THE CAPTURE OF THE TARKARS
The slaves who constituted the _Clotilde’s_ cargo and who have become
historic by being the last brought into the United States were captured
by Dahomey’s warriors and Amazons on one of their cruel excursions. For
many years the tribe of Dahomey had been a scourge to the weaker and
more peaceable tribes whose domains lay near the Gold Coast or in the
interior away from the coast of Guinea. Cruel, stealthy war was their
occupation--a war of surprise which aroused sleeping villages to the
horrors of fire, plunder, and capture. The older victims were usually
killed. Sometimes they were permitted to live and to see their young
and strong overpowered, bound, and led into captivity--a captivity
from which there could be no hope of return, for the prisoners were
conveyed to the coast, sold to the slavers, and carried across the
sea to strange, alien lands. The King of Dahomey’s house was built
of skulls and his drinking cups were the skulls of fallen chiefs. In
the early part of the nineteenth century one of the Dahomey kings
organized a battalion of women warriors--a race rare in history but not
especially unique in African annals. Early cosmographies record of the
King of Inhamban: “It is affirmed that he hath a strong battalion of
Amazons, a warlike race of women who inhabit about the Lake of Zambre,
and the outskirts of Zanzibar; compared by some for their fidelity and
prowess to the Turkish Janizaries.”[19] Like the Greek Amazons those
of Inhamban and Dahomey were recruited by incursions upon neighboring
tribes.
The Tarkar village was situated many miles inland. Poleete, one of
the old survivors, says it was “many days from the water,” meaning
thereby the sea. They were a peace-loving, agricultural people,
raising hogs, sheep, and cows, and planting corn, beans, and yams.
Their chief industry was the production of palm oil. Nature had been
lavish--the lands were wonderfully fertile, requiring little work and
no fertilizer; the fragrance of ripening fruits filled the forests.
The Tarkar dwellings were of superior quality and had the advantage of
withstanding fire. They were built of mud; the process of construction
has been described by two of the survivors--Poleete and Kazoola. First
a circular trench was dug and a wall of mud four feet high and a foot
and a half thick laid; this was left until thoroughly dry. Another four
feet was laid upon this, which was also left to dry. Then a third layer
of four feet was laid making their dwellings about twelve feet high.
When thoroughly dry, branches were cut, the roof thatched and covered
with mud.
The Tarkars were not without laws, and had a sort of court of justice
over which the King presided. Each of the old survivors lays especial
stress upon honesty as a tribal characteristic. Stealing was almost
unknown; all worked and had what was needed; houses were never locked
and possessions seldom disturbed. All an individual’s wealth “might be
hung upon a tree or accidentally left--others of the tribe knew they
had not put it there--that it was not theirs--so disturbed it not.”
“Suppose I had left my purse in town in the public square. To-day I
have not the time to go for it--nor to-morrow--am I worried? No, for
I know when I go I will find it where I left it. Could you do that in
America?” (Kazoola). As there was no reason or excuse for stealing,
when one among them committed a theft, it was more through a spirit of
braggadocio. The culprit would be taken before the King who would say,
“You are strong--you have two arms to work--you suffer for nothing--why
have you stolen?” The defendant would be imprisoned, and the Tarkars
say that if he lived to get out he would steal no more.
Death was always meted to the murderer--rank having no weight with
justice. Poleete explained that if the King’s son committed murder,
death would fall to him as to the commoner. “Money don’t plea you
there” (Poleete). The manner of execution was decapitation--the
implement a sword. To illustrate the inexorable nature of their laws,
the following was narrated by Kazoola: “The Law in Tarkar. If it would
be my son. He kills a man. I have money--I want to buy my son. I go
before the King, and say ‘Oh, King, my son has killed, but I have
money.’ The King would reply, ‘Here is the Law, read.’ I read and say,
‘Yes, King, the Law says Death.’ And the King would answer, ‘That is
the Law, and I am the King. Shut your eyes, give up your son--money
cannot buy.’”
The Tarkars were polygamists, sometimes having as many as three wives,
but never any more. The conditions of life were so easy they could
afford the luxury. There was no need to support the wives, for the
women had the same amount of property as the men and did the same
work. Jealousy among the wives was unknown; the first wife selected
the second and the second the third, etc. This custom has been lucidly
explained by Kazoola and Olouala. “Kazoola has been married about
three years. His wife says, ‘Kazoola, I am growing old--I am tired--I
will bring you another wife.’ Before speaking thus, she has already
one in mind--some maid who attracts her and who Kazoola has possibly
never seen. The wife goes out and finds the maid--possibly in the
marketplace--and asks, ‘You know Kazoola?’ The maid answers, ‘I have
heard of him.’ The wife then says, ‘Kazoola is good--he is kind--I
would like you to be his wife.’ The maid answers, ‘Come with me to
my parents.’ They go together; questions are exchanged and if these are
satisfactory, the parents say, ‘We give our girl into your keeping--she
is ours no more--be good to her.’” The wife and the maid return
together to Kazoola’s house. The wife introduces the maid to Kazoola,
shows her how to look after things as she has done, then sits down to
take her days of rest and works no more. The relation of the husband
to the wives was that of protector. Once married, a man dared not look
upon women other than his wives, for the punishment was very great. To
justify their native custom of polygamy, the Christianized Tarkars now
cite the example of David and Solomon.
[Illustration: Abaché and Kazoola.]
They believed in the spirits of departed relatives; to these the
“day was as night and the night as the day.” To these spirits their
actions were known. The Tarkars also possessed dualistic ideas of a
future life. There was a Spirit of Good--Ahla-ahra, to whom by doing
right their actual, daily life would be something of a consecration;
and there was a Spirit of Evil--Ahla-bady-oleelay. “Do right and you
will go to Ahla-ahra; do wrong, you go to Ahla-bady-oleelay.” While
not exactly Nature-worshipers, they were Nature-fearers; they did not
propitiate by prayer or any kind of ceremonial these Spirits of Good
and Evil, but believed their powers were manifested in the wind, the
cloud that covered the sun, and in the thunder and the lightning.
Before these last the Tarkars trembled, and were filled with fear; they
would cross their arms over their breasts and cowering, cry out, “We
will be good!”
“In Africa different places, like Mobile, Montgomery, New Orleans--each
have a different tribe speaking a different language. Suppose the tribe
at New Orleans comes to the one at Mobile and says, ‘You have fruit
and corn and cattle--you must give me half.’ You at Mobile say, ‘No,
go back and raise your own cattle and corn.’ And they say, ‘If you do
not give us cattle and corn, we will make war on you.’ They go back to
their own country and talk among themselves. ‘You know that tribe at
Mobile. We demanded half their crops and cattle--they refused; we will
make war upon them. But they have strong soldiers. We will go through
the country, surround the village at the break of day.’”[20] Thus did
the Dahomeyans plan their attack upon the Tarkars. One morning just
at the break of day, the fiends of Dahomey--and the female warriors
were the most cruel--broke upon the unsuspecting Tarkars. Some of the
men were already astir and had gone into the fields to work while the
day was yet cool. These were all killed; had one escaped he would
have aroused the sleeping village, and the women and small children
might have made their escape. They were aroused from slumber and in a
few minutes death or captivity was upon them; even the infants were
torn from their mothers’ breasts and carried away. Those who were
not killed were overpowered. Dahomey’s Amazons vanquished the most
stalwart men and bound them as captives. The Tarkars relate that in
their paint and war clothes Dahomey’s women soldiers could not be
distinguished from the men. The Dahomeyans cut off the heads of their
dead victims, leaving the bodies where they had fallen. The heads
were to be taken home as evidence of individual valor and as trophies
to be hung on the Dahomey huts. Human faces could express no more
anguish than those of the old Tarkars when they speak of this awful
experience. One of the trials and tragedies of their march to the coast
was the dangling heads of their relatives and friends. When these grew
offensive the Dahomeyans stopped the march that they might smoke the
heads. As they passed near one of Dahomey’s villages, at a curve in
the big road, they caught sight of fresh heads raised on poles above
the huts and of skulls, grinning white. With the captives there were
some people of other tribes--friends who had been visiting in the
Tarkar village--Tarkbar, Goombardi, Filanee, and Ejasha. (These tribal
names are spelled as pronounced by the surviving Tarkars.) Kazoola
has drawn a map of the route taken by Dahomey and of the march to the
sea, which he claims any of his tribe would recognize. The towns they
passed through on their march to the sea were Eko, Budigree (Badragy?),
Adaché, and Whydah. This last the Tarkars sometimes call Gréfé. There
they remember a white house on the river-bank; behind this was a
stockade wherein they were held prisoners about three weeks, at the end
of which time Captain Foster came.