the african negroes.

causes of the inferiority of negro civilisation—natural capabilities of the negro—geographical formation of africa—its political condition—physical conformation of the negro—fetishism—the rain-doctor—the medicine-man—religious observances—gift-offerings—human sacrifices—ornaments—the pelélé—the bonnians—their barbarous condition—the town of okolloma—negroes of the lake regions—the iwanza—slavery—a miserable group.

with the exception of the narrow strip of territory fertilized by the annual inundations of the nile, where stately pyramids and the ruins of vast palaces and temples proclaim the ancient glories of egypt; or of the coast-lands of the mediterranean, where once carthage reigned and utica flourished, africa has ever been a region without influence on the progressive march of mankind. from the vast and still partly unknown countries inhabited by the negro or the kaffer no gleam of genius has ever shone forth to enlighten the world; no invention has ever proceeded for the benefit of the human race; no individual has ever risen to eminence in science or in art; but all, from generation to generation, has519 ever been one dull monotonous scene of ignorance, barbarism, and stagnation.

as to the causes of this stationary unprogressive state opinions are greatly divided, for while some authorities consider the african as decidedly inferior in intellect to the more favoured races of europe, he is according to others merely the victim of unfortunate circumstances, which have never allowed the latent germs of improvement to quicken into life? that there is no defect in his organisation to account for his low condition, is sufficiently proved by the celebrated physiologist, tiedemann, who found, as the result of numerous measurements and examinations, that his brain is by no means smaller than that of the european, and that its form and structure are identical.

travellers and missionaries who have had the best opportunities of forming a just estimate of the character and capacities of the negroes, describe them as social, generous, and confiding. no one, such is their opinion, can live among them without being impressed with their natural energy of character, their shrewdness and close observation, the cunning with which they can drive a bargain, and the perfect adroitness with which they practise upon the unsuspecting credulity of white men. they have long since risen above the hunter life, have fixed habitations, cultivate the soil for the means of subsistence, have herds of domestic animals, construct for themselves houses sufficient to protect them alike from the scorching heat of the sun and the chilly damps of night, show a taste for the mechanical arts, a surprising skill in the fabrication of implements of warfare and articles of ornament, and at the same time a decided taste and aptitude for commercial pursuits.

the southern kaffers gradually pass through the transition of intermediate tribes into the pure typical equatorial negroes, and travellers have been astonished at the acuteness of intellect displayed by the zulus, betchuanas, and other kaffer nations. of the mandingoes, a pure negro race, inhabiting parts of senegambia and upper guinea, shrewd observers assure us that no one who has had personal intercourse with them, can have the least doubt as to their intellectual equality with europeans. these few examples, to which many others520 might be added, sufficiently prove that there is no wide impassable gulf between the negro and the white races.

the aboriginal africans are indeed averse to all abstract discussions, but they have excellent memories, lively imaginations, much instinctiveness, and very close observation. with the exception of the veys, who have recently invented an alphabet for themselves (a circumstance in itself sufficient to establish their claims to a high degree of intelligence), none of the nations along the sea coast regions have any written literature, but this is not to be set down as a mark of mental imbecility. their thoughts, as a matter of necessity, must operate in a comparatively narrow circle; but it does not follow that they are less active on that account. they have abundant stores of unwritten lore, allegories, legends, traditionary stores, fables—and many of their proverbs bear testimony to their sound good sense.

men of remarkable ability have risen up among the africans from time to time, as well as amongst other portions of the human family. some have excited the admiration of large districts by their wisdom, others have been the wonder of their generation by their personal prowess and deeds of arms, but the total absence of literature leads to the loss of all former experience and the lessons of the sage and the feats of the hero have been alike forgotten.

the detractors of the negroes have generally formed their opinion upon the most unfavourable specimens of the race, upon tribes living in a pestilential climate along the sultry coasts of guinea, upon the victims of oppression, upon slaves or the descendants of slaves. but everywhere we find physical and moral inferiority resulting from conditions which cramp the natural energies of man, and among the most highly civilised nations a considerable part of the population shows the fatal stigmas of ignorance and want in a stunted growth and a blighted intellect. it is evidently as erroneous to judge of the whole negro race by its inferior representatives, as it would be to measure the english nation by the low standard of the refuse of our cities. the reasons for the torpid state of africa, when compared with the ancient civilisation of asia or the progressive march of europe, must therefore be sought for, not in an organic and consequently incurable incapacity521 for higher attainments, but in unfavourable external circumstances, and these are quite sufficient to account for its existence.

among the causes which have contributed to retard the march of improvement in africa, one of the most important is its compact geographical formation and the natural obstacles which render the access to its interior so extremely difficult. while europe possesses a vast extent of coast line, numerous harbours, large peninsulas, deep gulfs and bays, and broad navigable rivers, africa is deprived of these physical advantages. though more than three times larger than europe, its coasts are not only less extensive by one-fourth, but are also frequently bounded, particularly within the tropics, by sandy deserts or unhealthy swamps, which render them in a great measure inaccessible or useless to man. we there see no such peninsulas as italy or portugal and spain, stretching far out into the ocean, and affording a seat to a numerous maritime population; no such great mediterranean seas as the baltic, the adriatic, or the ægæan; and while in europe many rivers carry the tides far into the interior of the land, and extend as it were the domains of ocean into the bosom of the continent, a great number of the streams of africa are often rendered unnavigable by long-continued droughts, or even cease to flow altogether during a considerable part of the year. but the sea is not only the great highway of commerce, it also enlarges the sphere of man’s ideas, by bringing him into easier contact with other nations; it not only conveys the productions of every zone from coast to coast, but civilisation is also wafted upon its waves from shore to shore. thus the vicinity of the sea has been as favourable to the development of a great part of europe as the confinement or isolation of the negro within the bounds of his native continent has tended to retard his improvement.

even in the interior of africa itself, communications are rendered difficult by many natural obstacles. the fertile regions of the soudan are separated from the coast lands of the mediterranean by the vast deserts of the sahara, which have always opposed an insurmountable barrier to the spread of european civilisation. here enormous tracts of arid land, there immense marshes and swampy lake districts, or high mountain ranges522 covered with impervious woods, impede the progress of the traveller, and separate one nation from the other.

along with its unfavourable geographical formation, the political condition of africa has likewise tended to maintain its ancient barbarism. as far as history reaches into the past, slavery has been its curse, nor has it ever enjoyed the advantages of a strong and permanent government. thus, to cite but one example, the manganja were all formerly united under the government of their great chief undi, whose rule extended from lake shirwa to the river loangwa, but after undi’s death it fell to pieces. this has been the inevitable fate of every african empire from time immemorial. a chief of more than ordinary ability arises, and subduing all his less powerful neighbours, founds a kingdom which he governs more or less wisely, till he dies. his successor not having the talents of the conqueror cannot retain the dominion, and some of the abler or more ambitious under-chiefs set up for themselves, and in a few years the remembrance only of the empire remains. this, which may be considered as the normal state of african society, gives rise to frequent and desolating wars, and perpetuates a state of general insecurity which paralyses improvement and prevents the accumulation of wealth, that great lever of civilisation. ignorance, superstition, intolerance are the natural consequences of the misgovernment under which africa suffers, and contribute in their turn to maintain it. even the most gifted nations must eventually sink under such a load of adverse circumstances, and when we recollect for how many centuries the genius of europe languished after the fall of the roman empire, we must not be too hasty in depreciating the natural abilities of the negro.

a black, soft, and unctuous skin, woolly hair, thick lips, a flat nose, a retiring forehead, and a projecting maxilla, are his well-known physical characters; but both his colour and his features are considerably modified both by the climate of the land which he inhabits and the degree of civilisation he has attained. considerable elevations of surface, as they produce a cooler temperature of the air, are also productive of a lighter-coloured skin. thus, in the high parts of senegambia, which fronting the atlantic ocean are cooled by westerly winds, we find the light copper-coloured felatas surrounded on every523 side by the darker-coloured negro tribes inhabiting the surrounding lower countries. in the interior of africa, the bornui, the occupants of the low basin of lake tsad, are also the most like the typical negroes of the coast. their moral and social condition, or the degree of barbarism and civilisation in which they live, has likewise a considerable influence on the physical conformation of the negroes. the tribes in which the distinctive marks of the race are developed in the highest degree invariably occupy the lowest grade in the scale of african humanity: they are either ferocious, barbarous, or sunk in stupidity and sloth—as, for instance, the papels, balloms, and other savage hordes on the coast of guinea, where the slave trade was formerly carried on to a great extent, and exerted, as usual, its baneful influence. on the other hand, where we hear of a negro state whose inhabitants have made some progress in the social arts, we constantly find their physical character considerably deviating from the strongly pronounced negro type. the ashantees and the sulimas may be cited as examples. the negroes of guber and haussa, where a considerable degree of civilisation was a long time dominant, are perhaps the finest race of true negroes in all africa. the joloff, who, since the time of their first discovery by the portuguese, have enjoyed a certain degree of culture, are also tall, well-made negroes, with the nasal profile less depressed, and the lips less prominent than is the case with the more typical tribes.

the religion of mahomet has spread over many north african countries, but fetissism, or the adoration of natural objects, animate or inanimate, to which certain mysterious powers are attributed, is still the superstitious creed of the greater part of that continent. anything which chances to catch hold of the fancy of a negro may be a fetish. one selects the tooth of a dog, of a tiger, or of a cat, or the bone of a bird; while another fixes on the head of a goat, or monkey, or parrot, or even upon a piece of red or yellow wood, or a thorn branch. the fetish thus chosen becomes to its owner a kind of divinity, which he worships, and from which he expects assistance on all occasions. in honour of his fetish, it is common for a negro to deprive himself of some pleasure, by abstaining from a particular kind of meat or drink. thus one man eats no524 goat’s flesh, another tastes no beef, and a third no brandy or palm wine. by a continual attention to his fetish, the negro so far imposes upon himself as to represent it to his imagination as an intelligent being or ruling power, inspecting his actions and ready to reward or punish. hence, like the russian with his image of st. nicholas, or the ancient roman with his household gods, he covers it up carefully whenever he performs any action that he accounts improper. the importance or value of a fetish is always estimated according to the success of its owner whose good fortune induces others to adopt it. on the contrary, when a negro suffers any great misfortunes, he infallibly attributes it to the weakness of his fetish, which he relinquishes, and adopts another that he hopes will prove more powerful. sometimes a whole tribe or a large district has its fetish, which is regarded as a kind of palladium upon which the safety of their country depends. thus, at whidah, on the coast of ashantee, they worship as their national fetish a kind of serpent of monstrous size, which they call the grandfather of the snakes. they say that it formerly deserted some other country on account of its wickedness, and came to them, bringing good fortune and prosperity along with it. the national fetish of the kanga is an elephant’s tooth, and that of the tribe of wawa a tiger. at bonny divine honours are paid to huge water-lizards. undisturbed, the lazy monsters crawl heavily through the streets, and as they pass the negroes reverentially make way. a white man is hardly allowed to look at them, and hurried as fast as possible out of their presence. an attempt was once made to kidnap one of these dull lizard gods for the benefit of a profane museum, but the consequences were such as to prevent a repetition of the offence, for the palm oil trade was immediately stopped, and affairs assumed so hostile an aspect that the foreigners were but too glad to purchase peace with a considerable sacrifice of money and goods. when one of the lizards crawls into a house, it is considered a great piece of good fortune, and when it chooses to take a bath, the bonnians hurry after it in their canoes. after having allowed it to swim and plunge several times, they seize it for fear of danger, and carry it back again to the land, well pleased at once more having the sacred reptile in their safe possession.

525 from this account of the fetishes of the negroes, it is evident that the rudeness of their idolatry is on a level with the low state of their social condition. a victim to evil passions and to a vague and nameless awe engendered by the fantastical and monstrous character of the animal and vegetable productions around him, the fetissist peoples with malevolent beings the invisible world, and animates material nature with evil influences. the rites of his dark and deadly superstition are all intended to avert evils from himself by transfering them to others; hence the witchcraft and magic which flow naturally from the system of demonology.

like the schaman of the polar world, the negro priest, or professional holy man, is supposed to have the power of controlling evil spirits, and founds his influence on the gross superstition and baseless fears of those who trust in his agency. his office includes many duties. he is a physician or medicine man, a detecter of sorcery by means of the ordeal, a vase maker, a conjuror or augur, and a prophet.

as all diseases are attributed by the fetissist to ‘possession,’ the medicine man is expected to heal the patient by casting out the devil who has entered his body and disturbs its functions. the unwelcome visitant must be charmed away by the sound of drums and dancing, and when the auspicious moment for his expulsion arrives, is enticed from the body of the possessed into some inanimate article, which he will condescend to inhabit. this may be a certain kind of bead, two or more bits of wood bound together by a strip of snake’s skin, a lion’s or a leopard’s claw, and other similar articles, worn round the head, the arm, the wrist, or the ankle. hence also the habit of driving nails into and hanging rags upon trees, which are considered apt places for the laying of evil spirits.

the second and perhaps the most profitable occupation of the medicine man is, the detection of sorcery. the unfortunate wretches, accused of practising the black art, are generally required to prove their innocence by submitting to various ordeals, similar to the fire tests of mediæval europe. the commonest trial consists in the administration of some poisonous liquid, such as the red water of the ashantees, which is extremely apt to find the accused person guilty. if he escape unhurt, however, and without vomiting, he is judged innocent.526 much dancing and singing takes place on account of his escape, and he is allowed to demand that some punishment be inflicted on his accusers, on account of the defamation. among the eastern africans visited by captain burton, a heated iron spike driven into some tender part of the person accused is twice struck with a log of wood. the wazaramo dip the hand into boiling water, the waganda into seething oil, and the wazegura prick the ear with the stiff bristles of a gnu’s tail.

the crime of sorcery is usually punished by the stake; and in some parts of eastern africa, the roadside shows at every few miles, a heap or two of ashes with a few calcined and blackened human bones, telling the shocking tragedy that has been enacted there. the prospect cannot be contemplated without horror: here and there, close to the larger circle where the father and mother have been burnt, a smaller heap shows that some wretched child has shared its parents’ terrible fate, lest growing up he should follow in their path.

in countries where a season of drought causes dearth, disease, and desolation, the rain maker or rain doctor, is necessarily a person of great consequence, and he does not fail to turn the hopes and fears of the people to his own advantage. the enemy has medicines for dispersing the clouds which the doctor is expected to attract by his more potent charms. his spells are those of fetissists in general, the mystic use of something foul, poisonous, or difficult to procure. as he is a weatherwise man, and rains in tropical lands are easily foreseen, his trickery sometimes proves successful. not unfrequently, however, he proves himself a false prophet, and when all the resources of cunning fail he must fly for his life, from the exasperated victims of his delusion.

the holy man is also a predictor and a soothsayer. he foretells the success or failure of commercial or warlike expeditions, prevents their being undertaken, or fixes the proper time for their commencement. in one word, his influence extends over almost all the occurrences of life, and is all the greater for being based on the abject superstition of his votaries.

prayers and sacrifices are the chief religious observances of the pagan negroes. like most people all over the world, they pray for health, good weather, rich harvests, or victory over their enemies. after a long continuance of dearth, the wawas527 assemble in a mourning procession before the house in which a panther is adored as a god. howling and lamenting they represent to him their distress, and beg him to send them rain, as otherwise they must all die of hunger. the watjas pray to the new moon to give them strength for labouring, and the aminas go even so far as to implore their god to pay their debts.

the sacrifices or gift offerings of the negroes generally consist of various kinds of household animals, or fruits of the earth; but in the kingdoms of ashantee and dahomey, human sacrifices are prevalent to a frightful extent. as the kings and black nobility ascend, after death, to the upper gods, with whom they are to enjoy eternally the state and luxury which was their portion on earth, a certain number of slaves, proportionate to their dignity, is sacrificed for the purpose of serving them in their new condition. bowdich41 relates that the king of ashantee, on the death of his mother, butchered no less than 3,000 victims, and on his own death this number would probably be doubled. the funeral rites of a great captain were repeated weekly for three months, and 200 persons were slaughtered each time, or 2,400 in all. these wholesale executions, the details of which are too horrible to relate, still subsist to the present day, for the negroes cling with remarkable tenacity to their ancient customs, and this is perhaps the principal obstacle to their civilization or improvement.

the belief, so common among barbarous nations, that after death the spirit of the deceased still feels the same wants as during life, and the same pleasure in their gratification, leads to similar atrocious murders in other african countries, though probably nowhere on so gigantic a scale as in ashantee. thus the chiefs of unyamwesi are generally interred with cruel rites. a deep pit is sunk, with a kind of vault projecting from it; in this the corpse, clothed with skin and hide, is placed sitting, with a pot of malt liquor, whilst sometimes one, but more generally three, female slaves, one on each side and the third in front, are buried alive to preserve their lord from the horrors of solitude. the great headmen of the wadoe are interred almost naked, but retaining their head ornaments, sitting in a shallow pit so that the forefinger can project above the ground.528 with each man is buried alive a male and a female slave, the former holding a bill-hook wherewith to cut fuel for his master in the cold death-world, and the latter, who is seated upon a little stool, supports his head in her lap.

among the negroes of bonny, on the coast of guinea, the wants of the dead are provided for in a less inhuman manner. the wealthy oil-merchant is interred under the threshold of his door, and a small round opening left in the ground leads to the head of the corpse. on feast days large quantities of rum are poured into this opening to gratify the thirst of the deceased and give him his share of the good things of this earth, for it is supposed that in the land of spirits he still retains the same predilection for spirituous enjoyments which he frequently testified during life. the medicine men invariably attend at these interesting ceremonies, and largely participate in the libations offered to the dead.

throughout all negro land we find, more or less, the custom so prevalent among other barbarous nations, of painting or tattooing the body, of distending the ears, of dressing the hair in a ridiculous manner, or of wearing an extravagant quantity of worthless trinkets; but the manganja, a negro tribe inhabiting the banks of the shire, have adopted the same wonderful ornament, if such it may be called, which so hideously distorts the botocude physiognomy.

the middle of the upper lip of the girls is pierced close to the septum of the nose, and a small pin inserted to prevent the puncture closing up. after it has healed, the pin is taken out and a larger one is pressed into its place, and so on successively for weeks and months and years. the process of increasing the size of the lip goes on till its capacity becomes so great that a ring of two inches in diameter can be introduced with ease. the poorer classes make the pelélé—as this absurd instrument of disfigurement is called—of hollow or of solid bamboo, but the wealthier of ivory or tin. the tin pelélé is often made in the form of a small dish; the ivory one is not unlike a napkin ring. no woman ever appears in public without the pelélé, except in times of mourning for the dead. the manganjas no doubt see beauty in the upper lip projecting two inches beyond the tip of the nose, but to the rest of the world it is frightfully ugly. when an old wearer of a hollow bamboo-ring529 smiles, by the action of the muscles of the cheek, the ring and lip outside it are dragged back and thrown above the eyebrows. the nose is seen through the middle of the ring, and the exposed teeth show how carefully they have been chipped to look like those of a cat or crocodile. when told it makes them ugly, they had better throw it away, the manganja ladies return the same answer as their european sisters, when fault is found with a monstrous chignon or an extravagant crinoline: ‘really, it is the fashion.’

on the coast of guinea, in the low delta of the niger, we find the negro inhabiting a country very different from the arid wastes in which the bushman roams, more like a wild animal than a human creature. here, instead of vast plains thirsting for water, numerous canals and creeks intersect the swampy soil and render the canoe as necessary to the existence of the people as the camel is to that of the bedouins of the desert. the canoe furnishes the bonnian with provisions from the interior of the country, it also serves to transport the palm oil which he exchanges for the commodities of europe. this traffic, which has supplanted the old slave trade, has now lasted many years, but as yet the humanizing influence of commerce has made itself but little felt among the bonnians whose intercourse with the white customers has only served to engraft some of the worst vices of civilized man on the brutality of the savage. trade has indeed awakened in them the spirit of speculation, it has sharpened their intellect and rendered their manners less barbarous than those of their neighbours; but it has also taught them all the arts of deception and rendered them accomplished cheats, thieves, and liars. of a passionate character, a trifle will provoke the most violent explosions of rage, which often lead to the use of the knife or the gun. king peppel, one of the last sovereigns of this miserable little realm, would, without ceremony, send a bullet, the fatal messenger of his wrath, among the native crew of a canoe that was in his way or somewhat tardy in paying him the respect due to royalty.

the priest, conjurer, or medicine man still preserves an unshaken authority over the superstitious minds of the bonnians, and appears most despicable in the character of a judge, for his verdict always inclines to the side of the party which offers530 him the largest bribe, and a cruel punishment awaits the wretch who has nothing but his innocence to plead in his favour. the accused is either obliged to undergo the ordeal of swimming across a creek, where he becomes the sure prey of the alligator or the shark; or he is led to execution on a sandpit at its mouth, where he is bound at ebb tide to two poles fastened in the sand. one limb after another, proceeding from the hands and feet to the shoulders and hip joints, is now separated from the bleeding trunk which is finally hewn down from the stake. while this horrid scene is performing, the impatient alligators already protrude their monstrous jaws out of the water, and the sharks are also in attendance waiting till the returning flood brings them their share of the feast. at the next ebb the sea has washed away every trace of the disgusting spectacle.

sometimes a cruel sacrifice is offered to the sea. as the bonnians chiefly subsist by their trade with the europeans, which enables them to procure provisions from the interior, the arrival of the foreign ships is to them of the greatest importance. but large vessels are in the dry season often prevented for weeks together from passing the bar by low water, fogs, calms, or contrary winds. a sufficient depth of water across the bar is therefore the great desideratum of the traders or ‘gentlemen,’ as they call themselves, of bonny. to obtain this they sail with several large canoes down the river close to the bar, where they throw several of their best male and female slaves into the water as a propitiatory offering to the sea, so as to induce it to rise, or, as they call it, to make ‘big water.’

the aspect of the capital town of bonny, or okolloma, which may contain about 5,000 souls, corresponds with the barbarous state of its inhabitants. on account of its low situation, scarcely elevated above high-water mark, the streets are constantly muddy, so that a stranger visiting the place is obliged to be carried over the worst places on the unctuous back of a negro, the only vehicle in okolloma. the streets or rather lanes form a complete labyrinth, as every man erects his hut where he thinks proper, without any regard to regularity. the clay floor of these dwellings, which, though varying in size, are all built on the same plan, is raised about a foot above the level of the streets, and is undermined in all directions by a multitude of531 burrowing crabs. the walls are generally only six or seven feet high, but the roof, thatched with palm leaves, rises without any partition twenty feet or more above the floor. generally the hut is without any window, so that in the obscurity which reigns within, it is difficult for the stranger to find his way to the smaller rooms or compartments into which the interior is subdivided. some gourds and water-jugs, a few cases filled with clothes, arms, and other valuables, and low wooden stools for the master and his chief attendants, form the only furniture. the dwellings of the ‘gentlemen’ have no more pretension to architectural beauty than those of the humblest ‘freeman,’ consisting merely of several of the huts above described clustered together in the strangest confusion and communicating with each other through door openings in the interior.

if idleness were bliss the tribes inhabiting the fertile lake regions of central africa must be reckoned among the happiest of mankind. rising with the dawn from his couch of cow’s hide, the negro usually kindles a fire to keep out the chill of the morning from his hay-stack hut, and addresses himself to his constant companion the pipe. when the sun becomes sufficiently powerful he removes the reed screen which forms the entrance to his dwelling, and issues forth to bask in the morning beams. after breaking his fast with a dish of porridge or curded milk, he now repairs to the iwanza, or village ‘public,’ where in the society of his own sex he will spend the greater part of the day talking and laughing, smoking or indulging in copious draughts of a beer without hops, called pombe, the use of which among the negro and negroid races dates back as far as the age of osiris. to while away the time he sits down to play at heads and tails; gambling being as violent a passion in him as with the malay or the americian indian. many of the wanyamwesi have been compelled by this indulgence to sell themselves into slavery, and, after playing away their property, they even stake their aged mothers against the equivalent of an old lady in these lands—a cow or a pair of goats. others, instead of gambling, indulge in some less dangerous employment, which occupying the hands, leaves the rest of the body and the mind at ease; such as whittling wood, piercing and airing their pipe-sticks, plucking out their beards, eyebrows, and eye-lashes, or preparing and polishing their weapons.532 at noon the african returns to his hut to eat the most substantial and the last meal of the day, which has been cooked by his women. eminently gregarious, however, he often prefers the iwanza as a dining-room, where the company of relatives and friends adds the pleasure of society to the enjoyment of beef or mutton. with him food is the all-in-all of life—his thought by day, his dream by night. the civilised european can hardly comprehend the intense delight with which his wild brother satisfies the wants of his stomach, or the envious eye which he casts on all those who live better than himself. after eating, the east african invariably indulges in a long fit of torpidity, using the back, breast, or stomach, of his neighbour as a pillow, and awakening from his siesta, passes the afternoon as he did the forenoon, chatting, playing, smoking, and where tobacco fails, chewing sweet earth, or the clay of ant-hills. this probably contains some animal matter, but the chief reason for using it is apparently the necessity to barbarians of whiling away the time when not sleeping, by exercising their jaws. towards sunset all issue forth to enjoy the coolness; the men sit outside the iwanza, whilst the women and the girls, after fetching water for the household wants from the well, collect in a group upon their little stools, and indulge in the pleasures of gossip and the pipe. this delightful hour in the more favoured parts of the country is replete with enjoyment, felt by the barbarian as much as by civilised man. as the hours of darkness draw nigh, the village doors are carefully closed, and after milking his cows, each peasant retires to his hut, or passes his time squatting round the fire with his friends in the iwanza. he has not yet learned the art of making a wick, and of filling a bit of pottery with oil. an ignited stick of some oleaginous wood, which will keep burning for a quarter of an hour with a brilliant flame, serves to light him home. such is the african’s idle day, and thus every summer is spent; but as the wintry rains draw nigh, and provisions become scarce, the necessity of providing for his daily bread suggests itself, and labour in the fields occupies a great part of the day, which would otherwise have been spent in the iwanza.

when the moon shines bright, the spirits of the east african rise to their highest pitch, and a furious drumming, a loud clapping of hands, and a drowsy chorus summon the lads and lasses of the neighbouring villages to come out and dance.

533 the style of saltation usual in these parts is remarkable only for the excessive gravity which it induces, for at no other time does the east african look so serious, so full of earnest purpose, as when about to practise the art of terpsichore. at first the dancers tramping to the measure with alternate feet, and simultaneously performing a kind of treadmill exercise, with a heavier stamp at the end of every period, sway their bodies slowly from side to side; but as excitement increases,

‘the mirth and fun grows fast and furious,’

till the assembly, with arms waving like windmills, assumes the semblance of a set of maniacs. the performance often closes with a grand promenade, all the dancers being jammed in a rushing mass, with the features of satyrs and fiendish gestures. the performance having reached this highest pitch, the song dies, and the dancers with loud shouts of laughter, throw themselves on the ground to recover strength and breath.

what a contrast to this life of easy indolence when the negro villager, violently torn from home, is led away into hopeless slavery! this, however, is but too often his lot, for throughout the whole length and breadth of torrid africa, from the coast of guinea to the borders of the nile, we almost universally find man armed against man and the stronger tribes ever ready to kidnap and capture the weaker wretches within their reach. every year sees new gangs of slaves driven to the great mart of zanzibar, or on their melancholy way across the desert to chartum; every year witnesses the renewal of atrocities, which, to the disgrace of man, date back as far as the time of the phœnicians, and may possibly outlast the nineteenth century.42

an egyptian razzai, or slave-hunting expedition, after long toilsome marches across the desert or through the primeval forest, at length succeeds in surprising a negro village. the soldiers, in whom their own sufferings have long since extinguished every spark of humanity, rush with tiger-like ferocity upon their prey; their fury spares neither age nor infancy; all who are deemed unfit for a life of bondage are mercilessly butchered. the scheba, a heavy wooden collar, shaped like a fork, rests upon the neck of the adult captives, and prevents their escape or their desperate attempts at suicide. being534 neither planed nor covered with soft rags, it wears deep wounds into the skin, and causes painful ulcers which last as long as the journey, for the scheba is not removed before the place of destination is reached. more goaded and more brutally treated than a herd of cattle, the miserable pilgrims now set forth on their eternal separation from all that rendered life of any value in their eyes. before the burning village fades for ever from their sight, the commander orders the caravan to halt. little cares he, if, under those smoking ruins some wounded wretch unable to move, sees the flames advance nearer and nearer to consume him; if some infant left in a conflagrated hut utters its piercing cries for help.

this is the fate of more than one village until a sufficient number of slaves has been collected, or the expedition is unable any longer to withstand the climate, or the attacks of an exasperated foe. burning, plundering, and destroying, the soldiers return to chartum. the caravan moves slowly. the men wounded in battle or with necks chafed by the scheba, the poor women half-dead from thirst and hunger, the weak children cannot possibly walk fast. brehm witnessed the arrival of a transport of dinkh negroes at chartum and was for weeks after haunted by the dreadful sight, the horrors of which no pen could describe, no words express. it was on january 12, 1848. before the government house, about sixty men and women sat in a circle on the ground. all the men were shackled, the women free. children were creeping on all fours between them. the wretches lay exposed without the least protection to the rays of the burning sun, too exhausted, too dispirited to murmur or to complain, their dull glassy eyes immovably fixed on one spot, and yet full of an indescribably mournful expression. blood and matter issued from the wounds of the men, but no word of pity, no helping hand was there to alleviate their sufferings. involuntarily the eye of the spectator sought out the most miserable objects of the miserable group, and found them in a mother worn down to a skeleton by despair, hunger, and fatigue, and vainly pressing her famished infant to her dried-up breast. it seemed to him as if he saw the angel of death hovering over the wretched pair, as if he heard the rustling of his wings, and from the bottom of his heart he prayed that god might soon send the deliverer to release them from their sufferings.