The History Of Mankind; Volume 3 1010476777, 9781010476771

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THE HISTORY OF MANKIND

Uat'/ol.

to

‘rordind

FFROPI

AND

iol.

Kat

to

ASIA arronliui^

OF

ES At

^

THE

HISTORY OF MANKIND in'

PROFESSOR FRIEDRICH RATZEL

TRANSLATKI) FROM TMK SKCONl) C.ERMAN ICDITION

A.

J.

nnTLER,

'

M.A.

^^-V

V?£N 0>> WITH INTRODUCTION BY

WITH CO LOURE

K.

PLATES, MAPS,

VOLUME

TYLOR,

B.

D.C.L.,

AM) ILLUSTRATIOXS

III

HonDou

MACMILLAN AND

CO., Li.mitfd

NEW YORK; THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1898

F.R.S.

CONTI- NTS

W

liOOK

-Coiiliiiiicd

Racks

'I'm: Ni-:GkO

IJ.

Ai-uk'ans ok tmk Intkkumi

'J'lii':

sicrioN S.

Tlic

«;».

d

lo.

who

inul oiIkt Ulkm.-s

Nojoik.’s

in:

The

AlVira

Kac«.:s uf InIcriMr

in

the

Iil.-lrici

of

ihi.-

......

(he l-pju'r and Mjddlo Nih.‘

(^f

.

Ko:in(Li ornaments, etc.: l^raj)liical

Waganda

neck ornaments;

2, 3, '‘4,

i,

(.\fler

;

Wanyoro

knife; 3,

Sliir

2,

,,

264

,,

326

,,

392

,,

484

,,

5C4

belt; 6, double

(Vienna Elhno-

ves.scl.

;

utcn.sils

;

i,

tlie

i

and

Shulis,

among

Rors, Agar.s,

2,

Museum) and

wooden

.......

pots; 3 and

4,

ian de.sfil for ga/elle.s.

(from

])ol

2,

mat;

3,

chiefs stick

Dr. Kelkin’s collection)

.

;

4, jupc

.

;

5, ])lailed

.

•

.

A

tattooed Shuli-negro with his wea[H)ns. Ikfli girl, full

and

profile.

(

by R. Ruchla)

.

(From a pljt»togrnph by R. From a photograph by K. Ruchta) (Berlin Museum)

Head- fillet worn by the Shillooks. Moru woman with lip-ornament. (P'rora a photograph by R. Buchta) Bari fans. (From Dr. Felkin’s Collection) A Lango negnf* (From a photojfMph by R. Buchta) Madi with bow and arrows. (P'roin a photograph liy R. Buclita)

Jur bow, arrows, and quiver, bound and ornamented with Lizard skin Collection)

jj

7

.12

........ ....... ........ ....... ........... (]''rom a photograpli

A

Lice

.

b

lube for sucking

,

.

Ihichla)

•

•

.

.

.

.

^

.

.

— one-sixth

.

real

.

.size.

.

19

(PTom

face.

a photogra])h by Richard Riichta) girl.

6,

9 ;

Meshra-er-Rck on the liahr-el-Uha/.al, with (he Nubian trading fleet, (.\fter Ileuglin) A Shillook negress. Accoiding to Dr. Stuhlmanu, this is also a good type of the Wanyoro Shillook Warrior and

;

Mu.seurn)

earthenware

6, knife,

pointed club, found also

4« ;

(\ ienna

di.sh.

Waganda trap u.sed akso by Wanyoro shield. (Vienna wine;

162

Raker)

food-].)asket

\Yanyoro eartbenware

Wagytffa

,,

,,214

.

TEXT

IN 5,

55

100

2

eiephant-sjHjar

and Dinkas.

—

)

M ,,

Museum

Domestic utensils of the Wanyoro

.\

is.c.

ok North and East IAjropkan Races

ILLUSTRATIONS

I,

(circa 13S0

.

.

2 3^

»»

...

..... .... .... ...... ... .

.

1

Typk.s

To face page

.

JLvkj

20

.21 .22 .23 24 .25

26 27

.28

(Christy

29

STORY OF MANKIND

THE

JII

PACJI':

Turkiina buckler with iron-studded club.

I,

Shuli shield

1,

Shillook lance with hiKid

2,

;

Museum) Madi women

A

f»f

(From

Bor

(Drawn from

chief.

Ornaments,

(From a photograph by R.

and Shuli.

(9)

— one-lifth

life

Madi

llie

Nile

ti-3)

:

33

Museum)

35 3

1

.

40

Necklaces and (4-8) head-dresses, Laluka,

I.aiigo,

.

.

womeiVs

(11, 12) Bari

I.nluka signalling horn.

(10)

*

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

/

.

.

.

.

.

real size

;

—

•

41

c

43 46

wooden

2,

High arc also used Ijy other forcst-negroc.s four-fifths real .size. (SiLddinann (Villecti(3n, Beiliti Mu.seum) Wavira corselet of double Imffalo-liide, used also by other forest negroes- -one-fifth real size. (Stuhlwith shell -Ijcads.

lip ping, set

nmnn

(.\)lleciion)

Wadumbo wooden mask — one-fifth Waihiinbo axe and

chisel.

(Stuhlmann

47

48

(Stuhlmann Collection)

real size.

49

(/olleclion)

Wambulva billdiooks, used also by the dwarfs one-fourlh real size. (Stuhlmann Collection) Walegga arrow, with “ feathers ” of leather. (Stuhlmann Collection) Makaraka warriors. (I’roin a idiolrgraph l.»y K. Buchla) Makaraka man and woman. (From a photograph by R, Buchta) Monbuttu weapons I-S, missile weapons 9-23, lances and arrows 24, rpiivcr with arrows 25,

5 ^^

50

.

26, bow.

tattooing

“Samba.”

the forest country of Vnombe.

(Taken on the T.ongo coast by Dr. Pechuel

Ituka shields, from the Middle

C.'oiigo.

Baluba

district, a

from the Kassai

Captain Kling) Knive.s.

—

6,

i, 2,

51

.

shield

52 53

;

(After Schweinfurth)

Tattooing on a negro, probaldy from

l.K)y

;

;

;

.

.

.

.

:

Bashilange

Lupungu

;

7,

;

3,

‘'>

.

.

Upper Nile, with J.)inka huts. (After R. BuclUa) A /andeh. (Drawn from life by K. Buch(a) Wavira articles i, leather pad to protect the hand from the l)ow-string, one-third :

*34

r

(Vienna Flhnographical Museum)

aprons.

\'iew on the

I 32

.

by K. Buchla)

signalling whistle.

31

(Vienna

iron rings,

Ihichla)

(British

real si/e.

(l)rann from nature by R. Huchla)

of the negroes on

etc.,

wooden spear with

Dr. Felkin’s Cidlection}

and tobacco-box used by the Nile negroes

l*i[>es

/

.

........ ...... ...... ........ ........... ..... ....... ...... ..... ......... ...... ........... .......... ..... ......... ...... ......

a fenc:ehno-

*

.

93 96

;

Chaillu)

graphical Collection)

92

and belts

one open and one closed .specimen. A].so a basket covered with shells from interior of We.st Afiica one-quarter real .size. (Church Mis^iicmary Society’s Museum) Weaving-frame from the Niger oiic-fiflh leal size. (Perlin Museum) Spoons of j))ailed gra.ss- two-lifths real size. (Hrili.sh Museum) brass bcer-cups from Old Calabar one-third real size Carved wooden vessel, with lid, from Guinea onc-seventh real size. fPrilish Mu.seum) (Hritish Museum) Coloured earthenware vessels from the Niger. (Hritish Museum) I'.arthenw.are vessels from the Niger. brass .staff, made by the Aboni negroes of Lagos. (Christy Collection) C’arvcd elephants’ tusks (i, Ihitish Museum i, from I.oango 2, from a West African temple, 2, in basket

89 90

i3

.......... ...... .......... ....... ..... ...... ..... .......... ........ ......... .......... ....... ..... ....... ....... ..... ........ .........

Sword and sheath from the Calioon. (CMnisty Collection) Drums:' I, Dor; 2, from the Caboon 3, Jiir-- one-eleventh Fan rattle. (.After Du Chaillu)

made

.

6, 7, sheatlis

;

:

(.Stockholm Ckdieclion)

.

.

A

87 88

.

.

...

(IToin a [diotogiaph in Primer Iky’s Collection Koto negro from the Niger, (h'roin a photograph belonging to Dr. Koldls/ Fan weapon.s i, knife; 2, sacrificial knife and battle-axe; 3, .shield and .spear. Weapon.^ from Jaljcria i, 2, iron lance.s (ITankfiul Museum'' 3, 4, 5, swords

.Soudanese negro,

.

.

.

^5 86

121

125

^34 135 137

143

144 153 157

159 x6o i6t

163

i6> 168

169

THE HISTORY OF MANKIND

X

Kock-sculplurcs in

(After Nachtigal)

Tilicsti.

I'ACK

.

.

.

—

( I! agcnbeck Collection) Shepherd’s crook ami club from Nubia onc-tenth real size. A caravan bell from Kordofan one-fifth real size. (Christy Collection)

—

A A

Tartar sickle.

.

.

.

.

Museum)

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Cazcllc-trap from the Atbara district

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

— one-seventh real size.

-

.

*173

from Kordofan

(Hamburg)

—

Ivory armlet from Kordofiin.

(ClirLsty Collection)

Collection

.

.

—

.

.

.

one-.sixth

187 1S9 19 *

.194

.

.

200 202 205 206 207 208

— one-

real

.

.

.

,

^

.

174 181

.182 .183

.

.

(Berlin Mu.seum)

Collection; (2) Hagenbeck

(i) C'hristy

.

-

.

.

170

.172’

.

Pointed Club from the Upper Nile-one-eigluh real size: (2) throwing-knife from Kordofan sixth real size. (Frankfort Museum)

Bcer-filters

.

.

.

.

(From a photograph) (Frankfort City Museum) A fakir of the Shukuriyeh tribe. (From a drawing by U. Buchta) The Cadi of Khartoum. (From a photograph by K. Buchta) Kharltmm dancing-girl, perhaps of A bys.sinian origin. (From a sketch by R. Buchta) Moorish-Arab weapons. (Munich F^thiiographical Museum) Nuba Shields from Kordofan — one-ninth real size. (Frankfort City Museum) Bedouin.

Niilnan helmet.

(i)

.

...... ........ ....... ..... ...... ...... .... ........ ...........

(Leipzig

Bedouin of the Arabian desert, (h'rom a photograph) Nubian man and girl. (From a photograph) An F'gyptian Arab, negroid type. (From a [diotograph) A C’airene Scribe. (From a photograph) A Coptic merchant in Cairo. (From a jdiotograph)

A

.

.

209

size.

210

.211 .211

.

Arab censer of earthenware — onc-foui th real size. (Berlin Mu.seimi) 212 A Nubian sword with Solingen blade, leather sheath, and belt - one-tenth real size. (Berlin Museum) Watertight w oven vessels from Nubia onc-.si\th real size. (Hagenbeck Collection) 213 A Nubian .vr/Az. (After llcuglin) .215 216 Tobacco-pipe of ivory from the Upper Nile one-Hfth real size. (C'hristy Collection) Nubian tobacco-pipe one-fourtli real size. (Hagenbeck Ctdleclion) 217 21S Nubian yahbabas — one-eighth real si/c. (Hagenbeck Collection) Wooden hair-comb from Shoa in Abyssinia. (Frankfort Museum) 223 A twirling fan, used in Nubia and Abyssinia one-fifth real .size. (Hagenbeck Collection) 224 .\byssinian shield, made of the hide of the Kaffir ox one-sixth real .size. (Frankfort Museum) 225 .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

..... .....

.

.

.

—

—

.

.

—

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

........ ........ ....... .... ........ ........ .... .......... ....... ...... ...... ..... ...... ..... ....... ..... .... ..... ....... ........... .

—

Abyssinian church furniture. Aby.ssinian .straw-plaiting.

.

(.After Rohlfs)

(.After

Specimens of modern Abyssinian

Rohlfs)

(After Rohlfs)

art.

Croat seal of Abyssinia. The legcmi is (i) Lthiojnan Negusa riegest Juhannas sa ethiope juhanne melik muUik cl habasa, /.t*. John, king of the kings of IClhiojfia (From a photograph) .South Abyssinian girl. A man of IJakhel. (h*rom a photograph) :

Negro of Beni Me.slem. (Fnnn a ])hoh)graph Full face view of tiie same .\ncient stone edifice near Kafr Dow’an,

(Stcjckholm Ethnographical Collection)

(.Stockholm Collection)

Leather prmches of -Algerine work.

(Stockholm Collection)

Landscaparatcd from her husband for two years. The king and the chiefs have establishments of their own in the country, where their wives

—

arc

sant

for

this

period.

Twins are greeted with

delight.

The

umbilical

-

coi'd is .preserved, if

TJTE

IVAGANDA AND OTHER RACES

the father

is

17

a chief, and ornamented with beads and otlicr

finery.

^

The

buried in a gigantic package of bark -cloth, that of a while that of a slave is merely flung into the thicket, and that of an executed criminal left lying in the public road. The Wag^inda have a large repertory of names. Some are especially popular corpse of a king

chic# in a

wooden

among them,

coffin

is

;

as Makassa, the deity of

appropriate in taking the

name

Lake Victoria

Names

of a god.

for they see nothing inof beasts and insects are also ;

Many names have a definite signification. Thus Mtesa means one wlio tries or decides controversies ” Mkavya, or Mukavya, another of his names, which he assumed on the occasion of his great victory over the Wasoga, means, according to Wilson, “he who causes to weep.’* The larger among the political organfsins into which this group of races is divided, are also of significance in respect of their relations to the neighbouring These are Unyoro and Uganda. Emin Pasha notes Kinyoro as the races. older language, and that which has been maintained in the greater purity while Kiganda has been much modified by continuous contact with Zanzibar, and is still given to men.

“

;

;

clianging.

In

Karagwe and among the Washashi on the

eastern shore of I-akc

Ukcrewc, a language is spoken nearer Uganda seems generally like an intrusion into to Kinyoro than to Kiganda. an original Kinyoro-speaking district, which embraces LTnyoro, Udda, Karagwe, Usinja, and Urundi, and reaches as far as Unyamwesi. Tradition has it that a single great territory called Kittara, of which Unyoro seems to have formed llic .nucleus, once extended over the district occupied by these kingdoms. Kitlara as ci general name has now disappeared it is usually applied only to the kingdom. western fragment of the ancient From this state there successively split off Nkole to the west, Karagwe and Usinja to the south, where perhaps a larger kingdom once existed with Usinja as its nucleus. Unyoro lies to the north and west of Uganda. It docs not touch Lake Victoria, but reaches to the Without exercising left bank of the Nile and the cast shore of I.akc Albert. a definite overlordship, Unyoro has a strong grip upon the Kiches, the Wasoga, It is the Gunis or Shulis, the Ulegas and other tribes on the Upper White Nile. less fertile than the district to the south, being a pronounced prairie and pasture country. Cultivation is less careful than in Uganda, and the whole administration Victoria, as well as oti the large island of

;

of the country, the organisation, the laying out of the roads, arc less complete.

The history of the last few decades records a whole series of conflicts between Waganda and Wanyoro, and of distrust on the part of the latter towards the former. In the north of Uganda numerous Wanyoro settlers are found, who have been captured in campaigns and brought along by Uganda cliicfs. Uganda lies in a crescent round the north end of Lake Victoria. The If we cannot take quite country i^ ricb, and maintains a large population. literally Stanley's remark that the Uganda peasant realizes the ideal of happiness after which all men strive, yet copious and regular harvests seem to reward his labours. In Karagwe the line between the ruling Wahuma and the agricultural

Wanyambo

drawn even more sharply than

Uganda.

Culture is -in general Karagwe^ is said to have been founded twenty generations ago at a lower stffge. in the following manner: conspirator named Rohinda fled from Kittara to Karagwe with a great following of Wahuma. At that time Nono was king of c VOL. ITl is

—A

10759

in

THli

i8

the Wanyf'imbo, the settled

HISTORY OF MANKIND residents

in

Rohinda manjiged to ambush for him, and killed

that country.

insinuate himself into the king’s confidence, laid an

Since then the Wahuma have held^ him, placing himself then on the throne. The foundation of the Wahuma kingdom of Usinja the sovereignty of Karagwe. is

said to have resulted from a quarrel between

brothers in the royal family of

Karagwe.

The

^

expeditions of recent years have brought us acquainted with another

—

Kavirondo to the east of Lake Victoria. Its negro-state ruled by Wahuma We have also learnt through Stanley of a dark inhabitants arc of Nilotic stock. country called Undussuma, two days’ journey from the western shore «f Lake .Albert, and through Stuhlmann of a series of countries to the west of the Nile sources, where Wahuma rule or roam, and in some eases have a clear recollection To these belong particularly Ruanda, where on the of their arrival from Unyoro. plateau which borders the great Central African forest a specially pure Wahuma 'I'lie lords here arc the warlike Wasamboni, with population feeds its herds. shields like the Waganda, spears of the type of Karagwe, Uhha, and Urundi, bows two yards long, and arrows of twenty-eight inches, kinsmen of the races on the Upper White Nile and Lake Albert. Their subjects arc Central Africans of the

Wavira

Though the strict military and political organisation of the and especially Unyoro, docs not reach thus far, manners and

stock.

Wahuma

states,

customs point to the presence of VV'^ahuma

9.

§

in this region also.

THE NEGROES OF THE UPPER AND MIDDLE NILE REGIONS

West— The separate groups: Shiilooks, Jurs, Shulis, Oinkas, Nuers, Macli.s, Mitt us, Lalukas Ornaiueiit and liiical

disintegration

and

retrogression.

Tiik great majority of the rivers falling into the Nile in the upper portion of For long distances they course are broad shallow streams with slow current. arc blocked by a growth of papyrus and pistia. 'I'hc land through which they flow is one vast swamp the abominable vapour over the waters, the stupefying smell of the trcjpical swamp-vegetation, the mosquitoes which fly about one’s head in thousands, the difficulty of keeping a firm footing owing to the uneven conformation of the ground, the numerous hindrances in the way, climbing plants, fallen stones, deep holes made by elephants’ feet, all tend to make this district of swamps impassable. It is for the greatest part uninhabited, and^ at most forms its

;

the theatre of frontier wars between the

north of them.

by

To

land.

inhabited season.

Jt>y

many

Wanyoro and

parts the dry season

get from the

Kongo country

rise

above

the country to a

all

in

is

is

the Nile tribes living to the

the only period of intejpouasc

across rivers and

the most southerly Baggaras

Where

and gives traffic;

In

is

swamps

to the regions

only possible at the very driest ^ny decided faU still remains,

higher, the absence of

network of streams which arc not the Bahr-cI-Ghazal region.

With

less

this

of a hindrance to the water supply^

)

THE NEGROES OF THE UPPER AND MIDDLE NILE REGIONS outside the river-beds

19

apt in the dry season to be deficient rather than excessive. reach their culminating point in Lake No, whose barricades

is

tangle and swamp vegetation have from old times placed a barrier to any advance into confused of Into this flows the Gazelle River, the lakes where the Nile rises. of thc*rcgion east comes the Sobat, from the south the the and grassy, from sluggish, rushy,

The

mighty stream. It shows significantly the difficulties of navigation that no true race of boatmen has here sprung up, such as the Congo They arc rather mere swamp-dwellers, know!^ 9n its head-waters and tributaries. closely to the moist climate. Thus, too, the them.selve.s more attached have who tributaries the Nile and its arc more limited. are on settlements dense Where spots Bahr-el-Jcbci, already a

M(.\sliia-LT-ki.*k

even life

if

endicular walls

;

notably the Wavuma. Northward, toward the Ituri, dwarfs and dwarf-like j^coplc appear. There, amid the forest Wavumba, Stuhlmann found the Warnbuba, Walesse, and

Wahoko, who

sjjeak quite a different

language from the surrounding

Bantus, are stated to have wandered hither from the west four generations back;

and are nearer to the small hunting-stocks. The typical forest i^eoifle are the Wavira of the Upper Ituri, described on p. 47, who spread in branches, showing some variation, along the upper course of the Congo, from Nyangwe to Stanley I'alls. They arc dark -brown powerful folk, disguising the colour of their skin by smearing with grease and the 2)owdcr of a red wood wearing rings, disks, and plugs in the upper lijjs, brass w ire and plugs in the car-Iobcs. Other adornments arc beads of iron and shell, chains of iron rings worn round the shoulders, cow ry shells stitched on leather. Scar-tattooing is sparsely performed on the breast and belly. Circumcision seems to occur among the uestern tribes, but to be lacking in the cast. Little bows w'ith rattan .strings, arrow's (leaf-feathered) in bag-like quivers, a leathern jjad to i:)rotcct the wrist from the bow-string, often a cuirass of ;

buffalo-hide, forrns part of their equipment.

They

live

in

conical huts, grow'

goods arc obtained from the Wadumbo. According to their owm tradition they came to their present abode from the south-west, only two generations ago wdicncc Stuhlmann believes in their tribal kinship with the Bakuba. Thc^ VValcgga and the Lcndiis (who call thcm.selvcs Drugu), on the grass bananas, w^ork

little

in

iron

;

^

iron

;

plateaus west of l.akc Albert, arc a single race, differing from in language.

Their habit of boring the

lips, their

all

their neighbours

small bows and arrow's, their

ai^rons of bark-cloth, their conical huts, recall the forcst-dw'ellcrs

most of

all in

the

)

THE RACES OF INTERIOR AFRICA

63

where they come in contact with them. In the other direction their cattlebreeding attache’s them to the Lurs, their neighbours on the east and they have Thus they give the impression of a forest more iron than the forest tribes. people who have taken, in a limited measure, to cattle-breeding. west,

;

The Manyema, owing

to their warlike qualities, have become a powerful race and east of the Congo basin, and as far as the lakes. Other forest peoples have attached themselves to them, who have by hasty observers been designated as Manyema; especially the Wakussu, who were originally settled between the Upper Congo and the I^omami, and formed ethnographically the transition from the Monbuttus to the Kassai peoples, just as did the Warua and VVaguha to the nearer Manyema. The Wakussu on the Lower I^ualaba, northward from Nyangwe to the Lomami, brown people with broad, expressive countenances, and of stalwart growth, armed with bows and wooden shields, and clad in aprons of palm-fibre, are no doubt Bantus in language, but in industries Azandeh. approach the Stuhlmann calls their weain the south

with copper,

pons, inlaid “

some of the

prettiest that

arc to be seen in Africa.”

I’eculiarities

language,

of

their

masks, their

their

dancing-

frequent re-

presentations of the figure,

closer

human

may

even point to relations with the

Fans, and

peoples

other

inland of the Camcroons.

The Baluba

arc comKassai

^roUD ^ ^ of peoples extending from Dosed ,*

of

:-.

f

'

'"''smann

;

5,

W’olf

(

;

'olloction.

llangala, from the Wamanga on the Lindi. Tlic}' are, if possible, concealed, where the mouriT of a steamlct or any natural inlet affords shelter, in artificial side channels, lo to 30 feet wide, which also facilitates the capture of fish. They are also kept under water, when they last better. Up the Welle, the Abas.sango dwelling on the islands arc instances of a people well provided with boats and on the Logon, Barth saw half a hundred boats, 25 to 35 feet in length, with powerful bcalis, all ’ be seen every morning going to their work under the In this well-watered country some people naturally guard of a few fighting men. fishermen who live more on the water than on the lead amphibious existences land, and pirates who go man-stealing many days’ journey from their homes. Among some peoples of our district, articles wrought in ir«n are numerous and handsome, and show the quality which Junker praises in the .Amubengc of the Welle as little

women and

;

“

a feeling for art-industry

”

but

;

all of them occupy far from themselves therewith in a large Naturally in the east, degree.

where iron

plentiful,

is

we

find

.Among them admirable smiths. arc the Bongos, who used once to manufacture quantities of good ironware

slender

particularly

;

worn as f)rnamcnt to the number of 20 or 30 on one forearm, and barbed sj)car blades. With them and the Monbuttus, rings,

the smelting

is

Central

other

earthenware soft

Ciirvins

;

1;,

tattle

t.

hoc;

—oue-sixtU

Congo

2, 3. real size.

work

of

and

by

as

two

;

closed

rendered,

Both in

in

the

beauty of their productions the even smiths arc Monbuttu Cosuixjrior to the Bongos. quilhat expressly emphasises the correspondence of the Bangala smithies with those of the Monbuttus as described by Schwein-

'

:

leaves

serve as bellows.

rapidity

Monbutlu impUmonts

Africans cylinders

banana

with

managed

liatelicls

{;\fler

;

4.

knife

Schweinfurth.

for )

in IkuilgU, *

furth.

.

country,

is

thc

famous

NgOmbe on

the

Thc ironworkers of thc south again, in the Baluba country, have methods quite peculiar to themselves of manufacturing iron ornaments and weapons twisting, for instance, iron rods ICquatorial

as thc centre of thc iron industry.

—

when red hot

into a screw form.

made

Again, way. they twist .several together and weld them and grind them into a.xes. Frequent, and very well wrought, arc thc broad knives of the Baluba. These arc pierced, before thc final hardening, with hard punches in geometrical patterns, engraved and damascened with copper. From them we can that here, in the most opposite corner of our district, that “training^ of the eye for regularity and symmetry” which Junker found to be developed among the Monbuttus as among no other negroes, is again at home. I’retty collars are

in

this

)

• carved

THE SOUTHERN CONOO I'EOPLK. AUTISTIC PRODUCTIONS OK nr*

M

^«ba

double cup (7) Ralctda do. (6) Basongo.nino to one-fifth real su -one-fourth mat woven (9) Baluba

.

coxuml Museum. b.isR«.

(Berlin

(8)

do. (s) (4) Baluba Baluba carved wooden box.

THE HISTORY OF MANKIND

86

Copper and

brass, loo, play a greater part here than atiywherc else in Africa.

The former comes in the eastern part from Ilofr en Nalias, while in the west Manyanga seems to be the jjoint whence it radiates. Both, in the form of bars, wire, and rings, are among the most current and most valued articles of trade, and pass for money over a large area. Among the Azandch spears entirely of But copper is used for copper are found, naturally as ornamental weapons. ornament by preference in smaller quantities and they arc fond of damascening it upon iron with much taste. The Baluba coat wooden articles, such ^as axe handles, with sheet copper beaten very thin, instead of the crocodile skin cl.sewhere used for the purpose. The Monbuttus draw bars into wire, with which they bind bows, spear shafts, knife handles, and so on. Shields and the little sticks worn in the ear are studded with copper, and the same metal holds together the rings ;

of buffalo hide, and

is

found on the tongues

The

of belts.

Makaraka

pretty

daggers

also arc embellished

woven

with

wire on

copi)er

their

i)late-

sliaped handles.

Mere

the values of copper

and

iron

with those of

l)ared

gold

maybecom-

and

spectively.

Equatorial

and brass used

find copi)cr

silver

Oil

re-

the

Congo we

even for musket balls. W'ood-carving is highly developed. Just as Schweinfurth described it among the Azandch and Monbuttus, do we find it also south of the Congo. Not only those gigantic canoes, and the shields, drums, stools, dishc.s, but all smaller productions of what is in its way a highly developed art industry, are made from mighty rubiaccous trees, which the people fell mo.st laboriously with their little hatchets, doing the preliminary shaping with a kind of adze. These finer woodcarvings arc done with a peculiar onc-edged tool. The variety of their carved dishes is cxtraoplinary some have ring-shaped handles, others stand upon four feet. Generally .speaking, the addition of feet to all their wooden utensils is very in great quantity,

;

universal. for the

Besides the women’s round sUxds, they

men,

in

which the

.separate parts arc

make benches

with four feet

neither nailed nor glued, but .sewn

The couch of bamboo poles and cane, of the old Egyptians, which moreover may be traced as far as the south of the Wahuma territory, is also noticeable. The Azandeh and "Bongos also arc expert in wood carving. ICmin Pasha even gives them the preference in artistic matters proper. They ornament the feet of their stools with abundant carved work, even imitating the human figure and carve good spoons from wood. The pretty luyps, with necks ending in carved heads of men or aninvils, which the Azandeh bring to the Bongos, and to their ncighl:tf>urs beyond, show with what together with thin strips of Spanish cane. like that

;

and refinement they work. high development in the massive taste

Among

the Bongos this branch of art attains a

human

figures with

which

their villages, gates.

)

THE RACES OF INTERIOR AFRICA

87

In their villages may frequently be found whole rows of figures carved from wood at the entrance in the palisade or by the huts of the oldest people soul images, perhaps at the same time monuments of distinguished personages, or, as in the Lcndiis’ fields, canned sticks to avert the evil Similar objects indeed are found as soon as we reach Uguha and Ubujwe, eye.

and graves are decorated. .

;

as in the cut, vol.

i.

p.

We

46.

find again the

same

style, the

same

predilection

copying human beings, coupled with almost greater de.xtcrity, in the south. The Kaluba make wooden cups in very characteristic imitation of human figures and faces, they carve human figures and limbs on knife handles and even on spear shafts, and they put their stools upon supports representing broadened human figures, like medieval corbels. for

('rhe foremost in the C’liristy

A/ancleh harps,

(

ollcction.

achievements arc considerable on peculiar frames, hang Manyama, where twenty or thirty earthenware from the ceiling of the huts and it attains its highest point in the east, where the In this way they Monbuttus manufacture quite the best things in Central Africa. surpass the Bongos no less than the West African potters working after Moorish patterns. Even though working in a coarse material, and unacquainted with the wheel, they make vessels of admirable symmetry, and of strikingly good ta.stc I’ottcry

is,

as usual, unevenly distributed.

Its

pots,

in

;

in

the simple ornament.

In their best

direction of forming handles,

an

art

pieces they even

unknown elsewhere

Their water-bottles recall Egyptian forms I'he

;

make

a

.start

in the

to African earthenware.

their oil -flasks are richly adorned.

Azandeli too attain conspicuous success

in

earthenware.

In wiromisc of luck. for tribute

a

rule, to

on the part of the

the principal

his taste.

as might be which have arisen through The Monbutlus are immigration and subjugation. in this less .strict than the Azandeh, among whom warlike, doing little work, drinking and the nobles gambling (many of them, as chiefs .sons, having “Mata” before their names) -form a true ari.stoBut among them also a governing class, cracy. setting great store by a pure pedigree on the father’s side, is built up on various .stages such as slavcs, serfs, subjugated peoples, .scmi-subjcct hunting

c.xpcctcd

divi.sion in

of classes

societies

—

.

,

I-okUi siiuvsirai inmgi- riuiiorovorom-ihird

iv'al

.size.

(Stuiiliiianji

(.oUct-

tion.)

Such a state of things as prevailed in Monbuttu-land when Emin and Junker w-erc there, in w'hich Gambari, the son of a smith, had obtained the succc.s.sion to Mun.sa, while that chief’s legal .successors had become private persons, could only have come to pass or been tolerated in The distinction between the revolutionary days of the Egyptian invasion. is apparently ba.scd Bangala, viiikunzi and nsoini w'hich we find among the To the former belongs every 2X).s.sessor of any wives, purely upon property. any male slaves* and a complete hou.se establishment the latter is composed of racc.s.

;

the larger partitions, as that bctw'ecn the dw'arfish hunters and their lords, the breed wdth a capacity for social life emerges unmistakable but neither do the bronze-hued warriors of the Bangala, the Azandeh,

unpropertied freemen.

In

;

the Baluba, belong to the negro breed, although they inhabit the mo,st central Thus on the whole an ethnographic separation, regions of the African continent.

Soudan, though perhaps more obliterated, coincides with the social. Every people is split up In political respects great disintegration prevails.

as in the

THE HISTORY OF MANKIND

94

More than a hundred hereditary sultans or princes, better Azandch country, and some'of them possess power lar^c domain. respectable and military a It is the same with the a Ronical

;

conceivable beauty and variet\\ Stretches of Fantce, the most fertile of the Guinea coast, aboundstreams and harbours, with more timber than enough at hand for boatof the

fruits

roa.sg like those of

ing in

building,

show that

development

of

greatest

Akim and it

is

not

in

navigation

-etllcment, ICuropean factories

and

mankind. Merc, from the first were thickly planted. North and south,

African

forts

Senegambia and Loanda, lie very hot regions, and the grass-land comes close coast. Foi development of relations between Europe and Africa, the

in I

cases Nature alone that has interdicted the

all

among

llic

)

from the frequent contrasts of climate in marshj' coast-tracts Euroi)can trading-stations, like Grand liassain, Assinie, and l.)abon have been deserted from this cause others, like Lagos and Akassa, arc evei \' j'car decimated by fever. The negroes do not escape these fevers but as they get better nourished on the coast, they are, in spite of them, not uniinliealthiness arising is

.)f

moment.

Some

;

;

c

)mmonly superior

in

bodily strength and good looks to their brethren in the

The blending of races may not be without its effect here. The coast, narrower sense, is often left uninhabited, and the settlements lie most Irequently at the limit of high water. In Togo, as in the north of the ('amcroons, tlic coasts are more densely peopled than the slope from the highlands, but j)art of the Uatanga coast lies desert. As everywhere on the earth, the j) 0 ])uIation interior.

ill

the

lends to mass itself at the .Apart from

mouths of

rivers.

the trade-winds of the two hemispheres, the prevailing south-

westerly direction of the wind, blowing on shore as a violent monsoon at the season wlicn the sun is north of the Equator, cannot encourage the negroes to

tempt the high seas

With

in their walnut-shells

of canoes.

the abundant rainfall the vegetation

hixuriaiU on the coast and in

is

Ihc lower-lying parts of the interior, but at the first beginning of the high

md riie

ground

Congo and

the Ogowe, assumes a savannah character, wliich is maintained extended by the practice of burning. The wealth of usclul plants is great, tw'o indigenous plants of Africa of most importance in trade the oil-palm

al)out the

uid the coffee-plant f>f tlie

—occur

—

wu’ld in

these countries

;

the former, since the abolition

most capable of development, chiefly forms forests, and on the Congo, where ^t covers

slave-trade, the export article of Africa

the Lower, Niger, where it whole islands. The oil-palm, docs not belong alone to this region, but is found throughout the Congo country as far as the Welle, but ascends the Niger and Heniic but here on the coast, where it is universally distributed from Senegambia VOL. ITT II ;

)

THE HISTORY OF MANKIND

98

to Ani^ohi,

account.

it

undoubtedly receives

riic coffee-plant

its

occurs in

and

chief development

its

West African

is

turned to most

species, Coffea /ibenai,

much

In the higher partjj grows superior, as it seems, to the Arabian or East African. and the ^///7/-nut tree, sterculia, of importance in the trade with the Soudan caoutchouc-producing lianas arc widely diffused in the damp forests. The West African fauna is poor compared with that of South and East Africa, In the markets there dried rats form especially in the part south of the Equator. ;

an

article of trade,

and antelope skins are a costly possession, reserved forepersons

The Guinea and Senegal

of distinction.

region

is

better off

;

but even here the

elephant has been driven so for back that the west coast has already lost much The south-west coast abounds in fish of its old imix:)rtancc for the ivory trade.

;

Mos.samedes supplies

tlic

Types uf

To

Lower Congo and Gaboon with

wonif'n.

(I-’iom

photogrripli by

I.)i\

it

in a dried form.

FiilkcnsUMu.

lon^ stretch of coast the deserts, emerging broad on the sea-front, form boundaries which ma)’- be indicated in a general way by the Senegal River in the north and the Cunene in the south, between these points negroes, dex'oting themselves to agriculture and trade, appear everywhere on the coast, bounded to north and .south by nomadic dwellers in the plains and the desert. this

natural

Their distribution

is

freciucntly typical.

mediately inland, thicker again inhabitants of line is the

Togo and

further

the Cameroons.

They inland

arc thick on the coast, thin im;

this

The most

Gulf of Guinea, formed by the change

in

is

especially seen

in

the

dividing feature in this long

the direction of the coast from

and south to east and west. At this point the great Bantu family of languages finds its limit, and the negro languages in the narrower .sense, with their manifold varieties, succeed each other from the Rio del Rey northwards. In cuntrast^to the unity of the Bantu languages, the tangle of tongues in Upper Guinea is almost impenetrable. In Sierra Leone, wl^pre no doubt the settlement of north

liberated

slaves

members of 200

has brought together the greatest possible diversity of races, different negro tribes with 150 different languages arc .said to

THE NEGROES OF WESTERN AFRICA

99

Further, we have the European languages have fojund themselves in company. under the curious disguises which negroes have given them, and then the Fulbe If the most obvious bond between them, apart from language and Arabic. community of language, is that which is common to all negroes in physical and mental nature, in custom and tradition, contact with European Christian civilization and* its whole sum of resulting changes have also fallen to the lot of

ith wift^ ;ind diild.

(AfkT Du

( hnillii.)

many, and formed a ground of separation from the tribes of the interior. West Africa, throughout the whole space between Senegal and licnguella, has felt the The bearers of it were at innuence of Christianity soonest and most enduringly. first c.vclusivc^y Portuguese, 0|‘ Europeans in Portuguese service, with whom French, Dutch, English, and only' at times Danes, Germans, and Spaniards, were associated. The influences of the European settlements, rarely beneficial, in many cases unfavour-

)

;

THE HISTORY OF MANKIND most recent period, limited to a narrow strip of; coast which Portiu^uese penal settlements of Anj^ola, Mossamedcs, and Bengiiella, extended on the other side of lo’ S. in a leisurely and uncertain fashion into the able, were, until the in

the old

our own century tlic coast-district of Kissame, between Angola and Benguella, was not entirely subject to the Portuguese, and in the very latest decades they have retired on their interior frontier, yielding to the pressure of interior.

Even

in

Tongos, Bangala, and Kiokos.

North of the Congo

it

is

but a

little

time since

liuropeans have^, begun, by the race

impelled for the

occupation of

in-

land territory, to press inwards from the coast Iwcn the negro bell. of Liberia clings

state

the

to

entirely

claims over tricts

its

sovereignty

to

the

coast

inland

miles

50

intcri The maritubas, consistitisf of rods, utidcrj^o many kinds of variations hc,rc. The The rods can be pushed too and fro o\ cr a sound-box, so as to change the i)itch. from five up thirty. As with varying to number of rods is not accurately fixed,

Among our pianos, every one can strum the marimba, but few play artisticall)'. wind instruments wc have jjipes carved from wood, others made from a round fruit, buffalo-horns which carry their sound a long way, and above all the well-known hollow elephant’s teeth, with a mouthpiece at the side, near the interesting, however, are sizes

made

the so-called ptintiis

—

tip.

The

nujst

four elephant’s teeth of various

The martial music of which arc always played together. described by I.opcz as consisting of wooden shawms covered with

into horns,

the .Angolas

is

leather, also triangular slabs of

wood, which were beaten with rods, and, finally, pipes of ele-

Worth mention-

phants’ teeth. ing, too,

upon

a stick with rings,

is

which

perforated

a

sanall

calabash

is

hollow rapitlly

tapped up and down, and which is

used as a

“

fetish-drum

”

in

j)roc(;ssions. Other rattles ha\e been depicted on p. 109 and elsewhere. The double bells, which arc also very common here as

chiefs’

insignia,

Buchner

Lunda we go

and which

.M.

calls “ the characteristic

instrument,” acquire, as into the interior, artistic

ornament often of considerable richness.

In villages

spite of the

arc

not

trade,

large.

the

The

“towns” on the Congo, the ‘‘residences” on the Guinea Coast are only larger \ illagcs, which do not exceed 2000 inhabitants, until we come where the power of .Soudanese influence appears. Kven in a situation so favourable as Stanley Pool, places of any size were found only in very small number. Nkunga and Mbangu on the eastern bank; a cluster of villages called the Nshasha group; at the southern entrance Kintamo (Leopoldville), with 1 500 inhabitants Mfwa, a group of four or fivc little villages opposite Brazzaville, each of which has its own chief, arc all worth mentioning on the coast-line, some 150 miles along. Inland, to the south also, lies Lcma, a well-known ivory market. Where the huts of individuals stand like ;

homesteads in the plantations, as among the Banyang, or in many a |)eaccful countryside of Upper Guinea, there is always a grouj) drawn together round the chief’s hut or the market-place. The construction is usually flimsy, and the experience of the Portuguese in Angola, that the destruction of a village was not a kccnly^or i)crmanently-felt punishment, was soon repeated in the Congo State. As.sembly-houses, serving also as rest-houses for thp traders, in which the fire is always burning, stand in the middle of the Cameroon villages in an open space often

distinguished by a shady tree.

In the

Lower Congo

district,

a veritable

,

— THE .\EGJWES OF IVESTER.V AFRICA marked by a roof coiniiij^ o\v down, and by artfully woven walls of reed. lk)lh the four-sided and round styles of buiklini^ occur on the west coast. The former prevails alonij the Cotv^o, also in the O^^owe, Gaboon, and C'ameroons districts, and shows itself capable of dcvclo|)in|4 materially in the direction of size and comfort. It necessitates a layinj^-out of simple streets, that is the houses country

petty kin^^s» the clucfs’ huts arc

so as to form a verandah,

stand opposite to each other, as

we

broad road,

liavc seen, alon^' a

conical style leads to a circular arraiiLjemcnt, or to scattered buildint^s.

same a men’s room, and stalls. is

alwa\\s

tlie

;

plan divided by partitions into kitclien, women’s room, These rooms all open by separate doors on to a common

establishments, open sheds prettily

woven mats.

conical

style

the

The

rcctaiiLjle

where stand the troughs

courtyard,

wlu’Ic

and

stalls.

for

making palm-oil

Many

;

also,

in

of the living rooms are

the

larger

hung with

Ihe

of dwelling

house, in which the well-

known is

are repeated,

f(.»rms

found

among

the south-

those of Henguclla and Angola, but also, remarkably enough, ern

as

tribes,

among

the tribes of

The

Guinea.

Kroo

village

Upper

huts of the

Mon-

near

and

arc rectangular

rovia

prcttils’

made and

l)aml)00

by

close

w^attlcd

palm -bast

huts.

So

'riicrc is little else to

in Tribii

—onc-lhird

real size,

the rectangular style prevails, in Adcli the round,

be said about

it

save that

Kioko bee-hive

it

repeats, with slight variations,

Ashantee round mud-hut. on the coast often manifest the inlhicncc of the prosperity which

the well-knowai forms from

The

Hrass bcer-cups from 0)d Ciilabnr

;

a Vei town of

is

mud

round

of

villages

their position as trade

tlie

entrepots brings with

it

to the

;

their size

is

often considerable

Dahomey, Whydah, Agomey, and Agomey-Sefa, have each over 5000 inhabitants and their situation very attractive. The elegant huts of King Ifodl’s town in

—

lie in

the shade of a forest of bananas, coco-palms, mangoes, and other fruit trees,

forming broad streets and squares distributed over a wide space^. d'hc\' arc very long and of rectangular shai)e only the foundation, a sul;>struclurc a yard high, ;

made

of mud, while the

of the huts themselves consist of mats, w'oven extremely prettily from the leaf-stalks of palms. 'Fhe ven^ neat and elegant roofs consist of the leaves of a j)innatc palm, made to overlap like tiles. A less gratifying is

w’alls

])adlocks on the doors. “long houses” capable of holding 100 persons.

sign of progress^ in the fittings of these huts are the firm In the

Cameroon

district there are

In the grass-plains of the interior the lack of palm-lcavcs causes a variation the huts are thatched w ith grass, and the sagging roof forms tlic ordinary station of ;

and cats. In districts w^here feuds arc common, fence and ditch arc not absent and the villages stand on hill-tops or other places difficult of access. In the hills on the Bcngucila coast, Cameron found a village w ith thirteen lines

'fowls, goats, ;

of fortification.

VOL.

Jll

The custom

of daubing the

w^alls

and

tloor

with ox-dung has been I

1

I'HE

14

JII

STORY OF J/AAVvAVO

horse and cow-dunij for tlie Upper Guinea coast from the Soudan Skulls of animals purpose are offered for sale in the markets of Abeokuta. chase. as trophies of gable the the on stuck are The chief produce is Agriculture is indigenous in all West African races. mani(^c, maize, yams, ground nuts, hA'o (Cahxdiiun esailcntiiiti)^ and agondciy a kind Much attention is devoted of gourd, the seeds of which arc pouiuled and boiled. But among to getting the palm-oil, though little to the cultivation of the palm. transferred to

;

this

'

the trading-people on the liatanga and Cameroons coast, the industry jjroduces sufliciencx', while it reaches an astonishingly high point in some

only the barest parts of

Upper Guinea,

for

instance on the Slave Coast, where

painfully every foot’s breadth of earth,

t'.irvi-fl

offence.

Nvood'-ii

But to

so extensive aiu

this

with

licr Guinea, where they have .spread down from the Mandingocs and Iloussas, than farther south. The interior is unquestionably better suited to cattle than the coast in Angola ;

)

THE NEGROES OF WESTERN AFRICA

il?

cattle-breeding stops at the Portuguese frontier. Here the breeders of cattle are the Pangala and *Bondos. In some districts, for instance the inland country of the Cijrneroons, the goat is the commonest domestic animal. None of tlic beasts

of burden employed in other countries can thrive in the coast-lands of West Africa a fact on which much depends. Mules that were imported quickly died. Horses spread from Houssaland towards the coast, but do not succeed in doing ;

thoroughly well there. There arc some studs of horses on the plateaux of Angola,«but the breed is small and weak. Oxen, which thrive nicely in the rich pastures of Ambaqua, and arc much in use for riding in the higher jiarts of the

Coloured earihonw.'iro vessds from iho Niger.

(Diilisli Must;iiiii.

roa.st, arc not driven to the coast till they arc ready for slaughtering;, since it is only with great trouble that they can be kept alive there for any time. Probably the fault is with the plants used for fodder, which alter within small distances, so

that the removal of the bca.sts from

one district to another always produces sickattempt has been made to import camels from the ('anarics, but they only a short time. The .Angolans were formerly described as fattening

An

ness.

^lood

it

ind eating dog.s.

many markets as

on the Upper

cl tVoni llio

(Brilibh

Museum.)

salt.

In the north, where a row of salt-pans extends as far as done yet more simply by directly boiling down the sea-water in Nyong, it Farther in the interior, shallow brass basins which come as an article of trade. as about the .sources of the Ogowe, salt is also got from inland lakes, and forms an important article of trade for the Batckc and Apfuru. In the Guinea district es.scntially the .same customs as to food prevail, For although in many cases more European manners have found entrance. table-knives, utensils, while household of the cups part stoneware form example, forks, and spoons arc articles of lu.xury met with in .some Europcani.scd families. The only ititoxicating drink which thc.se people brew for thcm.selves is palm-wine but spirits, ruinous both in quantity and in quality, have been imported by

of a

salt

lagoon. is

;

Europeans. In hardly any part of Africa can they be .so widely spread as here and the west coast, under the influence, as it i.s, of Christian races, compares iinfavourablv in this matter with the Mussulman cast coast. Ilomp as well as tobacco i.s smoked out of bulging calaba.shcs, converted into The Loango negroes have .short pipes long pipes by the insertion of a reed. pipes with tubes of hollowed banana-stems arc not found till further north. Among the I^oango people it almost seems as if the women smoked more than

;

;

NEGROES OF WESTERN AFRICA

IIIR

u?

the men.

Small calabashes, as in South Africa, arc used for snuff-boxes. In the inland ports of the C'amcroons country the habit of swallowing' the smoke enclosed in a vegetable tube, with rapidly stupefying effect, has come in. I'he most important article of export from West Africa is to-day without question palm-oil, obtained by the natives from the pounded kernel of the palmnut, with no particular trouble, but so care-

that

lessly

only a

often

of

third

oil

tlic

There arc various methods of obtaining it, the most careful perimps on the Loango coast, the most careless that of the Bassas on the Lower Niger,

available

'fhe

when ready

oil

of

is

taken to the coast in

and earthenware

calabashes i;)Oscd

pressed out.

is

to

money and

the

factories

The

goods.

plays the bustling

life,

and dispayment in

jugs,

for

place of sale dis-

and

most

offers tlie

unique physiognomy, of an exchange after

and screeching,

x’clling

of

])ots

women, down the heavy

I'roops of negro

the African sU'le.

set

bargain with the oil-dealers by

oil,

the aid of gestures, laughter, and abuse, and

when

come

have

thej'

to

Real cultivation .

go

terms,

together to seek fuel to render the

of this useful

off

oil fluid.

tree,

which

also yields fibres for weaving, roofing material,

palm-wine, and finally even an edible

tinder,

caterpillar, “

place

often

the

is

” it

it

In

as yet rare.

many

forms regular groves

in

frequent, where

only too

i)laccs,

more

ruin of culture

occurs, a living

waste

;

a village

still

once stood.

villages

West African

industries in thewell-ordcrcd

divided after the west Soudanese

states are

the head guilds are five in

In Abeokuta mimbcr smiths,

carpenters, weavers, dyers,

and

fashion into castes or guilds.

northern

the

they liavc

parts,

till

—

pottens.

In

close to the coast,

come under higher

influences from

and have retained the negro charof T.atro*;. mado l)v llie Alioni in narrow areas, while further Uniss (('Iirii-ly (.’o!h.rii«iM. south they have lost many of their peculiarities owiiii' to Kuropcan influence. 'I'hc iron imlnstry of the Yaniiilcs, at the back of the C'ameroon.s district, is quite excellent ami their large smclting-hon.scs can In .some places it is conspicuous by .be recofpiiscd far off by the pointed roofs. cast,

acter

si.ifT,

only

>

;

a special perfection of artistic

endowment

;

while elsewhere

One may

.speak of a real ar^-indnstry in those regions, since

articles in

common

cast or

it

is

at

a oixat

a |pw

level.

mimbcr of

use never occur unadorned by wood-carving, bead-embroidery,

wrought metal-work.

The

leather

work

in the

Moorish

stj’lc is

brought

THE HISTORY OF MA.XKIH!^

etc.,”

c intcri

but

is

egrq

,s.

The

shows

tc

also very well executed in

Abcokuta 'and Weapons,

plate “South-west African

th
ly

nriD-riiicj,

ichanj;**;

fnun

n.

imrliuin

^U;cklioliJi KtJinojpaphiciil

but in place of these individual trade, in which the negroes take part with ever-increasing independence, has

f

i

llic W’l'st Africiin j

flourished

all

the

more. The Portuguese traders at Cassango and Malange, the Ambaquistas, Linguists, or wdiatevcr the middlemen are called, arc hardly hit by the custom

among

the local negroes of themselves carrying their gotKls a distance of hundreds of miles to the coast, in order to trade on their own account. The Jkangala, who operate here, arc among the best negro traders, as furtlicr north

ever spreading

Batanga and the Camcroons, of Old Calabar and Bonny. All the German Loango expedition found arc not equally competent for the business the chief hindrance to its rapid advance in the impossibilit)" of obtaining carriers. Nowhere had trade made so deep a mark on the lil’e of the i)CopIe, especially in King Bell of the (’ameroons, a social and constitutional matters, as it has here. true merchant-prince, wdio maintained trade stations all along the Mungo, and thereby ruled the district both commercially and ijolitically, was a genuine West .Xfrican phenomenon. In Salaga, trade flourished more than in the equally well situated and peopled Yendi, because in the former country fewer taxes were As long as the slave trade throve it was the cause of imposed on the merchant. very close and steady relations bctw'cen negro chiefs and traders or shippers. ICvery negro v illage had ci broker w^lio, wdicn a vessel appeared, quickly came on The vessel went on from one l^oard to do business in slaves, gold, or ivory. place to another on the coast until it had its cargo, which cverywdiere was in readiness for it. Thus the dignities of trade viceroy, trading prime miii^istcr, and arc the people of

;

the like,

A

came

into existence.,

good type of the coast traders

advantage over

many

is

found

in

the Diiallas,

who have

inliabitants of these coasts of being laborious

the great

and industrious

HISTORY OF MAMCIXO

TJIK

122

In this they resemble the Kroomen. I'hey have and capable of endurance. succeeded not only in putting duties on the trade to and from the interior, so hir anc) they as it ’^oes by way of their coast, but in gcttin in their own narrow territory the same ruthless cravinj^ for monopoly that is found Thus they are conspicuous among in the trading nations which rule the world. ;

show on a small scale the same disregffird for and the same strong need for extensive possession of slaves, as did By the help of their women and slaves once the Phceiiicians and Carthaginians. thc)' j^roduce bananas and yams hardly sufficient for their own requirements, and Crops which demand more their coast has a bad name for dearness of victuals. Almost attention, such as maize, coffee, and cotton, arc unheard of among them. The tcndcnc)' all the goods in which they trade are brought from the interior. As the southern Bangala formerly tried to block the to monopolise is universal. roads to the Kassai, so the Duallas those to the Jk^nuc, the former by force, the When J'ourncaii went latter by inciting the inhabitants and spreading reports. to the Ogowc he was preceded by such a panic, artificially created, that he found only deserted villages, and an attempt was made to put about a re[)ort in the Camcroons that traffic onh’went on in the dry season. On the Benue it ha[)pened that the inhabitants tried to bar the river to strange vessels by dams of w ickcrwork. Flegcl rightly saw that the importance of the Benue lay in the fact that The peoples of the interior were then obliged either it interrupts the monopoh*. to take circuitous routes, as Okwao, before the days of its independence, had to go by Coomassie or else to pay toll, having to fight if they declined to “ fin k over," as, a few' years ago, the iiane, inland from the Camcroons, had to do with tlie Till ejuite recent years Dahomey prohibited strangers from travelling in Venoas. their neighbours for prosperit\% l)ut

agriculture,

;

the country or learning the language.

wise ruler of Salaga, lakes

tlie

surest

He who

dispenses w

means of making trade

ith

iinpt)sts, like

flourish.

Vcw

the

tribes

have contrived to assert a certain inviolability through the terror of their fetish magic. "Of these,** .says liastian, " one can naturally not ho|)c to obtain any intelligence, since their whole policj' is directed to kce[)ing intercourse as dark as possible.”

In this again thej' are like the old

legends arc also connected with

The

Idicenicians.

Xaturall}', cannibal

this.

chief traffic with the tribes of the interior takes place on the occasion of

On the Lower Congo, where there arc four days in the the ii’cekly markets. week, there is a market every day at some particular point, and the marketThe visitors either simply barter or use fragments of overseer is never ab.sent. blue beads as counters. On the coast such childish articles as beads, handmirrors, and so on, have naturally long ceased to have value, and brandy, firearms, cotton-stuffs arc in

Where current. The

demand.

money is alsf> Congo no longer pass

intercourse wa'th Kuropcans

is

more

vigorous,

once wx‘rc alone of value on still form the universal small change. The King of Congo him.sclf used formerly to send to collect cqw'rics on the Angola coast. In Bonny, and at the back of the Camcroons, horse-shoe shaj^cd brass rings arc used, as counters resembling the Nubian arm-clasps, but too small even for children's arms. On the Lower Niger At times w*c find law's about the little triangular plates of iron were once usual. coined the

cowtics

there, w'hilc in

wfliich

the Niger territory they

THE NEGROES OF WESTERN AFRICA number of goats or cattle whicli a jirivatc person may possess just as elsewhere Unfortunately, among the a government tries to regulate tlic circulation of coin. tribes which come more frequently into contact with iiluropcans, brandy has ;

become a medium of exchange, which is pretty much in a position to outwcigli The standard for many kinds of goods in everything supplied by the negroes. the West African trade, but especially for ivory, is formed by the rot/, a value nominally adopted, originally perhaps expressing the definite length of an iron bar, but nc^vv composed of the most \T.rious articles as agreed on by the two parties. originally a piece of cotton cloth,

In the I’ortuguese territory

composed of

this

;

it is, like the but also of brand)*,

and other things

pow'der,

in

a

and wife purchase

is

fixed

proportion.

The

trading spirit makes

more an

affair

its

way

into

families,

The average more when the father

of trade here than with other Africans.

price

much among

is a person from £()0 to £120, but often The wife is the husband's entire and absolute propert)*; he ma)* give her away to some one else, lend her, or sell her. l?ut since wives are the important most costly article of commerce, this only happens in circumstances, as at the conclusion of peace between hostile tribes, or as expiation for a murder, 'i'he penalty for adulter)* is sought by making the seducer pay, or if he is not in a position to do this, become the slave of the injured husband. In Loango adulterous wives of chiefs are said to have been burnt with their paramours. The economical element runs so markedly through all jdiases of these negroes* famij)' life that one has to kiok closely at it not to believe that the institution of

the Duallas

is

of consequence.

the famil)' has for attains

tlic

age

its

for

A

sole objcrct the increase of possessions.

labour

hires

himself out, and seeks

in

)’oung

man who

various wavs—tlK'

—

to earn his sailors, the Duallas and Ikingala as traders As soon as he has which he saves as much as he possibly can. enough, he buys a wife, and the richer he becomes so man)" more members docs Kach of these wives will clear a sj^ccial spot in the forest, he add to his harem. and there ])lant manioc or ground-nuts, which she herself has not only to cultivate Not every spouse rt)ams with impunity under but to take to market and sell. In Okolloma,” says Bastian, “ my host led the shade of so fortunate wedlock. me, in a troubled frame of mind, through the tangled and crossing paths of his He h.'id good reason to dwelling, in the innermost room of which he slept.

Kaliindas or Krooinen as

livelihood, ui)on

himself carefullv, for twenty exasperated female foes inhabited Ins homejusth* curse the hour when his wealth led him to surround

fortif)"

stead,

and he could

himself with them.”

A Persons of princely rank have in this respect also imjxn'tant privileges. Loango chief could espouse an\' woman bv the grant of an i\'or)* ring, and could b)'

the

same means secure young

girls

for

himself.

lM|uall)" a

princess could

choose an)" man, so long as he was not himself a j)rinco or a white man, and had not shed human blood. Even if he were a slaxe, the children of a princess were By their choice they had just the same rights. princesses princes. Akim, In could

make peasants

into chiefs,

and compel

their

husbands to put away wives of

a former marriage. Still

coast.

greater vestiges of

The

woman's

rights

children belong to the mother,

appear

who

in

brings

the institutions of the west

them up almost

imivcrsaliy;

THIC JIJSTOKY (IF

4

if

she dies, the husband

makes

a

payment

MAXK/.XD

to the w

ife’s

parents that they

may keep

Female sovereigns are frequent. Among a few' tribes, as the Kboes, male inheritance, accompanied with a high j)osition of women in other

the children. the law

is

A

Fantce queen emigrated, in consequence of a dispute for the throne, Tlie Jagga.s too w^erc ruled by queens. to found a n.uion of her own. The peculiar position of the laikokcsha beside INIwata Jam\o seems to radiate westrespects.

wMi'ds.

d"hc

who wins

with the ]hhehos.

-the frctiiicnt validity

Congo

of

tlic

founding of the empire by an immigrant hunter,

the love of the local queen, recurs in a significant fashion in several

districts, as

by

lamda legend

The

position of the

of inheritance in the female

cinpiro, w here the missionaries

women line,

is

yet more elevated

lu’cn the throne of the

succeeded only for a short time

in

imparting

In the famous Amazons gynccocracy has been preserved. It is not in fact limited to ilie renow ned guard, under the command of the queen Dada, in which the women also the soliliers consider themselves as men, and dress accordingly liclp to gi)vcrn, advise with the prime minister, the while the queen luis It is only their sons, loo, who may the right of life and death over the women. call themselves princes, all other sons of the king being forbiddtai on pain of dcatli to mention their origin. Closely connected with marriage is the iiractice of secluding boys anil girls when approaching maturitN' in huts in the forest, called on the ivorj' coast “ irigri-bush ” or magic forest. thev receive their final education from 'I here irersons of their own sex, ami there girls, when betrothed, often remain till marriage. The boys arc at first kept ver\’ strictK', but are afterwards initiated into the jollities of the men. They receive new names, live chiclly b\' thefts from fields and gardens which they carry out under the guidance of their “ coach,” and announce that they If lliey hav'O been killed by the spirit of the forest, and have come to life again. have not yet been circumcised, the rite fi'llows on their entrance into the forest, j’ke the fetish-doctors and cori)se-dan(:ers, the leaders wear cloaks of leaves and In Loango they wear feather-cloaks masks, just like the Melanesian wdiich are some C)f the most interesting remains of an old artistic industry. Among all West Africans, slaves form an essential element in the houseliold, and, Tlicy attend especially to evcr\' branch W'ith the chiefs, tlie basis of their ])owx'r. Often they live in of lalx)ur that does not come iiito the business of trade. separate villages, called in llic (^'uncr(K)ns ///;/i^'>/'-\'illages, and usually imdcrgo no but their quality as “chattels” is regarded by their masters very hard treatment. from so consistent a point of view;, that if need arises for a human sacrifice, they Travellers also relate how chiefs, who have been are slaughtered in cold blood. unsuccessful in stealing men from foreign tribes, cut the heads off their ow'U slaves secretly, to bring home as trophies; since “ you kill Jio man, jam cliikr’ is the This pass*ion for killing most grievous reproach that can Ixv aimed at them. To this day great slavcdumts innocent strangers docs not s[):irc even cripples. arc a fixed institution in Dahomey, one may even sa}' a manifestation of life in the and till recent years slaves were also exported tlicnce. state The formation of states in this district has in our time, far more rarely than in the eastern parts of the continent, assumed a great and permanent character. In certain favourable spots conquerors have risen to become sovereigns over a different order of siiccossion, passed to the sister’s son.

of

Dahomey,

too. a vestige of

;

(

I

;

*

See

v(j 1 .

i.

|).

2S2.

THE NEGROES OF irES'TERN AFRICA

125

power has always been transitory. To lliis day bold of a village on some frequented trade-route, and fashion of robber-barons. The French were astounded their in power the extend, to find in the terrible Murgula, from which the whole province of Ihrgo had been This was obviously' otherwise in sucked dry, only a miserable nest of robbers. the pre-European time, from which hav'c been preserved the debris of political and social organisation much more powerful than anything that the present can show.# Negro empires, gorgeous and cruel, like Benin, Dahomey, Ashantee, offer, in their surrounding of politically’’ disorganised tribes, many points of comparison The strictly exclusive liereditary^ nobility^ of the with the old Peru or Mexico. Mfumus, to whom fell the principal administration of the district, and with them tlic more transitorv nobility of rank, formed from the children and grandchildren wilier territories,

marauders

but

tlicir

take* possession

Carved wooilon

slools

from the Niger- Uoiuit*

district

—

oae-.-sixlh real size.

(Berlin

Museum.)

of princes, court officials appointed by^ merit or favour, faithful vassals, to both of which classes appertained strictly' defined privileges, formed stout pillars of the monarchy^ in Loango. Even the dynastic tradition, in its indefiniteness, shows the present decay of the idea of the state. It contributes very little to the security of the tradition if oaths arc taken by^ the names of great predecessors, or if kings of Whydah were crowned only’’ in their old family' scat, even after it had long been lost. Just as the conquests of the Jaggas on the south-west coasts had to perish, leaving little trace, since they' were based on no forcible or permanent organisation, so the other racial w'avc.s, after swelling for a short time, have subsided again. Like them too ha\'e disai)pcarcd those Christian kings of the Congo, wdiolc dynasties of whom are set up by the old Portuguese. Captain Elliot’s expedition of 1883 to the Kwilu-Nyndi district came across no important political organisation the whole province could therefore be acquireil without fighting, and with no groat outlay in presents, and in the whole Congo basin it is only^ foreigners, that ;

is

the Arabs, w'lio have offered

anv obstinate

resistance to the foundation of a

European colony. Before the time of extensive acquisitions by Europeans on the Guinea coast, and before the j^reater kingdoms, above all Dahome}', had pushed forward to the

THE HISTORY OF MAFKiXD

126

coast from the interior, geographers enumerated iit)on it a long series of kingdoms and republics mostly with tiny territories. On a smaller scale they repeated the states of the Loango coast, and were influenced by trade in even a higher degree than those. One may indeed say that in most eases they owed their existence to the wish, often prematurely recognised by Europeans, of sharing in the trade independently of neighbours to right and left along the coast. The history of the European powers frequently enough found it Gold and Slave Coasts teaches that to their

own

interest to support these pretensions

tiic last centur}’

factories of English,

dependent on

The

;

indeed, towards the 'end

of

there existed on the (lold Coast alone forty forts and fortified

Dutch, Danes, and 1‘ortugucsc,

tlie friendsliip

all

without area of

i:)owcr,

and

of neighbouring kinglets. is the tlu'one. On the first reception of the king of C'ongo had his ivory throne adorned with

chief attribute of kings

Portuguese

in

his capital the

carved woodwork on the arms, and erected on a high platform, so that he could he seen from all parts of the vast assemblage. From his shoulders hung a horse’s tail, tlic token of royal rank, wliile liis head was covered willi a initrc-shai)cd cap

woven of

many monopolies

Besides these there arc

fine i)alm-bast.

Tlie umbrella

r^rnarnent.

is

of dress and

often permitted only to the chief and the princes, as

also the right to be carried

in

a

hammock, and go

shod.

To

the nobilit)' of

T-o:uigo were reserved ivory oniaincnts, clothing over the shtnilders, the finest anil caps.

They only might

Dalioiney, stools

Accra

still

and wooden doors were forbidden

wears at festivals a pointed

liat

mats

kind of ca\x‘nne pc|)pcr.

[)artake of a certain

to the people.

In

The King

of

of antelope-skin with a feather, ])cculiar

wear a similar hat of horse’s skin with a piece of the same antelope skin attached to it. In Loango the upper cla.-^s of inhabitants still speak the language of the countr\^ mixed with peculiar words, and with an intonation of their own. \\"e must not forget what is the most effective attribute of West African princes, the staff armed Avith which the chief of Akim perambulates the r>)ads at night, to dri\e home any subjccis who may l)e late abroad. Flow dilTcrent a picture does the appearance of these kings offer under present conditions They now adorn themselves by choice w itli the leavings of luiropean marine store-dealers, and the remnants of their insignia stand in loud contrast to Comparatively dignified is still the the misery of their (;ther circumstances. presence of one scion of the Congo kings at San Salvador. Beside the long loin-cloth, he is described as wearing a white shirt to cover his upper body a silver crucifix hung round his neck, and his hand grasjxd a sword. Bastiaifs to In’msclf; the priests

;

!

;

man according to court etiquette as a i)riiice (.)f the blood kneeling f)uthcrly of the West African agricultural races. at the back of both, wndc '’how intimate affinities w’ith their eastern kinsmen Jracts arc inhabited by Bushmen. Xow we cross the Cunene, and find ourselves races

of the

coast,

;

;

among peoples who,

as far as their northern limit,

show a sum of Central *African

Tattooing mcqts us leather clothing vanishes wdth cattle-breeding; agriculture makes its appearance together wdth a higher development of handicraft, characteristics.

already announced

;

among

the

Ovambo, and embodied

in

the loom, in more careful

THE HISTORY OF JMAHKIXD

13^

cojistructioii

of huts, iu finer work on the most divers articles, especially bows and

This docs not display itself freely till we fjo inland, ttein^j subject on the coast to the law of decay upon contact with higher culture. Ih'csently, too, in arrows.

Angola and on the Congo, we meet with larger political structures, which in part no doubt first came into existence under the influence of the activ^e slave-trade. Within the general relationship of the Bantu, a great dialectal affinity embraces the tribes of the Portuguese provinces of Benguella, Mossamedes, and Angola, and the inhabitants of the Lower Congo basin as far as the Dande. Tkese arc members of the Bunda group. They also have the name Angola, since in It is nearly three hundred years Angola Kimbunda has becoitic the liNgua gcraL since dictionaries of it were publislied at Lisbon, and it was raised to the rank of It is the trading and missionary language throughout Portuguese West Africa, Along the customary to distinguish the Bundas north and south of the C-oanza.

whole coast disintegrating influences have much altered the negroes of this famil}\ They have adopted (Miristianity, speak Portuguese or a mixture of it with Bunda, and call themselves Pretos while applying the term Negros with a suggestion of contempt to those who have remained free. In the trade which radiates from I-oanda and Benguella, Malange and Bihe, two groups arc important the Ambaquistas, originally the people of the Anibaqua district in the basin of the Lukalla, and the Ihhenos or people of Bihe on the water-shed between Coanza and Cunenc, a kind of caste of traders, guides, and porters. Not only have the luiropcans influenced them, but also the activ'e Kabindas from the Lower Congo, who were formerly introduced in masses, and still immigrate also, too, negroslaves of the most various origin and blend, who have been brought or have made and lastly, immigrants, in no small number from their way hither from lhazil Mailcira and Goa, the latter called Canari as coming from the Canarese coast. The climate of Angola and Beiiguella makes a prolonged stay there and the establishment of a fajnily difficult for pure Portuguese, and the Bunda and Kabinda half-breeds flourish all the m(a*e vigorously. Many negro customs betray their more distant origin, for cxam]>lc the jits priviae noctis mentioned by Magyar and Lux, as offered publicly by poor girls in order to earn a dowry for but in adai)ting himself to negro customs the Portuguese goes their marriage half way to meet them, and thus a much more intimate alliance bctwxren the two races has come to pass than in other African colonial territory. Since the slave-trade which dejjopulated Angola and Benguella ceased, the numbers have ;

;

;

;

;

increased

materially; and

since

the formal

abolition

of slavery

in

1878, the

mixed breed makes more rapid progress. In the southern colony, Mossamedes, the Portuguese clement keeps itself ])urcr in the more and I^ortuguesc fishermen are active on the w'cll -stocked temi>oratc climate cultivation of the

;

coast.

North of the (mncnc the Banhancka and Bankombi form a number of small who trace their origin to the Upper Coanza, whence they are said to have been driv^cn by the Banano, the people of the hills. Although they carry on chiefly agriculture, their whole life, to the point of their burial in an ox-hide, show; traces c/ an intimate connection wdth their herds, such as points to the .south. The notion of circumcision as an important ccremojiial occasion belongs to them with the other Bundas. The Basimba or Simbeba liv'C along the coast to the North of Mossamedes live on the coast the Bakwando and right of the Cunenc. tribes,

TUB NEGROES OF WESTERN AFRICA

^33

whom Nogucira Throughout Southern

Bakwissc, and in the mountains on the coast the Bakankala, to assigns Ikishmcn characteristics, partly pure, partly mixed.

Angola generally smaller stJiturc, lighter colour, broader faces, point to a strong admixture of those races whose now concentrated distribution further in the Next to them live a vigorous pastoral interior we have already had to mention. ])Coj>Ie, the Mundombe, whose hemispherical huts, leather clothing, and sandals strongly

recall

the

cattle-breeders

come

of

the

south.

On

the

Upper Kubango

name

of the Ambucllas, the people dwelling further to the north, and are reminded by it of the strong movements in those

we

have? already

races,

a part of which

across the

may

Next come,

here have been pushed to the coast.

west of the IJbolIas, the small dirty Kissamas, who arc said to have been still cannibals in the 'forties, and now are salt manufacturers, purveying the bars of salt

which are important

in the trade with the

course with the lk)rtugucse

they

still

interior.

In spite of close inter-

preserve a certain

independence.

Their

combines leather and bark-cloth, and they plait their hair with alternate strings of beads and vegetable fibres. Lastly, beyond the Coanza we find the dress

nucleus of the

family, the

true

Mbunda,

tall,

teachable

people,

who

formerly

impressed Europeans by their military capacity, and now, under the name of Pombeiros (/>oj/R?e = iho busli, Portuguese, ser/ao) undertake bold trading expediClosely akin to them are the Songos between the Coanza and the Kwango, and the Ganguellas who live furtlier inland in the south. The Bunda legends of an origin in the north-east, which is carried back to the sixteenth century, connect the races south of the Dandc with the dwellers on the Lower Congo, across which, at the time of the arrival of the Portuguese, peoples from the interior- — as alleged, from the neighbourhood of great lakes had thrown themselves. Whoever examines the incessant mov-cments of nations in the interior will find it natural that they might extend to the coast and fill wide

tions.

—

territories

who

with races of identical origin.

within historical times have found a

northern part of the region

we

One way

thinks at once of the P'an people, to the sea at

some

places in the

are considering, and arc trying to do so elsewhere.

As might be expected, beneath the peculiarity of the dialect which connects the peoples between the Dandc and the Rio del Rcy, lie a number of ethnographic l)oints of agreement which alike north and south of the Congo point to the cast. Karl Ritter was long ago reminded of the Upper Nile tribes by the snake-skin cov’cring of the Anziques’ bows. The weapons of the loins also point back across the basin of the Congo, and both in dress and hut-architecture there arc further resemblances between the Upper Congo and the coast regions north and south of that stream.

Though

the dwellers on the I.osvcr Congo, alike the Mushicongo and Racongo and the Mussorongo of the norlhcrn, and the Loango people

of the southern Ijank

deeply as the negroes of Angola the influence of Ikiropean traders and missionaries, no true colonisation having here taken place, their independence has long been broken. The Congo empire, like every negro bc3’ond them, have not felt

^Mupire,

is

.so

a mere political shadow, and the “

King of San Salvador ”

not even he dtres not ha:;

power over the neighbouring villages, where, as Wolff assures us, ^how his face for fear of a tlu^shing. Roma, at the mouth of the C'ongo, where luckey was sadly disappointed by the wretched huts of the 500 inhabitants, 'vas once the greatest slave-market, visited especially from Liverpool. Remnants

THE HISTORY OF MANKIiYP

134

of old idantationis in the form of cotton bushes run wild, surrounded the place. But b\' that time the traces of European influence had become few in Noki, and ” no one knew aiu'thing of the peoples in the south or north, the ‘‘ bush 4)eoplc

Here were found the first of the little independent the slaves. Chhni, enthroned on lion and leopard skins upon which no man with the cross degraded to the indignity of on pain of death

who brought chiefs, called

might step

;

a fetish.

Whether Congo with I.oango and Loanda ever formed a great in any case the Portuguese here found disintegration

be doubted

;

cmii^re

may

into smaller

The impracticability of a purely ecclesian accomplished fact. astical mission was never more thoroughly shown than in the degeneration of Fetishes Christianity on the Lower Congo. hung with crosses were held sacred by the states already

negroes, and nowhere

The

from the

rasm-caiiniJ!;,

interior

than elsewhere

some

may

was the ordeal by

]>oison,

deeply implanted. influence of the masses of slaves brought

here called

;

was naturally more potent here pow'crfiil and hand-

perhaps the

figures, especially

in part

so

among

the Mushicongo,

be traced to this admixture.

Very

dark, almost blue-black, negroes, with skins re-

markably

full

of creases, inhabit

the lower stream.

in

settled

some

North of the

islands

(,'ongo arc

the Kabindas, the most industrious of

Congo

whom

one comes across in all the Portuguese coast-stations as far as Benguclla, discharging the most various .functions, Nearly akin especially that of clever boatmen. A Knliinda, (From photum'nph l»y )r to them arc the Mavumba, renowned as potters Falkonsicii;.) and smiths, to whom some assign a Jewish origin Jews expelled from Portugal being alleged to have settled at Sao Thome, and to have sent a branch this way. I^oango, as a province of the Congo Empire, is said to have at one time extended to the Kwilu, and its capital, which now consists of a few sliiinheks or negro huts and factories, to have numbered The Loango negroes, with the Kabindas, belong to the Bafiot 15,000 souls. Their three states on the coast have group, nearly allied to the Congo tribes. long vanished, and their Christianity has fallen into such decay that baptism is followed by circumcision. They have adopted few of the economic virtues of the

:i

tribes,

I

—

their neighbours to the south.

them shows,

To

their

the back

life is still

On

the other hand, as our general discussion of

rich in curious old-fashioned custom^.

and north of them the Western Bateke inhabit the dry, sandy, Congo and the Ogowc, and

elevated region which forms the watershed between the

The Lebai river, with its tributary the Lekona, be taken as the extreme limit which the Bateke territory reaches to the north* Here tlv3 population is so sparse that one may often go a day’s journey without coming across human habitations. The houses arq built on a rectangular plan, the villages are small. The Bantu dialect of this part seems most to resemble the upper country of the Alima.

may

that of the

Upper Ogowe,

as for instance the

Aduma.

The

chief food and most

)

THE NEGROES OF WESTERN AFRICA

135

Weapons are those of the peoples on the Upper important crop is manioc. O^owc the simple African bow, arrows carried in quivers of hide with covers, barbed javelins, and a narrow rectangular shield, rounded at the corners. Battle;

axes and short swords with incurved heads are more rare

;

throwing knives are not

-mm'

m

am:

'^ypi’S

from

lh(^

F^oango coast.

(F^'rom pliotograpli

by Ur. Falkonstein.

after so many old races fallen into decay before younger people, the only one that in this wide region has exercised anything like political power, or in whose present position may lie These at least the germ of a political formation destined to greater importance.

Beyond the Kwilu,

found.

reaching maturity,

find a

Fans, h'angs,* or Pahuin.

arc the

race

we

They

between the Niger and *thc Cuncnc. '

KuihI avers

tliat

are at this

New

moment

the most' dreaded

as they arc, their influence has

he never heard the name pronounced otherwise than as Fang or Fank.

THE HISTORY OF MANKIND

13^

Tlicy have driven a number of peoples from their abodes, have been powerful. They alone have offered an taken their places and subjugated their neighbours. Though of which the French can tell tales. to luiroi)eans, opposition enduring their agreement, physically and intellectually, in language and in customs, with the surrounding Hantu tribes, excludes any fundamentally different disposition, their possession of a military system and better weapons is enough to make them

appear to their neighbours as a more highly -organised race, since from the Gaboon to Hrazzaville, Ballay tells us, all the natives, with the exception of the Almost naked, with front ever quaiTclsomc Pahuins, are peaceable and gentle. with what call a Mahometan shaven frcqucntl)^ the iM'cnch point, teeth filed to a it used to head, with lion and leopard skins for finery, never without a musket the short sword, copied from that of the Arabs, be bow and throwing-knife, slung round the neck, they remind us strikingly of the Zulus, and form a contrast to the bow and spear-bearing negroes between the ("ameroons, the Gaboon, and With their warlike dances, their w ild cries of menace and battle, the Ogowe. as elephant-hunters, of admiration and, w’here they are an object of dread attained may imitation. It be called lucky never yet that they have possible, of to political consolidation, and now^ that the coast is everywhere closed to them by P^uropcan occupation, and roads will soon have to be made through their They are split up into a mass of village sovereignties, territory, never will do so. nor arc internal feuds cv'cr lacking. w’hich individually arc not sources of danger But they have undoubtedly gained some national feeling, one of the rarest As though led by one characteristics in Africa, from a deeply rooted tradition.

—

—

—

;

—

they press west and north-w'est to the coast, not merely as brutal conquerors, This bond of union makes their progress steady Whether in this conquerand imparts an unusual permanence to their conquests. ing and colonising race we have a chip from greater masses w'hich formerly idea,

but colonising at the same time.

surged tow'ard the coast, w'hethcr the Fans arc only a limited manifestation of military spirit in one stock, or, what is more likely, arc sprung from a w-arriorlixeept on the castc, the tradition as to a migration from the cast is universal.^ Ogow^c, w’hcre they already occupy the coast, they have against the

Muni

river,

little

island

of l^loby, wdierc their

near the affluence

they arc staying,

it

would seem

l*

sairl

to

bt*

universally iicccpicd by j)ala?ont()logist.s.]

CULTURE forms a

catlle-brccdii^c^ that first

cai^ital

;

*55

the herd

is

a travelling treasury.

If

most important components of food, it does not provide The barn no less than the ])lough belong each day for the day’s consumption. to agilfculturc, whether it take the fibrin of the store-hut on [)olcs, as found from the,Wigcr to the Ainos, or tlic earthenware urn of the Kaffirs, or the baked underground vault of Arabia and Tibet. FicId-croj)s ought not, like tlie millet agriculture prodiJfCes the

of the negroes, to perish so soon that beer has to be brew'cd in order to utilise peculiarity of all tropical cereals is that you cannot bake what we them. • should call bread from them ; only the kissers of the Arabs, leathery' tough

A

dampers that have dough,

to be toasted

on an

be made of unknown to any'

iron plate, can

liread in the luiropcan sense

is

indeed

tlic

leavened

Asiatic race.

In place of it rice, in wet or at least moist preparations, appears as the staple of food in Kastern and Southern Asia. Yet however this may' preponderate, there that eats rice and rice only. is no cultured race Meat and fish with other

nitrogenous foods, for examine beans, take their j^lace beside it. Indeed anu'^ng all cultured races the variety^ of foods is great, and the sense of taste apj)cals at liking for insects and worms is no sign of low culture. a very carly^ stage.

A

not only^

among Arabised negro

tribes that Kjcusts, water-beetles, maggots, form much-prized dainties ; the like is found in India and China. Tlie Arab proverb sav's, “a locust in the hand is worth six in tlic air.” Indeed the ca])riccs of taste in ancient Rome and modern Europe have been known to go further. is

It

The

creative acti\

of culture

not measured

by^ increased mileage, i)crmancntly in a narrow area. On rich soil and with vigorous labour po})ulati(ms grow dense, and this is what culture needs, 'fhe great facts of the spread of mankind over the eartli, in greater and less density, stand in cause and effect in the closest connection with the Where the poimlation is thinly' .scattered over wide (Uneloinnent of culture. l)ut by'

silcntl)'

the growth of the

regions, there culture thinly'

is

ity'

In the

low.

j^eoplcd, wliile the

is

number which can

Old

live

VVk)rld

the steppe-zone

countries round the Mediterranean

—

Arabia, India, C'hina, Japan earth belong to-day^ to

is

cveiywhcrc

— KgyTt, Southern

Six-sevenths of the population of lands of culture. China and India number a corresponding area of the Central Asiatic nomad region in "GO millions Mongolia, I'hibet, and Eastern Turkestan, scarcely' a sixtictli of that. To the stage of culture corresponds the manner of its diffusion. When it becomes the

are thickly’ so.

the

;

conscious of this, it also strives to tlisseminate itself. luiropeans were allowed not only' by' their superiority' in cveiything to do with culture, but also by' the rapid increase in their numbers, to diffuse themselves rapidly' over the earth but ;

wish to leave no gai)s in the land was raised to a jirinciple of policy'. Even a cruel Obstructive natives were simply shoved aside. “ natural ” race was never able to dciiopulate a country' like Cuba in a few generations, and furnish it with a new population but civilization managed it. Agriculture occupies its territories otherwise tlian w arlike conquest. The former covers tract after tract gradually' but w’ith permanent success the latter stakes out a w'idc frontier. The former travels step by step, the latter flies swiftly' over W'idc spaces. Hence the former is certain in its consequences, if ^n\y time be allowed it, w'hile the latter is transitory', or at least incalculable. The average raj)idity w'ith which w’hitc men mov'cd westward, until they made the mighty leap from the Missouri to the Pacific, w as twenty' miles a y'car. In three ccnturie.s it

was

by'

them too that

tlic

;

;

THE HISTORY OF MANKIND

156

Great Wall, once the nursery carried a this but sure Before slow Pacific. the to Northern Asia band of culture all across ” “ into the being of the ancient Egyptians, was wedded the feeling for the importance of a firm tradition. llie C()untini;*-hou.scs

;

;

I

THE They

attained their aim

;

II ]

STORY OF MAXKTXD

the cities of the ilcad arc preserved, those of the livin

place, the residence for

years of the moniimeiit-loving Pharaohs,

must have bristled with carved work though nothing in the Memphis of the living could have produced such an imjMX'ssion on all generations as its gigantic

;

pyramids.

It is

hard to realise ihe signi-

ficance of these unique edifices. in

time as

in

Solitary

most

place, they are the

impressive symbols of permanence amid transition.

The

centuries

that

lie

be-

tween us and them arc insignificant in comparison with the thousands of years that lie behind them. It is not the two or three ilozen of centuries which we can reckon since their building, but tlic incalculable earlier ages needed to bring conception and execution to such a grandeur, that look down on us from their

to|>s.

No

other

monuments

magnificentl}’' testify to the

duty of

lecting the dead, to belief in future

and generally

to

the

so

recollife,

high estimate of

the duration of things, and therewith of

Besides the rows of small which cover the remains of kings’ sons and daughters, eastw'ard of each lie the ruins of the temple of Isis w'hcre sacrifices were offered to the departed monarchs’ souls. The living transmission of thoughts from generation to generation is the most natural way to prcjpagate ideas. But w’hat more effective contrivance could be found to secure such inalienable fundamental thoughts than these

past time.

pyramitls

ini"hty, awful, lasting

monuments

?

13ut

they ucrc meant to preserve much more In tlicir accurate than this. n in their definite numerical proportions, It has been very is deposited a great part of the science of the priesthood.

CULTURE may

i6i

and in monuments, pf geometrically simple and beautiful plan, we undoubtedly have before us some of the numbers on which the Babylonish-Egyptian reckoning of time was based. And what of the morality that accompanied this religion of B.c. 3000 ? Reward and punishment from the eternal judge arc the great moral forces good Obedience to the government works, the fulfilling of the law, their motive causes. rightly said that the calendar

pass for the chiefest

relic

of old times

;

these

;

“ The obedient son will be fortunate with paternal authority, stands first. through his obedience, he will attain old age, he will win the favour of all men,” iiivestcjJ

'I'lic

says a \vc

book of the

fifth

r*yIoiis

1’

Kdlot).

dynasty, a book beside whicli the Ifiblc

sujjpose so self-contemplative a society to have

And is it a mere ( -fjiifucius ? May not the Manes

accident that the

?

come

into

is

recent.

Can

existence with

same moral teaching

recurs with

The of this culture have lain elsewhere ? further we go into the inner nature of Egyptian culture, the more clearly it is Special as manifest that it must iu>t be regarded as an isolated ])hcnomenon. us further meets what with may be the stamp of it, its fundamental ideas agree

eastward.

orij^ins

Writing, religious conceptions, a.stronomical and mathematical science,

and technical capacity, the theocratic government, the organisation in castes, the forms underlying architecture and .sculpture all equally underlie the culture of Mesopotamia, of Eastern and Southern Asia. • Three groups of facts combine to prove an extra- African origin for the I'-gyptians. Physiological characteristics point to a connection with the T-aces of In their paintings the Egyptians dis'^Vestern Asia and Southern* P'urope. ;

dnguished themselves from VOL. Ill

all

other Africans by the colour

— black

for the southern

1

THE HISTOnV OF MANKIND

62

men, grey

the older Libyan, white

for

and

reddish for the younger.

Again,

neither in the oldest moniinients, nor in the post-C’hristian Coptic manuscripts,

does the language show any trace of African says

]}rugscli, “ to

affinities

;

nay,

it is

almost impossible,

mistake the close relations which formerly prevailed between Indo-Gcrmanic and Semitic races.'* Lastly, the

the Kgyi)lians and the so-called oldest abodes of culture

lie in

the Nile delta, in the outward parts, or

—

Lower

h-gypt,

which looks towards iVrabia, Phcenicia, Palestine that is, towards Western Asia and the Mediterranean, and in the transition-country between Asia and^ Africa. The further we i)rocccd up the Nile, while the stamp of Jinticjuity disappears upon the monuments, the more apparent is the decline in style, beauty, and skill. And when we finally advance to Ethio[)ia, where, according to the old notion, the cradle of the Egyptian race was to be sought, we find, to quote Hrugsch again ‘Tis the culmination of intellectual faculty and artistic development in l^thiopia, a hcljdess imitation of Egyptian knowledge in all that concerns science and art.** Asia alone, in various favoured spots, can point to early developments of culture while Africa, even to the most zealously-enquiring observation, can show only

;

beginnings, and even of these the originality

The

difficulty of the question lies

is still

in the fact

Egyptians step into history they are already so as practically to justify their

own

doubtful.

that at the decisiv'ely

moment when

No

tradition that they are aboriginal.

found of the instability of immigrants.

“ Immigration,**

the

linked with their soil

no doubt,

is

trace

is

not applicable

whole races, only to fragments, who find people at home there before them, and impress their stamp on these in proportion to tlicir own number and force. Tliis is colonisation. The conclusion is not remote that a race, already scttlccl, extending over a great part of North and East Africa, reccix'cd the germs of its culture through immigration from without. The question of descent may, therefore, be soK^ed thus that a foreign origin is not provable for the major part of the to

;

:

people of

lint the connection with other cultures presupposes partial immigration from Asia, and permanent intercourse witli it. Since, in ancient times, so copious elements of culture only entered in company with men, an admixture of Asiatic blood became also certain. The voyages of the Egyptians to Punt, the land of balsam, whence they themselves traced their descent, preceded by centuries Solomon*s voyage to Ophir. Egyptian culture was not always a thing apart. To the northward it had the most expansiv'C race of the world at that time the Phu^nicians and Phoenician settlements to the iif^rth and west. ^\s for Southern Arabia, there is no doubt that the herdsmen of the Arabian plains did not always exercise the influence that has lilgypt.

—

—

made and

the land

lie idle.

The

fertility

of the

soil,

the favourable position for trade

sea- faring, the denser population, could once have freer effect.

of Katanich, in

nearest neighbours in Mesopotamia. religious

The people

Soutli Arabia, bore, perhaps, the greatest resemblance to their

monuments, written and

They had a complicated system

})ictorial, political

of worship,

institutions, flourishing cities,

an elaborate social organisation. On the coast of South Arabia once lay marts for Indian and East African goods. Buk the history of the interaction between Egypt and the neighbouring people is obscure just in those departments that arc of most importance for our insight into the course of the world*s history. It was only in comi:)arativcly recent times that Egypt came into contact with the states of Mesopotamia, which

BC.

1380

Circa

THEBES.

AT

ATOMS

IN

l.cpsius.’i

After

1

WALL-PAINTINGS

EGYPTIAN

ANCIENT

CULTURE wc must regard

as connected of old

by access

i6.s

to a

common

store of culture.

But

the origin of its* culture and of its people leads

Not only docs one endmost link the chain of Old in us to Asia.

World

civilizations

al-

low iteclf to be joined on to the rest an ex;

planation of

ence

its

exist-

only

possible

is

upon this supposition. At the other end, simi-

wc

apart,

larly

find a

region

of similar, pereven older, culture in China, and its daughter -states Corea and Japan. Some have seen in I^uddha a fugi-

haps

and

priest of Isis,

ti\e

thought that closebonds must have united l\gypt

and China while others ha\*c assumed for China ;

a

independent

wliolly

The

dcvx^lopment.

mer

loiis in

the

;

ex ]:)rc.sscd CO m

i

n

latter,

Bcschel \s

m c M da t on

of

i

Chinese as in

germ

form, has a

truth

(.)f

for-

notion, though fiibu-

the

.self-taught,

contrast to the Euro-

pean “pupils of nations historically

not

buried,’'

is

unhistorical,

cjiily

hut most of

all

ungco-

grajdiical.

Curiously like the country of Itgypt is that

which lies between lh(! luiphratcsand the Tigris a

great

rounded
riage,

more marks like the burnous of the Moghrebins, or even the blue strijie in the cloth worn by the Abyssinian Mussulman, or, to pass to a higher level, community of language, at least in certain formuUe which act as a signal for recognition, contribute to the feeling of unity which the cast in its political and

festivals,

the turbans of various colours, the loo.sc-flowing clothes, in

limited districts small

much

disintegration needs as

says Munzinger,

“

which every

Me

of the sense of kinshij). .shiji

in

or family.”

as mediaeval Eurojie needed

It

by innumerable

finds the difference

is

M us.sulman

joeople feels,

“

The

j)ridc,”

the offspring of unity,

has a religious j)atriotism which passes over friend-

part of the Mo.slern’s comfort in traditions

little

is

Rome.

and

life

that his

distinctions, for in these

between him.self and the

infidel.

life is

hedged

he most easily

The only time

that

Vambery

ran a risk of being rccogni.sed in his di.sguisc as a mendicant priest was

when a

colleague was surpri.sed to see that

tlic hair on his arms lay neither ujnvards nor downwards. Sonnites and Shiites respectively wash their arms from elbow to knuckles and in the contrary direction. Burckhardt was in danger of being taken for a European through washing his mouth with water after instead of before

drinking coffee.

The Arabs as a race have never arrived at the rejjoseful state of manufacturing, on their own account, material flowing in from without their activity has fulfilled itself in conquest and extension. Though in the first century after Mahommed ;

the exiiansivc force of the race acted ixjwcrfully in

no

coming

in

contact

with eastern than with western civilization, this lasted so short a time

Ic.ss

that

all directions,

little,

was put

indeed nothing of it, came back with them. life of the stock. By union it had

into the

For a time a new meaning grow stu2:)cn-

.seen its forces

dously certain branches of literature flourished talents of the mo.st various But the task .soon became too great for kinds were quickened and stimulated. the true intimate adherents of the Prophet, the Lshmaelites, the valiant .sons of They founded the greatness of I.slam, the desert, unu.sed to sedentary culture. When they settled they soon fell into but also contributed to its retrogression. idleness, or sunk under the culture which they had conquered with arms not wath ;

;

Wc must Islam flowered most splendidly in non-Mussulman countries. keep the Arabs .separate from the Nubians, Egyptians, Mauritanians, hidd9n under the garb of Arab culture though the .separation cannot everywhere lx; maintained. In liigyi)t, the history of which is somewhat better known than that of other parts of North Africa, the term Arabs is aji^dicd to the inhabitants who can be brain.s.

;

;

THE niSTOEY OF MANKIXD proved not to have settled

in

villages with certain privileges.

the Nile Valley

Through

till

later,

and to have founded more manly

their free descent an/l their

character they are markedly distinguished from the fellaheen, the original peasantry who have become degraded by the serfage of a thousand years. Bedouin is the

Thr Cadi

name

of Kh.T.rtouni.

(tVoni a plH)logrni>h

given only to the free son of the desert,

l)y

R. Hiichla.)

who swarms throughout

the coast

districts.

These distinctions are aided by language. The Moghrebin dialect of Northwest Africa shows a variation from the pure Arabic chiefly in the number of Berber and Romance expressions which the Arabs of Morocco have appropriated, This, however, is only a relic adopting^ even constructions from those languages. of the foreign admixtures which it took in on Spanish soil, where the Spanish Moors had hardly anything in common with the rcSl Arabs but their language and this degenerated in the mouths of Andalusians to a popular dialect. Under

a

ISLAM

203

name Moghrebin the true Arab now understands Moors, Tunisians, who are known among other Arabs by the burnous.

the

survivor of the

and

Algerines,

As

sway of Islam over a great part of the Mediterranean

a solitary basin

be mentioned the Maltese language, a corrupt Arabic which established

may

itself in

At

the present day it is full of Italian, German, predominant the speech of the country parts only, and Provencal elements, and Maltese, with its medley of while Italian decidedly prevails in the towns. foreign elements, can be compared only to Abyssinian and to the extinct Mozarabic of Southern Spain. Islam knows no secular law. The priest is also the judge, even as the mosque Ancient legal customs, ordeal by fire, and the like, have is a place of asylum. survived in Arabia from old times; and many of these cruel institutions have passed into the Koran, The Koran, however, is not a thing apart, but claims to take Every Mussulman state is essentially theocratic precedence of all political rules. the island under Saracen rule.

is


resscs both. We shall not be far wrong if we reckon the ordering of the tent, are constant. identical from the earliest times, among the disciplinary forces in the life of Each person and each thing has his and its fixed old established the nomad. Hence the quick and orderly way in which camp is formed and struck, position. Hence also the amount of space which in the tents repitched and rearranged. struck I^uropcans with astonishment. Turcoman tents has In an average sensible Utensils, Kirgliis tent there is room for forty persons by day, twenty by night. The men lie weapons, and stores, hang or lie around on the walls and posts. dow n b)" the door of the tent, w liere the hcartli, the stores, the weapons, arc to be To the left of the entrance arc the women and cln'ldrcn, with the male guarded. It is unheard of for any one to change his place without orders servants opposite. It is ow'ing to this strict order alone that a save on the most urgent grounds. lent with all its contents can be ])ackcd up and loaded in an hour's time. The standing body of the tent, where wood is to be had, is a wooden frame At the top is a rail upon wOiich rest a number capable of being taken to pieces. In the Mongol tent these arc of spars, conxerging like the spokes of a wliecl. straight, but in the Kirghis tent they take a parabolic curve, which causes it to be reckoned the firmest in a wind. The whole frame is surrounded xvith a band (^f webbing often prettily designed, which keei)s the parts firmly together, then co\ ered with a mantle made of sundry pieces of felt, which overlap at the ends, and are tied together with ropes of camel’s hair. Poor people have to replace this by a cover of boiled birclvbark. Next there is an outer covering of rush-ma ting, A wooden which again is wound round and made tight with a band of webbing. but a carj)ct often takes the frame hung with folding doors forms the entrance place of the door or is supplementary to it. The tent-cover may be shifted for This cover with Turcomans \cntilation and light, or to allow smoke to escai^e. is usually red, »with the but this difference of colour has no Tibetans black ccuincction with the prefix kara^ black, in names like Kara-Kirghis, Kara-Kalpak, Kara - Tangute. Among the true nomads |)rospcrity docs not show^ itself in better equipment, but in increased number of tents but among the Tartars of the Upper Yius country, where cattle arc few, the tent resembles the cattleAmong very yaourt, and in wdntcr the earth-hut of the North Asiatic peoples. ;

;

;

;

Kalmucks of the Altai, the lowx'r tent-frame entirely disappears, the the inhabitants live under the roof, wdiich shelters them at a pinch

poor races like the ‘Uttl

germ as

it

—

were of the great

tent.

The poor people who

live on the Tarim have inasmuch as the filling of reeds a tent-cover, and there arc no w^alls

reed-huts, retaining .something of the tent-nature,

between the corner-posts nor

any

is

quite loose, like

closer fastening in the

whole hut.

Such, too, are the w^ooden winter-

THE HISTORY OF MANKIND

336

y(wnrts of the Kizil Tartars on the Upper Chulym, who are nomad in summer. The Tibetan nomads live in a square yaonrt of black felt made of yak's hair, and

on

sleep

skins.

dwellings.

Among

ground, there

The

The more

is

those Tangutes

little in

who

live

within

dwellers on the steppe. point, yaourts with their

even

wrapi)ed in

Turcomans have

holes in

existence

who

hide

is,

mere wretched are the property and stores under-

the

all their

the tents but skins and ordure.

variety of the seasons

only those

warm

insecure

is

reflected in tlie c

the Arctic Circle feel

With a temperature

thing of the tents.

the

Perhaps

joy of spring like the

months together below freezingfelt covering arc very draughty, and it is hard to keep fur, beside the smouldering fire. Hence the Tekke the ground near the tents which in winter are spread for

and carpets, and kept warm with little fires, while in summer they arc a storm in winter the fire in the tent has to be put out. During Then, cool. From the too, extra pegs and dcniblc ropes can hardly hold the tent firm. middle of March to the middle of April, a season named from tlie lambing of the sheep and the foaling of the marcs, the outer tent-coverings are gradually removed. Soon after this follows the striking and packing of the tents, essentially the Towards the end of October the winter-tent is made ready bj^ w^omen’s work. winding with strong camcl's-hair ropes and doubling the felt cover. Nomads, as a Great as is the order in the yaourts, the cleanliness is small. rule, arc not cleanly, especially in wild regions where water is scarce, and where in all seriousness the proverb says that God is not gracious to men who have no vermin about them. The transition from tent to house comes about through the middle term of the wretched earth-hut, which the Mongol, who is loo poor for a herdsman, and, further, through the store-huts and constructs near his couple of fields Wealthy Mongols or Kirghis princes may winter-huts of the semi - nomads. sometimes build houses after a (fliinesc or Russian pattern, in addition to their but these arc something quite inorganic and extraneous. In Mongolia tents and Tibet the tribes which are permanently settled build square houses of sundried clay bricks with small cavernous rooms in stories receding as they go Not till we reach the wooded regions of Southern Ladak and up, and flat roofs. Paltistan do wc come across wooden houses with pitched roofs. It is curious to .see how the circular form of the tent is preserved in the hexagonal huts of the The flat Tibetan houses with their Altai Kalmucks who have become settled. window openings distributed irregularly about the wall, of a monotonous grey colour, and in the agricultural districts surrounded with an embankpient of manure, a village can often hardly be distinguished .suit the bare landscape c.xcellcntly Naturally single farms arc here more common from a group of broken rocks. than groups of houses. On the flat roofs the Tibetans spread their harve.st to dry, and pray before a little statue of Buddha for a blessing and increase on their family and goods. In the winter, too, they warm themselves in the sun there. The hearth is sunk in tlic bare ground of the floor. Only people of means possess low tables, and tw'o or tliree leathern mattresses near the hearth, where tjic ladies sit. Among the smaller nomad tribes, Chairs and stools arc unknown. with

felt

;

;

;

ever in dread of hostile attacks, the better part of the property, together with an safe for provisions, is hidden underground which makes them look even

iron

poorer than they

;

arc.

THE MONGOLS AND THE TURKIC RACES

337

The ancients knew of nomads in the Scythian plains, Agathyrsi and Sauromatae, who lived in waggons,’ and whom they called Ilamaxobii. Towards found Pallas the Kundurofsky last century Tartars, of an end eastern the branch oT the Nogays, just thinking of changing their basket-like felt tents, which in their niigi‘‘'dion were loaded upon arabas or two-wheeled carts, drawn, even at a trot, by small light fleet oxen, for the composite tents of the Kirghiscs and Kalmucks. The yion^oX ynonrts frequently stand singly or in scattered groups, while the In the same way the North Kirghises never settle without founding their aouL 'ribetans, thinly strewn as they arc, roam and dwell at times in little hordes of Larger permanent localities and towns are naturally only to be ten tents or so. Thus the Kara - Kalpaks live temporaril}" found among half-settled nomads. in the Oxus Delta, the permanent population of which consists of Chimbai at The famous old names of towns in the Oxus traders, priests, and craftsmen. but there arc also old Turkish names for smaller places in ilistrict arc Iranian this region, indicating that even in early times Turks were settled among the Names of this kind are in part referable to the old residences Iranic population. Sites like Urga arc of tribal chiefs, as we find to this day among the Mongols. at least permanent for a long time, though not towns in our sense, but as Regel says of Shikko in Hi, assemblages of settlements, depots, bazaars, forts. (Hiaractcristic of the steppe are the countless ruins of towns, sometimes of In the middle of the sandy Kusuptchi lie the ruins of a considerable extent. city within walls more than 5 miles long in the side and 30 feet or more high. Throughout the middle course of the Cherchen Darya we find traces of old towns and settlements at a distance of 3 to 10 miles west of its present bed. Even in our own days it has happened that settled town-dwellers, after surrendering fields, .pastures, rights of timber-felling, to the encroaching nomads, have ended by abandoning their towns. Thus did the Karakalins before the Akhal-Tckkc 'rurcoinans, who naturally had no use for the deserted town. Immediately after the fall of the Akhal-Tckkes Heyfcldcr found Karakali like a modern Pompeii. “ h'ortress, embankments, walls, towns, canals, bridges, mud-walled dwellings, villas with gardens, barns, courtyards, stalls, wells, churches, cellars, mangers, troughs, extensive aqueducts with rivulets, were in good preservation, but no man was there. There were no watchers, no domestic animals,*' The emigration of Jews and Tartars from the Crimea after it was seized by the Russians left whole towns empty; Mankup was still unpeopled in 1800. Important passages and mountain i^asscs were formerly closed by earthworks and walls, as at Pcrckop. Small forts of fascines and earth arc placed near every Mongol encampment in Tsaidam, to receive the herds when the Kara-Tangutes are raiding. Deserted fortifications of this kind recall some circular “ camps " of our own country. Such is a fortress of the mountain Kalmucks on an isolated hill near the mouth of the Chela. Long lines of earthworks tell in all steppe-countries of the nomads' fights among themselves and with the settlers. One of the most northerly lines runs from Zimbirsk by- Kursk to Atemar, a second has been ;

rather carried their household goods about in them.

So Horace

:

^

“Campeslres melius Scylhae (Quorum plaiislra vagas rite traluinl domos.”

We

infer

from the

rite that the great orderliness

of arrangement upon which the author remarks had

ancient observers?]

VOL.

Ill

Z

THE HISTORY OF MANKIND

338

continued from Pensa to Tamboff both were intended to defend Moscow against Tartar incursions. The most famous structure of this kind is the Great Wall of ToChina, which enclosed the old China from the Upper Hoaijg-ho to the sea. day its place is taken by a broad belt of husbandmen, emigrants from China, who ;

form a

far

more

effective defence to the northern

the Mongols out of the most

fertile

Chinese provinces, by squeezing

places of abode, reducing their numbers,

breaking up their organisation, and above all their spirit of enterprise. Laborious stone structures are quite out of the way of the modern inhabitants. The road hewn in the rock along the Washanzai valley belongs to generations Indeed, a place on the Zarafshan is called Tashkuprink, “stonelong gone by. bridge/*

where one now crosses by a bridge of wood.

much

The

stone bridges of

wooden bridges. so of antiquity many works woven round The legends of Iskander (Alexander), which transcend the achievement, nay the design, of the men of to-day, are attached also to the remains of stone bridges by places now insignificant, like Termez on the Amou. Next to cattle-breeding, trade is the most important economic activity of the ih'oducts for sale are furnished by cattle-breeding, by the chase, by steppe, stoiie and root-hunting, and among the Turcomans by the feeble industry of the women who weave carpets. Even the ancients knew of the Scythian fur-trade as ancient date are often in

better lorescrvation than recent

nomad has his wants in the tobacco and opium, corn or fiour, clothing materials, weapons, and ammunition. Hence at the most adv^anced posts we find

carried first

on from time immemorial.

In return the

;

place “ brick ” tea, then often

traders,

mostly Chinese, going about the country, some as pedlars, some, called

by the Russians slohodes, starting from permanent dcp6ts as far as Turkestan, where they come into touch with Indians and Arabs. Individual tribes have, trade relations at particular spots, whence in course of time closer connections have grown up. Thus the Tartars of Shugnan look after the Kara-Kirghises of the Pamir at the pasturing season, while these turn up in Shugnan in the autumn to get salt in exchange for their corn. The whole of Mongolia retains a colonial character, because the large genuinely Chinese emporia, which at the same time arc fortresses, keep close to the frontier, serving to protect the country in tlicir rear, and to promote its traffic. Any others appear merely as advanced posts which arc easily abandoned, to spring up with equal case in more favourable .spots. P'ive frontier marts form as it were a belt of fortresses round the north and west frontier of China, and may be regarded as the base of trade operations in the steppe and beyond. Of these Kalgan is pure Chinese, while Kuku-koto is distinctly Central Asiatic in style of building and in population. Shehol again, owing to the frequent stay there of the Chinese court, more Chinese. From Kalgan the traffic goes to Urga in North Mongolia from Kuku-koto to Kobdo in North-West Mongolia. On the ;

its western part, we come to Ning-hia on the Upper Hoang-ho, in a sheltered situation at the starting-point of a native colonisation which, two centuries before Christ, had occupied with military colonies' the “1-and of the Entrances,” that wonderful line of oases between* the Mimakiya and the Altai the most natural road across Asia, and therefore from the earliest times the bed in which has flowed a great stream of national migration and traffic. From these colonics, even by Marco Polo’s time, had arisen Chinese

old northern frontier of the empire, towards

;

— THE ^TONGOLS AND THE TURKIC RACES

339

trading towns in a grand style, spreading Chinese culture to the Altai and the What Ning-hia is on the north-west, Si-ning is on the west. It is the Pamir. medium of traffic with Tibet and India, and its trade was once even greater than

In the last century the Jesuits found Armenian Catholics here, that of Ning-hia. and the fame of the town has gone abroad in the bazaars of East Turkestan. In these colony-towns the most manifold industries have grown up. With the roads, the places lying on them arc naturally exposed to great The caravan-road from Kiakhta through the Gobi desert, fluctuations of trade. for the peaceable contact of Mongols with Europeans, and for the important traffic between China and Europe, in active use till the middle of this century, has now a diminished traffic, since the Russians have steadily been bringing more and more tea by sea to Odessa, or from Hankow to Tien-tsin, and thence overland to Irkutsk, whither the Kiakhta custom-house has been transferred. Maimatchin in China, and Kiakhta in Russia will still always remain important as the points of transit of a considerable traffic, even if a new and shorter caravan-road comes to be adopted through Mongolia from Chindant in the Trans-Baikal direct to In many winters the road across the Gobi desert is rendered Dola Nor. difficult by the fact that the Mongols who keep up the postal connections have to stray with their beasts far from the usual road owing to lack of fodder. Among the more remote tribes a vigorous many-sided domestic industry is still found. Even the poor dwellers on the Tarim spin and weave wool, and produce a textile fibre of their

women

own from

the comiyr plant, treating

it

like

flax.

The

on a jiccuHar distaff*, and weave a stout linen from the yarn on a simple loom. Simple as the spindle merely a stick with a small stone attached and loom arc, the productions of them among the more advanced tribes arc manifold. spin

—

rather loosely woven, but prettily bleached, kerchiefs having the ends ornamented with red woollen stuffs, and handsome festival garments embroidered with silk, give us a high idea of the industry and cleverness of the Tekkc women, whose carpets and camel-bags of many colours, blue and violet alone being absent, are to-day an important article of commerce. The Turcoman women weave from the very soft hair of camel foals the silk-like material called agariy which is sold in Persia for its weight in gold. They know how to knit gloves as

/ Linen,

how

Mongol women are far behind Their mode of making silk threads into coloured ribbons without a shuttle should be called rather plaiting than weaving. Peculiar to the nomads is the extensive manufacture of felt from camel’s hair and sheep’s wool. It is laid, in layers, damped, rolled with the hands, and finally trodden. White, natural coloured, and flowered felts are made, and used in quantities for tcnt-coverings, capes, stockings, and among the poorer people for other parts of the clothing. Among the Kirghis tribes, with their wealth of flocks, leather forms well as

their

to

make

more westerly

In this respect the

quilts.

kinsfolk.

a large item of export to Ru.ssia and the Khanates tan,

it is

incompletely prepared.

The

;

but from want of a powerful

hides arc softened in a fluid of which dried

cheese forms an ingredient, flour and salt being mixed with it. Every kind of skin and hide has its special application. Water-skins arc of goat’s leather,

yargak or smooth basil serv^es as clothing, as^also do For one of the and those of camel-foals with their soft hair. great vats in which the koumiss is fermented the Kirghis use four horsehidcs. Where wood is found, the herdsman carves endless useful objects from it. The koumiss-skins of horsehidc

the skins of horses

;

THE HISTORY OF MANKTNO

340

elieagtius or so-callcU wild olive is

employed by

choice.

I

wo

necessarily

article.s

made of wood, tent-pole and saddle-frame, together with large wooden dishes and chests, arc articles of trade, while the spoons, koumiss cups^ and even skimmingwhich a hundred years ago were principally of wood, arc now almost everywhere of iron, Russians and Chinese vying in importing them. The olaks/ii

The

praying round a crucible filled

with lead-ore and

charcoal, that the metal

may

appear,

ing with this.

is

in

A

keepboard

covered with a layer of clay for forge, often only {\ stone for anvil,

A

Mongol ^

of the Kirghis or

niii.sici;in.

Mongol

1^1/

hammer and

tongs cor-

respondingly

simple, .. appliances

(From a photograph. ) '

,

-

smith, and with thc.se naturally only simple results can

In this matter, too, the west is more advanced. Turcomans imitate ornaments of Persian workmanship, make matchlocks, and are .said to have Thus, too, ^ the manufactured even the sharp-cut dies for their silver coinage. Turcomans of the Caspian arc clever pcdlans. They get salt at Krasnovodsk, naphtha on Cheleken Island. Of all Turks the most given to trade, they bring

be produced. fine

these products to the roadstead of Asterabad.

Chude mines mentioned

above.

We may

also recall here the

While the Buddhist Mongols get

all their

images

—

;

THE MONGOLS AND THE TURKIC RACES

34 r

and other objects of religious art from Tibet, Islam prohibits the manufacture of such things by the Mussulman Turcomans; tlicsc latter excelling in the ornamenting of women’s clothing with coloured thread, lace, and beads, in the manufacture of weapons, above all in the i)olychromatic weaving of East Central Asia, obviously The nornad Turks of Persia furnish derived from Persian and Indian teaching. many of the more simple carpets of commerce. The work of the house or tent is a burden as heavy as slavery on most The men are so lazy that even among the .tlongol and Kirghis women. Turcomans one cannot speak of any fair division of labour. All duties within Even in pitching the tent she is employed she the tent are laid on the wife. must manufacture felt and cords for the tent, and look after fuel. When there is nay, she often has even to any agriculture the woman tills, sows, and reaps saddle and bridle the horses, to keep a watchful eye on saddle and weapons, and even to brew the spirit on which her lord and master gets drunk. The man’s work is to tend the herds, to fight, and to thieve. Kirghis girls indeed watch the sheep at night when it is considered easy, but not by day and if a woman is “ complaining of her husband, she says He treats me badly, he makes me mind The duty of looking after sick animals, especially the sheep in the daytime.” Besides this material overloading, their position is calves, falls on the women. “ morally inferior. Women’s advice is only good for women,” says a Kirghis proverb. A new-born boy is greeted with joy and pride, while the arrival of a girl is felt as a misfortune, not to say a burden. The Uigur verses ;

;

;

:

IJetler If

a

And

nomad

women

not to the birth or living did not stay

go when born, it is l)Ctter so, the birlli-feast and the burial-feast shall be kept on the self-same day

are hard but true

I'ew

came

girl

underground

and

slie

in the

judgment of most Asiatics profoundly

justified.

tribes are so consistent professors of Islam as to persist in

keeping

Uncovered faces are the rule, veils the exception. and formalities, unmarried women ewen go about frequently with a freedom which may go far, so long as no results are visible of their intercourse with the young men of the tribe, or so long as their intercourse docs not extend beyond the limits of the aon/^ which is held far worse. The use of abortive medicines is widespread and tolerated. This immorality, together the

apart from the men.

Under the cover of

certain forms

with the celibacy of the lamas, has doubtless its share in causing the small increase in the population of many a Central Asiatic people. Exogamy'^ is strictly observed

among the Kirghises men versts away and further. ;

fetch their brides from another

community, often 700

Betrothal takes place long before the marriageable age, and the kalym or though treated as a present, is in reality the purchase-price of the

bridal present,

bride

;

as appears most clearly from the fact that

who cannot

among

the Mongols poor people

Betrothals when afford it have to work for their wives like Jacob. and bridegroom arc still both in the cradle occur even at this day among the JCirghiscs, and the formalities which the bridegroom’s father employs towards the bride’s father in urging the suit arc just the same as in the ease of adults’ wooing. The former goes with his nearest kinsfolk to the uhiss of the bride, and talks with her father of indifferent matters, at last approaching him with a dram of brandy and a pipe filled and ready for lighting, and opening his suit. Among bride

THE HISTORY OF HAHHIND

342

the Ki/il tribe of the

Tomsk

Kirghiscs, which clings with conspicuous staunchness

to ancient custom, the bridegroom’s father used even twenty years ago to speak as follows: “If the water overflows thy dwelling,

I

be a firm

will

dam;

if ttie

wind blows into thy dwelling I will be a sheltering wall if thou call me 'I will run up like a dog if thou strike me on the head, I will come into thy house and be thy kinsman.” Reception and consumption of the brandy and the tobacco imply acceptance. Then the whole company discusses the kalym^ and however ;

;

may

be the years of the pair that are to be linked together, the date of The price is naturally fixed at so many is debated with energy. head of cattle, most usually horses one camel being worth five mares, one two Guns, hunting eagles, and so on are also thrown or three camels, one courser, etc. tender

the wedding

;

A

in.

hundred marcs

By

twenty-seven. visits

his bride to

ment gave Kirghis

whom

to

is

strict

make

a considerable kalyviy none would

custom

amount

to less than

also the youthful bridegroom has every time he

her numerous presents.

In

1868 the Russian Govern-

brides the right of withdrawing from wedlock with bridegrooms

they had been engaged in extreme youth.

In that case the parents

had to pay back the kalyui with a penalty of nine head of cattle in addition. The Kirghises long kept this law concealed from the women but when it was at length published, at the first meeting of the z'^;^.v/-court for the district of UstKamenogorsk in Sernipalatinsk, eleven girls appeared before the judge to inform him that they did not want to marry the men to whom they were betrothed, b'ormcrly if a woman wished to be free from her husband, she had to run away If it was then established upon inquiry that the husband from him three times. had ill-treated his wife, the marriage was dissolved. The most lax marriages arc among the Tarim people, who through wretchedness have lost their .self-respect. When means are forthcoming, the wooing of an adult bride is attended with even more extensive festivities. The kinsmen of the bridegroom who do the wooing are entertained for days together partaking on the last day of a breast of mutton from a special dish, as a sign of the indissolubility of the contract. At these carouses every kind of practical joke is played on the wooers, even their departure being hindered by the women of the aouly who put their harness out of order, sticking bones under the saddle or in the horses’ tails. Many things, even the custom that the youngest wooer has to steal a cup and bring it home with ;

;

The same carouses with similar games him, show traces of marriage by capture. and jokes are repeated when the bride’s kinsmen ])ay a return visit to the bridegroom’s village and as the bride was invisible before, sc) is the bridegroom now. These visits arc repeated, the kalym being gradually discharged ithe while, till the ;

price of the marriage has been

paid.

Then

the wooers

make

their last trip to

the bride’s aouly on which occasion the bridegroom accompanies them, but remains at

some distance

Now

fi^llow

in

the open country, often in a tent,

arncebcan songs

all

night,

till

the

bride

is

hidden.

between the lads and maidens of the ao 7//y

the former remaining outside the yaotirt of the bride’s father, the latter inside.

Not

have been formed, one trying to bring the bride out of her and the former, conquerors in the njock battle, Ifavc brought her back on a carpet into her father’s yaoiirty do the women invite the bridegroom in, to visit his bride. Paying a copious tribute of presents to the ladies of the aoiily the bridegroom enters the bride’s tent, .seeing her perhaps On for the first time on this occasion, and remains .some days alone with her. until

two

parties

hiding-place, the other to keep her back,

)

THE MONGOLS AND THE TURKIC RACES

343

own people, he finds presents from his father-in-law, which he has to distribute to the wooers. At last he comes in a solemn procession, driving cattle yi front of him, to fetch away the bride to the aoul where At the feast, for which the oxen presented by him arc slaughtered, hi.T1x>me is. women appear in the bride’s finest clothes, among them the high fur cap, adorned returning secretly to his

Shaman

with