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, has 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 others 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 incapacity
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 ranges 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 every 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 no 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.
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. 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 Wawas 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. Bowdich[41] 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. 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-ring 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 offers 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 of
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.
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.
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. Being 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.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Captain Stokes’s ‘Discoveries in Australia.’
[2] ‘Narrative of Missionary Enterprise in the South Sea Islands,’ p.
390.
[3] Though frequently confounded, even by the Peruvian Creoles, the
western chain, running parallel with the coast of the Pacific, is
properly the Cordillera, while the eastern chain, which generally runs
in the same direction as the former, has always been named the Andes by
the Indian natives.
[4] It is only in the Old World that the reindeer has ever been
domesticated.
[5] For a more detailed account of the Peruvian Guano Islands, see ‘The
Sea and its Living Wonders.’ Second Edition, pp. 144, 147.
[6] ‘The Sea and its Living Wonders.’ Second Edition, p. 41.
[7] Ibid, p. 40.
[8] ‘The Sea and its Living Wonders,’ p. 195.
[9] ‘The Subterranean World.’ Second Edition, p. 306.
[10] Whoever has read Rückert’s wonderful translation of ‘The Makamas
of Hariri’ will be able to form some opinion of the richness of the
Arabic and at the same time admire the exuberant treasures of the
German tongue.
[11] D’Escayrac, ‘Le Désert et le Soudan.’
[12] Forbes’s ‘Oriental Memoirs.’
[13] Tennent’s ‘Ceylon,’ vol. ii. pp. 614, 618.
[14] ‘Wanderings,’ p. 5.
[15] ‘Himalayan Journals,’ vol. i. p. 146.
[16] See Chapter III.
[17] Tennent’s ‘Ceylon,’ vol. ii. p. 523.
[18] The northern part of the new continent had been visited and
colonized centuries before by the mariners of Iceland. For an account
of this discovery, see ‘The Sea and its Living Wonders,’ second
edition, p. 362.
[19] Tennant’s ‘Ceylon,’ vol. ii. p. 234.
[20] ‘The Sea and its Living Wonders,’ ch. xx.
[21] ‘Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes,’ London 1848, vol. i.
p. 214.
[22] Kirby and Spence’s ‘Introduction to Entomology;’ Swainson’s
‘Habits and Instincts of Animals.’
[23] Junghuhn, ‘Die Battaländer.’ Berlin, 1847.
[24] ‘Jamaica Almanac,’ 1843.
[25] Spix and Martius, ‘Reisen in Brasilien.’
[26] Sir E. Tennent’s ‘Ceylon,’ vol. i. p. 193.
[27] At the time of Mr. Darwin’s visit an attempt, since given up, had
been made to colonise the islands, which are once more only tenanted by
casual adventurers, and may be well called _uninhabited_.
[28] For more ample details on the Marine Chelonians, see chap. ix. of
‘The Sea and its Living Wonders.’
[29] Forbes’ ‘Oriental Memories,’ vol. i. p. 357.
[30] ‘Discoveries in Australia.’
[31] ‘Reiseskizzen aus Nord-Öst-Afrika.’
[32] Baker’s ‘Eight Years’ Wanderings in Ceylon,’ vol i. p. 167.
[33] ‘The Sea and its Living Wonders,’ p. 139.
[34] A. Adams. ‘Notes of the Natural History of the Islands of the
Eastern Archipelago. Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Samarang.’
[35] ‘The Sea and its Living Wonders,’ p. 119.
[36] Words of the ‘Koran.’
[37] Sir James Emerson Tennent: ‘Ceylon,’ vol. ii. p. 288. Fourth
Edition.
[38] Tennent’s ‘Ceylon,’ vol. ii. pp. 336–340.
[39] ‘The Sea and its Living Wonders,’ p. 154.
[40] Quarterly Review, 1855, p. 22.
[41] Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, 1819.
[42] Sir Bartle Frere’s mission gives us reason to hope that better
days are in store for the unfortunate East Africans.
INDEX.
Aard-varks, or earth hogs (Orycteropi), 488
Abies Brunoniana of the slopes of Sikkim, 83
---- Webbiana of the slopes of Sikkim, 83
Abrus precatoria, spider called the, 213
Abyssinia, the tsalt-salya or zimb of, 230
Acacia latronùm, thorns of the, 144
Aden, coffee first introduced into, 170
Adjutant bird, 303
---- his destruction of reptiles, 303
Africa, timber of the eastern coast-lands of, 6
---- influence of the heated plains of, in deflecting the trade-winds, 8
---- gigantic trees of, 120 _et seq._
---- reason why droughts are prevalent in, 85
---- bushmen of, 85
---- animals of, 88
African mode of life, 531
Agades, tower in, 93
Agave Americana, 81, 132
---- its uses, 133
Air-currents, their effects in the equatorial regions, 4
---- the trade-winds, 4, 5
---- polar and equatorial air-currents, 1
Aïs, the, 497
Albatross, the, compared with the condor, 378
---- avoids the torrid zone, 267
Alexander the Great, said to have introduced the peacock into Europe, 360
Algeria, domestication of the ostrich in, 388
Alligators, torpor of, of the Amazons river, 46
---- the caymen, of the New World, 333
---- mode of seizing their prey, 334
---- their voice, 334
---- their conflicts among themselves, 335
---- their preference for human flesh, 334
Alligators, their tenacity of life, 335
---- their tenderness for their young, 336
---- their friends and enemies, 339
Allspice, 204.
_See_ Pimento
Aloes, the, of the torrid zone, 132
Alpaca, value of its wool, 23
---- herds of, in the high table-lands of Peru and Bolivia, 25
Altos of the Puna, 28
Aluate, or howling monkey, 512
Amazonian parrot (Psittacus Amazonicus), 396
Amazons, or Marañon, river
---- ---- ---- source of, 36
---- ---- ---- its length, width, and course, 36
---- ---- ---- its tributaries, 37
---- ---- ---- rapids and cataracts of the, 36
---- ---- called the Solimoens from the Brazilian frontier to the
influx of the Rio Negro, 37
---- ---- ---- its unfathomable depth at the Strait of Obydos, 37
---- ---- ---- its tide-waves, 38
---- ---- ---- its width below Gurupa, 38
---- ---- ---- and when it reaches the ocean, 38
---- ---- ---- imperfect knowledge of the river, 39
---- ---- ---- extent of territory drained by the Amazons, 40
---- ---- ---- its colossal rise, 40
---- ---- ---- lagunes of the, and their beautiful scenery, 41
---- ---- ---- different character of the forests beyond and within
the verge of the inundation of the river, 42
---- ---- ---- a sail on the river, and a night’s encampment, 43
---- ---- ---- the yacu-mama, or ‘mother of the waters,’ 44
Amazons, the voracious pirangas, 45
---- ---- ---- mosquitoes of the, 45
---- ---- ---- beds of aquatic grass on the, 45
---- ---- ---- birds on the, 46
---- ---- ---- insects of the, 46
---- ---- ---- storms on the river, 47
---- ---- ---- rapids and whirlpool, 47
---- ---- ---- the Amazons regarded as the stream of the future, 49
---- ---- ---- discovery of the Amazons by Vincent Yañez Pinson, 50
---- ---- ---- adventures of Pizarro and Madame Godin on the, 50–52
---- ---- ---- primitive forests of the banks of the Amazons, 53
---- ---- ---- the mosquito plagues of, 222
---- ---- ---- orange-red colouring matter used by the Indians of
the, 195
America, growth of cotton in, 189, 190
---- insect plagues of, 221
---- snakes of the United States of, 316
---- South, influence of the Marañon on the climate of the, 5
---- Central, deflections from the ordinary course of the trade-winds
in, 8
---- savannahs of, 12
---- a savannah on fire, 14
---- cultivation of maize in, 165
---- primitive forests of, 54
Amsterdam, a spice-fire in, 200
Anaconda, or water-boa (Eunectes murinus), 301
Anarajapoora, sacred Bo tree of, 127
Anderson, Mr., his adventure with a rhinoceros, 428
---- and with a lion, 449
Angola, red ant of, 235
Anolis, the, 310, 312
---- battles of the, 312
---- faculty of changing colour, 313
Anomaluri, the, of the west coast of Africa, 495
Ant-eaters, 482
---- the great ant-bear, 482
---- his mode of licking up termites, 483
---- his characteristics, 483
---- Indian mode of killing him, 484
---- the manides, or pangolins, 485
---- the Aard-varks, or orycteropi, 486
---- the porcupine ant-eater, 488
Antelopes of South Africa, 408
---- cervicapra, 412
Antonio Julian, Don, regrets that the use of coca had not been
introduced into Europe, 187
Ants, their ravages in sugar plantations, 177
Ants, vast numbers of, in tropical countries, 234
---- excruciating pain caused by the bite of the Ponera clavata, 235
---- the red ant of Angola, 235
---- the sugar ants, 236
---- house ants, 237
---- driver or foraging ants, 238
---- societies of ants, 239
---- fungus ants, 239
---- Formica bispinosa, 239
---- ant-hills, 240
---- sagacity of ants, 240
---- slave-making expeditions of some kinds of ants, 240
---- the honey ant of Mexico, 240
---- termites, or white ants, 241.
_See_ Termites
---- black ants, 246
---- wars between black and white ants, 246
Apes, anthropomorphous, compared and contrasted with man, 498
Arabia, coffee first introduced into, 178
---- mode of cultivating coffee in, 179
Arabic tongue, delicacy of the, 118
Arandi (Bombyx Cynthia), soft threads spun by the, 249
Araneæ of the tropics, 211
Aras of America (Macrocerus Macao), the, 398
Arauca, Rio, mosquitoes of, 233
Archipelago, the Eastern, bamboos of 130
---- ---- screw pine of the, 133
---- the Mulgrave, importance of the screw pine to the inhabitants
of, 133
Areca palm (Areca Catechu), the, 151, 162
---- Singhalese habit of chewing the nuts with lime and betel-pepper
leaves, 151
Areca sapida of New Zealand, 160
Armadillos, the, 487
---- of the sand-coast of Peru, 34
---- genera of the Armadillos, 487
Arnatto (Bixa orellana), used as a dye, 195
Arnee (Bubalus arnee), 413
---- uses of, 196
Arrack made from the cocoa-nut tree, 148
Arrowroot, from what obtained, 170
---- mode of obtaining it, 170, 171
Artocarpus incisa, or bread-fruit tree, 166
Ascension, turtles of the island of, 328
Ashantee, human sacrifices at, 526
Asp of ancient authors, 300
Atlantic, limits of the trade-winds in the Northern, 4, 5
Atlas mountains, ephemeral streams of the, 70
---- ---- the lions of the, 477
Atlas-moth, cinnamon-eating, of Ceylon, 207
Atro, or Ben Israel of Abyssinia (Cephalopus hemprichii), 410
Aturas, extinct tribe of the, 72
---- their graves, 72
Australians, physical conformation of the, 466
---- their low state of civilisation, 467
---- their languages, 467
---- their superstitions, 467, 468
---- their dances, 469
---- their family names and family kobongs, or badges, 470
---- their ceremony of marriage, 470
---- their blood feuds, 470
---- their savage customs, 470
---- their food, 470
---- their division of property, 471
---- their punishments, 471
---- laws for the preservation and distribution of food, 472
---- their respect for age, 472
---- their hunts, 473
---- their dexterity in fishing, 474
---- their hospitality and feasts, 475
---- not guilty of cannibalism, 476
---- their throwing-stick and boomerang, 476
---- their moral qualities, 476
Baboons, 510
Baboon, the great, of Senegal, 510
Bacha, the (Falco bacha), 382
Bactrian camel, 401
Bahama Islands, mode of catching turtles on the, 328
Bahia toad, 319
Bakalahari, the, of the Kalahari, 86–91
---- their love for agriculture and domestic animals, 91
---- their timidity, 92
---- fur of their animals, 92
Balagnini of the vicinity of Sooloo, 256
Balistinæ, 272
Baltimore bird (Icterus Baltimore), 352
---- ---- nest of the, 353
Bamboos (Bambusaceæ) of the tropics, 130
---- variety of uses to which they are applied, 130
Bambusaceæ, the, of the tropics, 130
---- rapidity of their growth, 130
Banana (Musa sapientum), its importance as food, 167, 168
Banana (Musa sapientum), and of the Saüba ant, 236
Banda, nutmeg trees of, 199, 200
Banyan tree (Ficus indica), 124, 125
---- ---- fondness of the Hindoos for it, 125
Baobab, African, or monkey-bread tree (Adansonia digitata), 120, 121
---- ---- immense specimens of, 121
---- ---- used as a vegetable cistern, 122
---- ---- its age, 122
Barbasco (Jacquinia armillaris), used for catching fish, 66
Barima river, the Upper, gigantic trees of, 130
Basilisk, the, 318
Bats of tropical forests, 490, 491
---- organisation of, 491
---- the kalongs, or fox-bats, of Java, 491
---- the vampire, 492
---- the Rhinolophi, or horse-shoe bats, 493
---- the Scotophilis Coromandelicus of Ceylon, 494
Battas, a Malay tribe, 259
‘Bay of the Thousand Isles,’ 38
Baya birds of Hindostan, their nests, 367
Bear, the cocoa-nut (Ursus malayanus), 149
Bechuanas, their love for agriculture and domestic animals, 91
---- their mode of drawing water, 91
Bedouins, personal appearance of the, 105
---- their love of solitude, 107
---- acuteness of their senses, 107
---- their manners, 108
---- their patriotism, 108
---- song of Maysunah, 109
---- traits of their character, 109
---- ferocity of their life, 110
---- their women, 110
---- their chivalrous spirit, 111
---- story of the Caliph El Mutasen, 111
---- horses of the Arabs, 111, 112
---- camels of the, 113
---- ---- the instrument of lasting freedom, 113
---- encampments of the Bedouins, 115
---- quarrels among them, 115
---- murders among them, 116
---- their amusements, 116, 117
---- their hospitality and accomplishments, 118
---- delicacy of the Arabic tongue, 118
---- manners and habits of the Bedouins, 119
---- their religious character, 119
---- their similarity to the North American Indians, 119
Beetles of the Amazons, 46
---- of the tropical forests, 46
---- edible, of the Oreodoxa oleracea, 159
---- peculiarity of beetle-life in the torrid zone, 206
---- the Hercules beetle (Megasomina Hercules), 206
---- Goliath, of the tropics, 206
---- the Goliaths of the coast of Guinea, 206
---- luminous beetles, 210
---- ---- cocujas of South America, 210
Begus, or evil spirits, of the Malays, 260
Behemoth of the Bible, 417
Bell-bird, or campanero, 350
Bengal, indigo of, 192, 193
Berbice river, the Victoria Regia discovered in the, 137
Bête rouge, the, of Guiana and the West Indies, 227
Bhain (Bubalus Bhain), 414
Biledulgerid, or oases south of the Atlas, toddy drunk in, 155
Birds of the Puna, or high table-lands of tropical America, 28, 34
---- of the tropical seas, 267, 268
---- of prey of the tropics, 376
Birds’-nests, edible, 269
Black ants, 246
Blast, a sugar-cane disease, 177
Blattæ, 233
Blatta gigantea, or the drummer, 233
Bo tree, or pippul, of India (Ficus religiosa), 126
---- ---- antiquity of one at Anarajapoora, in Ceylon, 126
---- ---- veneration of the Buddhists for it, 127
---- ---- union of the Bo tree with the Palmyra palm, 137
Boa constrictor, 301
---- ---- his habitat, 301
---- ---- the water, 301
---- ---- his habitat, 302
Boaquira (Crotalus horridus), 298
Bogota, perennial rainy seasons of, 6
Bombax Ceiba, 139
Bombay, heavy fall of rain at, 8
Bombyx cynthia, 249
---- mori, 249
---- mylitta, 249
Bonny, mode of providing for the wants of the dead at, 527
---- the town of, 529, 530
Boomerang of the Australian savage,476
Botocudo Indians, 62
Botocudos Indians, 77
Bottle tree of tropical Australia, 139
Botuto, or holy trumpet, of the South American Indians, 70
Bourbon, nutmegs of, 201
Bow Island. _See_ Hau
Brazil, impenetrable forests of, 55
---- sensitive plants of, 135
---- the bushropes or lianas of, 135
---- immense number of beetles found in, 210
---- the bush-master of, 297
---- the giant-toad of, 320
---- tree-frog of, 320
---- birds of, 347
---- humming-birds of, 347
---- wood (Cæsalpina crista), description of the tree producing, 195
Brazilian nut (Bertholletia), 145
Bread-fruit tree (Artocarpus incisa) of Polynesia, 166
---- ---- ---- the harvest, 166
---- ---- ---- the sour paste, 167
Bromelids, American, 132
---- uses of the, 132
Buddhists, their veneration for the sacred Bo tree at Anarajapoora, 127
Buffalo, the African (Bubalus Caffer), his guardian bird, 442
---- ferocity of the, 413
Buffalo-thorn (Acacia latronùm), thorns of the, 144
Buffaloes, ferocity of the male solitaires of the, 413
Bulls, wild, of the Puna mountain valleys, 28
Buprestis gigas, elytra of the, worn as an ornament, 252
Bushmen, African, 88
---- their habitat, 88
---- their weapons, 89
---- their treatment of the Bakalahari, 92
Bush-master snake (Lachesis rhombeata), 297
Bushropes, or lianas, of tropical vegetation, 135
Cabbage-palm of the Antilles (Oreodoxa oleracea), its magnificence, 159
---- ---- grub of the, 159
Cabeza di Negro (Phytelephas), hard white nuts of the, 160
Cacao tree (Cacao theobroma), 182
---- ---- origin of the name of theobroma, 182
---- ---- indigenous in Mexico, 182
---- ---- Humboldt’s description of a cacao plantation, 182
---- ---- mode of cultivation, 183
---- ---- management of the beans, 183
---- ---- used in the form of chocolate, 183
Cactuses, description of the, 133
---- their usefulness to man, 133
Cactuses did not exist in the Old World previous to the discovery of
America, 134
---- range of their growth, 134
---- of Peru and Bolivia, 134
---- of the Puna, 134
Cæsalpina crista, 195
Caffa and Enarea, the original home of the coffee plant, 178
Calabar, New and Old, palm-oil trade of, 146
Calao, or rhinoceros horn-bill (Buceros rhinoceros), 358
Calcutta, heavy fall of rain in, 18
Californian firs, size of the, 159
Calms, zone of, 6
---- intense heat of the, 6
---- heavy afternoon rains of the, 6
Camel, its resemblance to the ostrich, 387
---- the dromedary the ship of the desert, 399
---- adaptation of its organisation to its mode of life, 400
---- Bedouin mode of training it, 400
---- the Bactrian camel, 401
---- immemorial slavery of the camel, 401
---- its unamiable character, 402
Camelopard. _See_ Giraffe
Campanero, or bell-bird, 350
Canary Islands, gigantic dragon-trees of the, 123
Canis Ingæ of the Punas, 28
Caoutchouc tree (Siphonia elastica), Indians incising some
of them, 188
---- ---- description of the tree, 190
---- ---- introduction of caoutchouc into Europe, 190
---- ---- mode of collecting the resin, 190
---- ---- other trees yielding caoutchouc, 191
---- ---- various uses of India-rubber, 191
Caouana, or loggerhead turtle (Chelonia caouana), 331
Capybara, or water-pig, eaten by the alligator, 333
Caribs, 76
Caracara eagle (Polyborus caracara), his station, 246
Cardinal bird of Mexico, 80
Carinaria vitrea, the, 274
Carnauba palm (Corypha cerifera), wax obtained from the, 158
---- ---- other uses of the tree, 158
Caroa (Bromelia variegata), fishing-nets made from the fibres of the, 132
Caroline Islanders, 289
Cassava, or Mandioca root (Jatropha Manihot), how prepared
as food, 169
Cassava, the sweet cassava (Jatropha janipha), 170
Cassicus cristatus, 354
---- ruber, 354
---- persicus, 354
Cassiques, the, 354
---- their pendulous nests, 354
Cassowary, the galeated (Casuarius galeatus), 390, 391
Caterpillars, eaten by man in Africa, 251
---- their means of defence, 209
Cayman. _See_ Alligator
Cecropias, of the Amazons river, 45
Ceiba (Bombax ceiba), the, of the forests of Yucatan, 128
Cephalopods, gigantic, 274
Cerastes, or horned viper, of the Egyptian jugglers, 301
Cercopitheci, their characteristics, 505
---- parental affection of one, 507
Ceroxylon andicola, wax obtained from the, 159
---- height at which it will grow, 159, 160
Ceylon, abundance of the cocoa-nut tree in, 146, 147
---- its love of the sea, 146
---- the tree, and its fruit and flowers, 147
---- cocoa-nut oil trade of, 148
---- coir of the, 148
---- palmyra toddy of, 148
---- wood of the cocoa-nut tree, uses for it, 149
---- enemies of the, 149
---- cultivation of rice in, 164
---- the coffee cultivation of, 180
---- cinnamon gardens of, 198
---- ---- taken by the Dutch, who save the plants, 198
---- former profits of the Dutch, 198
---- dimensions of the atlas moth of, 207
---- Mr. Stewart’s plantation at Ceylon, 199
---- nutmegs of, 202
---- snakes of, 209
---- comparative rareness of venomous snakes in, 209
---- the rat-snake and cobra domesticated in, 308
---- barbarous mode of selling turtle-flesh in, 330
---- birds of, 374
---- elephants of, 440
---- elephant-catchers of, 440
Chacma, or pig-faced baboon (Cynocephalus porcarius), 510
Chalias, the, of Ceylon, and their supply of cinnamon, 198
Chamærops humilis, of Nizza, 160
Chameleon, the, 313
---- its habitat, 313
---- its manner of hunting for its food, 313
---- peculiarities of its organisation, 314
Chancay, sand-hills of, 35
Cheetah, or hunting leopard, 446
Chegoe, Pique, or Jigger, of the West Indies (Pulex penetrans), 225
---- its mode of working, 225
---- native method of extirpating it, 225
Chelonia imbricata, 329, 331
---- midas, 329
---- caouana, 331
Chelonians, 321
Chimpanzee, the (Simia troglodytes), 499
---- chim in Paris, 499
Chincha, or Guano Islands, 35
Chinchilla lanigera, the, of the high table-lands of Peru, 27
---- ---- its appearance and habits, 27
Chirimoya (Anona tripetala), a Peruvian fruit, 172
Choco of Chili, 160
Chocolate, 183
Chuñu, or chaps, caused by the biting winds of the Puna, 21
Cicadæ, or frog-hoppers, eaten by man, 252
Cilgero bird of Cuba, his song, 356
Cinnamon plant, 198
---- gardens of Ceylon, 198
---- immense profits of the Dutch, 198
---- decline of the trade, 198
---- mode of cultivating the plant and procuring the rind, 199
---- the Ceylon chalias, 198
Cleopatra, her death, 300
Climates, diversity of, within the tropics, 1
---- causes by which the diversity of, is produced, 2
---- varieties of the tropical, 3
---- climate of the Llanos of Venezuela and New Granada, 11
---- of the Puna or high table-lands of Peru and Bolivia, 20
Cloves, history of the cruel monopoly of the Dutch in, 200
---- clove-tree groves, 201
Coary river, a tributary of the Amazons, 37
Coatimondi, the, 499
Cobra di Capello, the, 298, 299
---- tamed by the Indian jugglers, 299
---- its habitat, 300
---- its sea voyages, 300
Coca (Erythroxylon coca), 184
Coca, its immense consumption in Peru and Bolivia, 184
---- mode of preparing it by the Indians, 185
---- its wonderfully strengthening effects, 186
---- use of, in ascending mountains, 186
---- fatal consequences of its abuse, 186
---- the coquero, or confirmed coca-chewer, 186
---- divine honours paid to the shrub by the Peruvians, 187
---- its use interdicted by the Spanish conquerors, but finally
allowed and encouraged, 187
---- its remarkable properties long remained unnoticed, 187
Cocci, the cochineal coccus of Mexico, 249, 250
Coccus cacti, 250
---- hesperidum of Mexico, 249
---- lacca, or lac-insect, 249, 251
---- of the coffee tree, 182
Cochineal insect, exportation of, forbidden by the Spaniards
in Mexico, 250
---- ---- introduced into the Canary Islands, Spain, and other
places, 251
---- ---- cultivation of the, 250
---- ---- history of cochineal, 250
Cock of the Rock of Guiana (Rupicola aurantia), 351
Cockatoo, the, 396
---- the great white, 396
---- the black of Australia, 396
---- cockatoo-killing in Australia, 396
Cockroaches (Blattæ), tropical plague of, introduced into England, 233
---- the giant cockroach of the tropics (Blatta gigantea), 233
---- encounter between a spider and a cockroach, 218
Cocoa-nut tree (Cocos nucifera), the 146
---- ---- ---- its abundance in Ceylon, 146
---- ---- ---- its many uses to man, 147
---- ---- ---- cocoa-nut oil and the oil trade, 148
---- ---- ---- toddy made from the, 148
---- ---- ---- timber of the, 148, 149
---- ---- ---- cultivation of the, 149
---- ---- ---- enemies of the, 149
Cocos nucifera, the, 146. _See_ Cocoa-nut tree
---- butyracea, or oil palm-tree of West Africa, 158
Cocujas beetle of South America, its luminous qualities, 210
Coffee, original home of the plant, 178
Coffee, the use of, introduced into Arabia, 178
---- history of coffee-drinking, 179
---- the first coffee-houses in London and Paris, 179
---- present state of coffee production throughout the world, 179, 180
---- Brazil, Java, Ceylon, Hayti, and Venezuela, 180
---- Mocha coffee, its quality, 180
---- mode of cultivation of the coffee-tree, 180
---- coffee plantations, 180
---- felling trees for coffee plantations in Ceylon, 181
---- enemies of the coffee-tree, 180
Coir, or cocoa-nut fibre, uses to which it is applied, 148
Colobi, the African, 505
Colombo, cinnamon gardens of, 198
Condamine, M. La, his voyage from Brancamoros to Para, 52
---- introduces caoutchouc into Europe, 190
Condor, the, of the high table-lands of tropical America, 28, 377
---- his marvellous flight, 377
---- his food, 377
---- modes of capturing him, 377, 378
---- compared with the albatross, 378
Coniferæ of the slopes of the Sikkim mountains, 83
Copris hamadryas, size of the, 205, 206
Convolvulus batatas, or sweet potato, 170
Coot, the gigantic (Fulica gigantea), of tropical America, 28
Coppersmith bird of Ceylon (Megalasara Indica), 373
Coral islands, 266
---- formation of, 275
---- dreary monotony of a coral islander’s life, 289
Coral-snake (Elaps corallinus), domesticated in Brazil, 308
Coriaceous turtle (Sphargis coriacea), 330
Corozo palm (Elæis oleifera), oil of the, 159
Corribory of the Australians, 469
Cotingas, the, 350
Cotton, 189
---- cultivation of, 189
---- amazing rise of the cotton manufacture, 189
---- the cotton harvest, 190
---- the cotton trade of India, present and prospective, 190 _et seq._
Couguar, or puma, the, 462
---- shown by the Peruvian Indians, 463
Counacutchi, or bush-master snake (Lachesis rhombeata), 297
Crab, land, 272, 273
---- their burrows, 273
---- their mode of defence, 274
Crabs, fighting, 274
---- injuries done by, to the sugar-cane, 177
---- short-tailed, 272
---- of the tropical seas, 272
Crauata de rede (Bromelia sagenaria), cordage made from the, 132
Cray-fish, 272
Creeping plants, their importance in the deserts of South Africa, 64
Crocodiles of the banks of the Amazons, 45
---- their torpidity, 332, 340
---- food of the, 338
---- their friend, the Hyas Ægyptiacus, 339
---- fables as to the ichneumon, 339
---- their power of fascinating their prey, 340
---- their wanderings, 340
---- anecdote of one in Ceylon, 341
---- their habitat, 337
Crotalus horridus, 298
---- durissus, 298
Crustaceans of the tropics, 272
---- decapod, 272
Cucurito palm, splendour of the, 161
Cynocephali, 509
Cynocephalus porcarius, 510
---- sphinx, 510
Cypræa aurora, 274
Dahomey, human sacrifices at, 526
Damara Land, reason why droughts are prevalent in, 86
Dampier, the bread-fruit first mentioned by, 167
---- his account of logwood-cutting and logwood-cutters, 194, 195
---- his love for the free life of wood-cutters, 195
---- attacked by a Guinea worm, 250
Date-palm (Phœnix dactylifera), 154
---- ---- range of its cultivation, 155
---- ---- introduced into Spain and Italy, 155
---- ---- mode of propagation, 155
---- ---- sanctity of the tree, 155
---- ---- toddy of the, 155
---- ---- varieties of dates, 156
Decomposition arrested by sand and the winds of the Punas, 25
Delabechea, or bottle-tree, of tropical Australia, 138, 139
Delebl palms of Kordofan, 158
Demerara, the goatsucker of, 355
Demoiselle, or Numidian crane (Grus virgo), 362
---- the crowned, 362
Derryas, the (Cynocephalus hamadryas), formerly regarded with divine
honours, 510
Desert, the ship of the. _See_ Camel
Dew, causes of, 5
Diactor bilineatus, 209
Diamond-beetle (Entimus nobilis), used as an ornament, 252
Diana monkey (Cercopithecus diana), 506
Diodon, the, 272
Dioscoreæ, habitat of the, 170
Diseases to which the traveller is liable in the Punas, or high
table-lands of Peru and Bolivia, 22
Dogs, half wild (Canis Ingæ), of the Punas, 28
---- eaten by the Polynesians, 281
Dolphins, 271
Doum-palm (Hyphæne thebaica), 157
---- used for the preparation of sherbet, 157
Douw, or Burchell’s zebra, 415
Dracænas, or dragon-trees, 123
---- gigantic ones of the Canary Islands, Madeira, and Porto Santo, 123
---- celebrated specimen at Orotava, in Teneriffe, 123
Dragons, flying, 317
Dragon-trees. _See_ Dracænas
Dromedary. _See_ Camel
Drummer cockroach (Blatta gigantea), 233
Du Chaillu, M., his description of the gorilla, 501
Duck (Chenalobex jubata) of the Amazons, 46
Duiker (Cephalopus mergens), the, of South Africa, 88, 410
Durian of the Indian Archipelago, 145
Durissus (Crotalus durissus), 298
Dutch, their progress in the Indian Ocean and cruel monopolies, 200
---- their cultivation of nutmegs and cloves, 199–202
Dyaks of Borneo, 263
Dyes, tropical vegetable, 192
---- indigo, 192, 193
---- logwood, 193
---- Brazil wood, 195
---- arnatto, 195
Eagle, the harpy, 380
---- his habitat, 380
---- his ferocity, 381
Eagle, the fishing, of Africa (Haliætus vocifer), 382
Earth-hogs of the Cape, 488
Echidna, the, or porcupine ant-eater, 488
Echinocacti, the, 133
Echinocactus nana, or dwarf-cactus, 133
---- visnaga, its immense size, 133
Elæis gumeensis, or oil palm-tree of West Africa, 158
Elands (Boselaphus oreas) of South Africa, 88, 409
Electrical eel (Gymnotus electricus), 17
---- ---- Indian mode of capturing them, 17
Elephant, plague of the Soudan fly to the, 231
---- his love of solitude, 431
---- his senses of smell and of hearing, 432
---- his mode of ascending and descending abrupt banks, 432
---- his stomach, 433
---- his trunk, 433
---- uses of his tusks, 433
---- his discipline, 434
---- his sagacity and devotion, 434
---- rogues, 435
---- value of the elephant to man, 435
---- species of the, 435
---- wide range of the African elephant, 435
---- mode of hunting him in various countries, 435
---- ivory of the African elephant, 436, 439
---- cutting up by a negro tribe, 437
---- escape of Mr. Oswell, 438
---- the Asiatic, 439
---- catchers, of Ceylon, 440
---- corrals, 441–443
Emu of Australia (Dromaius Novæ Hollandiæ), 391
Enarea and Caffa, the original home of the coffee plant, 178
Entomo phila picta, 370
---- albogularis, 370
Esmeralda, mosquitoes of, 233
Eucalypti of Australia, size of the, 159
Euphorbia arborescens of Africa, 122
Exocoetus volitans, 271
Eyes, acute inflammation of the, in the Puna, 21
Falcon (Falco sparverius) of the Peruvian sand-coast, 34, 246
Fan palms, crown of the, 161
Feejee Islands, verdure of, 6
---- ---- barbarous mode of treating turtles in the, 329
Felidæ of the tropical forests, 446
---- of the Old World, 446
Ferns of the tropics, 161
Fetissism of the negroes, 522
Ficus elastica, singular formation of the roots of the, 136, 139
---- ---- caoutchouc of the, 191
Fiery topaz, nest of the, 348
Fig, the Indian, the fruit of the melocacti, 134
Fig trees, climbing, of Polanarrua, 136
---- ---- marriage of the fig tree and palm, 137
Filaria medinensis, or Guinea worm, 226
---- ---- its mode of working, 226
---- ---- method of extracting it, 226
Finches of the tropics, 357
Fire-ant, the black, of Guiana, 274
Fire-flies of the Indian Archipelago, 210
Fishes, tropical, 65, 271
Fish-catching on a grand scale, 66
Fishing-eagle of Africa (Haliætus vocifer), 382
Flamingo (Phœnicopterus ruber), 357
---- long-legged, of the Puna, 28
---- its habits, 357, 361
---- its nests, 357
Flute-bird of Guiana (Cyphorinus cantans), 357
Fly-catcher, crowned (Myoarchus coronatus), of the Peruvian
sand-coast, 34
Flying-dragons, 317
Flying-fishes (Exocœtus volitans, Pterois volitans), 271
Flying-foxes (Pteropus), 401
Flying-squirrels (Pteromys), 494
Forbes, Mr., his narrow escape from a Cobra di Capello, 299
Forest, primitive tropical, 53
---- its peculiar charms and terrors, 53
---- troubles of the botanist in the, 54
---- endless varieties of trees in tropical forests, 55
---- and of their sites, 56
---- lowland forests during the rainy seasons, 57
---- a hurricane in, 57
---- beauty of the forests after the rainy seasons, 58
---- birds of the tropical, 58, 59
---- morning, noon, and night in the forests, 59, 60
---- first impression of a tropical forest, 292
---- exaggerated fears, 293
---- few tropical snakes to be seen, 293
---- habits and appearance of venomous snakes, 293
---- anecdote of the Prince of Neu Wied, 294
Forest snakes, death caused by the bite of a Trigonocephalus, 295
---- antidotes recommended against serpentine poison, 295
---- vipers and rattlesnakes, 297, 298
---- the Cobra di Capello, 298
---- the asp and viper, 300
---- boas and pythons, 301
---- enemies of snakes, 302
Fox (Canis azaræ), the, of the high table-lands of Peru and Bolivia, 28
Fox-tailed monkeys, 513
Francisco, San, cordage used on the banks of the river of, 132
Frigate-bird, 267
---- ---- its mode of operation, 267, 268
Frog, the Brazilian and Surinam tree, 320
Frog-fish, the, 272
Fruit trees of the tropics, 145
---- ---- the chirimoya of Peru, 172
---- ---- the litchi, 172
---- ---- the mangosteen, 173
---- ---- the mango, 173
Fungus ant, 239
Gad-fly of South America (Œstrus hominis), ulcers produced by the, 225
Galapagos, or Tortoise Islands, 321
---- singular animal and vegetable life of the, 321
Galagos, the, 516
Galeopitheci, the, 495
Gallinazos, or turkey-buzzards, 378
Garapata (Ixodes sanguisuga), a kind of blood-sucking tick, 227
Garua, or drizzling mists, of the Peruvian sand-coasts, 32
Gasteracantha arcuata, 292
Gavials of the Ganges, 333
---- their attack of the tiger, 333
Gecko, the, 310, 311
---- its usefulness to man, 310
---- anatomy of its feet, 311
---- different species of, 311
---- defeats a Tarantula spider, 312
Gemsbuck of South Africa (A. Oryx), 88, 410
Gibbon, the, described, 503
Giraffe, or camelopard, its beauty, 403
---- its wide range of vision, 403
---- use of its horns, 404
---- its gregarious habits, 405
---- hunting, 405–408
---- his enemies in the forest, 408
---- known to the ancients, 408
---- analogies between the giraffe and ostrich, 408
Glow-worms of Europe, 210
---- ---- of Sarawak, 211
---- ---- worn as ornaments, 211
---- ---- soldiers forced to retreat before them, 211
Glyphodons, 272
Gnu (Catoblepas gnu), always found near water, 88, 411
---- the, of South Africa, 411
Goatsucker of Demerara, singular voice of the, 355
---- his usefulness, 355
---- his food, 356
Godin des Odonnais, M., accompanies La Condamine on his voyage, 52
Godin, Madame, her adventures, 52
Goliath beetles of the coast of Guinea, 206
---- ---- eaten, 252
Golunda coffee-rat, the, 182
Gomuti palm (Gomutus vulgaris), wine of the, 150
Gorilla, the, 500
---- encounter with a, 501
Grass, aquatic, on the shores of the Amazons, 45
Green turtle (Chelonia midas), 329
Grosbeak, the social, 366
Gua Gede, cavern of, 270
Gua Rongkop, cave of, and its esculent swallows’ nests, 270
Guadeloupe, tornado in, 9
Guadua bamboo, its importance in New Grenada and Quito, 130
Guama, Rio, singular vegetation on the banks of the, 137
Guana, great American, 314
Guanas of the Bahama Islands, 315
---- used as food, 315
Guano beds of sea-birds, 35
Guano Island, a, 30
Guano or Chincha Islands, 35
Guarana Indians, importance of the Mauritia palm to the, 18
---- ---- their singular habitations, 18
Gudgeon, close-eyed (Periophthalmus, or Jumping Johnny, of the
mangrove swamps), 141
Guiana, beauty of the vegetation of the banks of the rivers of, after
the rainy season, 58
---- birds of, 58, 350, 352
---- Goliath beetles of, 206
---- musical toad of, 320
Guinea worm (Filaria medinensis), 226
Gull, Quiulla (Larus serranus) of the Puna, 28
Gumatty, or fibres of the saguer palm, 151
Gutta percha, or gutta tuban (Icosandra gutta), its native
country, 191
Gutta percha, its introduction into Europe, 191
---- ---- Malay mode of collecting the gum, 191
---- ---- properties of gutta percha, 192
---- ---- uses of gutta percha, 192
---- ---- supply of gutta percha, 192
Guayaquil, perennial rainy season of, 6
Gymnotus electricus, 17
Haje (Naja Haje), of Egypt, 300
---- probably the asp of the ancients, 300
Harpy eagle (Thrasaëtes harpya), 380
Hau, or Bow Island, 289
---- ---- ---- dreary monotony of a life at, 289
---- ---- ---- laziness of the natives of, 289
---- ---- ---- their customs, 290
Hawk, the sparrow, of Africa (Melierca musicus), 383
Hawksbill turtle (Chelonia imbricata), 329
Hercules beetles (Megasomina Hercules) of torrid America, 206
Hill-star, white-sided, 347
Hippopotamus, the Behemoth of the Book of Job, 417
---- its diminishing numbers, 417
---- its ugliness, 418
---- description of it, 418
---- ‘rogue hippopotami,’ or ‘bachelors,’ 419
---- intelligence and memory of the hippopotamus, 419
---- uses of its skin and teeth, 420
---- methods of killing it, 422
Hog, the chief enemy of the rattlesnake, 290
Honduras, mahogany trees of, 129
Honey-ants of Mexico (Myrmecocystus Mexicanus), their singular
habits, 240
Honey-eaters of Australia (Melithreptes), 369, 375
---- their nests, 369
Hottentots, fondness of the lion for the flesh of, 448
Howling monkey, or aluates, 512
Huachua goose (Chloéphaga melanoptera), 28
Huallaga river, a tributary of the Amazons, 37
Huanacu, the, of Peru, 24
Humming-birds, 342, 346
---- ---- their wide range over the New World, 343
---- ---- their habits, 349
---- ---- their courage, 349
---- ---- their enemies, 363
Huniman, the (Semnopithecus entellus), 504
Hurricanes, 9
Hyæna, the, 463
---- hunting, 463, 464
---- varieties of the, 465
Hyphæne coriacea of Port Natal, 160
---- Thebaica, or doum palm, 157
Ibises, 357
---- of Egypt, 361
Iça river, a tributary of the Amazons, 37
Icebergs, wanderings of, 266
Ichneumon, or mongoos, his destruction
of venomous serpents, 304, 305
Icosandra Gutta, furnishes the gutta
percha of commerce, 191
Iguana tuberculata, 314
Illanuns of Mindanao, 256
India, bamboos of, 130
---- the indigo of, 192, 193
India-rubber tree (Ficus elastica), singular formation of the roots of
the, 139. _See_ Caoutchouc
Indian forests, the Nepenthes of the, 12
Indians, wild, of tropical America, 62
---- Botocudo Indians attacking a jaguar, 62
---- physical conformation and moral characteristics of the Indians of
tropical America, 63, 64
---- their powers of endurance, 63
---- their stoical indifference and taciturnity, 65
---- their means of subsistence, 65
---- not permitted to marry till they prove their ability in
the chase, 67
---- their clothing, 68
---- their painting, tattooing, and religion, 69
---- the moon as the abode of abundance, 69
---- the Botuto, or holy trumpet, 70
---- the Indians of Brazil and Guiana, 70
---- vindictive ferocity of the Ottomachas, 71
---- the extinct tribes of the Atures, 72
---- dwellings of the Indians, 73
---- tattooing, 74
---- horrid custom of disinterment, 74
---- the Purupurus and their skin disease, 75
---- their palhetas, 75
---- the Mandrucus and Parentintins, 76
---- the Caribs and Botocudos, 76, 77
---- work of the women in their migrations, 78
---- the evil spirit Tanchon, 78
---- similarity of the North American Indians to the Bedouin Arabs, 119
Indigo plant (Indigofera tinctoria), Bengalese cutting the
plant, 192, 193
---- ---- mode of cultivation, 192
---- ---- and of preparing the colour, 193
Insects, tropical, size of the, 205
---- of the Sikkim mountains, 84
---- of the tropical world, 205
---- insect plagues, 221
---- the universal dominion of, 221
---- mosquitoes, 222
---- the Œstrus hominis, 225
---- the chegoe, pique, or jigger, 225
---- Filaria medinensis, 226
---- the bête rouge, 227
---- blood-sucking ticks, 227
---- land-leeches of Ceylon, 228
---- the tsetse-fly, 229
---- the Tsalt-salya, or zimb, 230
---- the Soudan fly, 230
---- the locust, 231
---- cockroaches, 233
---- tropical insects directly useful to man, 234
---- ants of the tropics, 234
---- silk-worms, 249
---- cochineal, 250, 251
---- the gum-lac insect, 251
---- eaten by man, 251
---- worn as ornaments, 252
---- similarity of some to the soil or object on which they are found;
the walking-leaf and walking-stick insects, 208
---- luminous, 210
---- ants and termites, 234, 241
---- spiders and scorpions, 211, 218
Island of Ascension, 328
---- Banda, 199, 200
---- Ceylon, 146
---- Madeira, 123
Islands:--
---- Bahamas, 328
---- Coral, 266, 275
---- Feejee, 329
---- Galapagos or Tortoise, 321
---- Keeling, 329
---- Kingsmill, 6
---- Sandwich, 281
---- Tortoise or Galapagos, 321
Jacana (Parra jacana), the, or surgeon-bird, 358
Jackal, the, of the Sahara, 456
Jagua Palm, elegance of the, 160
Jaguar (Gueparda jubata, guttata), 458
---- his habits in the impenetrable forests of South America, 459
---- his boldness, 458
---- hunting, 459
Jaguar said to possess the power of fascination, 462
Jamaica, pimento of, 203
Jaguarundi (Felis jaguarundi), 463
Java sparrow, or rice-bird (Loxia oryzivora), 164
---- extent of the coffee culture in, 181
---- the mormolyce of, 210
Javanese mormolyce, 209
Jelly-fish of the tropics, 274
Jiboya, or boa constrictor, 301
Jigger of the West Indies (Pulex penetrans), 225
Job, his description of Behemoth, 417
Jriarteas, roots of the, 143
Junghuhn, his explorations in Java, 154
Jungle-fowl (Megapodius tumulus), mound-like nest of the, 373
Jurua river, a tributary of the Amazons, 37
Jutay river, a tributary of the Amazons, 37
Kaffirs, their acuteness, 519
Kalahari, causes of drought in the, 85, 86
---- abundance of vegetation in the, 86
---- singular and useful plants of the, 87
---- Bushmen and Bakalahari of the, 88, 89
Kalongs, or fox-bats, of Java, 491
Kangaroo, Australians hunting the, 473, 474
Kaross, or skin dress of the deserts of South Africa, 92
Keeling Island, method of catching turtles on, 329
Kengwe (Cucumis Caffer), of the Kalahari, 87
Kilda, St., intrepidity of the natives of, 270
Kingsmill Islands, perennial rainy season of the, 6
Klippspringer (Oreofragus saltatrix), 411
Klipdachs, the, 382
Koodoo (A. Strepsiceros), of South Africa, 88, 411
Kordofan, baobab trees of, 103
---- delebl palms of, 158
Kunthia montana, height at which it will grow, 160
---- sent on rafts from Canton to Pekin, for the Emperor, 173
Lac, or gum-lac, 251
---- insect, the, 251
Lamellicorns, tropical, 205
Land-crabs, 272
Land leeches of Ceylon, 228
Lar, the, of Siam and Malacca, 503
Lauricocha, mountain lake of, 36
Leaf-like insects, 208, 209
Lecaniun coffeæ, or coccus of the coffee tree, 182
Leeches, land, of Ceylon, the plague of, 228
Leguminosas of tropical forests, 81
Lemur, slow-paced, 516
---- handed, 516
Leopard, the, 457
---- the hunting leopard, or cheetah, 458
Leucopholis bimaculata, 207
Libellula lucretia, a South American dragon-fly, 267
Licli, the, a bird of the Puna, 28
Lion, not a noble animal, 448
---- his conflicts with travellers on Mount Atlas, 447
---- his fondness for the flesh of the Hottentot, 448
---- hunting, 449
---- different species of the, 453
Litchi (Nephelium litchi), of China and Cochin China, 172
Lithophytes, or stone polyps, 275
Livingstone, Dr., his adventure with a lion, 450
Lizards of the Peruvian sand-coast, 35
---- their vast numbers in the tropics, 310
---- the gecko, 311
---- the anolis, 310, 312
---- chameleons, 313
---- iguanas, 314
---- guanas, 314
---- monitor-lizard, 315
---- water-lizards, 316
---- flying-dragons, 317, 318
---- the basilisk, 318
---- peculiar, of the Galapagos Islands, 321
Llama, its use to the ancient Peruvians, 23
---- the only animal domesticated by the aboriginal Americans, 23
---- its similarity to the dromedary of the Old World, 23
Llanos, the, of Venezuela and New Grenada, their extent, 11
---- their aspect in the dry season, 11
---- torpor of animal life in the, 13
---- and in the rainy season, 17
---- their appearance at the end of the rainy period, 18
Locust (Gryllus migratorius), description of the, 231
Locusts, vast numbers of them, 231
---- superstition of the Moslems respecting them, 231
---- Southey’s description of them, 232
---- eaten by man in the Sahara and South Africa, 251
Lodoicea Sechellarum, nuts of the, 154
Loggerhead turtle (Chelonia caouana), 331
Logwood, value of, 193
---- a native of America, 193
---- logwood cutters, their mode of life, 194
---- disputes with the Spaniards, 194
Lomas, or chains of hills, which bound the east of the sand-coast of
Peru, 33
---- the pasture-grounds of the Lomeros, 33
---- beasts of prey in the Lomas, 33
Lonthoir, nutmeg trees of, 228
Loris, the, 516
Luminous beetles, 210
Lum tree of Ualan, singular formation of the roots of the, 143
Lybian desert, mirage of the, 13
Lyre-bird, 362
Maca, a tuberous plant, cultivated by the Indians in the high
table-lands of Peru and Bolivia, 23
Macauba palm trees, encased by parasitic fig trees, 137
Macaw, or Ara (Macrocercus macao), 397
Mace of commerce, 202
Maco Indians, 70
Macus Indians, urari or wourali poison prepared by the, 68
Madagascar, traveller-tree of (Ravenala speciosa), uses of the, 169
Madeira river, a tributary of the Amazons, 37
Mahogany tree (Swietenia mahagoni) of British Honduras and Balize, 129
---- ---- value of the wood of the, 129
Maimon monkey, 509
Maize, cultivation of, 165
---- imported from America by Columbus, 165
---- its present cultivation in the eastern hemisphere, 165
---- its magnificent growth, 165
---- its enormous productiveness, 165
---- the harvest of, 166
---- its wide zone of cultivation, 166
Maldive Isles, mysterious nuts of the 154
Malayan race, the, 253
Malayan race, physical conformation of, 253
---- their betel-chewing, 254
---- their manners and customs, 254
---- accounts of them by travellers, 254
---- their intelligence and civilisation, 255
---- Rajah Brooke’s account of them, 255
---- their daring piratical excursions, 256
---- inveterate gamblers, 257
---- the Illanuns of Mindanao and the Balagnini of the vicinity
of Sooloo, 256
---- their fondness for cock-fighting, 257
---- running a-muck, 258
---- bad agriculturists and artisans, but excellent sportsmen, 258
---- their ignorance, and its results, 259
---- knowledge and civilization of the Battas, 259
---- their cannibalism, and its origin, 259
---- men eaten alive, 260
---- the Begus, or evil spirits, 260
---- the religious feelings of the people, 261
---- their aërial dwellings, 261
---- funeral ceremonies of the Battas, 262
---- the Dyaks of Borneo, and their customs, 263
---- their head houses and atrocious murders, 263
---- the same atrocities of other islanders, 263
---- customs of the Minkokas of Celebes, 263
---- their sumpitans, or blow-pipes, 264
---- their houses and villages, 264
---- their hospitality and truthfulness, 264
---- Mrs. Ida Pfeiffer’s account of them, 265
Malay bear (Ursus malayanus), its love of cocoa-nuts, 149
Manakins (Pipra) of Guiana and Brazil, 351
Mandrill, the, 509, 510
Mandioca root, 169
Mandrucu Indians, 76
Mango (Mangifera indica), fruit of the, 173
---- varieties grown at Kew gardens, 173
Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana), 173
---- its flowers and delicious fruit, 173
Mangrove tree (Rhizophora gymnorrhiza, R. Mangle), 140
Mangrove tree, its peculiarities of growth and adaptation to
its site, 140
---- ---- its importance in furthering the growth of land, 140, 141
---- ---- animal life in the mangrove forests, 141–143
Manis pentadactyla, 482, 485
Mantichora mygaloides, 205
Mantis, or soothsayer, its habits, 208, 209
---- names by which it is known, 209
Mantides, 208
Mantis religiosa, 209
Maquiritani Indians, 70
Marajo Island, size of the, 38
Marañon river. _See_ Amazons
Marantea arundinacea, arrowroot made from the, 170
Marimonda, the (Ateles Belzebub), 513
Mauritia palm, 18, 19
---- ---- its importance to the South American Indian, 19
Mauritius, tornado in, 9
---- cultivation of nutmegs in, 201
Maysunah, song of, 109
Medanos, or sand hillocks, of the coast of Peru, 32
Mediterranean, the Cactus Opuntia of the, 134
Melocacti, the pulp of the, 134
Menura, or lyre-bird, 362
Menzaleh, Lake, flamingoes caught in nets on the banks of, 361
Mesembryanthemum, its admirable adaptation to the deserts of Africa, 87
---- various kinds of, 87
Mexico, Gulf of, influence of the heated plains of, in deflecting the
trade-winds, 8
---- geological formation of, 79
---- the _tierra caliente_, or lowlands of, 80
---- vegetable and animal life of, 81
---- the _tierra templada_, 81
---- the _tierra fria_, 82
---- the Agave Americana of, 132
---- the pulque of, 132
---- cultivation of vanilla in, 184
---- the honey ant of, 240
Millet (Sorghum vulgare), cultivation of, 166
Mimosas of the tropics, their beauty, 134
Minkokas of Celebes, customs of the, 263
Mirage in the llanos in the dry season, 13
---- causes of the, 13
Miriki monkey (Ateles hypoxanthus) of Brazil, 67
Mocking-bird of Mexico (Cassicus persicus), 354
Mokuri plant, its importance to the inhabitants of the Kalahari, 87
Molluscs of the tropics, 274
Mongoos, or ichneumon, 304, 305
Monitor-lizard (Tejus monitor), 102, 315
Monkey-bread tree. _See_ Baobab
Monkeys and apes of the primitive forests, 496
---- their destruction of the sugar-cane, 176
---- of the Old World, 496
---- their climbing powers, 497
---- bad pedestrians, 497
---- contrasted and compared with man, 498
---- the chimpanzee, 499
---- the gorilla, 500–502
---- the uran, or wild man of the woods, 502
---- gibbons, 503
---- the semnopitheci, 504
---- the proboscis monkey, 504
---- the huniman, 504
---- the wanderoos of Ceylon, 505
---- the colobi and cercopitheci, 505
---- the magots of Gibraltar, 508
---- the baboon, 508, 509
---- the maimon, 509
---- the mandrill and drill, 509
---- wide difference between the monkeys of the New and Old World, 511
---- the aluate, or howling monkey, 512
---- the spider monkey, 512, 513
---- sakis, or fox-tailed monkeys, 513
Monsoon, the north-east, 17
---- the south-west, 8
---- effects of the sea monsoon on the ordinary course of the
trade-winds, 8
Montgomery, Mr., his introduction of gutta percha into Europe, 191
Mora excelsa of the forests of Guiana, description of the, 129
---- nest of the toucan in the, 129
Mormolyce, the Javanese, 210
Mountain-taro, its habitat, 171
Mosquitoes, 222
---- of the Amazons, 45
---- ferocious, of the river Seuza, 222
---- and of tropical America, 222
---- migration of, 224
Moth, Atlas, of Ceylon, 207
Mule, the ‘ship of the desert’ in Peru, 31
Mulgrave Archipelago, importance of the screw pine of the, 133
Musa paradisaica, 167
Musa sapientum, 167
---- textilis, 169
Musaceæ, the, 167, 169
---- various uses of, 169
Musk-deer on the slopes of the Sikkim mountains, 84
Mutasen, the Caliph El, story of, 111
Mygales, or trap-door spiders, 218
Myrtus pimenta, 203
Naja Haje of Egypt, 300
Namaqua country, reason why droughts are prevalent in the, 86
Negro, Rio, a tributary of the Amazons, 37
---- ---- cause of its name, 39
Negroes, causes of the inferiority of their civilisation, 518
---- natural capabilities of the negroes, 519
---- difficulty arising from the geographical position of Africa, 520
---- and from the political position of it, 521
---- Mahometanism and fetissism, 523
---- their diseases attributed by the fetissist to ‘possession,’ 525
---- their belief in sorcery, 525
---- their chief religious observances, 526
---- human sacrifices in Ashantee and Dahomey, 526, 527
---- provision for the wants of the dead, 527
---- painting or tattooing the body, 528
---- the disfigurement of the pelélé, 528
---- authority of the priest, conjuror, or medicine man among them, 529
---- offerings to the sea at Bonny, 530
---- idleness of the negroes, 531
---- style of saltation in East Africa, 532
---- African slavery, and a slave-hunting expedition, 533
---- a slave caravan at Chartum, 534
---- belief of, respecting death, 74
Nelumbias of the tropics, 137
Nepenthes, the, of the East Indian forests, 12
Noddy bird (Sterna stolida), its attacks on the cocoa-nut tree, 149
Nopal (Cactus opuntia), the, of the shores of the Mediterranean, 134
Nutmegs, cultivation of, confined by the Dutch to Banda, Lonthoir, and
Pulo Aij, 199, 200
---- their present extended range, in Sumatra, Mauritius, Bourbon,
and Ceylon, 201
---- description of the tree, 201
Nutmegs, mode of cultivation, 202
Nyctopitheci, or nocturnal monkeys, 514
Nylghau, the (A. picta), 412
Nymphæas of the tropics, 137
Obydos, Strait of, 37
Ocelot (Felis pardalis), the, 463
Odontolabris Cuvera, of China, 205, 206
Œnocarpus disticha, oil of the, 159
Œstrus hominis, 225
Oil made from palm trees of West Africa, 157, 158
---- of the Corozo palm, 159
---- of the Œnocarpus disticha, 160
Opossum of the sand-coast of Peru, 34
Orchids, flowering, of the slopes of Sikkim, 83
Orellana, Francis, his voyage and treachery to Pizarro, on
the Amazons 51
Organist bird (Troglodytes leucophrys), 356
---- his song, 356
Oricou, or sociable vulture (Vultur auricularis), 381
Origma rubricata, 370
Orinoco river, 37
Oriolus varius, 352
---- nest of the, 353
Orotava, in Teneriffe, gigantic dragon tree near, 123
Oscollo (Felis celigaster), the, 463
Ostrich, its endurance of thirst, 75
---- mode of hunting it, 368
---- its speed, 385
---- mode of catching it, 386
---- its stratagem for protecting its young, 386
---- its enemies, 386
---- its young, 387
---- its resemblance to the camel, 387
---- its voracity, 388
---- its feathers, 388
---- domesticated in Algeria, 388
---- analogies between the giraffe and ostrich, 408
---- an Arab Legend respecting it, 389,390
Ottomacas Indians, 70
---- become ‘dirt-eaters,’ 71
---- the country they inhabit, 71
Ouistitis, or squirrel monkeys, 515
Owl, burrowing (Athene cunicularia), of the Peruvian sand-coast, 34
---- the pearl, of the same region, 34
Pacific Ocean, limits of the trade-winds in the, 4
Pacific Ocean, causes of the distribution of rain on the Pacific off
Central America, 8
---- ---- violent tropical storms of, 9
Palhetas of the Purupurus, 75
Pallah (Antilope melampus), always found near water, 88
Palm-martin (Paradoxus typus or Pougouni), its fondness for
cocoa-nuts, 147
---- stalks of, used as arrows, 67
Palm-squirrel (Sciurus palmarum), its fondness for cocoa-nuts, 149
Palm trees, 146
---- the cocoa-nut tree, 146
---- the sago palm, 150
---- the saguer or gomuti, 150
---- the areca palm, 151
---- the palmyra palm, 151
---- the talpot or talipot palm, 153
---- cocoa de mer, 153
---- date palms, 154
---- doum palms, 157
---- oil palms, 157, 158
---- the Carnauba (Corypha cerifera), 158
---- the Ceroxylon andicola, 159
---- the cabbage palm, 159
---- the corozo, 159
---- the pirijao and piaçava palms, 160
---- cabeza di negro, 160
---- different physiognomy of palms according to their heights, 160
---- position and form of their fronds, 160
Palma Real of the Havana, beauty of the, 161
Palmyra palm (Borassus flabelliformis), extent of its range, 151
---- ---- its uses to man, 151, 152
---- treatment of the toddy-drawer, 152
Pangolin, the Indian (Manis pentadactyla), 482, 485
Panther, the, 457
Pao Barrigudo (Chorisia ventricosa), singular shape of the, 134
Paper, Chinese, material of which it is made, 131
---- made from the talipot tree of Ceylon, 153
Papuans, their dwelling-places, 276
---- their physical and moral characteristics, 276, 277
---- compared with the Malays, 277
---- their food and clothing, 277, 278
---- their immense houses in New Guinea, 278
---- their political institutions, 279
---- their agriculture and weapons, 279
---- their mode of fighting, 279
---- future prospects of the race, 280
Para, perennial rainy season of, 6
Para, population of, 49
Paradise, great bird of (P. apoda), 363, 364
---- fables respecting, 364
Paradoxus typus or Pougouni, 134
Paraguay, constant east winds of, 5
Parentintin Indians, 76
Paroquets, or parakeets, 398
---- ring and green, 398
Parrots of the Peruvian sand-coasts, 34
---- their peculiar manner of climbing, 392
---- their resemblance to monkeys, 392
---- their food, 393
---- their sociability, 393
---- their connubial love, 394
---- their powers of mimicry, 394
---- African (Psittacus erithacus), 394
---- his dreams and memory, 395
---- American Indian mode of catching them, 395
---- various species of them, 395, 396
---- the colours of, artificially changed, 396
Parsley, a deadly poison to parrots, 416
Pasco, Cerro de, 37
Peacock, Javanese, the, 360
Pebas, heavy fall of rain at, 8
Peireskia of the Lake of Titicaca, 134
Pepper, 202
---- description of the vine, 202
---- mode of cultivation, 202
---- its habitat, 202
---- the black and white sorts, 202
Peradenia, india-rubber trees of the garden of, 139
Peru, the Puna, or high table-lands of, 20
---- Puna chases in the times of the Incas, 27
---- the Lomas of, 33
---- the sand-coast of, 29
---- extreme dryness of the soil in the northern coast districts of, 33
---- animal world of the coast, 33
---- the Guano or Chincha Islands, 35
Peruvian stream, influence of the, on climate, 36. _See_ Amazons
Pfeiffer, Mrs. Ida, her account of the Malays, 265
Phasmas, the herbivorous, 208, 209
Pheasant, Argus, 360
Phœnix dactylifera, or date palm, 153
Phylliums, the herbivorous, 208, 209
Phyllosomas, 272
Phyllostomidæ, 492
---- their food, 492
Physalia, or ‘Portuguese man-of-war,’ 274, 275
Phytelephas (Cabeza di Negro), hard white nuts of the, 160
Piaçava palm (Attalia funifera), uses of the nuts and fibres of the, 160
Pichiciago (Chlamyphorus truncatus), of the Andes, 488
Pig-faced baboon, 510
Pimento, or allspice (Myrtus pimenta), 203
---- cultivation of the plant, 203
---- its habitat, 203
Pine-apple (Bromelia ananas), its abundance in Brazil, 132
Pines, the screw, of the East Indian and South Sea Isles, 133
---- their importance to the inhabitants of the Mulgrave Archipelago, 133
Pippul tree of India. _See_ Bo tree
Pipra, the, 366
Pique, or Jigger, of the West Indies, (Pulex penetrans), 225
Pitcairn Island, storm and famine in, 9
Plantain (Musapara disiaca), its importance as food, 167
---- luxuriance of the plant, 168
Podada tree of the river banks of Borneo, 210
Polanarrua, climbing fig trees of, 136, 137
Polynesian fishermen, 276
---- race, the, 280
---- their degree of civilisation, 281
---- their physical characteristics, 281
---- their languages, 281
---- their cultivation of the taro, 281
---- food of the various classes, 281
---- their intoxicating beverage, kava, 282
---- their dresses of tapa, 282
---- their desire for adornment, 282
---- their canoes and basket-work, 282
---- their joiners’ work, 283
---- admirable swimmers, 283
---- their dwellings, 284
---- their form of government, 284
---- the Tabu, 285
---- the Polynesian gods, 286, 287
---- their infanticide, 286
---- influence of European customs, 288, 289
Pongo de Manseriche, defile of, 36
Porcupine ant-eater (Echidna hystrix), 488
Pororocca, or spring-tide wave of the Amazons, 38
‘Portuguese man-of-war,’ 275
Potato, the Spanish or sweet (Convolvulus batatas), 170
---- its spontaneous multiplication, 170
---- propagation of, 170
Pothos family of epiphytes of the tropical forests, 137
---- beauty of the leaves, 137
Prêcheur insect, 209
Prie Dieu, Le, insect, 209
Priest, conjuror, or medicine man of the negroes, 529
Proboscis monkey, the (Semnopithecus nasicus), 504
Pterois volitans, 271
Ptilotus sonorus, 370
Pulex penetrans of the West Indies, 225
Pulque, or Mexican agave wine, 132
Puma, or couguar, in the high table-lands of tropical America, 28, 462
Puna, or ‘Uninhabited’ high table-lands of Peru and Bolivia, 20
---- their contrast with the Llanos, 20
---- violent changes in their temperature, 21
---- plagues of the Puna, 21
---- vegetable life of the, 22
---- animal life, 23–28
---- chases in the times of the Incas, 27
---- beasts of prey of the, 28
---- birds of the, 28
---- flocks and herds of the Puna valleys, 28
---- the mountain valleys, 28
Purus, river, a tributary of the Amazons, 37
Quagga, the, of South Africa, 414
Queñua tree (Polylepis racemosa) in the Puna, 23
Quito, perennial rainy season of, 6
Rain, abundance and distribution of, within the torrid zone, 4
---- causes which produce an abundance or want of, 4
---- heavy afternoon showers of the zone of calms, 6
---- zone of two distinct rainy seasons, 7
---- and of one rainy season, 7
---- immense quantity of, in the tropics, 8
---- no rain in the northern coast-districts of Peru, 35
---- the garua or drizzling rain of Peru, 32
Rarotonga Island, devastation of, by a tropical storm, 9
Rat, its attacks on the cocoa-nut tree, 149
---- its destructive ravages in sugar plantations, 177
---- the Golunda, or coffee rat, 182
Ratans, their immense length, 154
---- uses of, 154
Rat-snake of Ceylon (Coryphodon Blumenbachii), domesticated, 308
---- its agility in seizing its prey, 308
Rattlesnakes, 297, 298
---- their rattle, 298
---- different species, 298
---- their chief enemy, 298
---- eaten by Indians, 298
Reedbok (Electragos arundinaceus), 410
Red River, mosquitoes of, 233
Rehoboth, larvæ of locusts in myriads at, 255
Reptiles of the Peruvian sand-coast, 41
---- of the tropics, 310
Rhamphastidæ, 360
Rhea Americana, 390
---- Darwinii, 390
Rhinoceros, the, its brutality and stupidity, 423
---- different species of, 423
---- food and dispositions of the black and white kinds, 424
---- their ugliness, 424
---- their size, 424
---- their acuteness of smell and hearing, 425
---- defective vision, 425
---- their friend the Buphaga Africana, 425
---- their paroxysms of rage, 426
---- their nocturnal habits, 426
---- rhinoceros-hunting and its perils, 427
---- the Indian rhinoceros, 429
---- the Sumatran kind, 430
---- the Javanese rhinoceros, 430
---- mode of killing it, 430
Rhinolophi, or horse-shoe bats, 493
Rhododendron nivale, great elevation at which it grows, 84
Rhododendrons, region of the Alpine, in the Sikkim mountains, 83
Rice (Oryza sativa), 165
---- original seat of its cultivation, 165