - - 173 Drawing Water in Africa ----- 69 Falls of Goui'na, Senegal River - - - - 176 West African Coiffures ----- 72 View in Adel, Coast of Africa - - - - 177 Official of the Senegal Country Addressing a " Palaver" -------73 Slave Barracoon - - - - - -181 Banks of the White Nile - - - - - 184 House after the African-Moorish Style of Architecture .------76 The Negro Slave in the Harem - 185 Native of the Dinka Tribe, White Nile - - 189 A Minor King of West Africa - - - - 77 A Negro Family in French Guiana ... 192 Natives of the Senegal Country - - - SO, 81 Kurdish Horseman - To face page 193 Great Purple Gallinule of Central Africa - - 84 Wandering Arabs and their Slaves ... >_3 An Ape-Resort in Central Africa 85 Huascas, Fifteenth Emperor of the Incas - - 197 Amazons of Dahomey in Battle 89 Coya Cahuna, Empress of the Incas ... 200 St.

Chapter I

Central Africa: Etiquette, Cruelty, Filthiness, &c. openingour third volume, we will, before introducing the natives of Western Africa to the reader, continue our brief account of a few of the more interesting social manners, domestic and political institutions of the inhabitants of the Central Region. After this we will notice a few of the tribes which are still undescribed, proceeding from the coast to the interior. it Etiquette. — Among the Weeze the mode of saluting a chief is for his inferiors to blow themselves and clap their hands twice, while ' the women, in addition, salute by making a curtsey. The petty chief receives the same obeisance, the bowing and curtseying, however, being in their case omitted. When two women meet, and one is of inferior rank to the other, the inferior drops on one knee and bends her head.

The superior then lays her hands on the inferior's shoulders, and after remaining in this posture for some time, and whispering some words in an undertone ; they then — the demands of a rigid etiquette having been satisfied — stand together, and converse freely. When a Watusi, among whom Captain Grant met the dusky beauty (vol. ii., p. 312), meets a friend, he holds out the knobbed end of a five-foot stick, which he always carries. This done, no further courtesy is necessary, and they pass on, or talk together, as the case may be. The Weeze look upon the Watusi with profound respect, and when the former meets a member of the latter tribe he presses the palms of his hands together, while the Watusi returns the compliment by gently clasping them within his own, muttering at the same time some words, which were unintelligible to Captain Grant.

This method of salutation is almost the exact equivalent of the old Norman mode of receiving the submission of a vassal, " putting his hands within his and calling him lord." A Weeze woman is not less polite to the Watusi man. If she meet a member of the more honourable tribe, instantly her arms fall prone by her side, while the Watusi on his part presses them for a little time with his hands, just below the shoulders. Among the Wagonda, if a superior has occasion to present anything to an inferior, he pats and rubs it with his hands, finally stroking each cheek with it, the object of this elaborate ceremony being to stave off witchcraft and the mischief of the " evil eye " from the donor. Among the tribe just named, the etiquette in regard to the dress of each rank is even stricter than was enacted by the sumptuary laws prevailing in reference to this in England during the middle ages.

The least infringement of the laws in regard to dress, 81— vol. hi. /<$ A^N. salutation, sitting or standing before the king, &c, is punished with most cruel death, the people being under such subjection to their despotic rulers that no one would dare to take the least notice of the occurrence. The skin of the serval — a species of leopard cat — can only be worn by those of royal descent. The king wears his hair in the shape of a cock's comb on the crown of his head, the rest being shaved off, and though the privilege is on rare occasions extended to a favourite queen, the least attempt to imitate it on the part of a subject would be the signal for his instant execution. Instant did I say ? It would be merciful was this the case, but, on the contrary, the favourite method of execution adopted by King M'tesa (who in all likelihood still lives, for during Speke's visit he was a very young man) was to gradually disembowel the unhappy offender in order to feed his tame vultures.

Occasionally he would be -merciful, and order the prisoners to be previously killed, but as frequently as not this was a preliminary entirely neglected. Another common method of slow death was to cut the body gradually to pieces with the sharp stiff blades of a coarse grass, it being also contrary to Wagonda etiquette to use knives to dismember a victim. The courtiers shave off all their hair, except a tuft like a cockade at the back of the head, while the demoniacal imps of pages wear two of these cockades, though as a rule they cover their heads with turbans. It is accounted indecorous to offer anything to the king in an uncovered state ; a piece of gaily pattern " chinze " had even to be covered before the royal eyes could in private gaze upon it. Among the Wahuma, no one dare stand before the king, be he sitting or standing, but must approach him with downcast eyes and bended knees, and sit or kneel while in his presence.

To touch the king's clothes or his throne, even by accident, or to look upon his women, is certain death. " When sitting in court holding a levee," writes Captain Speke, "the king invariably has in attendance several women — ' Wabandwa/ evil-eye avert ers, or sorcerers. They talk in feigned voices, raised to a shrillness almost amounting to a scream. They wrear dried lizards on their heads, small goat-skin aprons trimmed with little bells, diminutive shields and spears set off with cock-hackles; their functions in attendance being to administer cups of Marwa (plantain wine) . To complete the picture of the court, one must imagine a crowd of pages to run royal messages ; they dare not walk, for such a deficiency in zeal to their master might cost their life. A further feature of the court consists in the national symbols — a dog, two spears, and a shield."

The court ceremonials are grand in the extreme, and would be dignified were they not too ludicrous in European eyes to command respect. Possibly the Wagandans might entertain a similar opinion of court ceremonies in a more northern latitude. Be that as it may, His Majesty of Uganda is a great, and — in a happily limited sphere — a very potent personage. He even disdains, except on certain occasions, to walk like common mortals, but retires in a peculiar prancing walk intended to imitate the gait of the lion. Rapid and impetuous as are the people of Uganda in their mode of addressing each other, all questions to the king must be delivered through the medium of one of his officers. In Uganda no stranger is allowed to call on any one but the king; the object of this rule not being, however, a sacrifice to etiquette or court punctiliousness, but simply that His Majesty may have the fleecing of the visitor entirely to himself.

All the African people are fond of metaphor, and though the king may have a sufficiently extended idea of the return to be expected from any present he may make to any traveller whom ill-chance has delivered into his hands, he will be sure not to express this opinion in words. On the contrary, he will depreciate his gift in every way. " Here is a chicken for you," will be the message when a fat cow is presented, and, of course, if the traveller is a man of discrimination, he will, on returning to the royal treasury a bundle of clothes, simple designate his present as " a trifle for the king's servants." Never were there such an arrant race of courtiers — such inborn sycophants, as exist in Central Africa. Originally through fear, and latterly through custom, which has grown to be a second nature, especially when the knife of the executioner is for ever before their eyes to stimulate good manners, everybody pays the most truckling and slavish homage to the boy whom fate has set over them in the semblance of a king.

Everything which he has, does, or, what is still rarer, is given away by him, is looked upon as sacred — indeed, almost with adoration. To be allowed to speak to him on bended knees and with downcast eyes is considered as an honour almost too great for man to bear. To speak to the dirty rascal without being bid would never be dreamt of — or if dreamt of, it would be once for all. The executioner would see to such a henious crime never being repeated. At times, the court is very hilarious, the mirth being continually kept up by a court jester, whose life one would imagine must hang by a thread of wonderous tenuity. A word out of season is a life lost. Let a person carry a message to court on behalf of a traveller. He can by no means be certain that it will be delivered, for no one dare speak until he is spoken to.

Let the contrary be the case, and at a sign, the imps of pages will in an instant unloose their turban organs, and springing on the culprit like so many beagles, will have him bound and led to execution almost before the crowd can be aware of his crime. Not only must no one speak to royalty, unspoken to, but there are certain sub jects the discussion of which are forbidden — it is needless to say, on pain of death, for there is hardly any other penalty even among the people themselves. Thus, no one dare talk of the royal pedigree, of the countries that have been conquered, or of those that are yet to be conquered, i.e., of the neighbouring ones. Equally is it penal to visit the king's guests, or be visited by them without leave. It is death to any one intentionally or accidentally to be seen casting a glance at the king's women in the palace or when abroad.

This does not exhaust the category, for it is expressly forbidden for any of His Majesty of Uganda's subjects to be seen with any articles of foreign manufacture — clothes for example — except beads and brass-wire in his possession. Of a truth, free trade is yet in its infancy in Central Africa, the capacious commercial capacities of the king monopolising everything out of which profit is to be made — • or rather which his subjects cannot live in decent comfort or prosperity without. The king from his childhood is surrounded by abject slaves who obey his most unreasonable caprices. As' he grows older all his evil passions find full vent, and his most demoniacal acts are treated with flattery the most gross — as acts almost too noble for even kings to do. The result is an African despot — the most disgusting of his race.

He will issue an order without even thinking whether it can be obeyed, and a minute afterwards another directly counter to it, and yet if they are not both carried out simultaneously, a life or a score of lives — for the number is to him a matter of the most perfect indifference — will be the sacrifice for the laws of nature unfortunately not allowing of two bodies being in the same space at the same time. Let us take a mild example : Speke, in answer to the king's inquiry as to the composition of gunpowder, began with sulphur (Kibriti), intending to go on and explain the ingredients and their manipulation in the process of manufacture, .seriatim. " But the word ' Kibriti ' was enough for him, and a second stick was sent for Kibriti, the bearer being told to hurry for his life, and fetch it.

The king now ordered some high officers, who were waiting, to approach. They came, almost crouching°to their knees, with eyes averted from the women; and ' n'yanzigged,' for the favour of being called, till they streamed with perspiration. Four young women, virgins, the daughters of these high officers, nicely dressed, were shown in as brides, and ordered to sit with the other women. A gamekeeper brought in baskets of small antelopes, called mpeo, with straight horns, resembling those of the Saltiana, but with coats like the hog-deer of India, intended for the royal kitchen. Elderly gentlemen led in goats as commutation for BAMBARA MAX AXI) WOMA: offences, and went through the ceremonies due for the favour of being relieved of so much property. Ten cows were then driven in, plundered from Unyoro, and outside, the voices of the brave army who captured them were heard ' n'yanzigging ' vehemently.

Lastly, some beautifully-made shields were presented, and, became extolled, ' n'yanzigged ' over *, when the king rose abruptly, and walked straight away, leaving my fools of men no better off for food, or reparation for their broken heads, than if I had never gone there." It is impossible to sketch in fewer words the picture of the aimless, unsettled, cruel, S3nsual despotism of a petty Central African court. Though a glance of displeasure is enough to send a queen to execution, yet there are ever applicants enough for the honour of sharing the good graces of an African potentate. While Speke was at Uganda he noted the practice, mentioned in the paragraph quoted, more than once. For instance, while at court on one occasion, be observed twenty naked maidens, the daughters of Wakungu, all smeared and shining with grease, each holding a small square of mbugu as an apron, marched before the king, while the happy fathers grovelled in the dust as they thanked the king for accepting their offspring as an addition to his already well-stocked harem.

After the African candidates for matrimony had been marched in front of the husband of which an infinitesimal portion was theirs, a sedate old dame rose from among the squatting mass of women and ordered them to the right- XING OF CAZEMBE. about, showing their figures to more advantage. If the wives of M'tesa were treated indif ferently well, even when their lives were spared, the guards who stood at his palace gate were treated even worse. Their " rations " were distributed to them by a piece of beef and some plan tains being thrown to them, when they were at liberty to scramble for it, each snatching what he could, just as a parcel of dogs might have done, only with this exception, that King M'tesa's dogs at least, were treated infinitely better. Lastly, we may conclude these notes on Central African etiquette and court life by mentioning that in Wagunda it is accounted indecorous to call upon two people in one day, and that the Gani consider it impolitic to appear armed in the presence of a superior.

Their mode of receiving a guest is rather peculiar. He is met outside the village by the chief, his councillors, &c, laden with a fowl, a pot of beer, and a bunch of flowering plants. The fowl is swung, after some mystic rites, by the chief and councillors. The plants are then dipped in the beer and the guest sprinkled with it, after which, seated on cow-skins, he is refreshed with the beer, which, in the usual modest African metaphor, is styled water. The Nuehr tribes on the White Nile, portraits of some of whom we have engraved in vol. ii., p. 217, have, according to Mr. Petherick, a rather peculiar method of saluting a stranger. A chief entered the cabin of that gentleman's Nile boat, and kneeled on one knee, after which, " grasping my right hand, and turning up the palm, he quietly spat into it, and then, looking in my face, he deliberately repeated the process.

Staggered at the man's audacity, my first impulse was to knock him down, but his features expressing kindness only, I vented my rage by returning the compliment with all possible interest. His delight seemed excessive, and, resuming his seat, he expressed his conviction that I must be a great chief. Similar salutes followed with his attendants, and friendship was established." In one form or another a similar method of saluting prevails among several tribes, though some are polite enough (according to our ways of thinking) not to spit in the hand, but only to pretend to do so. It is difficult to imagine what can have been the origin of such an extraordinary custom. Kissing seems natural, having begun, as Steele naively puts it, " with the first courtship," though it is unknown to the Australians, New Zealanders, Papuans, and savage Eskimo, who rub noses together as the hyperborean way of saying " How d'y'do ?" though it may be noted that after they become civilised they also take, with no small avidity, to the civilised method of salutation .

Some people show their admiration by hissing, while a greater number express by this only contempt. Many we have seen sit or crouch in the presence of a superior, though in civilised life to stand is considered more polite. A European takes off his hat when before his guests ; a Chinaman considers that he honours them by clapping his on his head in their presence. It is not, however, always safe to take the Mongol as a type of etiquette, for he considers no gift more appropriate to an aged relative than a first-class coffin, a present, how ever, which in western circles would be considered more practically appropriate than polite. Cruelty is almost invariably the characteristic of a despot, and is a marked feature in the African character. No value whatever is put upon life. A whim, a caprice, a triflino fault, or a temporary irritation of any kind on the part of one of these black kino-s is the signal for one of their subjects being led to execution.

Matiamvo, the chief of the Bolondo tribe, who was of great aid to the rascally slave-traders, used to adopt a speedy method of thinning his tribe. When a dealer in human stock arrived at his village, he was in the habit of sending out a party of armed men to attack some of his own villa o-es killing the head men, and giving the inhabitants to the slavers in return for their o-0ods. On the smallest provocation — such as being refused some trifle — he would destroy a whole village until he got sufficient plunder to tempt the owner of the coveted article to part with it, if not powerful enough to take it by force. He was a believer in the Malthusian doctrines, and considered that his people were much too numerous to be prosperous and that unless they were thinned off speedily, want would be the fate of the tribe.

Accordingly acting on this theory, he would start off and run through his town, decapitating everybody he met, until a pile of human heads attested his philanthropy and the firmness with which the insane ruffian stuck to his philosophical doctrines. Though they do not, as a rule, torture prisoners captured in war — either killing them outright, or disposing of them as slaves (which is the more lucrative and popular method of treating them), yet culprits are, as we have seen, often tortured in the most inhuman manner. M'tesa, the Waganda king whom we have already so frequently referred to, would, however, in accordance with his capricious cruel character, torture a soldier, who had shown cowardice, in a most inhuman manner, such as boring holes in his body with red-hot irons, and in other methods almost too horrible to believe.

How this worthy treated his wives we have already seen. Feeling for none of them any passion akin to love, and having abundance of them, he was no way backward to thin his harem now and then. In this blood-stained court scarcely a day elapsed during Speke's stay, in which one, two, or three of the wretched palace women were not dragged off to execution, crying in plaintive tones, as the executioner led them out of the royal precincts — " Hai Minange ! " (Oh, my Lord !) " Kbakka ! " (My king !) " Hai N'yawo ! " (My mother !). But all their cries and lamentations were in vain. They fell upon deaf ears, and so far as any hand dared be lifted to save them they might as well have pleaded with the palace walls. Yet many could be heard privately commenting on their beauty, though familiarity with such scenes had so accustomed them to look upon such an affair as a matter of course, that it is dubious if any further com miseration was excited in the spectators at the time than a regret that His Majesty should be so extravagant as to sacrifice such a piece of valuable property in this reckless manner !

On another occasion, when on one of his hunting or rather sort of picnic excursions, a favourite wife handed a fruit to the young king, which liberty so incensed the tyrant that he ordered her to immediate execution. In a moment the beagle-like pages sprang upon her to bind her with their turban cords, and though she stoutly defended herself, and her appeal for mercy was backed by the king sisters on their bended knees before him, she would most assuredly have been sacrificed, had not Captain Speke begged her life. The idea of anybody taking sufficient interest in the preservation of a human being's existence, on the plea of mercy, so tickled the boy-brute, that he instantly granted the" white man's request and let her go free. The king's attendants are naked girls, who are, however, not admitted into the ranks of the harem, nor will the king bestow any of his superfluities of women on the greatest of his subjects, no matter how much he might wish to honour them, in case these exwives might divulge court secrets.

Filthiness in their person and habits is also too general a characteristic of the Central Africans. Take, for example, the Obbo and Bari of the White Nile. Baker informs us that he had the greatest difficulty in inducing his Obbo cow-keeper to abandon the disgusting national habit of washing the milk-bowl with cow's urine, and even of mixing some with the milk. The man was, however, not without his excuse. Unless, he declared, he washed his hands with such water before milking, the cow would lose her milk. The Obbo natives wash out their mouths equally offensively, a custom which Baker considers might have originated in the total absence of salt in their country. But to show how different from each other are the most near neighbours in As rica, it is expressly noted that the Latookas (vol. ii., p. 215) are very cleanly in their habits, and that milk could be purchased from them in their own vessels without fear.

In other respects the African tribes differ widely from each other. Nor does proximity afford the slightest clue to the probability of two tribes having similar habits, or being equally wealthy. Take the Kytchs of the White Nile for example. Since Baker's description they have obtained the unpleasant pre-eminence of being perhaps the most miserable tribe on the African continent. They are a nation of " living skeletons," though Baker notes that amongst them AFRICAN HIPP' iPOTAMI he saw the best -looking girl he had ever seen in a black tribe. Her dress was simple enough — merely a little bit of dressed hide a foot wide slung across her shoulders, all other parts being exposed. This Negro beauty, being the chief's daughter, had more dress, however — scanty as it Was — than the other girls of the country, who merely wear a circlet of "little iron jingling ornaments around their waists."

All the men, though tall, were miserably thin ; the children mere skeletons, and the whole tribe thoroughly starved. Unlike most of the African tribes, they trust entirely to nature for their subsistence, and will spend hours digging out field-mice from their burrows, in order to use them as food. " They are," writes Baker, " the most pitiable set of savages that can be imagined ; so emaciated, that they have no visible posteriors, they look as though they had been planed off ; and their long thin legs and arms give them a peculiar gnat-like appearance. At night they crouch close to the fires, lying in the smoke to escape the clouds of mosquitoes. At this season the country is a vast swamp, the only dry spots being the white ant-hills; in such places the natives herd like wild animals, simply rubbing them selves with wood ashes to keep out the cold.