THE MONBUTTOO. Previous accounts of the Monbuttoo. Population.
Surrounding nations. Neglect of agriculture. Products of the
soil. Produce of the chase. Forms of greeting. Preparation
of food. Universal cannibalism. National pride and warlike
spirit. Power of the sovereign. His habits. The royal household.
Advanced culture of the Monbuttoo. Peculiarities of race. Fair
hair and complexion. Analogy to the Fulbe. Preparation of bark.
Nudity of the women. Painting of the body. _Coiffure_ of men
and women. Mutilation not practised. Equipment of warriors.
Manipulation of iron. Early knowledge of copper. Probable
knowledge of platinum. Tools. Wood-carving. Stools and benches.
Symmetry of water-bottles. Large halls. Love of ornamental
trees. Conception of Supreme Being.
It was in December 1868, just before starting from Khartoom, that I
received, in a somewhat circuitous way, the first intelligence of a
people called the Monbuttoo, who were said to dwell to the south of
the Niam-niam. Dr. Ori, the chief official physician at Khartoom, in
a letter to the Marquis Antinori, had detailed all the most recent
particulars of the ivory traffic in the remote districts south of
the Gazelle, and had specially referred to the transactions of Jules
Poncet. These particulars were published without much delay in the
journal of the Geographical Association of Paris; and I chanced to find
Dr. Ori’s letter quoted entire in the Italian Geographical Society’s
‘Bolletino,’ which was transmitted to me by the Marquis Antinori
himself just before I was setting out on my expedition.
[Sidenote: NATIONAL FEATURES OF THE MONBUTTOO.]
Although the intelligence conveyed by Ori and Poncet failed utterly in
giving either clearness or consistency to the confused depositions of
those ignorant and uninformed men who had been their authorities, it
still had the intrinsic merit of enlarging the domain of geographical
knowledge by some matters of fact which it was reserved for me
individually to confirm by my own observation. It laid down as facts,
first, that to the south of the Niam-niam territory there is a river
flowing towards the west;[19] secondly, that this river is not
tributary to the Nile; and, thirdly, that its banks are populated by a
race quite distinct from the ordinary negro race, its inhabitants being
of a brownish complexion, and exhibiting a grade of civilization which
is considerably in advance of what is elsewhere found in Central Africa.
These people were designated by the name of the Monbuttoo, and by the
ivory traders they were known as Gurru-gurroo, a definition that is
derived from an Arabic word which refers to their universal habit of
piercing their ears.
No sooner had I really reached the district of the Gazelle than I
discovered from my conversation and intercourse with the leaders of
the ivory traffic that the Monbuttoo were regarded as holding a very
peculiar and prominent place. Their country never failed to furnish
a theme of general praise. It was declared to be prolific in ivory;
it was profuse in its natural products; the pomp of its sovereign was
unrivalled; but, above all, the skill of its people, in the fabrication
alike of their weapons for war and their utensils for peace, was
assumed to be so striking that they were comparable to the denizens of
the civilized west, and that in some respects the Franks themselves did
not surpass them in the exercise of an æsthetic faculty.
That I might succeed in making my way onwards to the territory of this
problematical people, naturally became more and more my impatient
and ardent desire; and it will readily be understood how eagerly
I recognised Aboo Sammat as offered by a propitious fate to be the
conductor upon whom I might rely for being introduced to a closer view
of this undefined race, which might be likened in a way to a nebula
in the geographical firmament. Very much I now rejoice at being in a
position to submit, upon the evidence of my own observation, a somewhat
detailed account of this race, who may be described as constituting a
sort of remote island of humanity. Surrounded as it is by the waves of
fluctuating nationalities, it is, as it were, an “_ultima Thule_” of
geographical research; or perhaps still more appropriately it might be
likened to a boulder thrown up from a lower formation, and exhibiting
a development of indigenous culture, entirely different to what can be
witnessed all around.
The territory of the Monbuttoo, as it lies in the heart of Africa,
does not cover an area of more than 4000 square miles, but the ratio
of the census of its population is hardly exceeded by any region of
the entire continent. Estimating the density of the people by the
districts through which we travelled, and observing that cultivated
farms followed upon cultivated farms, without a barren spot between,
I suppose that there are at least 250 inhabitants to the square mile,
which would give an aggregate population of about a million. The
position of the country is embraced very nearly between the parallels
of 3° and 4° north latitude, and 28° and 29° east longitude from
Greenwich. To the north of the country there is a large river, usually
copious in its stream, called the Keebaly. This is joined by the Gadda,
which flows from the south-east. After the junction it is known as
the Welle, and has a breadth of about 800 feet, whilst never, even in
the driest season, does its depth diminish to less than fifteen feet.
It proceeds to the west along the southern portion of the adjoining
Niam-niam district, and being swollen by the accession of numerous
tributaries from the southern districts of the Monbuttoo, it very
rapidly assumes its large dimensions. Beyond a doubt it is the upper
course of the most easterly of the two arms which, after they have
united in Baghirmy, flow onwards under the name of the Shary, that
river to which Lake Tsad owes its existence.
[Sidenote: MONBUTTOO GOVERNMENT.]
There are two chieftains who, with regard to the extent of their
dominions and the numerical strength of their armed forces (for their
sway extends far beyond the populous districts of the Monbuttoo), may
well be designated as kings. They have partitioned the sovereignty
between them: the eastern division being subject to Degberra, the
western division is governed by Munza, who exercises a much more
powerful control; he is a son of King Tikkiboh, who had once enjoyed
the undivided rule over the entire Monbuttoo land, but thirteen years
previously had been murdered by his brother Degberra.
Sub-chieftains or viceroys are distributed over various sections of
the country, and these are accustomed to surround themselves with a
retinue and state little inferior to those of the kings themselves. In
Munza’s realms there are three of these dignitaries; viz. his brothers
Izingerria, Mummery, and Nooma; subordinate to Degberra there are his
four sons, Kubby, Benda, Koopa, and Yangara.
The country of the Niam-niam constitutes the northern and north-western
boundaries of the Monbuttoo. This comprises the territories of Kanna
and Indimma, sons of the once powerful Keefa, and, farther on, the
district of Malingde or Marindo, which approaches in an easterly
direction more towards the territory of Wando; each of these countries
are, however, separated by wildernesses which it requires two days
to cross. The southern limits of the Monbuttoo are enclosed, as it
were, by a semicircle of typical negroes, whom they embrace in the
comprehensive definition of “Momvoo,” a disdainful epithet implying
the extremity of their degradation. From this category we are possibly
called upon to exclude in this quarter (as perchance in every other
region of Africa) those isolated races of dwarfs, familiarly known
as “Pygmies,” of which the Akka, who reside in the S.S.W., and have
their abodes close to the confines of the kingdom of Munza, may be
quoted as examples. The bulk of this apparently thickly-peopled race is
subject to independent chieftains, but there is one section which is
tributary to Munza in so far as this, that it makes its contributary
payments to Mummery, as being Munza’s vicegerent. According to the
depositions of some Nubians who have been stationed for some years
past in the Monbuttoo country, the language of the Babuckur is found
to be spoken among the Momvoo. To support their opinion the Nubians
affirm that women-slaves brought from Babuckur have always been found
able to converse with the natives of the land just to the south of
the Monbuttoo; a circumstance which is not without its signification
as explaining the most recent migration of nations into this part of
Africa. Since the two _enclaves_ of Babuckur on the eastern boundaries
of the Niam-niam appear only to be removed from each other by an
interval of sixty miles and to be hemmed in by hostile neighbours, the
fact, taken in connection with the above, may serve to demonstrate that
Monbuttoo and Niam-niam alike must have been advancing in an easterly
direction.
Munza’s neighbours towards the south-west and south of the kingdom of
Kanna are the Mabohde. This is a people whom Keefa, Kanna’s father
(known also as Ntikkima), was accustomed to harass in war till he
met with his own death. Farther on towards the S.S.W., and separated
from Munza by the Mabohde and the Akka, there lies the district of
the Massanza, a tribe which is held in subjection by the formidable
hand of Kizzo. To the south and south-east are found the Nemeigeh, the
Bissangah, and the Domondoo, tenanting a mountainous region, which
not improbably is the western declivity of that important mountainous
formation to which Baker, in describing the north-west of Lake Mwootan,
has referred under the name of the Blue Mountains. The settlements of
the Domondoo are the usual limits to which the Monbuttoo are accustomed
to carry their plundering expeditions. Some Nubian soldiers who had
been quartered in the country of Munza, and who had accompanied
him in some of his marauding exploits have given a description of
the general mountainous character of the land, and, moreover, have
asserted that goats, which are known neither to the Niam-niam nor to
the Monbuttoo, have been captured there in great numbers. The Babuckur
also, notwithstanding the frequent incursions which their neighbours,
ever greedy of animal diet, have made upon their over-populated and
oppressed communities, are always found in possession of herds of goats
so numerous that they might be described as inexhaustible. Many days’
journey to the south and south-east of Munza’s realms are the abodes of
the Maoggoo, over whom a powerful sovereign exercises his authority,
and who seems to have various transactions with Munza, if I may judge
from the splendid cattle which had been sent him as a present. Maoggoo
is not improbably the same as Malegga, the appellation of a people,
which appears in Baker’s map to the west of the Blue Mountains in an
extensive country (Ulegga), of which it is affirmed that the king is
named Kadjoro, and that the population is especially devoted to the
breeding of cattle.
[Sidenote: THE MONBUTTOO TERRITORY.]
Having thus minutely taken a survey of the surroundings of the
Monbuttoo, we may in the next place proceed to observe the land itself,
regarding it as the substance of the picture of which we have been thus
accurately surveying the background.
The Monbuttoo land greets us as an Eden upon earth. Unnumbered groves
of plantains bedeck the gently-heaving soil; oil-palms, incomparable
in beauty, and other monarchs of the stately woods, rise up and spread
their glory over the favoured scene; along the streams there is a
bright expanse of charming verdure, whilst a grateful shadow ever
overhangs the domes of the idyllic huts. The general altitude of the
soil ranges from 2500 to 2800 feet above the level of the sea: it
consists of alternate depressions, along which the rivulets make their
way, and gentle elevations, which gradually rise till they are some
hundred feet above the beds of the streams below. Upon the whole the
soil may be described as far more diversified in character than what is
observed in the eastern parts of the Niam-niam land. Like it is there,
it is rich in springs, wherever there are depressions, and in a network
of “desaguaderos” associated with the watercourses, and justifies the
comparison that has already been suggested between the entire land and
a well-soaked sponge, which yields countless streams to the pressure
of the hand. Belonging to one of the most recent formations, and
still in process of construction, the ferruginous swamp-ore is found
very widely diffused over the Monbuttoo country, and indeed extends
considerably farther to the south, so that the red earth appears to
be nearly universal over the greater part of the highlands of Central
Africa. The denser population has involved, as might be expected, more
frequent clearances for the sake of establishing plantain groves, and
promoting the culture of maize and sugar-canes, but even here in the
deeper valleys trees grow to such a prodigious height, and exhibit
such an enormous girth, that they could not be surpassed by any that
could be found throughout the entire Nile region of the north. Beneath
the imposing shelter of these giants other forms grow up and, rising
one above another, stand in mingled confusion. In its external and
general aspect the country corresponds with the description which Speke
has given of Uganda; but the customs of the inhabitants of that land,
their difference of race, and their seclusion from all intercourse with
commercial nations stamp them as being of a type which is of a very
contrasted character.
[Sidenote: MONBUTTOO PRODUCE.]
It seems almost to involve a contradiction to give the title of
agriculturists to a people whose existence indeed depends upon the easy
securing of fruits and tubers, but who abhor the trouble of growing
cereals. Sorghum and penicillaria, which are the common food of the
population in nearly the whole of Central Africa, are absolutely
uncared for amongst the Monbuttoo; eleusine is only grown occasionally,
and maize, which is known as “Nendoh,” is cultivated quite as an
exception in the immediate proximity of their dwellings, where it is
treated as a garden vegetable. The growth of their plantain (_Musa
sapientium_) gives them very little trouble; the young shoots are
stuck in the ground after it has been slackened by the rain; the old
plants are suffered to die down just as they are; and this is all the
cultivation that is vouchsafed. In the propagation of these plantains,
however, the Monbuttoo have a certain knack of discrimination for
which they might be envied by any European gardener: they can judge
whether a young shoot is capable of bearing fruit or not, and this
gives them an immense advantage in selecting only such shoots as are
worth the trouble of planting. They are not accustomed to bestow any
greater amount of attention to the planting either of the tubers of
their manioc (or cassava), their sweet-potatoes, their yams (neggoo),
or their colocasiæ. A very limited range of plants embraces the whole
of what they take the pains to cultivate, and that cultivation is all
accomplished in the narrowest bounds. The entire produce is summed
up in their sesame (mbellemoh), their earth-nuts, their sugar-canes,
and especially their tobacco. The Virginian tobacco is the only kind
which is seen; it is called Eh Tobboo, its name betraying its American
origin. The _Nicotiana rustica_, which is of such constant growth
amongst the Bongo, Dyoor, and Dinka, is here entirely unknown.
Very little care, moreover, is given to the sugar-cane, which may be
found amid the thinned woods that line the banks of the rivers. It
is grown only as a sort of delicacy, being found nowhere in any great
quantity, and its quality is far from good. One ever-thriving supply,
which is of the utmost importance for maintaining the population, is
provided in all the valleys by the cassava (_Manihot utilissima_);
but the cultivation of the sweet-potato, equally extensive as it is,
demands a somewhat more careful attention, requiring the sunny soil of
the upper slopes of the valleys above the line of the plantain groves
and nearest to the edge of the depressions. Both sweet-potatoes and
cassava here attain the very fullest standard of perfection, as far as
regards either size or quality. But the staple food is the plantain.
This is generally gathered in a green condition, dried, ground into
meal, and boiled to a pulp; occasionally, but not so often, it is dried
after it is ripe for the purpose of being kept for a longer time. Very
few countries of the world have a soil and atmosphere so favourable as
these for insuring the abundant produce of this serviceable plant. The
fruit when dried is a very choice delicacy, but any fermented drink
made from plantains I found to be almost unknown among the Monbuttoo.
Owing to the thorough isolation in which the Monbuttoo have lived,
holding no intercourse with Mohammedan or Christian nations, the art
of weaving has not found its way amongst them, and woven material
is consequently nowhere to be seen. Their clothing, as in many
other regions of Central Africa, is contributed by their fig-trees
(_Urostigma Kotschyana_), of which the bast from the bark, with
the help of some strings and shreds, is worked into a substantial
and enduring fabric. Hardly a hut can be seen that is without its
own fig-trees, which, however, will not grow without due care and
cultivation. The people are never known to wear skins attached to their
girdles after the fashion of the Niam-niam; the only occasion when
skins are worn being when they are made into a fancy dress for dancers.
On the south of the Welle there is a very extensive cultivation of the
oil-palm (_Elais guineensis_). It is a tree that, although common to
the west coasts, has not hitherto been found in the Nile districts, and
consequently, like the cola-nuts, which the wealthier of the Monbuttoo
are accustomed to chew, it yields a significant evidence of the western
associations of the people.
[Sidenote: MONBUTTOO HUNTING.]
Every kind of cattle-breeding is quite unfamiliar to them; and if the
common little dogs known as the “nessy” of the Niam-niam breed be
excepted, and no account be taken of their poultry (“naahle”), the
Monbuttoo may be said to be absolutely without domestic animals at all.
In a half tame state they keep, as I have said, the potamochœrus, which
is their only representative of the swine family. From the marauding
excursions with which they harass their southern neighbours they bring
back a prodigious number of goats, but they make no attempt to rear
them for themselves. Their hunting expeditions supply them with meat
enough for their requirements, their taste leading them to give the
preference to the flesh of elephants, buffaloes, wild boars, and the
larger kinds of antelopes. Although the denseness of the population
precludes any such increase of game of this kind as is universal in the
more northern and less cultivated regions of Central Africa, yet the
yield of their chase would be adequate for their own wants, because the
abundance of their supply at certain seasons is very great, and they
have the art of preserving it so that it remains fit for food for a
very considerable time. With this fact capable of being substantiated,
it is altogether a fallacy to pretend to represent that the Monbuttoo
are driven to cannibalism through the lack of ordinary meat. To judge
from Munza’s accumulated store of ivory, which is the result of the
combined exploits of all the men in his dominions capable of bearing
arms, the provision of elephant’s meat alone must be sufficient to keep
his people amply supplied. Nor should the immense quantity of poultry
be forgotten, as there is hardly a dwelling that is not conspicuous for
having a considerable stock, in the same way as dogs are an especial
subject of interest amongst the Niam-niam, who have a very decided
partiality for the flesh of that animal.
A bird very common in the Monbuttoo lands is the grey parrot
(_Psittacus erythacus_), which is very eagerly sought by the natives,
who not only adorn their heads with the bright red feathers from its
tail, but have a great relish for its savoury flesh. Other sport in
the way of birds is very inconsiderable, guinea-fowls, francolins,
and bustards being all caught by means of snares. The herb _Tephrosia
Vogelii_[20] is cultivated in nearly all the villages for the purpose
of poisoning fish, and the fish that is thus secured forms a very
considerable addition to the supply of food.
Whilst the women attend to the tillage of the soil and the gathering
of the harvest, the men, except they are absent either for war or
hunting, spend the entire day in idleness. In the early hours of the
morning they may be found under the shade of the oil-palms, lounging
at full length upon their carved benches and smoking tobacco. During
the middle of the day they gossip with their friends in the cool halls,
which serve for general concourse, where they may be seen gesticulating
vigorously to give full force to their sentiments. The action of the
Monbuttoo in speaking exhibits several singularities, as, for example,
their manner of expressing astonishment by putting their hand before
their open mouth, very much in the same way as a person does when he is
gaping. It has been said that the North American Indians have the habit
of showing their surprise in the same way.
Smiths’ work, of course, is done by the men, but, just as in most
other parts of Africa, the pottery is exclusively made by the women.
Wood-carving and basket-weaving are performed indifferently by either
sex. Musical instruments are not touched by the women.
The universal form of salutation consists in holding out the right
hand, and saying, “Gassiggy,” and at the same time cracking the joints
of the middle fingers.
[Sidenote: MONBUTTOO WOMEN.]
The two sexes conduct themselves towards each other with an excessive
freedom. The women in this respect are very different to the modest
and retiring women of the Niam-niam, and are beyond measure obtrusive
and familiar. Their inquisitiveness was a daily nuisance: they watched
me into the depth of the woods, they pestered me by flocking round
my tent, and it was a difficult matter to get a bath without being
stared at. Towards their husbands they exhibit the highest degree of
independence. The position in the household occupied by the men was
illustrated by the reply which would be made if they were solicited to
sell anything as a curiosity, “Oh, ask my wife: it is hers.”
Polygamy is unlimited. The daily witness of the Nubians only too
plainly testified that fidelity to the obligations of marriage was
little known. Not a few of the women were openly obscene. Their general
demeanour surprised me very much when I considered the comparative
advance of their race in the arts of civilization. Their immodesty far
surpassed anything that I had observed in the very lowest of the negro
tribes, and contrasted most unfavourably with the sobriety of the Bongo
women, who are submissive to their husbands and yet not servile. The
very scantiness of the clothing of the Monbuttoo women has no excuse.
Carved benches are the ordinary seats of the men, but the women
generally use stools that have but one foot. On the occasion of paying
a visit or going to a public gathering the men make their slaves carry
their benches for them, as it is their custom never to sit upon the
ground, not even when it has been covered with mats.
The care that is given to the preparation of their food is very
considerable, and betokens their higher grade of culture. The unripe
produce of the plantain and the manioc, that in all districts is
ready at their hand without the trouble of cultivation, make good the
deficiency of corn. Their mode of treating manioc is precisely the
same as that which is adopted in South America for the purpose of
extracting the fine flour called tapioca. For spices they make use of
the capsicum, the malaghetta pepper, and the fruit of two hitherto
unspecified Solaneæ, and for which I regret that I cannot select the
name of _S. anthropophagorum_, because it has been already assigned
to the “cannibal salad” of the Fiji Islanders. The flavour of both
these is very revolting, having a detestable twang, something between
a tomato and a melongena. Mushrooms are also in common use for the
preparation of their sauces.
All their food is prepared by the admixture of oil from the oil-palms.
In its unpurified condition when first expressed from the pods, this
oil is of a bright red colour, and of a somewhat thick consistency; for
a few days it has an agreeable taste, which, however, soon passes off
and leaves a decided rankness. By subsequently submitting the kernels
to fire, a coarse, inflammable oil is obtained, which is used for the
purpose of lighting their huts. Other vegetable oils in considerable
abundance are obtained from earth-nuts, from sesame, and from the fruit
of a forest-tree, _Lophira alata_. From the fat thick bodies of the
male white ants they boil out a greasy substance which is bright and
transparent, and has a taste perfectly unobjectionable.
[Sidenote: MONBUTTOO CANNIBALISM.]
But of most universal employment amongst them is human fat, and this
brings our observations to the climax of their culinary practices. The
cannibalism of the Monbuttoo is the most pronounced of all the known
nations of Africa. Surrounded as they are by a number of people who are
blacker than themselves, and who, being inferior to them in culture,
are consequently held in great contempt, they have just the opportunity
which they want for carrying on expeditions of war or plunder, which
result in the acquisition of a booty, which is especially coveted by
them, consisting of human flesh. The carcases of all who fall in battle
are distributed upon the battle-field, and are prepared by drying for
transport to the homes of the conquerors. They drive their prisoners
before them without remorse, as butchers would drive sheep to the
shambles, and these are only reserved to fall victims on a later day
to their horrible and sickening greediness. During our residence at
the court of Munza the general rumour was quite current that nearly
every day some little child was sacrificed to supply his meal. It
would hardly be expected that many opportunities should be afforded
to strangers of witnessing the natives at their repast, and to myself
there occurred only two instances when I came upon any of them whilst
they were actually engaged in preparing human flesh for consumption.
The first of these happened by my coming unexpectedly upon a number of
young women who had a supply of boiling water upon the clay floor in
front of the doorway of a hut, and were engaged in the task of scalding
the hair off the lower half of a human body. The operation, as far as
it was effected, had changed the black skin into a fawny grey, and the
disgusting sight could not fail to make me think of the soddening and
scouring of our fatted swine. On another occasion I was in a hut and
observed a human arm hanging over the fire, obviously with the design
of being at once dried and smoked.
Incontrovertible tokens and indirect evidences of the prevalence of
cannibalism were constantly turning up at every step we took. On one
occasion Mohammed and myself were in Munza’s company, and Mohammed
designedly turned the conversation to the topic of human flesh, and
put the direct question to the king how it happened that just at this
precise time while we were in the country there was no consumption of
human food. Munza expressly said that being aware that such a practice
was held in aversion by us, he had taken care that it should only be
carried on in secret.
As I have said, there was no opportunity for strangers to observe the
habits of the Monbuttoo at their meals; the Bongo and Mittoo of our
caravan were carefully excluded by them as being uncircumcised, and
therefore reckoned as “savages;” whilst the religious scruples of the
Nubians prevented them from even partaking of any food in common with
cannibals. Nevertheless the instances that I have mentioned are in
themselves sufficient to show that the Monbuttoo are far more addicted
to cannibalism than their hunting neighbours, the Niam-niam. They do
not constitute the first example of anthropophagi who are in a far
higher grade of culture than many savages who persistently repudiate
the enjoyment of human flesh (for example, the Fiji Islanders and the
Caraïbs). It is needless for me to recount the personal experiences
of the Nubian mercenaries who have accompanied the Monbuttoo on their
marauding expeditions, or to describe how these people obtain their
human fat, or again to detail the processes of cutting the flesh
into long strips and drying it over the fire in its preparation for
consumption. The numerous skulls now in the Anatomical Museum in Berlin
are simply the remains of their repasts which I purchased one after
another for bits of copper, and go far to prove that the cannibalism of
the Monbuttoo is unsurpassed by any nation in the world. But with it
all, the Monbuttoo are a noble race of men; men who display a certain
national pride, and are endowed with an intellect and judgment such as
few natives of the African wilderness can boast; men to whom one may
put a reasonable question, and who will return a reasonable answer.
The Nubians can never say enough in praise of their faithfulness in
friendly intercourse and of the order and stability of their national
life. According to the Nubians, too, the Monbuttoo were their superiors
in the arts of war, and I often heard the resident soldiers contending
with their companions and saying, “Well, perhaps you are not afraid of
the Monbuttoo, but I confess that I am; and I can tell you they are
something to be afraid of.”
[Sidenote: A MONBUTTOO AMAZON.]
As matter of fact the Khartoom traders, some years before, had had a
definite trial of arms with the Monbuttoo. Shortly after his accession
to power, Munza had of his own accord and by a special embassy invited
Aboo Sammat to extend his transactions beyond their present limits in
Nganye’s and Wando’s territories; but in the year previous to that,
the Nubian merchant Abderahman Aboo Guroon, having endeavoured to
penetrate from Keefa’s dominions into the Monbuttoo lands, was attacked
on the north of the Welle by the Monbuttoo forces, who opposed his
advances upon their territory. At that time Munza’s father, Tikkiboh,
had absolute rule in the country, and the achievements of his daughter
Nalengbe, a sister of the present king, are still fresh in the memory
of all who were present at the engagement; eye-witnesses gave me
detailed accounts of the exploits of this veritable Amazon, whom I
have mentioned before, and related how, in full armour, with shield
and lance, and girded with the rokko apron of a man, she had with the
utmost bravery led on the Monbuttoo troops, who then for the first time
came in contact with firearms; and how her exertions were attended
with a complete success, the adventurous Aboo Guroon being repulsed
with considerable loss, and forced to relinquish altogether his design
of entering the country. In the following year, 1867, Mohammed Aboo
Sammat, invited as I have said by the king himself, crossed the Welle
and entered the land, thus, as the first explorer, opening the ivory
traffic under conditions of peace, which have ever since remained
undisturbed.
The Monbuttoo potentates enjoy far higher prerogatives than the
Niam-niam princes. Besides the monopoly of the ivory, they claim
regular contributions from the products of the soil. In addition to
his special body-guard, the sovereign is always surrounded by a large
body of courtiers, whilst an immense number of civil officers and
local overseers maintain the regal dignity in the various districts
of the land. Munza’s three brothers, Izingerria, Mummery, and Nooma,
perform the office of viceroys, and subordinate to these again are
sub-chieftains of the second rank, who act as governors of provinces.
Next in rank to the sub-chieftains, who are generally chosen from the
numerous members of the blood-royal, are the principal officers of
state. These are five in number: the keeper of the weapons, the master
of the ceremonies, the superintendent of the commissariat stores, the
master of the household to the royal ladies, and the interpreter for
intercourse with strangers and foreign rulers.
Munza never leaves his residence without being accompanied by several
hundred of his retinue, and, in token of his dignity, a long array of
drummers, trumpeters, and couriers with great iron bells are sent at
the head of the procession. The harem, in the immediate vicinity of
the palace, consists of eighty young ladies, who, with their attendant
women slaves, occupy as many huts erected in a wide circuit within
the precincts of the royal halls and private apartments. Enclosed by
these huts is a smooth and ample space, where the well-trodden red
soil offers a fine contrast to the deep green foliage of the groups
of oil-palms, bread-fruit trees, cordiæ, trumpet-trees, urostigmæ,
and other trees by which it is overshadowed. Munza holds his councils
in the great halls, and on appointed days grants audiences, and
occasionally gives one of the extensive feasts, accompanied by music
and dancing, such as I have already described.
[Sidenote: THE ROYAL WIVES.]
The royal ladies are divided, according to age and seniority, into
several classes. The elder matrons occupy villages built for their
accommodation at some distance from the residence; their number
amounts to several hundred, for, besides his own wives of the first
and second rank, Munza is bound to maintain the ladies inherited from
his father, and even those belonging to a deceased brother. It is a
long-established African custom that at a king’s death his wives should
fall to the lot of his successor, who never fails to annex to their
number a large addition of his own. In the sixteenth century the wives
of the King of Loango were estimated at 7000.
Whenever at night the king leaves his private apartments to visit
his wives, the place re-echoes with the shouts of the courtiers,
accompanied by the strains of horns and kettledrums, and then, too, may
be heard the Monbuttoo hymn, “Ee, ee, Munza, tchuppy, tchuppy, ee.”
Eye-witnesses state that the king spends his night in passing from
one hut to another, and without favouring any with an especially long
visit; but it is all done in the strictest _incognito_ and under cover
of the darkness. Besides the courtiers, the royal household contains
many officials appointed to some peculiar functions; there are the
private musicians, trumpeters and buglers, whose productions testify
to the time and labour spent upon their acquirement; there are eunuchs
and jesters, ballad-singers and dancers, who combine to increase the
splendour of the court, and to provide general amusement for the festal
gatherings. In addition to these there are numbers of stewards, who
keep order at the feasts and, by a free use of their rods, restrain the
over-obtrusiveness of the younger portion of the community.
The king’s private residence consists of a group of several large huts,
each of which is set apart for one of his daily occupations. They are
enclosed, like a Seriba, with a palisade, and are shaded by plantations
of well-kept trees. The king’s food is always prepared by one of his
wives, who perform the office in turn, relieving one another at stated
intervals. Munza invariably takes his meals in private; no one may see
the contents of his dish, and everything that he leaves is carefully
thrown into a pit set apart for that purpose. All that the king has
handled is held as sacred, and may not be touched; and a guest, though
of the highest rank, may not so much as light his pipe with an ember
from the fire that burns before his throne. Any similar attempt would
be considered as high treason and punished with immediate death.
As permission was granted me to inspect the internal arrangements of
the royal palace, I was enabled to survey the whole series of huts. The
king’s wardrobe alone occupied several apartments. In one room I saw
nothing but hats and feathers of every variety, special value being
laid upon the red parrot’s feathers, which are arranged in great round
tufts. One hut there was in which were suspended whole bundles of the
tails of civets, genets, potamochœri, and giraffes, together with skins
and thousands of the ornaments with which the king was accustomed to
adorn his person. I observed also long strings of the teeth of rare
animals captured in the chase. One ornament alone, composed of more
than a hundred lions’ fangs, must have been a costly heirloom to be
handed on from father to son. For the first time I noticed the skin of
the _Galago Demidoffi_, an animal hitherto only observed in Western
Africa.
A little conical hut that I was shown was set apart for the privacy of
the royal retiring-room, the only one of the kind that I came across in
Central Africa. The internal arrangements of this corresponded exactly
with what is seen in Turkish dwelling-houses. The heathen negroes are
generally more observant of decorum in this respect than any Mohammedan.
On another occasion I was conducted through the armoury. The store of
weapons consisted principally of lances tied up in bundles of two or
three hundred together, which in times of war are distributed amongst
the fighting force; there are also piles of the knives and daggers
which are borne by Monbuttoo warriors. In the same place were kept
the ornamental weapons which are used for decorating the royal halls
on festal occasions, consisting for the most part of immense spears,
formed head and shaft alike of pure copper, and brightly polished.
The storehouses and corn-magazines were provided with well-made,
water-tight roofs, and Munza spends a portion of every day in the
several sections, personally superintending the distribution and
arrangement of the stores.
[Sidenote: MONBUTTOO CIVILIZATION.]
From these details it may be understood that the Monbuttoo are
subject to a monarchical government of an importance beyond the
average of those of Central Africa; and in its institutions it
appears to correspond with the descriptions of negro empires long
since passed away. The half mythical empire of the powerful Mwata
Yanvo, whose influence doubtless extended to the Monbuttoo lands,
may probably, to a certain extent, have furnished the type for many
of these institutions; but be that as it may, it is an indisputable
fact, that of all the known nations of Central Africa the Monbuttoo,
without any influence from the Mohammedan or Christian world, have
attained to no contemptible degree of external culture, and their
leading characteristics prove them to belong to a group of nations
which inhabit the inmost heart of Africa, and which are being now
embraced in the enlarging circle of geographical knowledge. The land
of the Manuyema, visited by Livingstone, and the states of Mwata
Yanvo, frequented by the Portuguese traders, form respectively the
south-western and south-eastern limits of this immense territory, which
in area surpasses half of European Russia.
In turning to the national characteristics of this people, we may
notice in the first place that their complexion is of a lighter
tint than that of almost all the known nations of Central Africa,
the colour of whose skins may be generally compared, by the test
I have frequently adopted, to that of ground coffee. It is this
peculiarity that forms a great distinction between the Monbuttoo and
the Niam-niam, whose complexions are more aptly compared to cakes of
chocolate or ripe olives. It cannot fail to strike the traveller as
remarkable that in all African nations he meets with individuals with
black, red, and yellow complexions, whilst the yellow tribes of Asia
and the copper-coloured tribes of America each present a remarkable
uniformity in the tone and shade of their skins. Barth observed this
peculiarity among the Marghi; he noticed some individuals who were
quite black, and others who had coppery-red skins, or, as he describes
them, rhubarb-coloured, in distinction to those which he compared to
_chocolat-au-lait_. His supposition that an intermingling of races was
the sole cause of this diversity of complexion is probably incorrect,
as it appears to be a characteristic of the entire series of the
red-skinned races of Africa.
The Monbuttoo have less fulness of muscle than the Niam-niam, without,
however, any appearance of debility. The growth of the hair is much the
same, and the beard is much more developed than that of the Niam-niam.
[Sidenote: PHYSIOLOGICAL SPECULATION.]
But there is one special characteristic that is quite peculiar to the
Monbuttoo. To judge from the hundreds who paid visits of curiosity
to my teat, and from the thousands whom I saw during my three weeks’
sojourn with Munza, I should say that at least five per cent. of the
population have light hair. This was always of the closely frizzled
quality of the negro type, and was always associated with the lightest
skins that I had seen since leaving Lower Egypt. Its colour was by
no means like that which is termed light hair amongst ourselves, but
was of a mongrel tint mixed with grey, suggesting the comparison to
hemp. All the individuals who had this light hair and complexion
had a sickly expression about the eyes, and presented many signs
of pronounced albinism; they recalled a description given by Isaac
Vossius, in his book upon the origin of the Nile, of the white men
he saw at the court of the King of Loango: he says that “they were
sickly-looking and wan of countenance, with their eyes drawn as though
they were squinting.” In the previous chapter I have given a similar
description of one of the king’s sons, named Bunza. This combination of
light hair and skin gives the Monbuttoo a position distinct from all
the nations of the northern part of Africa, with the single exception
of the various inhabitants of Morocco, amongst whom fair-haired
individuals are far from uncommon.
It has been already observed that in the physiognomical form of the
skull the Monbuttoo in many ways recall the type of the Semitic tribes;
and they differ from the ordinary run of negroes in the greater length
and curve of the nose. All these characteristics betoken an affinity
with the Fulbe, and as such the Monbuttoo may probably be included
amongst the “Pyrrhi Æthiopes” of Ptolemy. This would, however, be but a
vague supposition if it were not supported by the fact that the Fulbe
are of eastern origin, although in later times a portion of them have
made a retrogade movement from Senegal towards the east. It must be
understood that I do not intend by these remarks to offer a bridge for
carrying over Eichwaldt’s theory bf the affinity of the Fulbe with
the Malays, nor do I intend by such a national migration to add a new
link to what he declares to be accomplished in the case of Meroe.
Barth considers these Fulbe to be the issue of a double cross, a cross
between the Arabs and people of Barbary on the one hand and the people
of Barbary and the negroes on the other. This hypothesis, I believe,
would also hold good for the Monbuttoo; but altogether it is a question
too vague to be capable of being here discussed with any justice.
On account of the loss of the specimens of the Monbuttoo dialect,
which I had been at great pains to collect by means of a double
interpretation, I am unfortunately not in a position to give much
information about the dialect; this much, however, I can confidently
assert, that it is a branch of the great African language-stock north
of the equator, the greater number of the words belonging to the
Nubio-Lybian group.
Still more than in the colour of their skin do the Monbuttoo differ
from the neighbouring nations in dress and habits. This appears to be
a land where costume is a settled matter of rule, for the uniformity
of attire is as complete as it is rapidly becoming under the sway of
fashion in all classes of our civilized communities.
Weaving is an art unknown to the Monbuttoo, and their only material
for clothing is obtained from their fig-tree (_Urostigma Fotschyana_),
the bark of which is found to be in a condition most serviceable for
the purpose when the trunk of the tree is about as thick as a man’s
body; the stem is then peeled in rather a remarkable manner: two
circular incisions, four or five feet apart, are made right round
the trunk, and the bark is removed entire; strange to say, this does
no harm to the tree, and in a very short time a peculiar growth or
granulation takes place along the edge of the upper incision in the
form of little fibres, which gradually descend along the bare cambium
or sap-wood, until the tree is once more clothed with a fresh layer
of bast. The only explanation that can be offered for this unusual
growth is, that in peeling off the bark the entire layer of bast is not
removed, but that some portion of it is left hanging to the wood and
retains its vitality.[21] In the course of three years the fresh growth
is complete, and the bark is in a condition to be again removed;
apart from this property, the rearing of these rokko-trees would not
compensate the natives for the trouble of planting them.
[Illustration: Monbuttoo Warriors.]
[Sidenote: ROKKO-TREES.]
The rokko bark has a certain resemblance to the lime-bast, which is so
important an article of commerce in Russia; its fibres, however, have
not the smoothness and paper-like thinness of the Russian product, but
are tangled together almost like a woven mass. By a partial maceration
and a good deal of thrashing, the Moributtoo contrive to give the bark
the appearance of a thick close fabric, which, in its rough condition,
is of a grey colour, but after being soaked in a decoction of wood
acquires a reddish-brown hue, something like ordinary woollen stuff.
Fastened at the waist with a girdle, one of these pieces of bark is
sufficient to clothe the body, from the breast downwards to the knees,
with a very effective substitute for drapery. Representations of two
Monbuttoo warriors in full array are given in the illustration on the
preceding page.
The women go almost entirely unclothed; they wear nothing but a portion
of a plantain leaf or a piece of bark about the size of their hand
attached to the front of their girdle; the rest of the body being
figured in laboured patterns by means of a black juice obtained from
the Blippo (_Randia malleifera_). Whilst the Dinka women, leaving
perfect nudity as the prerogative of their husbands, are modestly
clothed with skins—whilst the Mittoo and Bongo women wear their girdle
of foliage, and the Niam-niam women their apron of hides, the women of
the Monbuttoo—where the men are more scrupulously and fully clothed
than any of the nations that I came across throughout my journey—go
almost entirely naked.
Whenever the women go out, they carry across their arm a strap which
they lay across their laps on sitting down. These straps or scarfs
are about a foot wide, and something like a saddle-girth, and as they
form their first attempt in the art of weaving, their texture is of
the clumsiest order, possessing no other recommendation than their
durability; they are appropriated to the further use of fastening
infants to their mothers’ backs.
[Sidenote: TATTOOING OF THE WOMEN.]
The women can be distinguished from one another by the different
tattooed figures running in bands across the breast and back along
the shoulders; their bodies, moreover, are painted with an almost
inexhaustible variety of patterns. Stars and Maltese crosses, bees and
flowers, are all enlisted as designs; at one time the entire body is
covered with stripes like a zebra, and at another with irregular spots
and dots like a tiger; I have seen these women streaked with veins like
marble, and even covered with squares like a chess-board. At the great
festivals every Monbuttoo lady endeavours to outshine her compeers, and
accordingly applies all her powers of invention to the adornment of her
person. The patterns last for about two days, when they are carefully
rubbed off, and replaced by new designs.
[Illustration: Monbuttoo Woman.]
Instead of this paint the men use a cosmetic prepared from pulverised
cam-wood, which is mixed with fat and then rubbed over the whole
body. The Niam-niam also make use of this powder, but they only apply
it partially in irregular spots and stripes, delighting especially
in staining the breast and face to increase the ferocity of their
appearance.
The _coiffure_ of both sexes is alike; the hair of the top and back
of the head is mounted up into a long cylindrical chignon, and being
fastened on the inside by an arrangement made of reeds, slopes
backwards in a slanting direction. Across the forehead, from temple
to temple, the hair is twisted in thin tresses, which lie one above
another, closely fitting the skull until they reach the crown of the
head. Their own hair is rarely long enough to form this portion of the
head-gear, but the deficiency is supplied from the heads of those who
have fallen in war, or, since hair is an article of traffic in the
country, it is procured from the market. On the top of their chignon,
the men wear the cylindrical straw-hats so often referred to. These
are without brims, square at the top and circular at the base, and
are adorned either with the tufts of red parrots’ feathers that I
have described in connection with Munza’s wardrobe,[22] or with the
long feathers of eagles and falcons. The hats, of course, follow the
slanting directions of the chignon, and fall back diagonally to the
head, and altogether the head-gear is remarkably similar to that worn
by the Ishogo women in Western Africa. The Monbuttoo women wear no
hat on their chignon, which is merely adorned with little hair-pins
attached to combs made of the quills of the porcupines.
These details may suffice to give a fair notion of the external
appearance of the Monbuttoo, and if I add that their only mutilation of
the body consists in boring the inner muscle of the ear for the purpose
of inserting a bar about the size of a cigar, I shall have described
all the fashions in vogue, from which no individual is at liberty to
make marked deviation. They neither break out their lower incisor
teeth, like the black nations on the northern river plains, nor do
they file them to points, like the Niam-niam; neither do they imitate
the Bongo and Mittoo women in the hideous perforation of their lips;
and I repeat that, if we except circumcision (which, according to the
accounts of all the heathen negroes of equatorial Africa, is a custom
they have received from their remote ancestors), this piercing of the
ear is the one disfigurement of nature adopted by the Monbuttoo. On
account of this practice the Khartoomers have conferred upon them the
title of “Gurrugurroo,” _i.e._ “pierced,” in contradistinction to the
Niam-niam in general, Niam-niam being, as I have said, the term used by
the inhabitants of the Soudan for all cannibals, irrespective of their
various nationalities.
[Illustration: WEAPONS OF THE MONBUTTOO.
Figs. 1-9. Various scimitars.
10. Large dagger.
11. Hand-knife, for carving and peeling bark.
]
[Sidenote: MONBUTTOO WEAPONS.]
The weapons of the Monbuttoo warriors are very numerous. Besides
shields and lances, they also carry bows and arrows, a combination
somewhat rare amongst Africans; in addition to these, in their girdles
they are accustomed to have scimitars with curved blades like sickles,
whilst some of them use daggers and spatular knives of all shapes and
sizes. The projectiles which are in use among the Niam-niam are not
included in the equipment of the Monbuttoo.
Since the Monbuttoo dwell upon the red ferruginous soil extending from
the Gazelle over a large portion of Central Africa, it may be assumed
as a matter of course that smiths’ work must play an important part in
their industrial pursuits, and indeed in this respect they excel all
other natives of the districts through which I travelled, whilst in
other branches of their manufacture they surpassed even the Mohammedans
of Northern Africa.
The smelting process is of the most primitive description, and is the
same that has been described by travellers in all parts of Africa. The
simplicity of the arrangement is caused by the ventilating apparatus;
for as the construction of valves is unknown, a continual draft is
produced by means of two clay vessels, of which the openings are
covered by the Monbuttoo smiths with plantain leaves, which have been
allowed to simmer in hot water until they have become as flexible
as silk: other nations cover the openings with soft skins. Although
entirely without our pincers, hammers, and files, the Monbuttoo have
a set of implements of their own, by means of which their iron-work
is more carefully manipulated than that of any of their neighbours.
Instead of the usual stone anvil, they use a miniature one of wrought
iron, and on this each separate weapon is cut out with a chisel, and
hammered until an approximate degree of sharpness is attained; the
edge being brought to its finish by a piece of fine-ground sandstone
or gneiss, which answers the purpose of a file. As a general rule, no
special form is given to the iron used as a medium of exchange, unless
indeed the great semicircular bars in the royal treasury be considered
as currency, and which remind one of the rough copper rings that are
brought from the mines of Darfoor.[23] Neither plates of iron nor round
spades (melots) are in vogue, but the smiths have to work from great
lumps of iron as large as the fist. The dexterity of these artificers
is wonderful, and the short space of time in which they will convert
the raw material into spades and lances is, I should think, unrivalled.
The Monbuttoo smiths often joined our Bongo workmen at their forges in
our camp, and as I had frequent opportunity of observing and comparing
the two, I do not hesitate in asserting the decided superiority of the
workmanship of the Monbuttoo.
[Sidenote: MONBUTTOO METAL WORK.]
The masterpieces, however, of these Monbuttoo smiths are the ornamental
chains which, in refinement of form and neatness of finish, might vie
with our best steel chains; in fact, according to the judgment of
_connoisseurs_, many of these specimens of autochthonic art may well
bear comparison with the productions of our European craftsmen. The
process of tempering is quite unknown to them, the necessary hardness
being attained by continual hammering: the material used is singularly
pure and homogeneous, qualities acquired not from any perfection of
the smelting apparatus, but from the laborious welding of the separate
particles of iron.
Copper was already known, and the king was in possession of large
quantities of the metal, before the Nubians set foot in the country;
and as previously to that event the Monbuttoo (if we except the great
raid which Barth reports to have been made upon them by the Foorians in
1834) had had no intercourse with the Mohammedan world, there is every
reason to conclude that they must have received their supply either
from the copper mines of Angola and Loango, or from some other region
of the north-western portion of South Africa.
Almost all the ornaments worn by the Monbuttoo are made of copper, so
that it may be easily understood that the demand for the metal is not
small. One of the most frequent uses to which it is applied is that of
making flat wires, many yards long, to wind round the handles of knives
and scimitars, or round the shafts of lances and bows. Copper, as well
as iron, is used for the clasps which are attached to the shields,
partly for ornament and partly to prevent them from splitting. Copper
necklaces are in continual wear, and copper fastenings are attached
to the rings of buffalo-hide and to the thick thongs of the girdles.
The little bars inserted through the ear are tipped with the same
metal; in fact there is hardly an ornament that fails in an adjunct
of copper in some form or other; persons of rank not unfrequently
pride themselves in having ornamental weapons formed entirely of it.
All other metals being unknown, iron and copper are estimated by the
Monbuttoo as silver and gold by ourselves, and the silver platter with
which I presented the king failed to elicit any comment beyond the
observation that it was white iron. Lead and tin have been introduced
as curiosities by the Nubians, but previous to their arrival had never
been seen. Information, however, which was incidentally dropped by a
Niam-niam, led me to suppose that fragments of platinum about the size
of peas have been found in these lands: he told me that a white metal,
as hard as iron and as heavy as the lead of which the Nubians made
their bullets, had been discovered, but that its existence was always
carefully concealed from the strangers. I see no reason to doubt the
truth of this statement, since it originated from a people who in no
other way could have become aware of the existence of such a metal,
which has been hitherto as unknown to the Nubians as silver and gold to
the Monbuttoo.
[Sidenote: MONBUTTOO WEAPONS.]
It would require many illustrations to convey an adequate idea of the
various forms of the beads of the arrows and lances: suffice it to
say, that the symmetry of the various barbs, spikes, and prongs with
which they are provided is always perfect. The prevailing forms of the
spear-heads are hastate, whilst the arrows are generally made flat or
spatular, as inflicting a deeper and wider wound than the pointed tips.
All weapons of the Monbuttoo and the Niam-niam are provided with blood
gutters, a mark which serves to distinguish them at once from those
of the Bongo and Mittoo. The shafts of the Monbuttoo arrows are made
of reed-grass, and differ from all others of the Bongo territory by
being winged with pieces of genet’s skin or plantain leaves. The bows
are rather over three feet in length, and in form and size correspond
very nearly with those used by the Mittoo and Bongo; the bow-strings
being made of a strip of the split Spanish reed, which possesses more
elasticity than any cord. These bows are provided with a small hollow
piece of wood for protecting the thumb from the rebound of the string.
The arrow is always discharged from between the middle fingers.
[Illustration: Spear-heads.]
The perfection of their instruments gives the Monbuttoo a great
advantage in the art of wood-carving, and they are the only African
nation, including even the modern Egyptians, who make use of a
graving-tool with a single edge, an instrument which, by supporting
the forefinger, enables the workman to give a superior finish to the
details of his productions. The wood used for carving is generally
that of the stem of one of the Rubiaceæ (_Uncaria_), of which the
soft close texture resembles that of poplar-wood. The felling of these
giant-trees, which vary from six to eight feet in diameter, and often
shoot up to a height of forty feet without throwing forth a single
branch, is performed by means of their small hatchets, with a most
tedious amount of labour. The hatchets are like those which are used in
other parts of Central Africa, and consist of a sharpened iron wedge
inserted through the thick end of a knotted club; thus every blow tends
to fix the blade firmer in its socket. The number of blows necessary to
fell one of these ponderous trees must amount to several thousand, and
yet I often noticed stems lying in the forest the ends of which were as
smooth as though they had been cut with a knife, a circumstance that
attests their correctness of vision, a quality in which the negroes
outshine the Arabs and Nubians, as much as in their appreciation of
sound and musical talent. The first crude form is given to the larger
blocks of wood by means of a tool something like a cooper’s adze.[24]
When first hewn, the wood of the Uncaria is white, but it is afterwards
blackened by exposure to fire, or still more frequently by being
allowed to lie in the dark soil of the brooks.
[Illustration: Hatchet, spade, and adze, of the Monbuttoo.]
[Sidenote: MONBUTTOO HANDICRAFT.]
Platters, stools, drums, boats, and shields constitute the chief items
of their handicraft. Upon the Lower Shary, the boats which are in
common use are manufactured by fastening together wooden planks, but
here, on the Welle, canoes are hewn out of a solid stem, and are in
every way adapted for their purpose. I saw some of them upwards of
thirty-eight feet long and five feet wide, quite large enough for the
conveyance of horses and cattle.[25]
[Illustration: Wooden kettle-drum.]
The large signal-drums of the Niam-niam are to be seen in every
Monbuttoo village. They stand sometimes upon four, and sometimes upon
two, feet, and are like the instruments which are seen upon the West
Coast. Another smaller kind is made in a semicircular shape, very
compressed, and fitted with a handle at the top; the opening for the
sound is below, and the instrument may be compared to a flattened bell.
[Illustration: Single seat used by the Women.]
Benches and stools, such as are exclusively used by the women, are
made in every diversity of shape. They are carved out of a single
block, for, to say the truth, no people of Central Africa seems to
have acquired the art of joining one piece of wood to another, so that
the craft of the cabinet-maker may be said to be unknown. The seats of
these stools are circular and somewhat hollowed out, surmounting a
prettily carved stem, which rises from a circular or polygonal base.
Close to the edge of the seat is a triangular aperture, which serves
as a handle. They are usually made from twelve to sixteen inches
high, and are hardly to be distinguished from certain contrivances
for meal-times, which are here made so as to serve at once for table
and plate. Wooden platters there are of every possible size: one
kind of them has two open ring-shaped handles; another stands upon
four feet, and both are patterns quite worthy of our own factories
at home. Besides the single seats they are in the habit of making
long benches also with four feet. The practice of making all their
utensils to stand upon feet is all but universal among the Niam-niam
and the Monbuttoo, even the little cylindrical boxes covered with
bark for storing away their knick-knacks being finished off in this
fashion. The ordinary seats of the men are made exclusively from the
leaf-stalks of the Raphia palm: they always keep to precisely the same
form, and in their manufacture appear to indicate a first attempt at
the joiner’s art. The benches of the Monbuttoo men are about five feet
long and of corresponding width; they are made of such lightness that
one of our bearers, without any apparent exertion, carried six of them
at once; but they are nevertheless of very extraordinary firmness,
and the way in which the separate parts are fixed together is really
very ingenious. The Monbuttoo do not fasten their benches or any of
their structures by means of nails or pegs, but they sew them, as it
were, together by fine split Spanish reeds, which by their unyielding
toughness answer as admirably as in the manufacture of our cane-chairs.
[Sidenote: SEATS AND SHIELDS.]
Backs are not attached to the Monbuttoo seats; but as some support of
the kind is clearly indispensable, they endeavour to supply its place
by placing by the side of their benches a singular sort of crutch.
This is obtained by taking a young tree and cutting a section of it,
where what botanists call its “verticillate ramification” has developed
itself into four additional separate limbs: the main stem and two of
the boughs supply the three feet, the other two boughs serving, with
the continuation of the stem, to make the arms and back. No wood is so
available for the purpose as that of the cotton tree (_Eriodendron_).
[Illustration: Seat-rest.]
The shields of the warriors are hewn out of the thickest stems by
means of the axe, and consist of perfectly smooth rectangular boards,
not more than half an inch thick, but which are long enough to cover
two-thirds of the person. These inelegant instruments of defensive
warfare, in which the recommendation of solidity is ill sacrificed for
the sake of their lightness, require to be protected from splitting or
starting, and to secure this a number of parallel seams of rotang are
fixed across the width, and both the upper and lower edges are provided
with a strong border of rotang twist, and a strong rib run across the
middle gives them an additional firmness. They are generally decorated
with tails of the guinea-hog (_Potamochærus_), and are invariably
stained quite black. If any fissures or cracks should be detected, they
are at once drawn together by iron and copper braces.
[Illustration: Water-bottles.]
Contrasted with the rest of Africa, and even with the Bongo, whose
comparative skill was noticed on a previous page,[26] the district
shows a very considerable advance in the manufacture of their pottery.
Although they remain as unacquainted as other races with the use of
the wheel, their productions, besides being of a superior quality,
are of a more perfect symmetry than any which are elsewhere observed.
All the vessels and drinking-cups of the Africans in general have the
character of urns, being made without handles and being never otherwise
than spherical in form; but those of the Monbuttoo exhibit a manifest
improvement, and by having the surface decorated either with some
raised symmetrical pattern (which is especially the case upon their
oil vessels) or with some ornamental figures, they afford a firm hold
to the hand, and thus make good the lack of handles for lifting them.
It is, however, principally upon the water-bottles that the greatest
care is bestowed, some of which may fairly be said to rival in symmetry
the far-famed examples of Egyptian art, and to betray a considerable
faculty of plastic genius.[27]
[Sidenote: GRASS ORNAMENTS.]
For the bowls of pipes, upon which other of the native populations
lavish so much care, they have no use. They smoke only the Virginian
tobacco, and for this purpose employ the midrib of the plantain leaf
in the way that I have already described,[28] superseding entirely the
necessity for a solid bowl.
They are very ignorant of the art of leather-dressing, and are no more
acquainted with the use of tan than any of the rest of the tribes that
have their homes in the Bahr-el-Ghazal district.
Their baskets and nets are woven out of rotang, the form of the baskets
in which they bear burdens on their backs being very similar to those
which are seen amongst the Thuringians. Their mode of dressing their
hair necessarily prevents them from ever carrying a load upon their
heads.
They are in the habit of twisting ornaments for themselves out of reeds
and grass, which they wear like rings round their arms and legs, and
which make a rustling sound as they walk. They bestow a great amount of
care in weaving the fine webs which hold on their hats and chignons.
The rattles, filled with shells and pebbles, that are used for beating
time to the music of the drums and horns at the great festivals are
also woven from reeds.
The Monbuttoo musical instruments require no particular description.
They do not include the pretty little mandolins of the Niam-niam, nor
any other stringed instruments, and their horns, trumpets, and drums
may be said to be little short of universal throughout Africa. Wooden
dulcimers (Marimba) are met with neither here nor in South Africa.
But the artistic versatility of the people reveals itself more than
anywhere else in their architectural skill. It would hardly be credited
that Africa would be capable of rearing any erection so spacious and
well proportioned as the hall of Munza’s palace. This was little short
of 150 feet in length and 60 feet in breadth, and rose to the height of
about 50 feet. Combined with these imposing dimensions were a lightness
of character and solidity of structure that were quite remarkable.
The ever-useful leaf-stalks of the wine-palm form the principal
building-material, and its natural polish and bright brown colour give
every building for which it is used an aspect of finished grace. The
flat horizontal roofs of their huts, as distinguished from the conical
roofs which we have hitherto observed as almost universal throughout
the rest of Central Africa, mark out these Monbuttoo in a fresh respect
as being allied to the natives of the west, viz., the Ishogo, the
Ashango, the Bakalai, the Ashiva, the Camma, the Mpongwe, and the
Fan—a relation that is further confirmed by the physical character
of the land, the streams of which flow to the west instead of to the
north. Some of the huts, however, have conical roofs, and these are
generally appropriated, either as kitchens, because they allow better
escape for the smoke, or as granaries, because they throw off the rain
more rapidly.
The dwellings of the ordinary population are by no means large,
being seldom more than thirty feet long, and twenty feet wide; the
roofs project considerably, and are slightly rounded with a bend
corresponding to the natural curvature of the palm leaves from
which they are made, and which furnish the ribs of the roof. They
are rendered water-tight by a lining of plantain leaves, which is
frequently covered again with grass, straw, or skin. The walls are
built up to a height of five or six feet, and are lined like the roof
and bound together by the split Spanish reed. This, again, is the mode
of erecting the huts upon the West Coast. It offers an astonishing
power of resistance to the fury of the elements, which, left to play
upon rows of posts or to range through open halls, might be expected to
work complete destruction; yet such is the stability with which the
Monbuttoo huts are raised, that they never totter in a storm, and only
show by a slight trembling in the walls that they are exposed to the
violence of a hurricane.
A spacious doorway is the only aperture for light and air, the door
itself being made in one piece; the interior is divided into two
apartments, the more remote of which is reserved for the stores.
[Sidenote: TREES.]
Plantations of trees are frequent, and still more frequent are patches
of shrubs, which are intentionally suffered to grow, and which, as
being serviceable, are permitted to survive the extirpation of the
ancient forests. These are generally to be seen in the immediate
vicinity of the unenclosed farms. In addition to them, many trees are
allowed to stand for the sake of the shelter they afford; and some are
kept because of their useful products, as for example, the _Tephrosia
Vogelii_, which furnishes the powder for poisoning fish; or the
_Randia malleifera_, which produces the pigment for the staining of
the skin, and of which the white funnel-shaped blossoms are a striking
ornament to the bushes; and some are retained merely for ornament
and for increasing the pleasantness of the external aspect of their
dwellings. As examples of this superfluous indulgence I may refer to
the marvellous _Mussaenda_, with its glowing bracts, and to the variety
of resplendent orchids. Here, too, I noticed what I must not omit to
record, the turf-like _Chlorophytum_, with its variegated leaves of
mingled white and green, which is employed among the Niam-niam as
a charm to detect a thief, much in the same way as the _Canavalia
ensiformis_, known as the “overlook” or horse-bean, is employed in
Jamaica and Haiti, where it is sown in the negro-plantations for that
purpose.
The huts are arranged in sets following the lines of the brooks along
the valleys, the space between each group being occupied by plantations
of oil-palms. The dwellings are separated from the lowest parts of the
depressions by the plantain-grounds, whilst above, on the higher and
drier soil, extend the fields of sweet-potatoes and colocasiæ.
No one could seriously expect a traveller, after a transient residence
of five weeks, to pass anything like a decided judgment upon the
religious ideas of a people like the Monbuttoo. A wide scope for
speculation is undoubtedly opened, but it would ill become a stranger
to pretend to pronounce a conclusive verdict. I must be excused,
therefore, from drawing any very definite inference from the fact that
they adopt the rite of circumcision so far as to have it performed
on boys when they come to an age of puberty, a period of life which
is neither in accordance with the original prescription, nor with
the doctrine of Mohammed. I may say, however, that I never allowed
myself to be unconcerned with regard to any of the people amongst
whom I journeyed as to their opinions about a presiding Deity, but,
by collecting all the proofs I could from their habitual speech, I
endeavoured to learn what were their conceptions about the sovereignty
of an invisible power, and its influence upon the destinies of men.
[Sidenote: MONBUTTOO THEOLOGY.]
The Monbuttoo have undoubtedly very intelligent ideas of what the
Nubians mean by their bowing of the knee, their prostrations to the
ground, and their cry of “Allah!” The very designation which they use
to express their conception of God as the concentration of the Supreme
Being, opens a long vista into the kindred association of African
people. In the district of the Mahas, the word now employed for the God
of the Nubians is “Nor,” and, upon the authority of my interpreters,
I may state that “Noro” was the term by which, after the double
interpretation, “Allah” was rendered to me. When the question was put
as to where “Noro” resided, the Monbuttoo, who was familiar with the
Niam-niam dialect, pointed upwards to the sky; but when he was further
pressed with the inquiry whether he could see him, he only answered
with a smile. Whether the Monbuttoo are in the habit of consulting
oracles, or whether they have any reliance upon auguries from fowls,
or any fortune-telling apparatus corresponding to the “damma” of the
Niam-niam, my residence among them was not long enough to permit me to
ascertain.
[Illustration: Bongo woman. Dinka woman. (See description, vol. i.,
p. 296.)]
FOOTNOTES:
[19] Heuglin in 1863, had received intelligence of what was
now proved, viz. that the same district from which
issues the White Nile also gives birth to another
stream, called by him the river of Sena.
[20] A kindred plant of this genus is used in the West
Indies, where the practice is generally carried on by
slaves.
[21] Livingstone observed a similar new growth of bark on
the trunk of the Baobab (_Adansonia_), from which the
Matabele obtain material for cord.
[22] In the woodcut which represents Munza in full dress,
the king has one of these clusters of feathers in his
hat.
[23] Iron rings of the heaviest calibre are current in
Wandalo, south of Bornoo.
[24] One of these tools is represented in the accompanying
illustration.
[25] A boat of this kind is seen in the view of the rapids
of the Keebaly, in Chap. XVII.
[26] _Vide_ vol. i. page 292.
[27] The two examples of water-bottles given in the
engravings are copies of the originals, which are
deposited in the Ethnographical Museum in Berlin. To
the one in three compartments handles are attached,
being the only instance of the kind that I ever saw.
[28] _Vide_ vol. i. page 547.