INHABITANTS
Classification of tribes. Physical characters. Keloids and
tribal marks. Ear ornaments. Tooth-chipping. Hair.
The principal tribes inhabiting British Central Africa are as follows:
In the Protectorate proper:—
1. The Anyanja, or Mang’anja.
2. The Yaos (Wayao or Ajawa).
3. The Alolo.
4. The Awankonde.
5. The Batumbuka.
6. The Angoni.
The Angoni are placed last, as being the most recent arrivals in the
country. They are, as will be explained later on, rather a ruling
caste than a distinct race. The Makololo, as we shall see, cannot be
counted as a tribe; neither can the Achikunda of the Middle and Lower
Zambezi, ‘compounded of the old slaves of the Portuguese, brought from
many different parts of Eastern and Central Africa,’[2] who, moreover,
scarcely come into British Central Africa, though some of them are to be
found on the Shiré.
Of the above, 1 and 6 extend beyond the Protectorate into North-eastern
Rhodesia, where we find, in addition,
The Awemba (Babemba).
The Alunda.
The Alungu.
The Batonga—above Zumbo on the Zambezi.
The Anyanja extend, under several different names, from the Shiré valley
to the Luangwa, and as far north as the middle of Lake Nyasa. At one
time they seem to have occupied this country continuously, but they
have been displaced and broken up by intrusions of strange tribes. The
Makalanga (of whom the Mashona are a subdivision) appear to have formed
a powerful kingdom in the sixteenth century, and they are nearly related
to the Anyanja, if not actually the same people. Their language so
closely resembles Anyanja that a European, who had acquired the latter at
Likoma, could make himself understood without difficulty in Mashonaland.
The languages called by some writers ‘Sena,’ and ‘Tete’ (Nyungwe) are
dialects of Nyanja, and the following tribes may all be reckoned as
closely united branches of the same stock: Achewa, Achipeta (Maravi),
Basenga, Makanga, Badema (north bank of the Zambezi, near Kebrabasa
Rapids), Anguru, Ambo, and Machinjiri, the last-named in Portuguese
territory, between the Ruo and the coast.
Livingstone first came across these people under the name of the Maravi,
when he descended the Zambezi from Linyanti in 1855. ‘Beyond Senga,’
he says, ‘lies a range of mountains called Mashinga, to which the
Portuguese in former times went to wash for gold, and beyond that are
great numbers of tribes which pass under the general name Maravi.’ A
little above Zumbo, he first came across women wearing the characteristic
lip-ring (_pelele_), and adds: ‘This custom prevails throughout the
country of the Maravi.’ It is now more prevalent among the Yaos—the
Anyanja, from whom they adopted it, having more or less disused it.
Between Kebrabasa and Zumbo there were two independent Anyanja chiefs,
Mpende and Sandia; all the rest were subject to these. ‘Formerly all the
Mang’anja were united under the government of their great chief, Undi,
whose empire extended from Lake Shirwa (Chilwa) to the river Luangwa;
but after Undi’s death it fell to pieces, and a large portion of it on
the Zambezi was absorbed by their powerful southern neighbours, the
Banyai.’[3]
These are the people marked on the Portuguese maps as ‘_Mang’anja d’alem
Chire_’ (beyond the Shiré).
In attempting to describe the physical type of this people, one finds
that there is so much variety as to make it difficult to fix on any
one as specially characteristic. This is not to be wondered at, when
we remember how the various tribes have been blended together in the
course of the wars and migrations to which we shall come back in a later
chapter. I think I may say I have noticed three well-marked varieties
of physique among Anyanja, or men reckoned as such. Before considering
these, it may be well, however, to glance at the characteristics
possessed in common by the people with whom we have to do in this book.
They all belong to the ‘Bantu’ family of African natives, which, as
regards _language_, is sharply distinguished from the ‘Negro’ peoples
of West Africa and the Soudan. In other respects, it is more difficult
to draw the line. As long as our ideas of the ‘Negro’ were taken from
degraded and exaggerated types found in the unhealthy Niger delta and
the slave-trading ports of the Guinea coast, it was easy to say that the
Bantu were altogether on a higher level, and attribute the difference
to some hypothetical admixture of Arab or other Asiatic blood. A better
acquaintance with the inland peoples of the Guinea region shows that the
difference is not so great as one had supposed. But the question which
was the main stock whence the other parted off, and that as to the exact
nature of the difference between them, need not be discussed here, as our
concern is entirely with the Bantu.
Perhaps it is scarcely necessary to explain that this word, or something
very like it, means ‘people,’ in the language of (roughly speaking) every
tribe from the Cape of Good Hope to Lake Victoria and the great loop of
the Congo, with the exception of the Kora and Nama (Hottentots), the
Bushmen, and the Masai. It was adopted as a convenient designation when
Bleek had shown how closely these languages were interrelated, and has
never been superseded by any other.
The Bantu, then, are brown (not black), and have woolly hair, growing
continuously over the head, and not in separate tufts, like the Bushmen.
The nose is broad and somewhat flattened (but the last is by no means
invariably the case), and the lips thick, from being turned outward more
than they are in Europeans; but this, too, is not always very marked. The
hair is black, and the eyes generally dark brown, sometimes hazel.
The colour of the skin varies very much in different tribes, and even
in individuals of the same tribe. Sir Harry Johnston says: ‘There
are extremes met with in the individual members of a tribe, as well
as a general tendency to be detected in one tribe or another towards
greater average darkness or lightness of skin. As a rule, the negro of
British Central Africa is decidedly black, so far as any human skin is
really black—the nearest approach to actual black being a deep, dull
slaty-brown. I should say that the average skin-tint is ... a dark
chocolate.’
If I can trust my recollection of the Anyanja, they were many of them not
quite so dark as this; but in the Blantyre district they are intermixed
with the Yaos, who are described by the same writer as ‘probably the
lightest-tinted tribe’ in the region under review. The soles of the
feet and palms of the hands are always much lighter, and give a curious
impression, as if the colour had been washed out.
Among these Anyanja you find, chiefly on the River, tall,
broad-shouldered, finely built men, with well-developed muscles, though
rather smoother and more rounded in outline than an athletic European.
The Rev. H. Rowley, who saw them before the Yao invasion, describes the
Hill Mang’anja as smaller and poorer in physique than the River people,
and lays stress on their small jaws and weak mouths and chins. Their
physical inferiority and want of union among themselves fully account
for their subjugation. This writer also says: ‘In stature, the Mang’anja
were not a tall race, though you rarely met a little man.’ But tall
individuals are fairly common. The length of the arms is particularly
noticeable. Measurements show that very often the distance between the
finger-tips of the outstretched arms is considerably greater than the
height of the individual, whereas, in a well-proportioned European, they
are supposed to be equal.
The second type is that of the people usually, but erroneously called
‘Angoni,’ who live in the districts west of the Upper Shiré, and are
really Anyanja conquered by the Zulu Angoni and subject to their chiefs.
These are small, active, wiry men, usually rather dark. They sometimes
have good features and even, aquiline noses.
Here and there, among these last, you find yet a third kind, very tall
men, over six feet, but painfully lean and slender, and perhaps a shade
lighter in complexion than their neighbours. So far as it was possible
to trace the history of these men, they seemed to come from a distance;
but I will recur to this in a later chapter. I do not remember any women
of this type, though one of the men in question had two daughters,
slim, delicate-looking girls, who might have been like him when grown
up. One of them, a really pretty creature, died suddenly—I fancy of
consumption—aged, most likely, about fifteen or sixteen.
The description given by the writer already quoted will still serve
fairly well for a good many of the Anyanja:—
‘The forehead of the Mang’anja was high, narrow, but not retreating; and
now and then, among the chiefs and men in authority, you found a breadth
of brain not inferior to that of the best European heads. The nose,
though decidedly African, was not always unpleasantly flat or expansive;
occasionally you saw this feature as well formed as among the possessors
of the most approved nasal organs. The cheek-bones were not high; indeed,
they rarely interfered with the smooth contour of the face. The jaws were
small and not very prominent; the chin, however, was insignificant and
retreating. But the mouth was their worst feature.’
This requires some deductions, and Mr. Rowley goes on to qualify it in
the case of the River people, who, however, ‘had less amiability of
expression—indeed, many of them looked fiercely vile.’ Perhaps time had
mellowed them in this respect, for I cannot say I observed any lack of
amiability when I came on the scene some thirty years later; and I must
own that I cannot form a very clear idea of a man’s expression when
he looks ‘fiercely vile.’ A cast of countenance with which I am more
familiar is that of the ‘Angoni’ (= Anyanja).
The original home of the YAOS seems to be in the Unango Mountains,
between Lake Nyasa and the Mozambique coast. They were driven thence
by the encroachments of other tribes from the north, and forced into
the Shiré Highlands, where they partially displaced the population, but
in course of time settled down side by side with them. In 1893-4 the
villages surrounding the mission station at Blantyre were reckoned, some
as Yao and some as Nyanja; but a good deal of intermarriage had taken
place, and many of the present generation are Yao by the mother’s side,
and Nyanja by the father’s, or _vice versâ_. When this is the case, they
usually speak both languages. Even in the villages west of the Shiré,
where the people are supposed to be pure Nyanja, there were families
whose mothers were Yaos, brought back in the Angoni raids of 1880-1890.
Perhaps the appearance of the Yaos cannot be better described than by
the authority already quoted for the Anyanja. ‘Compare an ordinary
Mang’anja with an ordinary Ajawa man, and the latter was at once seen to
be physically the superior: his face was broader; his frontal development
more masculine; the organs of causality fuller; the perceptive faculties
larger; the jaws not more prominent, but more massive; the chin large and
well to the front; the mouth, though of full lip, shapely and expressive
of strength of will; while the eyes ... had a steadfastness and an
intensity of expression.... Compared with the Mang’anja, the Ajawa head
was large and round.... The Ajawa varied greatly in height. You saw men
not more than five feet two or three, and you saw others five feet eight
or ten.’
I should have said—but it is dangerous to make such statements without
actual measurements—that a good proportion of them were six feet and over.
The Yaos of some of the Ndirande villages used to have a great reputation
for strength and stature, and were much in request as machila-carriers.
A gang of them took me from Blantyre to Matope—forty miles, though,
it is true, most of the way is downhill—between 8 A.M. and sunset—say
6 P.M.; and I do not think I ever saw a finer set of men. They are
usually, as Mr. Rowley describes them, of square and sturdy build, even
in youth; but sometimes you see lithe and slender boys, graceful, and
at the same time full of fire and vivacity, like a spirited horse. The
Yao women, as a rule, are bigger and stouter than those of the Anyanja,
and are said to be not so good-looking. Personally, when I try to recall
individuals among both, I should find it hard to say that they were
typically different—one finds Yao girls with slender figures, and small,
neat features, as well as faces on a larger scale, which are by no means
unattractive. The younger woman in the illustration is, apart from the
_pelele_, by no means a favourable specimen.
[Illustration: TWO YAO WOMEN]
[Illustration: GROUP OF ANGURU: WOMEN WITH “PELELE”]
The ANGURU, or ALOLO, are a tribe belonging to the Makua group who
occupy the country inland from Mozambique. Some of them live in the
Mlanje district. The Lomwe country, which is entirely inhabited by them
(A-lomwe is either a synonym for Alolo, or the name of a tribe closely
allied to them), is west of Lake Chilwa. Some Alolo were, about forty
years ago, living at the back of Morambala. A correspondent tells me:
‘Anguru are localised on the east side of Shirwa round the Luasi hills,
and are a sort of mongrel lot, as these hills seem to have been a sort
of junction of Yao, when they were driven from the north, Lomwe driven
from the east, and Mang’anja, on the Shirwa shores.’ The Anguru speak a
dialect of Nyanja, the Alolo one of Makua, a language, as Father Torrend
points out, resembling Sechwana in several important particulars, in
which the intervening languages differ from both. The Lomwe country was
for many years harassed by slavers, and its people were continually at
war with one another—so much so that, in 1894, the villagers did not know
the names of hills more than a day’s journey from their own homes, and
travellers could not get guides except to the next village ahead of them.
Perhaps this state of things accounts for the comparatively poor physique
of the Alolo.
The BATUMBUKA. These are a set of people considered by Sir H. H. Johnston
as indigenous to the plateau west of Lake Nyasa, and including, besides
the Batumbuka proper, the Wapoka, Wahenga, and Atonga. These last live
along the western shore of the lake, to which they were driven by the
conquering Angoni, under Mombera. Father Torrend, however, supposes that
they are a branch of the Batonga on the Zambezi, whom he thinks ‘the
purest representatives of the original Bantu.’ In that case, they have
either disused or greatly changed their original language; that which
they now speak being closely allied to Tumbuka, Henga, and Poka, which
are virtually identical. The Atonga are well known at Blantyre, as they
are (or were some years ago) in the habit of coming down in gangs to
work in the plantations, or otherwise. They are usually tall, strongly
built men, with well-developed muscles, and (like the Alolo) very dark
skins.
The AWA-NKONDE, or Nkonde people (this is said by some to mean ‘people of
the plain’) live at the north end of Lake Nyasa—some of them in German
territory. They include the Awakukwe, Awawiwa, and several others,
whose names we need not enumerate. They are very dark, usually tall,
and sometimes described as extremely well shaped; but to judge by the
photographs reproduced by Sir H. H. Johnston and Dr. Fülleborn, a good
many of them would seem to have a tendency to bow-legs, and to be what
is called ‘in-kneed.’ The legs are also, in some cases, of excessive
length in proportion to the rest of the body. M. Edouard Foà[4] says that
the Awankonde are, on the whole, good-looking, and, both men and women,
‘plump and well-liking,’ in consequence, no doubt, of their diet, and the
pleasant, easy life they lead—now that they are no longer raided by Arabs
and others. They are, with the exception of the Angoni and Achewa, the
only people in the Protectorate who keep cattle to any great extent; and
they live chiefly on milk and bananas.
The ANGONI were originally a Zulu clan who came from the south, under
Zwangendaba, about 1825, and incorporated with themselves large numbers
of the tribes whom they conquered by the way, so that there are now few,
if any, of unmixed descent remaining. The ‘southern Angoni’—formerly
known as ‘Chekusi’s people’—are mostly Anyanja; but there were, in 1894,
a few head-men and others, besides Chekusi’s own family, who spoke Zulu,
and some of the elders wore the head-ring, but of a different pattern
from the Zulu _isigcoco_ (which is a smooth, round ring), being more
like a crown done in basket-work. The northern Angoni (Mombera’s people)
all speak Zulu, with considerable dialectic modifications, such as the
gradual elimination of the clicks, and the substitution of _r_ for _l_.
But their speech is quite intelligible to Zulus from the south. As
already stated, there is a great variety of types. The young warriors
introduced to me under the name of ‘Mandala’s boys’ (Mandala was the
brother of Chekusi or Chatantumba, at that time chief of the southern
Angoni) were big, swaggering, long-limbed fellows, somewhat vacant of
face, and, I think, somewhat lighter in colour than the sturdy little men
who went to work on the Blantyre plantations. But whether the difference
between them was a matter of race, or merely of an easier life and a
diet of beef, I would not venture to say; for these warriors must have
been, in part at least, recruited from the sons of the small, dark,
hard-working Anyanja, who lived on scanty rations of maize and millet
porridge in the Upper Shiré villages. These were always liable to have
their growing lads sent for ‘_ku mdzi_’—_i.e._ to the chief’s kraal in
the hills—where they had to herd Chekusi’s cattle, and, later on, entered
what we may call the ‘Life Guards.’
The history of the Angoni and their migrations will be considered in a
later chapter.
The Makololo of the Shiré valley, though they cannot be enumerated as a
separate tribe, have had no small influence on the affairs of the Shiré
valley tribes, and must not therefore be passed over without notice.
Their history will help to illustrate what I have already mentioned and
shall have to come back to later on—the ceaseless drifting backwards and
forwards, and consequent intermingling of the Bantu tribes, which has
gone on, more or less, ever since Europeans knew anything about them, and
may be compared with the movement which brought the Germanic peoples into
the Roman world, and for which we seem to have no compendious designation
equivalent to the German word _Völkerwanderung_. The original Makololo
were a Basuto tribe, driven from their home by the onslaughts of the
Matebele, about 1823. Under the name of ‘Mantatees,’[5] they spread
terror and desolation among the Griquas and Bechuana, and finally, under
the leadership of Sebituane, made their way northward and settled in the
Barotse valley on the Zambezi, where Livingstone visited them in 1851.
They had even then begun to incorporate with themselves the Barotse
and other darker tribes about them, and had introduced their language
into the country, where it is still spoken, though the Makololo were
expelled, after Sekeletu’s death, by Sipopo, one of the former line of
Barotse chiefs. Sekeletu, Sebituane’s son, furnished Livingstone with an
escort, when he left Linyanti for Loanda in 1853, and again when, after
his return from the West coast, he started down the Zambezi. These
Makololo (most of whom, however, belonged to the subject tribes—Baloi
and others) remained behind at Tete when Livingstone returned to
England; and though, when he came out again in 1858, he offered to take
them all back to Sekeletu’s, some preferred to stay where they were.
Some others, among whom was the well-known Ramakukane, came back with
him from Sesheke, after he had taken the rest home in 1860. In course
of time, having settled on the Shiré below the Cataracts, and married
women of the country, they became powerful chiefs, and, though somewhat
oppressive towards the Anyanja, they were a check on the Yao advance from
the east. One of these chiefs, Mlauri, is still living, and as active
as ever, in spite of age. Masea, whose village was on the west bank of
the Shiré, two or three miles below Katunga’s, died a few years ago. In
1893 he was still a very fine, vigorous old man, and his numerous family
of sons and daughters (some of them educated at the Mission) are mostly
noticeable for good looks and intelligence: they show their descent in
the lighter complexion. Livingstone says that Sebituane was ‘of an olive
or coffee-and-milk’ colour. As far as language and customs go, these
descendants of the Makololo are now completely merged in the Anyanja.
As we have seen, the breaking-up and absorption of one tribe by another
has gone on to such an extent that, though in some cases we might
confidently pronounce a man to be a Yao or a Nyanja from his build
and personal appearance generally, yet very often it would be quite
impossible. A surer criterion—though even that is nowadays beginning
to fail us—is that afforded by artificial deformations—such as the
filing and chipping, or even removal, of the teeth, the boring of noses,
lips, and ears for the insertion of ornaments, and the scarifying and
tatuing of the skin. These arts seem to be resorted to all the world
over by people who do not go in for much clothing—apparently on the
principle that the human face and figure need some modification in
order to differentiate them as such. If your teeth are not chipped, you
might as well be a dog—such, in general, seems to be the native line of
reasoning.
[Illustration: A MNGURU, SHOWING KELOIDS DOWN CENTRE OF CHEST]
The African knows nothing of tatuing proper, and the introduction of
colouring matter under the skin is hardly known. For the coloured designs
of Polynesia is substituted the raised scar. The process is very rough
and usually consists in making cuts which heal and leave ‘proud flesh’
(_keloid_) behind. Dr. Kerr Cross says: ‘The tissues of the negro seem
to have a tendency to take on a keloid growth. That is to say, the
cicatricial tissue grows large. If a native gets a cut, it becomes like a
tumour or a new growth. If he has been vaccinated, the mark rises up like
a two-shilling piece. If he tatus (_i.e._ scars) himself, the surface
becomes a series of little growths protruding above the general level of
the skin.’ But in case the natural tendency should not be enough, the
operator sometimes assists nature by pinching the lips of the cut away
from each other. Some tatu-marks (_mpini_, _konde_) are not raised much
above the level of the skin; they have a smooth surface and a dark-blue
colour, which blends well with the skin, and is produced by rubbing in
charcoal or wood-ash, and sometimes gunpowder. Formerly the various scars
always indicated the tribe to which a person belonged, and the children
were marked with the mother’s pattern; now the tribal marks are no longer
strictly kept to. The distinctive Yao tatu (called _mapalamba_) was two
rows of small cuts across the temples. Some have stars in dark blue on
the chest and elsewhere. I have seen them on Yaos, but do not know if
they are distinctive. The Nyanja women used to score long lines over
shoulders, chest, and back. The Lomwe tribes have various patterns—one a
crescent, turned downwards, just between the eyebrows, others a series
of from three to six crescents in the same position. The Alolo have a
mark on each side of the chest, consisting of a crescent turned up, and
two short, vertical cuts below it. The Makua make a line of cuts above
the eyes, deep enough to form ‘little pouches’ in which they keep snuff,
as I hear from Mr. J. Reid. Some tribes add dots all over the forehead,
and some, on the Zambezi, raise a line of small lumps down the middle of
the forehead. I have seen Yao women whose chests and shoulders seemed
to be covered with small marks like those left by ordinary vaccination;
and some seem to have the whole body more or less covered. Besides marks
intended for decoration, there are those caused by a favourite method of
treatment for various kinds of indisposition, viz., to make a cut and rub
in the juice of a herb, or some other form of ‘medicine’; and I remember
a poor girl, evidently suffering from a bad attack of influenza, who had
just had a series of these cuts made all down the inside of her arm.
I was once present at a discussion between a number of young people
(this kind of debate is called _mákani_, and is a recognised fireside
amusement) on the question whether ‘it is better to make holes in
one’s lips, like the Yaos, or in one’s ears, like the Angoni.’ The
_pelele_, which was referred to, was a Nyanja decoration, but is now
seen more frequently amongst Yao women. The upper lip is bored and a
bit of grass-stalk inserted into the hole, which at first is scarcely
larger than would be made by a stout darning-needle. After this has been
worn for some time—I have often seen girls of ten or twelve with it—a
slightly thicker one is inserted, and that, in time, again exchanged for
a thicker, till at last the hole is large enough to admit a small plug
of ivory, say a quarter of an inch across. The plug becomes larger and
larger, till a ring is substituted for it, which also grows in size,
with the wearer’s advance in years, till you see matrons wearing one
like an ordinary napkin-ring. It seemed to me, however, that there was a
tendency to stop short at the earlier stages, as I remember quite elderly
women, with only a moderate plug. The Alolo women, not content with the
_pelele_, wear a brass nail, two or three inches long, in the lower lip
as well. Certainly, as far as personal preference went, I was inclined to
side with the Angoni in the _mákani_ above alluded to.
The favourite ear ornaments are a kind of conical stud, ornamented in
patterns with beads. They are quite small, and do not distend the lobe of
the ear much. I think they are considered by natives to be a speciality
of the Angoni. I have once or twice seen young warriors wearing in their
ears ornaments about the length of one’s finger, which may have been very
diminutive tusks of the bush-pig (_nguluwe_), or perhaps the teeth of
some other animal. Both sexes have the ears bored. I have seen girls who
had only recently had it done, wearing a flower stuck in the hole.
A style of ornament for the ear which I have only met with once was that
of a woman at Mlanje, from Matapwiri’s (on the Portuguese border), who
had her ears pierced with a series of holes in the _outer_ edge of the
cartilage, and loops of white beads strung through them. She probably
belonged to the Alolo, or some other tribe of Makua. Some Yao and Makua
women wear a stud (_chipini_) of lead or some other metal in the side of
the nose.
As to the teeth, it was a standing wonder to me that the way they were
treated did not ruin them entirely; but it does not seem as if chipped
teeth decayed any more readily than whole ones. Naturally, as most
travellers have reported, natives usually have splendid teeth; though Dr.
Fülleborn, in his observations on tribes at the north end of Lake Nyasa,
says he found a considerable percentage of people with decayed teeth. I
have come across one or two cases of toothache myself, but should say
that, on the whole, there is no need to revise the general opinion.
The Yaos chip the edge of the four upper front teeth into saw-like
points. This is usually done to boys and girls at about fifteen or
sixteen. I never saw the operation performed, but fancy that a mallet
and chisel are the instruments used. They are brought up to face the
prospect, I suppose, and seem to contemplate it with more equanimity than
most of us do going to the dentist. The Mambwe (on the Nyasa Tanganyika
plateau) have the two middle teeth of the lower jaw removed. One of them
told M. Foà that they were knocked out with an axe, adding ‘it is very
quickly done!’
A triangular gap between the two upper front teeth is made by different
tribes—the Anyika[6] of North-west Nyasa being one. I have a note of a
man whose teeth had been chipped in this way, and whom I understand to
have been a Yao; but, as he had gone to Zanzibar early in life (‘I do not
know how—probably through slavery,’ said my English-speaking informant),
there may have been some irregularity about his teeth.
Some of the Makua tribes file each separate tooth to a point (as shown
in the fourth example of our illustration); this is also done by the
Basenga, and, I believe, other tribes near the Luangwa. The Batonga
knock out the upper front teeth—or did so, in Livingstone’s time. ‘When
questioned respecting the origin of this practice, the Batoka reply that
their object is to be like oxen, and those who retain their teeth they
consider to resemble zebras.’ As the Batonga venerate the ox and detest
the zebra, we have here, what is absent elsewhere, some sort of a clue
to a connection between this custom and the people’s religious beliefs.
Livingstone further points out that the knocking out of the teeth is of
the nature of a solemn ceremony, without which no young people can be
considered grown up.
[Illustration: FASHIONS IN TOOTH-CHIPPING
1. Makua; 2 and 4. Yao; 3. Anyika and other North-end Tribes]
Fashions in hairdressing, though not precisely of the same kind with the
adornments just enumerated, may perhaps best be considered here. Most
natives, I fancy, would look on a person who let his or her hair grow
without doing anything to it (unless in mourning, or otherwise debarred
from ordinary social intercourse) as little better than a wild beast. The
usual thing among the Yaos and Anyanja is to shave the head from time to
time for the sake of coolness and cleanliness, never letting the hair
grow more than an inch or two in length. This is often clipped and shaved
into all sorts of patterns. A favourite one for little girls is to have
two bands shaved diagonally across the head, from the left temple to the
back of the right ear. Sometimes a ridge or crest is left, running along
the middle of the head, from front to back, and then clipped into points
like a cock’s comb; or some young men, while shaving the back of the
head, leave the hair an inch or two long over the brow, like a coronet.
The Angoni are very fond of the long pigtails called _minzu_; these
are not plaited, but very neatly and tightly rolled round with twisted
palm-fibre, fastened off at the ends. The most popular fashion used to
be to have these arranged in a line (like the crest already referred
to), forming a kind of lateral halo, if such a thing were possible. The
dandy with _minzu_ nine or ten inches long is a proud youth indeed. It
is a quaint spectacle to see such an one seated on the ground and a
chum squatting beside him, doing his hair. But the caprices of fashion
are endless. The illustration shows another style of coiffure worn by a
Mngoni, who may have evolved it out of his own inner consciousness, or
borrowed it, directly or indirectly, from the Bashukulumbwe of the Kafue.
As many Angoni have of late years travelled overland to Salisbury and
even farther south, to work in the mines or otherwise, it is possible
that the subject of the picture may have seen his model for himself in
the course of his wanderings.
Referring back to the picture of the Mnguru already given, we find that
he wears his hair fairly long and divided into strands, with beads tied
to the ends of them. Now and again we see a Yao woman (but I think
the fashion is not confined to any particular tribe; it is not very
extensively followed, comparative wealth, leisure, and one or more
skilled assistants being necessary) with what looks like a wig of red
beads. This is made by stringing on every few hairs the beads known as
_chitalaka_, which are like red coral, and white inside. How long it
takes to complete the dressing of a head in this way, I have no notion;
but African women possess an almost unlimited capacity for passive
endurance. A pretty variant of this is sometimes seen in little girls who
have a few loops of chitalaka strung to the hair on the top of the head,
adding a touch of bright colour and no suggestion of discomfort. Some of
the Atonga shave the hair all round, leaving a patch on the top of the
scalp, which they plait into small tails.
[Illustration: 2. WOMEN MAKING PORRIDGE IN AN (IMPORTED) IRON POT
The one on the left takes out a handful and moulds it into shape to add
to the pile on the basket (p. 136)
1. EXCEPTIONAL COIFFURE OF MNGONI]
[Illustration: THE PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION!]
Dress, which is a comparatively simple matter, apart from the singlets,
shirts, and other garments of European introduction, may be reserved
for another chapter which deals with native life from the cradle to the
grave.