THEY ALL COME TO SEE ME.--THEY SAY I HAVE AN EVIL EYE.--ASHIRA
VILLAGES.--OLENDA GIVES A GREAT BALL IN MY
HONOR.--BEER-HOUSES.--GOATS COMING OUT OF A MOUNTAIN ALIVE.
Several days have elapsed since my arrival at Olenda. From more than one
hundred and fifty villages of the plain, the people streamed to Olenda's
town to see "the spirit." They came in the night, slept on the ground
outside the town, and in the morning crowded about me, wondering at my
hair, at my clothes, at my shoes; declaring that my feet were like
elephant's feet, for they did not see the toes; and they would try to
get a glance at my eyes. The moment I looked at them they ran off
screaming, and especially the women and children. The Africans had a
great dread of my look. They believe in the _evil eye_, and often, when
I would look steadily at them, my best friends, with a shudder, would
beg me not to do it.
So I may say that since my arrival the time has been devoted to seeing
and being seen. And I assure you it was no joke to hear that uproarious
crowd and their wild shouts--to have always in my sight a crowd of
people yelling at every movement I made.
I had a Yankee clock, which was an object of constant wonder to them.
They thought that there was a kind of spirit inside that made the noise,
and that watched over me. Its constant ticking, day and night, was
noticed, and they had an idea that the noise could never stop. At night
of course the sound is louder, and this frightened them, and not one
dared to come close to my hut.
Every day Olenda beats his kendo; every day he comes to get a look at
me.
This Ashira prairie seemed to be shut in on all sides by mountains,
which of course were covered with forest. Fancy the forest a sea of
trees, and the Ashira Land an island. Pine-apples grew in great
abundance, and thousands and thousands of them were clustered close
together, and formed otobi (prairies) by themselves.
This plain is the finest and most delightful country I had thus far seen
in the jungle. The undulations of the prairie, which is a kind of
table-land surrounded on every side by high mountains, gave the
landscape a charming variety. The surrounding mountains, the splendid
peak of the Nkoomoo Nabouali on the north, said by the superstitious
Ashiras to be inhabited by satyrs like men; the Andele and Ofoubou-Orere
to the south, and the Ococoo to the east, are all covered with dense
masses of foliage. In those forests are living tribes of wild men and
wilder beasts, roaming at pleasure.
I have arrived in a country where I could see grass, and see distinctly
the moon, the stars, and the sun without first being obliged to cut the
trees down. Oh, you have no idea how nice it is to see an open space
after you have been shut up in the forest for years.
From Olenda's village I made excursions all over the Ashira country. The
villages were so numerous I could not count them. There were from one
hundred and fifty to two hundred of them. Some were quite small, others
were quite large; and what beautiful villages they were. I had not seen
such pretty ones before. The houses were small, but the neatest I had
met in the jungle. They are built generally in one long street, houses
on each side. The streets are kept clean; and this was the first tribe I
met where the ground at the back of the houses was also cleared off. In
most villages there was, back of the houses, a street where great
numbers of plantain-trees and some lime-trees, for they love lemons,
were growing. The villages are surrounded by thousands of
plantain-trees, and regular footpaths connected one village with
another.
Ball after ball was given to me, and one evening Olenda gave me a very
fine, big one. More than fifty drums beat, besides there were musicians
armed with short sticks, with which they pounded with all their might on
pieces of board. The singing was extraordinary, and the Ashira belles
cut any amount of capers, one time raising their legs one way, then
bending their bodies backward and forward, shaking their heads from one
side to the other, kicking their heels together, the iron or brass
bracelets or anklets adding to the harmony of _the musical instruments_
I have described to you. The singing was as wild as can be imagined.
Olenda's wives--for his majesty was blessed with several scores of
them--danced with fury.
They danced all night, and the next morning there was a general stampede
to the beer or cider-house. I must tell you that the Ashira are very
fond of plantain wine.
I followed, for I wanted to see a beer-house and a general Ashira spree.
After walking for half an hour we came to a cluster of trees, in the
centre of which we found a brewery. A few women had charge of the
premises--the wives of some of the Ashira.
What a sight presented itself to my view! There hung all round hundreds
of large bunches of plantain in different stages of ripening, from the
dark green to the bright yellow, hanging from the limbs of trees. There
were also some red-skin plantains.
[Illustration: DRINKING PLANTAIN BEER.]
It was a large building, under a single roof, supported by numerous
wooden pillars, and on these hung a great many bunches of plantain. In
the middle of the building there were scores of large jars, manufactured
in the country, some of which would hold ten or fifteen gallons. From
the necks of some of them a quantity of rich white froth was running
out. The beer in others was just ripe, and ready for drinking. There
were also many large mugs, looking more like dishes, however, for the
plantain juice to be poured into.
Very soon the men seated themselves, either on the stools that belonged
to them or on mats, and the drinking began. Mug after mug was swallowed
by each man. I think no German could drink the same amount of liquid.
They became, after a while, jolly and boisterous; they began, in fact,
to get tipsy.
Do not believe they were drinking at random. Each jug of wine belonged
to several men, who had clubbed together; that is to say, each had given
a certain amount of plantain to make the beer which the vessel
contained.
The plantain with which the beer or wine is made is a kind of banana,
much larger and coarser, and used, as you have seen, as food; but it
must be cooked, the natives cooking it when it is green. When ripe, it
is yellow like the banana.
The beer is made in the following manner: The plantain must be quite
ripe; then it is cut in small pieces, which are put into the jar until
it is half filled; then the jar is filled with water. After a few days
it ferments; then the froth comes out, and the beer is ready for use.
The bunches of plantain, which were hanging by hundreds, had their
owners, and had been brought from the plantations by their wives, and
were ripening in the shade. As the plantations yield fruit all the year
round, the beer is never lacking among the Ashiras.
After they were sufficiently excited, they began to talk of their
wonderful warlike exploits, and I do believe it was who should lie the
most. The greater the lie, the louder the applause.
I tasted the plantain beer, and found it somewhat sour; I did not like
it at all.
I spent the day in the beer-house, and, when we returned to the village,
the men insisted on having another dance, and they kept hard at work at
it all night, and went all to sleep the next morning. I was glad when
every thing was over, for my head began to ache.
I determined to visit the mountains from which the River Ofoubou takes
its name. King Olenda was to take charge of my luggage, and I took only
a few presents for the Ashira chiefs I was to see, and who had come to
see and invite me to visit their towns in the mountains.
One of Olenda's sons was chief of our party, and Adouma, Quengueza's
nephew, led with him. We did not start before old King Olenda had told
all his people to take great care of the "spirit."
We left the village in the midst of the wildest shouts, and then wended
our way through the beautiful green grass. Within a mile and a half
south from Olenda we came to the foot of Mount Nchondo, one of the
highest points of the prairie. There we all stopped; why, I could not
guess.
When one of the Ashiras said to me, pointing to the mountain, "You see
that mountain, Moguizi?" "Yes," said I. "From that part of the
mountain," continued Oyagui, Olenda's great-grandson, in the most
serious manner, "goats come out. That is a great mountain; a spirit
lives there. Sometimes, when our people want a goat, they will go there,
and a goat will come to them." I said, "That can not be." "Yes,"
insisted Oyagui, "I know plenty of people who get goats there."
Then we passed by numerous villages, skirting most of the hills at
their base, and crowds of people every where cried out, "The moguizi is
coming! the moguizi is coming!"
All these villages were surrounded by groves of plantain and banana
trees.
After a journey of about ten miles, we came, at the foot of the
cloud-capped Mount Andele, to the village of Mouendi, whose chief,
Mandji, came forth with great joy to meet me, for he was a great friend
of Adouma. He sang, as he came forward with his people, "It is good that
the moguizi comes to see our town."
To the rear of the village, on the slope of the mountain, the forest had
been cleared, and the space occupied by plantations, where tobacco,
peanuts, plantains, yams, and sugar-cane were grown to an extent which
makes this a land of plenty where no man starves. Bushes of wild cotton
were seen now and then, but not in great numbers.
I was glad that I had reached a country where I should not readily
starve--plantains and goats were plentiful. As I stood and cast my eyes
over the scene, the yellow waving grass, with now and then a dark green
patch in low land between the hills, where water stood, and the
cane-fields contrasting with the dark green of the forest, reminded me
of rural scenes at home; but I looked in vain for cattle; none were to
be seen.
I had a great time at Mouendi; Mandji, its chief, was very kind to me. I
had more goats and plantains given to me than my men and myself could
eat. The Goumbi people were in great glee; that was just the country for
them, and, I may now say it, it was just the country for me also. I was
in clover, I thought.