is a long and bony variety, in shape like a large mackerel; the Sangále
resembles it, but the head and body are thicker. The Mgege, which
suggests the Pomfret of Western India, is well flavoured, but full of
bones. The Mguhe is said to attain the length of five or six feet: it is
not unlike the kheri of the Indian rivers, and to a European palate it
is the best fish that swims in these waters. The largest is the Singá, a
scaleless variety, with black back, silvery belly, small fins, and long
fleshy cirri: it crawls along the bottom, and is unfit for leaping or
for rapid progress. This sluggish and misshapen ground-fish is much
prized by the people on account of its rich and luscious fat. Like the
Pallu of Sindh, it soon palls upon the European palate. Want of flavour
is the general complaint made by the Arabs and coast people against the
produce of the Tanganyika: they attempt to diminish the wateriness of
the fish by exposing it spitted to a slow fire, and by subsequently
stowing it for the night in well-closed earthen pots. Besides the five
varieties above alluded to, there are dwarf eels of good flavour,
resembling the Indian Bam; Dagá’a, small fish called by the Arabs
Kashu’a, minnows of many varieties, which, simply sundried, or muriated
if salt can be afforded, find their way far east; a dwarf shrimp, about
one quarter the size of the common English species; and a large bivalve
called Sinani, and identified as belonging to the genus Iridina. The
meat is fat and yellow, like that of a well-fed oyster, but it is so
insipid that none but a Mjiji can eat it. The shells collected upon the
shores of the Tanganyika and on the land journey have been described by
Mr. Samuel P. Woodward, who courteously named the species after the
European members of the Expedition. To his memoir--quoted in pages 102,
103 of this volume--the reader is referred.
The Wajiji are considered by the Arabs to be the most troublesome race
in these black regions. They are taught, by the example of their chiefs,
to be rude, insolent, and extortionate; they demand beads even for
pointing out the road; they will deride and imitate a stranger’s speech
and manner before his face; they can do nothing without a long
preliminary of the fiercest scolding; they are as ready with a blow as
with a word; and they may often be seen playing at “rough and tumble,”
fighting, pushing, and tearing hair, in their boats. A Mjiji uses his
dagger or his spear upon a guest with little hesitation; he thinks
twice, however, before drawing blood, if it will cause a feud. Their
roughness of manner is dashed with a curious ceremoniousness. When the
sultan appears amongst his people, he stands in a circle and claps his
hands, to which all respond in the same way. Women curtsy to one
another, bending the right knee almost to the ground. When two men meet
they clasp each other’s arms with both hands, rubbing them up and down,
and ejaculating for some minutes, “Nama sanga? nama sanga?--art thou
well?” They then pass the hands down to the forearm, exclaiming “Wákhe?
wákhe?--how art thou?” and finally they clap palms at each other, a
token of respect which appears common to these tribes of Central Africa.
The children have all the frowning and unprepossessing look of their
parents; they reject little civilities, and seem to spend life in
disputes, biting and clawing like wild cats. There appears to be little
family affection in this undemonstrative race. The only endearment
between father and son is a habit of scratching and picking each other,
caused probably by the prevalence of a complaint before alluded to; as
amongst the Simiads, the intervals between pugnacity are always spent in
exercising the nails. Sometimes, also, at sea, when danger is near, the
Mjiji breaks the mournful silence of his fellows, who are all thinking
of home, with the exclamation, “Yá mgúri wánje!--O my wife!” They are
never sober when they can be drunk; perhaps in no part of the world
will the traveller more often see men and women staggering about the
village with thick speech and violent gestures. The favourite inebrient
is tembo or palm-toddy; almost every one, however, even when on board
the canoe, smokes bhang, and the whooping and screaming which follow the
indulgence resemble the noise of wild beasts rather than the sounds of
human beings. Their food consists principally of holcus, manioc, and
fish, which is rarely eaten before it becomes offensive to European
organs.
The great Mwami or Sultan of Ujiji in 1858-59 was Rusimba. Under him
were several mutware (mutwale) or minor chiefs, one to each settlement,
as Kannena in Kawele and Lurinda in Gungu. On the arrival of a caravan,
Rusimba forwards, through his relations, a tusk or two of ivory, thus
mutely intimating that he requires his blackmail, which he prefers to
receive in beads and kitindi or coil-bracelets, proportioning, however,
his demand to the trader’s means. When this point has been settled, the
mutware sends his present, and expects a proportionate return. He is,
moreover, entitled to a fee for every canoe hired; on each slave the
kiremba or excise is about half the price; from one to two cloths are
demanded upon every tusk of ivory; and he will snatch a few beads from a
man purchasing provisions for his master. The minor headmen are fond of
making “sare” or brotherhood with strangers, in order to secure them in
case of return. They depend for influence over their unruly subjects
wholly upon personal qualifications, bodily strength, and violence of
temper. A chief, though originally a slave, may “win golden opinions” by
his conduct when in liquor: he assumes the most ferocious aspect, draws
his dagger, brandishes his spear, and, with loud screams, rushes at his
subjects as intent upon annihilating them. The affairs of the nation
are settled by the mwami, the chief, in a general council of the lieges,
the wateko (in the singular mteko) or elders presiding. Their
intellects, never of the brightest, are invariably fuddled with toddy,
and, after bawling for hours together and coming apparently to the most
satisfactory conclusion, the word of a boy or of an old woman will
necessitate another lengthy palaver. The sultans, like their subjects,
brook no delay in their own affairs; they impatiently dun a stranger
half-a-dozen times a day for a few beads, while they patiently keep him
waiting for weeks on occasions to him of the highest importance, whilst
they are drinking pombe or taking leave of their wives. Besides the
magubiko or preliminary presents, the chiefs are bound, before the
departure of a caravan which has given them satisfaction, to supply it
with half-a-dozen masuta or matted packages of grain, and to present the
leader with a slave, who generally manages to abscond. The parting gifts
are technically called “urangozi,” or guidance.
Under the influence of slavery the Wajiji have made no progress in the
art of commerce. They know nothing of bargaining or of credit: they will
not barter unless the particular medium upon which they have set their
hearts is forthcoming; and they fix a price according to their wants,
not to the value of the article. The market varies with the number of
caravans present at the depôt, the season, the extent of supply, and a
variety of similar considerations. Besides the trade in ivory, slaves,
bark, cloth, and palm-oil, they manufacture and hawk about iron sickles
shaped like the European, kengere, kiugi, or small bells, and sambo,
locally called tambi, or wire circlets, worn as ornaments round the
ankles; long double-edged knives in wooden sheaths, neatly whipped with
strips of rattan; and jembe or hoes. Of bells a dozen were purchased in
March and April of 1858 for two fundo of white beads. Jembe and large
sime averaged also two fundo. Of good sambo 100, and of the inferior
quality 200, were procurable for a fundo. The iron is imported in a
rough state from Uvira. The value of a goat was one shukkah, which here
represents, as in Unyamwezi, twelve feet, or double the length of the
shukkah in other regions, the single cloth being called lupande, or
upande. Sheep, all of a very inferior quality, cost somewhat more than
goats. A hen, or from five to six eggs, fetched one khete of samesame,
or red-coral beads, which are here worth three times the quantity of
white porcelain. Large fish, or those above two pounds in weight, were
sold for three khete; the small fry--the white bait of this region--one
khete per two pounds; and diminutive shrimps one khete per three pounds.
Of plantains, a small bunch of fifteen, and of sweet potatoes and yams
from ten to fifteen roots, were purchased for a khete; of artichokes,
egg-plants, and cucumbers, from fifty to one hundred. The wild
vegetables generically called mboga are the cheapest of these esculents.
Beans, phaseoli, ground-nuts, and the voandzeia, were expensive,
averaging about two pounds per khete. Rice is not generally grown in
Ujiji; a few measures of fine white grain were purchased at a fancy
price from one Sayfu bin Hasani, a pauper Msawahili, from the isle of
Chole, settled in the country. The sugar-cane is poor and watery, it was
sold in lengths of four or five feet for the khete: one cloth and two
khete purchased three pounds of fine white honey. Tobacco was
comparatively expensive. Of the former a shukkah procured a bag weighing
perhaps ten pounds. Milk was sold at arbitrary prices, averaging about
three teacups for the khete. A shukkah would procure three pounds of
butter, and ghee was not made for the market. It was impossible to find
sweet toddy, as the people never smoke nor clean the pots into which it
is drawn; of the acid and highly intoxicating drink used by the Wajiji,
from five to six teacups were to be bought with a khete. Firewood, being
imported, was expensive, a khete being the price of a little faggot
containing from fifty to one hundred sticks. About one pound of unclean
cotton was to be purchased for three khete of samesame. It must be
observed, that this list of prices, which represents the market at
Kawele, gives a high average, many of the articles being brought in
canoes from considerable distances, and even from the opposite coast.
The traveller in the Lake Regions loses by cloth; the people, contented
with softened skins and tree-bark, prefer beads, ornaments, and more
durable articles: on the other hand, he gains upon salt, which is
purchased at half-price at the Parugerero Pan, and upon large wires
brought from the coast. Beads are a necessary evil to those engaged in
purchasing ivory and slaves. In 1858 the Wajiji rejected with contempt
the black porcelains, called ububu. At first they would not receive the
khanyera, or white-porcelains; and afterwards, when the Expedition had
exchanged, at a considerable loss, their large stock for langiyo, or
small blues, they demanded the former. The bead most in fashion was the
mzizima, or large blue-glass, three khete of which were equivalent to a
small cloth; the samesame, or red-corals, required to be exchanged for
mzizima, of which one khete was an equivalent to three of samesame. The
maguru nzige, or pink porcelains, were at par. The tobacco-stem bead,
called sofi, and current at Msene, was in demand. The reader will
excuse the prolixity of these wearisome details, they are necessary
parts of a picture of manners and customs in Central Africa. Moreover, a
foreknowledge of the requirements of the people is a vital condition of
successful exploration. There is nothing to arrest the traveller’s
progress in this section of the African interior except the failure of
his stores.
A serious inconvenience awaits the inexperienced, who find a long halt
at, and a return from, Ujiji necessary. The Wanyamwezi pagazi, or
porters, hired at Unyanyembe, bring with them the cloth and beads which
they have received as hire for going to and coming from the lake, and
lose no time in bartering the outfit for ivory or slaves. Those who
prefer the former article will delay for some time with extreme
impatience and daily complaints, fearing to cross Uvinza in small bodies
when loaded with valuables. The purchasers of slaves, however, knowing
that they will inevitably lose them after a few days at Ujiji, desert at
once. In all cases, the report that a caravan is marching eastwards
causes a general disappearance of the porters. As the Wajiji will not
carry, the caravan is reduced to a halt, which may be protracted for
months, in fact, till another body of men coming from the east will
engage themselves as return porters. Moreover, the departure homewards
almost always partakes of the nature of a flight, so fearful are the
strangers lest their slaves should seize the opportunity to desert. The
Omani Arabs obviate these inconveniences by always travelling with large
bodies of domestics, whose interest it is not to abandon the master.
South of the Wajiji lie the Wakaranga, a people previously described as
almost identical in development and condition, but somewhat inferior in
energy and civilisation. Little need be said of the Wavinza, who appear
to unite the bad qualities of both the Wanyamwezi and the Ujiji. They
are a dark, meagre, and ill-looking tribe; poorly clad in skin aprons
and kilts. They keep off insects by inserting the chauri, or fly-flap,
into the waistband of their kilts: and at a distance they present, like
the Hottentots, the appearance of a race with tails. Their arms are
spears, bows, and arrows; and they use, unlike their neighbours,
wicker-work shields six feet long by two in breadth. Their chiefs are of
the Watosi race, hence every stranger who meets with their approbation
is called, in compliment, Mtosi. They will admit strangers into their
villages, dirty clumps of beehive huts; but they refuse to provide them
with lodging. Merchants with valuable outfits prefer the jungle, and
wait patiently for provisions brought in baskets from the settlements.
The Wavinza seldom muster courage to attack a caravan, but stragglers
are in imminent danger of being cut off by them. Their country is rich
in cattle and poultry, grain and vegetables. Bhang grows everywhere near
the settlements, and they indulge themselves in it immoderately.
The Watuta--a word of fear in these regions--are a tribe of robbers
originally settled upon the southern extremity of the Tanganyika Lake.
After plundering the lands of Marungu and Ufipa, where they almost
annihilated the cattle, the Watuta, rounding the eastern side of the
Lake, migrated northwards. Some years ago they were called in by Ironga,
the late Sultan of U’ungu, to assist him against Mui’ Gumbi, the
powerful chief of the Warori. The latter were defeated, after obstinate
fighting for many months. After conquering the Warori, the Watuta
settled in Sultan Ironga’s lands, rather by might than right, and they
were expelled by his son with the greatest difficulty. From U’ungu their
next step was to the southern bank of the Malagarazi River. About three
years ago this restless tribe was summoned by Mzogera, the present
Sultan of Uvinza, to assist him in seizing Uhha, which had just lost
T’háre, its chief. The Watuta crossed the Malagarazi, laid waste the
lands of Uhha and Ubuha, and desolated the northern region between the
river and the lake. Shortly afterwards they attacked Msene, and were
only repulsed by the matchlocks of the Arabs, after a week of hard
skirmishing. In the early part of 1858 they slew Ruhembe, the Sultan of
Usui, a district north of Unyanyembe, upon the road to Karagwah. In the
latter half of the same year they marched upon Ujiji, plundered Gungu,
and proceeded to attack Kawele. The Arab merchants, however, who were
then absent on a commercial visit to Uviva, returned precipitately to
defend their depôts, and with large bodies of slave musketeers beat off
the invader. The lands of the Watuta are now bounded on the north by
Utumbara, on the south by Msene; eastwards by the meridian of
Wilyankuru, and westwards by the highlands of Urundi.
The Watuta, according to the Arabs, are a pastoral tribe, despising,
like the Wamasai and the Somal, such luxuries as houses and fields; they
wander from place to place, camping under trees, over which they throw
their mats, and driving their herds and plundered cattle to the most
fertile pasture-grounds. The dress is sometimes a mbugu or bark-cloth;
more generally it is confined to the humblest tribute paid to decency by
the Kafirs of the Cape, and they have a similar objection to removing
it. On their forays they move in large bodies, women as well as men,
with the children and baggage placed upon bullocks, and their wealth in
brass wire twisted round the horns. Their wives carry their weapons, and
join, it is said, in the fight. The arms are two short spears, one in
the right hand, the other in the left, concealed by a large shield, so
that they can thrust upwards unawares: disdaining bows and arrows, they
show their superior bravery by fighting at close quarters, and they
never use the spear as an assegai. In describing their tactics, the
Arabs call them “manœuvrers like the Franks.” Their thousands march in
four or five extended lines, and attack by attempting to envelop the
enemy. There is no shouting nor war-cry to distract the attention of the
combatants: iron whistles are used for the necessary signals. During the
battle the sultan, or chief, whose ensign is a brass stool, sits
attended by his forty or fifty elders in the rear; his authority is
little more than nominal, the tribe priding itself upon autonomy. The
Watuta rarely run away, and take no thought of their killed and wounded.
They do not, like the ancient Jews, and the Gallas and Abyssinians of
the present day, carry off a relic of the slain foe; in fact, the custom
seems to be ignored south of the equator. The Watuta have still however
a wholesome fear of fire-arms, and the red flag of a caravan causes them
to decamp without delay. According to the Arabs they are not
inhospitable, and though rough in manner they have always received
guests with honour. A fanciful trait is related concerning them: their
first question to a stranger will be, “Didst thou see me from
afar?”--which, being interpreted, means, Did you hear of my greatness
before coming here?--and they hold an answer in the negative to be a
casus belli.
Remain for consideration the people of Ubuha and Uhha. The Wabuha is a
small and insignificant tribe bounded on the north by Uhha, and on the
south by the Malagarazi River: the total breadth is about three marches;
the length, from the Rusugi stream of the Wavinza to the frontiers of
Ujiji and Ukaranga, is in all a distance of four days. Their principal
settlement is Uyonwa, the district of Sultan Mariki: it is a mere
clearing in the jungle, with a few pauper huts dotting fields of sweet
potatoes. This harmless and oppressed people will sell provisions, but
though poor they are particular upon the subject of beads, preferring
coral and blue to the exclusion of black and white. They are a dark,
curly-headed, and hard-favoured race: they wear the shushah or top-knot
on the poll, dress in skins and tree-barks, ornament themselves with
brass and copper armlets, ivory disks, and beads, and are never without
their weapons, spears and assegais, sime or daggers, and small
battle-axes. Honourable women wear tobes of red broadcloth and fillets
of grass or fibre confining the hair.
Uhha, written by Mr. Cooley Oha, was formerly a large tract of land
bounded on the north by the mountains of Urundi, southwards and
eastwards by the Malagarazi River, and on the west by the northern parts
of Ujiji. As has been recounted, the Wahha dispersed by the Watuta have
dispersed themselves over the broad lands between Unyanyembe and the
Tanganyika, and their own fertile country, well stocked with the finest
cattle, has become a waste of jungle. A remnant of the tribe, under
Kanoni, their present Sultan, son of the late T’háre, took refuge in
the highlands of Urundi, not far from the principal settlement of the
mountain king Mwezí: here they find water and pasture for their herds,
and the strength of the country enables them to beat off their enemies.
The Wahha are a comparatively fair and a not uncomely race; they are
however universally held to be a vile and servile people; according to
the Arabs they came originally from the southern regions, the most
ancient seat of slavery in E. Africa. Their Sultans or chiefs are of
Wahinda or princely origin, probably descendants from the regal race of
Unyamwezi. Wahha slaves sell dearly at Msene; an adult male costs from
five to six doti merkani, and a full-grown girl one gorah merkani or
kaniki.
[Illustration: Head Dresses of Wanyamwezi.]
CHAP. XIV.
WE EXPLORE THE TANGANYIKA LAKE.
My first care after settling in Hamid’s Tembe, was to purify the floor
by pastiles of assafœtida, and fumigations of gunpowder; my second was
to prepare the roof for the rainy season. Improvement, however,
progressed slowly; the “children” of Said bin Salim were too lazy to
work; and the Wanyamwezi porters, having expended their hire in slaves,
and fearing loss by delay, took the earliest opportunity of deserting.
By the aid of a Msawahili artisan, I provided a pair of cartels, with
substitutes for chairs and tables. Benches of clay were built round the
rooms, but they proved useless, being found regularly every morning
occupied in force by a swarming, struggling colony, of the largest white
ants. The roof, long overgrown with tall grass, was fortified with an
extra coat of mud; it never ceased, however, leaking like a colander;
presently the floor was covered with deep puddles, then masses of earth
dropped from the sopped copings and sides of the solid walls, and, at
last, during the violent showers, half the building fell in. The
consequence of the extreme humidity was, that every book which had
English paste in it was rendered useless by decay; writing was rendered
illegible by stains and black mildew; moreover, during my absence,
whilst exploring the Lake, Said bin Salim having neglected to keep a
fire, as was ordered, constantly burning in the house, a large botanical
collection was irretrievably lost. This was the more regretable as our
return to the coast took place during the dry season, when the woods
were bare of leaf, flower, and fruit.
On the second day after my arrival I was called upon by “Kannena,” the
headman of Kawele, under Rusimba, the Mwami, or principal chief of
Ujiji. I had heard a bad account of the former. His predecessor, Kabeza,
a great favourite with the Arabs, had died about two months before we
entered Kawele, leaving a single son, hardly ten years old, and Kannena,
a slave, having the art to please the widows of the deceased, and,
through them, the tribe, caused himself to be elected temporary headman
during the heir’s minority. He was introduced habited in silk turban and
broadcloth coat, which I afterwards heard he had borrowed from the
Baloch, in order to put in a prepossessing first appearance. The effort,
however, failed; his aspect was truly ignoble; a short, squat, and
broad-backed figure, with natural “plumpers,” a black skin cut and
carved in various patterns, thick straight, stumpy, legs, and huge splay
feet; his low narrow brow was ever knotted into a peevish frown, his
apology for a nose much resembled the pug with which the ancients
provided Silenus, and a villanous expression lurked about the depressed
corners of his thick-lipped, sensual, liquorish mouth. On this occasion
he behaved with remarkable civility, and he introduced, as the envoys
commissioned by the great Rusimba to receive his blackmail, two
gentlemen a quarter-clad in the greasiest and scantiest bark-aprons, and
armed with dwarfish battle-axes. The present was finally settled at ten
coil-bracelets and two fundi of coral-beads. I had no salt--the first
article in demand--to spare, or much valuable merchandise might have
been saved. The return was six small bundles of grain, worth, probably,
one-tenth of what had been received. Then Kannena opened trade by
sending us a nominal gift, a fine ivory, weighing at least seventy
pounds, and worth, perhaps, one hundred pounds, or nearly two mens’
loads of the white or blue-porcelain beads used in this traffic. After
keeping it for a day or two, I returned it, excusing myself by saying
that, having visited the Tanganyika as a “Sarkal,” I could have no
dealings in ivory and slaves.
This was right and proper in the character of a “Sarkal.” But future
adventurers are strongly advised always to assume the character of
traders. In the first place, it explains the traveller’s motives to the
people, who otherwise lose themselves in a waste of wild conjecture.
Secondly, under this plea, the explorer can push forward into unknown
countries; he will be civilly received, and lightly fined, because the
hosts expect to see him or his semblables again; whereas, appearing
without ostensible motive amongst them, he would be stripped of his
last cloth by recurring confiscations, fines, and every annoyance which
greed of gain can suggest. Thus, as the sequel will prove, he loses more
by overcharges than by the trifling outlay necessary to support the
character of a trader. He travels respectably as a “Mundewa” or “Tajir,”
a merchant, which is ever the highest title given by the people to
strangers; and he can avoid exciting the jealousy of the Arabs by
exchanging his tusks with them at a trifling loss when comforts or
provisions are required for the road.