cord about the waist with flaps of leather hanging from it in front and
behind; the woman wears a fringed girdle about her waist. Sometimes they
wear a mantle of hairy skins. At great festivals the men deck themselves
finely. A traveller, describing a young man who was going visiting,
says: “He will wear furs, among them the Angora goat; feathers in his
head-dress; globular tufts of beautiful feathers on his forehead or at
the back of his head; eagle feathers in fine head-dresses, as also
ostrich, lory, and peacock feathers. He ties so many tufts and tails to
his waist girdle that he may almost be said to wear a kilt.”
The negroids, like the negroes, are agriculturists and live in towns of
huts. Some tribes are raisers of cattle and have large herds that yield
milk, meat, and skins. They are hunters, too, and that on a large scale.
They set up long hedges or lines of brush and stakes, which converge
toward certain points where they dig pits and cover them. They then
scatter over a large district and beat it, scaring in the animals and
driving them between the lines of brush into the pits, where they easily
kill them.
The two great weapons of the southern negroids are the _kerry_ and the
_assegai_. The kerry is a short wooden club with a knob at the end. This
is thrown at the game. The assegai is a spear, the shaft of which is
long and slender and the head of which, made of iron, is long and wide.
Assegais are used all through South and Central Africa. The form and
size of the blade varies with tribes: sometimes it is two feet in length
and several inches across. Mrs. French-Sheldon saw the assegai maker, in
one tribe she visited, using a natural leaf as his pattern, and he was
careful to exactly copy its form. Both negro and negroid tribes in some
parts of Africa, especially Western Central Africa, use throwing-knives;
they are made from a flat piece of iron, worked into several blades
projecting in different directions. They are thrown through the air, and
some one of the ugly blades is quite sure to strike.
Kaffirs and Zulus make long oval shields almost as tall as themselves,
for protection in battle. A cowskin, with the hair on, is stretched over
a light and simple wooden frame. Each great section of Africans has its
own kind of shield. The Niam-Niams and some Congo tribes weave beautiful
close and light shields of wicker or basket work; they are long and
narrow, and protect the whole body. The splints of which they are woven
differ in color and are worked into rather handsome patterns. In Nubia
they use shields made of thick and heavy hide, like elephant or
rhinoceros hide; these are circular, not very large, and have a round or
conical knob or boss raised at the centre.
[Illustration: WAGANDA MUSICIANS (RATZEL).]
Kaffirs and Zulus are fond of war and are brave in battle. They have war
dances in which they are inflamed for the fray. A Kaffir who slays an
enemy may have a great gash cut in his leg on his return home to show
that fact. The scars of such gashes are objects of great pride. The
Kaffirs are fine speakers and their speeches on important occasions are
stirring and impressive. Like negroes, the negroids delight in music and
have many instruments. None, however, is a greater favorite than the
noisy drum.
Among Zulus and Kaffirs, the sorcerer is much feared and dreaded. When
men are ill, or in trouble, they go to him for help and advice. He goes
through with many strange performances. The people believe that he can
detect thieves and find stolen property, that he can bewitch and cure
bewitchment; he is frequently, also, a rain-maker. There is much
jealousy between the sorcerers or rain-makers in a tribe, and they
sometimes challenge each other to tests of their power. The description
of such a test between two rain-makers, in one of Rider Haggard’s books,
is probably true to life.
XXV.
PYGMIES.
Many centuries ago, the Greek writers, Homer, Herodotus, and Aristotle,
spoke of dwarf peoples, whom they called _Pygmies_, living in Africa. On
an ancient Egyptian wall there is painted a queer little dwarf-like
figure with the word _Akka_ written near it. It is plain that little
African peoples were known both to the Greeks and Egyptians. But for
hundreds of years after the old Greek writers and Egyptian artists were
dead, no one believed in real Pygmies. Every one felt that the accounts
of them were “travellers’ lies,” told to amuse people. But travellers
who have been going into Africa during the last two hundred years and
more have from time to time told us of such tribes, and to-day there can
be no doubt of their existence. There are really Pygmies, and they are
curious and interesting.
When the great German traveller Schweinfurth was visiting King Munza of
the Monbuttus in “the heart of Africa,” he learned that tribes of
Pygmies lived near. There were nine clusters of them, and they were
called _Akkas_—just like the little creature represented on the old
Egyptian wall—and each cluster had its own chief. At one time
Schweinfurth saw several hundred of these little people together. Munza
traded one of these Pygmies, whose name was Neevoué, to Schweinfurth.
The traveller was kind to the little fellow, and wanted to take him to
Germany, but Neevoué died in Egypt. He was a cruel little creature, not
very bright, and had great difficulty in learning. Later on, in Ashango
Land, much farther to the west, Du Chaillu found the dwarf Obongos, whom
he described, and whose houses he pictured. An Italian traveller named
Miani secured two Akkas in trade. He planned to take them to Italy, but
he died on his journey home. His two Pygmies, however, reached Italy,
where a kind-hearted nobleman took care of them. They were gay and
happy, though fitful, and were rather quick to learn; they learned to
speak, read, and write Italian.
[Illustration: HUTS OF ASHANGO-LAND DWARFS (DU CHAILLU).]
So much was known about the Pygmies before Stanley’s journey. He saw
many of them, and tells a good deal about them and their life. The Akkas
were the tribe he saw. They measure from three feet to four feet and six
inches; a full-grown man weighs about ninety pounds. Some of them have
long heads, long, narrow faces, small, reddish eyes placed near
together, and are sour looking and morose. The others have round faces
with fine, large, bright eyes placed wide apart, high foreheads, skin of
a rich ivory-yellow color. All African Pygmies seem to have their bodies
covered with short, rather stiff, grayish hair. Stanley says the Akkas
place their villages near the towns of bigger people, and that sometimes
eight to twelve Pygmy villages will surround one negro (or negroid)
town. These Pygmies are lively and active; they do not cultivate any
plants, but devote themselves to hunting.
They use little bows and arrows, and small spears. The tips of the
arrows and spears are often poisoned. With these weapons these little
folk attack and kill antelopes, buffalo, and even elephants. They dig
pitfalls and make traps. Some of their traps are like sheds, the roofs
of which are held in place by vines; bananas and nuts are placed in
these as bait; when chimpanzees or other animals try to take the bait,
the roof falls. The Pygmies catch birds for their feathers, and hunt for
wild honey.
The Pygmies use two kinds of arrow poison. One is dark and thick and
made from the leaves of a plant quite like our Jack-in-the-pulpit or
Indian turnip. The other is believed to be made from red ants,—which are
dried and crushed to powder,—mixed with palm oil. Both are said to act
quickly when fresh. Stanley mentions one man who died within one minute
from a small wound in his right arm and chest. When the poison is old it
acts less rapidly.
These Pygmies live in low oval huts, with doors two or three feet high.
The houses are arranged in a circle about an open cleared space, in
which the chief’s house stands. About one hundred yards from the
village, along every path that leads to it, is a little guard house,
only big enough for two Pygmies. These are guard houses and toll
stations, and all strangers who pass must pay toll. The Pygmies are
usually on good terms with their big neighbors, and both are useful to
the other. The little people sell their ivory, skins, honey, and poison
to their neighbors, or trade them for vegetable food. The Pygmies, keen
and watchful, are good pickets for the others, and often warn them of
danger from approaching enemies.
XXVI.
BUSHMEN AND HOTTENTOTS.
Far to the south in Africa, in and about the Desert of Kalahari, live
the Bushmen. They are somewhat like the Pygmies. They are
little—full-grown men being from four feet to four feet six inches in
stature. They are of a yellow-brown color; their hair is black and
kinky, but appears to grow in little tufts with bare spaces between; the
jaws project and the lips are thick; they wrinkle early. They are quick
and lively in movements, and are bold hunters.
Little bands of them wander from place to place, without any fixed home.
They build no houses. Usually they live in holes among the rocks; at
most, they build rude, temporary shelters. They live chiefly on game,
which they kill with the bow and arrow, or sometimes with the spear.
They sometimes trail an animal a long distance, and when they overtake
and kill it, stop at the spot to eat it. They are wonderful at following
the trail of either animals or men, and see signs of their having passed
which a white man would never notice. They get a hard living; they
gather seeds and roots, fruits and gums; they hunt the honey of wild
bees; they catch lizards and snakes. They are so fond of the white
grubs, or pupæ of ants—which we usually, but wrongly, call ants’
eggs—that the Boers, living near the little people, call them “Bushmen’s
rice.” They also eat the huge eggs of the ostrich, and make water
vessels out of the empty shells.
Their bows are small and their arrows are hardly more than a foot in
length; the points of bone, stone, or iron are poisoned, and are so
attached to the shaft that they separate and remain in the wound. The
spear and darts which they use are also small and have poisoned tips. In
the quivers with their arrows they carry a little sharpening stone for
grinding the points and a brush for applying the poison. For digging
roots the Bushmen use a pointed stick, which is weighted with a stone
ring. These few simple weapons and tools are all that these poor people
possess, except a few wooden dishes and a smoking pipe, which is said to
be owned by a whole family or band.
Livingstone says that their arrow poison comes from a sort of
caterpillar or grub, which they crush and dip the arrow tip into. They
always clean their nails carefully after handling the poison, as it
causes damage if it comes into contact with any scratch or cut. The pain
caused by the poison is so great as almost to make the man who has been
wounded crazy. When a lion has been struck with one of these poisoned
arrows he roars terribly and bites and tears the ground and trees. To
cure a person who has been bitten they use an ointment made of the
crushed caterpillar mixed with grease. They believe that the caterpillar
is hungry for grease; when it does not find fat in a person it kills
him; when they supply it the fat it wants, it does no harm. It is said
that this caterpillar is sacred and that they pray to it, asking it to
give them plenty of game when they are hunting.
[Illustration: GORA-PLAYER: BUSHMAN (RATZEL).]
These little people are fond of music and drawing. Their finest musical
instrument is a _gora_. This is a hunter’s bow, with a ring on the bow
string. By sliding this ring they change the note which it gives when
twanged. The twang of a bowstring is not a very loud sound; to increase
it a gourd is hung to the lower end of the bow. All over the country of
the Bushmen cliffs and the walls of caves are covered with their
pictures, which represent animals, birds, and men; hunting scenes and
battles are also represented. These pictures are sometimes just pecked
out in the rock; sometimes they are painted; sometimes they are first
pecked out and then filled with color. The colors most used in these
pictures are red, yellow, and black.
The negroid Kaffirs and the Hottentots who live near the poor Bushmen
hate them and harm them. Meeting them on the road, they sometimes kill
them without pity. In 1804 a Kaffir who went to Cape Town on business
found a Bushman boy eleven years old working as a servant in the
government building. He killed the little fellow with a spear. This, of
course, was long ago, but it shows how the Kaffirs despise the Bushmen.
The Hottentots live near the Bushmen and are a mixture between them and
the negroids. They are taller than the Bushmen, but have much the same
yellowish brown skin color and the same sort of hair. Their language,
too, is much like that of the Bushmen. In both languages there are some
strange sounds, hard for white men to pronounce, called “clicks.” These
sounds come in the middle of words, and are called “clicks” because they
sound something like the sound made in driving horses. Among the Bushmen
there are nine different sounds of this kind; the Hottentots have only
four.
[Illustration: BUSHMAN ROCK PICTURE (RATZEL).]
The Hottentots are cattle-raisers, but do not cultivate plants. They
gather wild fruits and dig roots. They move with their herds from one
pasture to another; their settlements are called _kraals_. Their huts
are dome-shaped and consist of a light framework of poles over which
mattings are hung. When they move it takes only a few minutes to take
the houses to pieces and pack them on to their cattle. The huts are
always set up in a circle, enclosing a clear space where the cattle are
herded.
Both men and women of the Hottentots wear fur caps, and it is considered
indecent for a woman to be seen with her head bare. Hottentot clothing
consists of leather aprons and cloaks. Hottentots rarely kill their
cattle, which they keep for milk rather than for meat.
They are quite warlike, and each tribe has a leader. They honor brave
warriors. They are gay in disposition and like to say sharp and funny
things about each other; this often leads to quarrels and fights. When a
man is angry with another, he takes a handful of dust and offers it to
him; if the offender is willing to fight, he seizes the hand and
scatters the dust on the ground; if he refuses to fight, the angry man
throws the dust upon him to show that he is a coward. In fighting to
settle quarrels, they kick and club each other and even use spears.
[Illustration: HOTTENTOT KRAAL (RATZEL).]
The Hottentots have many songs and prayers which they repeat to, or
about, their sacred beings. Among their stories are some about the
rabbit and his adventures. They worship the stars which we call the
Pleiades. When these stars rise for the first time in the year, the
people greet them. Mothers take their babies in their arms and teach
them to stretch out their little hands toward the friendly stars. They
then have a dance and sing a song in honor of one of their gods. There
is a large insect called the _mantis_, which, when it stands still,
raises its long front legs into a curious position; the Hottentots think
that it is praying. When a praying mantis appears in a kraal every one
is pleased, as they think it brings good luck. No one thinks of killing
it, and they make an offering to it.
When a Hottentot man goes hunting, his wife kindles a fire at home and
does nothing while he is gone but carefully tend it. They believe if she
lets it go out that he will fail in his hunting. Hottentot conjurers are
thought to be great snake charmers. It is said that they can hiss in
such a way that all the snakes in the district will be attracted to
them. So much are these conjurers feared that every one wears some
object about him to protect himself against their power.
XXVII.
MALAYS.
The Malays live in the Malay Peninsula, on the great islands near
it,—Sumatra, Borneo, and Java,—and on a host of lesser islands in that
part of the world. They also form part of the population of the great
island, Madagascar, lying east of Africa.
They are short, with brown skin, dark eyes, straight and coarse black
hair, and broad, round heads. Their forms are slight and graceful. They
are active and gay, quick and intelligent; they are easily offended, do
not readily forgive injuries, and are often deceitful and treacherous.
The Malays are believed to have come from the continent of Asia not more
than three thousand years ago.
They are fairly industrious in working their fields, the most important
crop from which is rice. They have other crops, however, and also raise
many fruits. They use the buffalo as a help in field work and for
drawing carts. Those Malays who live near the coast fish, and use both
fresh and salted fish for food. They are good sailors, making journeys
by water to China, Australia and other islands. They are shrewd in
trading. Formerly, many Malays were bold pirates, as indeed in some
parts they still are.
Malay houses are usually built of boards, are rectangular in form, and
have a two-pitched roof. They are almost everywhere, set up on posts
quite high above ground, and must be reached by means of ladders.
The Malays are great chewers of betel nut. A piece of the nut is mixed
with a little lime, placed in a leaf, and chewed. It colors the saliva
red and stains the teeth a brownish black. So used are the Malays to
these stained teeth that they no longer admire white teeth. Of a man
whose teeth are not stained with betel they will say, “he has teeth like
a dog,” and seem to consider it a disgrace. They even chip off or file
away the enamel on the front of the teeth of children so that they may
become sooner blackened.
[Illustration: MALAY FAMILY: JAVA (VERNEAU).]
All Malays like amusement; even the most civilized celebrate many
festivals. Animal fights and theatrical performances are favorites.
Almost every man among the Malays keeps a fighting cock of which he is
proud and fond; while he works in his field, the bird is tied by a cord
to a stake near him, and he stops now and again to stroke and pet him.
Cock-fights take place frequently, but the birds are not allowed—as in
Mexico—to kill each other. The bull-fights in the Malay region are also
much less cruel than those of Mexico and Spain. In these countries the
bull is made to fight against a trained company of human fighters; among
the Malays he fights another animal of his own kind. The Malay
buffalo-tiger fight is famous. A buffalo and tiger are placed in a pen
together and then excited until they attack each other. The buffalo is
quite frequently the victor. Most curious, however, is the battle
between crickets. The contest between these insects is watched with
great interest and excitement by the Malays. It occurs also in Japan.
Malays delight in dances and the theatre. At the World’s Columbian
Exposition in Chicago there was a complete Javanese village. It
contained a dance house where dances were given to the sound of the
strange gongs and other musical instruments of the Javan people. The
dancing was by girls who were gayly dressed in velvet, silk, and satin
with gold and silver tinsel. They wore curious gilt helmets. They did
not dance with their feet, but kept time to the music by graceful
movements of the arms, hands, head, and eyes. In the same building they
gave plays, in which the players wore small and curious masks of wood.
In other plays, somewhat like our Punch and Judy, puppets were moved and
played the parts. The Javanese also have shadow plays, where jointed
human figures, cut from cardboard, are moved by sticks and their shadows
are thrown upon a screen.
[Illustration: BUFFALO CART: JAVA (RATZEL).]
“Running amuck” is fearfully common among Malays. Suddenly a man, on the
street or in some public place, becomes insane with a desire to kill.
Seizing a weapon, he starts down a street filled with people and strikes
right and left at every one as he runs. The police hurry after the
murderer and are usually compelled to kill him before his dreadful work
can be stopped. The Malays are really a nervous and excitable people; it
is said that frequently a steady look at a person will throw him into a
trance or hypnotized state.
[Illustration: KRISES: JAVA (RATZEL).]
Of the various weapons used by the Malays the _kris_ seems to be the
favorite. In Java this was often a remarkable object. A kris is a short
sword or dagger with a fine steel blade which ends in a point, and the
sides of which are wavy instead of straight. Probably they think of this
as a stinging serpent; anyway the handle is frequently in the form of a
serpent’s head. Sometimes this handle is finely carved and often it is
set with gems. Some that belonged to the old Javan princes were a mass
of precious stones. The sheath for the kris might be plain, but it might
also be decorated with carvings or encrusted with jewels.
Strangest of the Malays are the Dyaks of Borneo and the Battaks of
Sumatra. Both are a little larger and have longer heads than the
Javanese. The Dyaks are great “head-hunters.” No man is respected until
he has brought in a head as a trophy. Usually only the skull is kept;
sometimes this will be engraved with patterns or stained with coloring
matter; sometimes designs are cut in the bone and foil is set in the
patterns. The Battaks are industrious and have made progress in many
ways. They have a system of writing. Inscriptions are usually carved
upon staves of bamboo; they also have books made of strips of palm or
other vegetable substances. The Battaks are among the most dreadful of
cannibals.
XXVIII.
THE PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES.
The Philippine Islands lie northeast from the great Malay Islands. The
group extends for one thousand miles and includes almost two thousand
islands of sizes from barren rock masses too small for use up to the
great Island of Luzon, which is about the size of Ohio. All together the
islands have an area equal to that of New York and the New England
States united. It is uncertain how large a population occupy the
islands, but it is probably between seven and eight million.
Dr. Blumentritt, an Austrian who has studied the Philippine peoples for
many years, says that fifty-one different languages are spoken among
them. He thinks that the peoples have come at various times to the
islands from various places. He believes that the first people here were
the negritos and that they once occupied the whole region. Perhaps three
thousand years ago Malay tribes, a good deal like the Dyaks of Borneo,
crowded in upon the unfortunate little natives, seizing their land and
driving them into the mountains of the interior and to the more remote
parts of the coast. Later, from eighteen hundred to fourteen hundred
years ago, other Malays crowded in, but this time they were more like
those of Java. Much later, only about five hundred years ago, a third
lot of Malays, bold and hardy seamen, began a movement into the islands.
But just then the Spaniards discovered the Philippines and checked these
pirates before they had gained much of a foothold. Blumentritt speaks of
these invasions of Malays as the first, second, and third Malay
migrations.
[Illustration: PHILIPPINE NEGRITO (MEYER).]
The negritos, or old population, are a little people much like the
Mincopies of the Andaman Islands. They are short, black skinned, and
crinkly haired. They do not live to be old, but a person of thirty or
forty looks as if much older. They build no true houses; in bad weather
they put up rude shelters. They are wanderers and have no agriculture;
they make no pottery; they wear but little clothing; some scar or
tattoo; they are fond of ornaments. Their chief weapon is the bow and
arrow, though they also have spears. They are skilful in throwing
stones. They make fire by friction, sawing one sharp piece of bamboo
across another. If a negrito dies, his fellows believe he was bewitched
by some Tagal or other Malay, and will not be satisfied until one has
been killed in revenge. When two negritos wish to swear friendship, they
cut their arms and each sucks blood from the other; they thus become of
one blood and are like brothers. They used to send messages by knotting
grass which either had a meaning itself or helped the person who carried
it to remember what he had been told. There are now perhaps twenty
thousand negritos and they live mostly on the larger islands—Luzon,
Mindanao, and Negros.