KARAGUE.
LOCALITY OF KARAGUE -- DISTINCT CLASSES OF THE INHABITANTS -- THEIR
GENERAL CHARACTER -- MODE OF SALUTATION -- THE RULING CASTE, OR
WAHUMA, AND THE ROYAL CASTE, OR MOHEENDA -- LAW OF SUCCESSION --
THE SULTAN RUMANIKA AND HIS FAMILY -- PLANTAIN WINE -- HOW RUMANIKA
GAINED THE THRONE -- OBSEQUIES OF HIS FATHER -- NEW-MOON CEREMONIES
-- TWO ROYAL PROPHETS -- THE MAGIC HORNS -- MARRIAGE -- EASY LOT OF
THE WAHUMA WOMEN -- WIFE-FATTENING -- AN ODD USE OF OBESITY -- DRESS
OF THE WOMEN -- MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS -- RUMANIKA’S PRIVATE BAND --
FUNERAL CUSTOMS.
Passing by a number of tribes of more or less importance, we come to
the country called KARAGUE (pronounced Kah-rah-góo-eh), which occupies
a district about lat. 3° S. and long. 31° E. The people of this
district are divided into two distinct classes,--namely, the reigning
race, or Wahuma, and the peasantry, or Wanyambo. These latter were the
original inhabitants of the land, but were dispossessed by the Wahuma,
who have turned them into slaves and tillers of the ground. Among
the Wahuma there is another distinction,--namely, a royal caste, or
Moheenda.
As to the Wanyambo, although they are reduced to the condition of
peasants, and have been compared to the ryots of India, they seem
to preserve their self-respect, and have a kind of government among
themselves, the country being divided into districts, each of which has
its own governor. These men are called Wakungo, and are distinguished
by a sort of uniform, consisting of a sheet of calico or a scarlet
blanket in addition to the ordinary dress.
They are an excitable and rather quarrelsome people, and are quite
capable of taking their own parts, even against the Weezees, with whom
they occasionally quarrel. They do not carry their weapons continually,
like the Wagogo and the Weezees, contenting themselves with a stick
about five feet long, with a knob at the end, without which they are
seldom to be seen, and which is not only used as a weapon, but is
employed in greeting a friend.
The mode of saluting another is to hold out the stick to the friend,
who touches the knobbed end with his hand, and repeats a few words of
salutation. Yet, although they do not habitually carry weapons, they
are very well armed, their bows being exceedingly powerful and elastic,
more than six feet in length, and projecting a spear-headed arrow to a
great distance. Spears are also employed, but the familiar weapon is
the bow. A bow belonging to M’nanagee, the brother of Rumanika, the
then head chief or “sultan” of Karague, was a beautiful specimen of
native workmanship. It was six feet three inches in length, _i. e._
exactly the height of the owner, and was so carefully made that there
was not a curve in it that could offend the eye. The string was twisted
from the sinews of a cow, and the owner could project an arrow some two
hundred yards. The wood of which it was made looked very like our own
ash.
The Wanyambo were very polite to Captain Grant, taking great care of
him, and advising him how to preserve his health, thus affording a
practical refutation of the alarming stories respecting their treachery
and ferocity of which he had been told when determining to pass
through their country. The Wanyambo are obliged to furnish provisions
to travellers free of charge, but, although they obey the letter
of the law, they always expect a present of brass wire in lieu of
payment. They are slenderly built, very dark in complexion, and grease
themselves abundantly. They do not, however, possess such an evil odor
as other grease-using tribes, as, after they have anointed themselves,
they light a fire of aromatic wood, and stand to leeward of it, so as
to allow the perfumed smoke to pass over them.
The Wahuma are of much lighter complexion, and the royal caste, or
Moheenda, are remarkable for their bronze-like complexions, their
well-cut features, and their curiously long heads. The members of this
caste are further marked by some scars under the eyes, and their teeth
are neither filed nor chipped. There is rather a curious law about the
succession to the throne. As with us, the king’s eldest son is the
acknowledged heir, but then he must have been born when his father was
actually king. Consequently, the youngest of a family of brothers is
sometimes the heir to the throne, his elder brothers, having been born
before their father was king, being ineligible to the crown.
According to Captain Speke, the Wahuma, the Gallas, and the Abyssinians
are but different branches of the same people, having fought and been
beaten, and retired, and so made their way westward and southward,
until they settled down in the country which was then inhabited by
the Wanyambo. Still, although he thinks them to have derived their
source from Abyssinia, and to have spread themselves over the whole of
the country on which we are now engaged, he mentions that they always
accommodated themselves to the manners and customs of the natives
whom they supplanted, and that the Gallas or Wahuma of Karague have
different customs from the Wahuma of Unyoro.
The king or sultan of Karague, at the time when our travellers passed
through the country, was Rumanika. He was the handsomest and most
intelligent ruler that they met in Africa, and had nothing of the
African in his appearance except that his hair was short and woolly. He
was six feet two inches in height, and had a peculiarly mild and open
expression of countenance. He wore a robe made of small antelope skins,
and another of bark cloth, so that he was completely covered. He never
wore any headdress, but had the usual metallic armlets and anklets,
and always carried a long staff in his hand. His four sons appear to
have been worthy of their father. The oldest and youngest seem to have
been peculiarly favorable specimens of their race. The eldest, named
Chunderah, was twenty-five years old, and very fair, so that, but for
his woolly hair and his rather thick lips, he might have been taken for
a sepoy. “He affected the dandy, being more neat about his lion-skin
covers and ornaments than the other brothers. He led a gay life,
was always ready to lead a war party, and to preside at a dance, or
wherever there was wine and women.
“From the tuft of wool left unshaven on the crown of his head to his
waist he was bare, except when decorated round the muscle of the arms
and neck with charmed horns, strips of otter skin, shells, and bands
of wood. The skin covering, which in the Karague people is peculiar in
shape, reaches below the knee behind, and is cut away in front. From
below the calf to the ankle was a mass of iron wire, and, when visiting
from neighbor to neighbor, he always, like every Karague, carried in
his hand a five-feet staff with a knob at the end. He constantly came
to ask after me, bringing flowers in his hand, as he knew my fondness
for them, and at night he would take Frij, my headman, into the palace,
along with his ‘zeze,’ or guitar, to amuse his sisters with Zanzibar
music. In turn, the sisters, brothers, and followers would sing Karague
music, and early in the morning Master Frij and Chunderah would return
rather jolly to their huts outside the palace enclosure. This shows the
kindly feeling existing between us and the family of the sultan; and,
although this young prince had showed me many attentions, he never once
asked me for a present.”
The second son, who was by a different mother, was not so agreeable.
His disposition was not bad, but he was stupid and slow, and anything
but handsome. The youngest of the four, named Kukoko, seemed to have
become a general favorite, and was clearly the pet of his father, who
never went anywhere without him. He was so mild and pleasant in his
manner, that the travellers presented him with a pair of white kid
gloves, and, after much trouble in coaxing them on his unaccustomed
fingers, were much amused by the young man’s added dignity with which
he walked away.
Contrary to the usual African custom, Rumanika was singularly
abstemious, living almost entirely upon milk, and merely sucking the
juice of boiled beef, without eating the meat itself. He scarcely
ever touched the plantain wine or beer, that is in such general use
throughout the country, and never had been known to be intoxicated.
This wine or beer is made in a very ingenious manner. A large log of
wood is hollowed out so as to form a tub, and it seems essential that
it should be of considerable size. One end of it is raised upon a
support, and a sort of barrier or dam of dried grass is fixed across
the centre. Ripe plantains are then placed in the upper division of the
tub, and mashed by the women’s feet and hands until they are reduced
to a pulp. The juice flows down the inclined tub, straining itself by
passing through the grass barrier. When a sufficient quantity has been
pressed, it is strained several times backward and forward, and is
then passed into a clean tub for fermentation. Some burnt sorghum is
then bruised and thrown into the juice to help fermentation, and the
tub is then covered up and placed in the sun’s rays, or kept warm by a
fire. In the course of three days the brewing process is supposed to be
completed, and the beer or wine is poured off into calabashes.
The amount of this wine that is drunk by the natives is really amazing,
every one carrying about with him a calabash full of it, and even the
youngest children of the peasants drinking it freely. It is never
bottled for preservation, and, in fact, it is in such request that
scarcely a calabash full can be found within two or three days after
the brewing is completed. This inordinate fondness for plantain wine
makes Rumanika’s abstinence the more remarkable.
But Rumanika was really a wonderful man in his way, and was not only
king, but priest and prophet also. His very elevation to the throne
was, according to the account given by him and his friends, entirely
due to supernatural aid. When his father, Dagara, died, he and two
brothers claimed the throne. In order to settle their pretensions a
small magic drum was laid before them, and he who could lift it was
to take the crown. The drum was a very small one, and of scarcely any
weight, but upon it were laid certain potent charms. The consequence
was, that although his brothers put all their strength to the task,
they could not stir the drum, while Rumanika raised it easily with
his little finger. Ever afterward he carried this drum with him on
occasions of ceremony, swinging it about to show how easy it was for
the rightful sovereign to wield it. Being dissatisfied with such
a test, one of the chiefs insisted on Rumanika’s trial by another
ordeal. He was then brought into a sacred spot, where he was required
to seat himself on the ground, and await the result of the charms. If
he were really the appointed king, the portion of the ground on which
he was seated would rise up in the air until it reached the sky; but
if he were the wrong man, it would collapse, and dash him to pieces.
According to all accounts, his own included, Rumanika took his seat,
was raised up into the sky, and his legitimacy acknowledged.
Altogether, his family seem to have been noted for their supernatural
qualities. When his father, Dagara, died, his body was sewed up in
a cow-hide, put into a canoe, and set floating on the lake, where
it was allowed to decompose. Three maggots were then taken from the
canoe and given in charge of Rumanika, but as soon as they came into
his house one of them became a lion, another a leopard, and the third
was transformed into a stick. The body was then laid on the top of a
hill, a hut built over it, five girls and fifty cows put into it, and
the door blocked up and watched, so that the inmates gradually died of
starvation. The lion which issued from the corpse was supposed to be
an emblem of the peculiar character of the Karague country, which is
supposed to be guarded by lions from the attack of other tribes. It
was said that whenever Dagara heard that the enemy was marching into
his country, he used to call the lions together, send them against the
advancing force, and so defeat them by deputy.
In his character of high-priest, Rumanika was very imposing, especially
in his new-moon levee, which took place every month, for the purpose
of ascertaining the loyalty of his subjects. On the evening of the
new moon he clothes himself in his priestly garb, _i. e._ a quantity
of feathers nodding over his forehead, and fastened with a kind of
strap of beads. A huge white beard covers his chin and descends to his
breast, and is fastened to his face by a belt of beads. Having thus
prepared himself, he sits behind a screen, and waits for the ceremony
to begin.
This is a very curious one. Thirty or forty long drums are ranged on
the ground, just like a battery of so many mortars; on their heads a
white cross is painted. The drummers stand behind them, each with a
pair of sticks, and in front is their leader, who has a pair of small
drums slung to his neck. The leader first raises his right arm, and
then his left, the performers imitating him with exact precision. He
then brings down both sticks on the drums with a rapid roll, which
becomes louder and louder, until the noise is scarcely endurable.
This is continued at intervals for several hours, interspersed with
performances on smaller drums, and other musical instruments. The
various chiefs and officers next advance, in succession, leaping and
gesticulating, shouting expressions of devotion to their sovereign, and
invoking his vengeance on them should they ever fail in their loyalty.
As they finish their salutation they kneel successively before the
king, and hold out their knobbed sticks that he may touch them, and
then retire to make room for their successors in the ceremony. In order
to give added force to the whole proceeding, a horn is stuffed full
of magic powder, and placed in the centre, with its opening directed
toward the quarter from which danger is to be feared.
A younger brother of Rumanika, named M’nanagee, was even a greater
prophet and diviner than his royal brother, and was greatly respected
by the Wahuma in consequence of his supernatural powers. He had a
sacred stone on a hill, and might be seen daily walking to the spot for
the purpose of divination. He had also a number of elephant tusks which
he had stuffed with magic powder and placed in the enclosure, for the
purpose of a kind of religious worship.
M’nanagee was a tall and stately personage, skilled in the knowledge
of plants, and, strange to say, ready to impart his knowledge. As
insignia of his priestly office, he wore an abundance of charms. One
charm was fastened to the back of his shaven head, others hung from
his neck and arms, while some were tied to his knees, and even the end
of his walking stick contained a charm. He was always attended by his
page, a little fat boy, who carried his fly-flapper, and his master’s
pipe, the latter being of considerable length, and having a bowl of
enormous size. He had a full belief in the power of his magic horns,
and consulted them on almost every occasion of life. If any one were
ill, he asked their opinion as to the nature of the malady and the
best remedy for it. If he felt curious about a friend at a distance,
the magic horns gave him tidings of the absent one. If an attack were
intended on the country, the horns gave him warning of it, and, when
rightly invoked, they either averted the threatened attack, or gave
victory over their enemies.
The people have an implicit faith in the power of their charms, and
believe that they not only inspire courage, but render the person
invulnerable. Rumanika’s head magician, K’yengo, told Captain Speke
that the Watuta tribes had invested his village for six months; and,
when all the cattle and other provisions were eaten, they took the
village and killed all the inhabitants except himself. Him they could
not kill on account of the power of his charms, and, although they
struck at him with their spears as he lay on the ground, they could not
even wound him.
The Wahuma believe in the constant presence of departed souls, and that
they can exercise an influence for good or evil over those whom they
had known in life. So, if a field happens to be blighted, or the crop
does not look favorable, a gourd is laid on the path. All passengers
who see the gourd know its meaning, and set up a wailing cry to the
spirits to give a good crop to their surviving friends. In order to
propitiate the spirit of his father, Dagara, Rumanika used annually to
sacrifice a cow on his tomb, and was accustomed to lay corn and beer
near the grave, as offerings to his father’s spirit.
In Karague, marriage is little more than a species of barter, the
father receiving cows, sheep, slaves, and other property for his
daughter. But the transaction is not a final one, for if the bride
does not happen to approve of her husband, she can return the marriage
gifts and return to her father. There is but little ceremony in their
marriages, the principal one seeming to consist of tying up the bride
in a blackened skin, and carrying her in noisy procession to her
husband.
The Wahuma women lead an easy life compared with that of the South
African women, and indeed their chief object in life seems to be the
attainment of corpulence. Either the Wahuma women are specially
constituted, or the food which they eat is exceptionally nutritious,
for they attain dimensions that are almost incredible. For example,
Rumanika, though himself a slight and well-shaped man, had five wives
of enormous fatness. Three of them were unable to enter the door of an
ordinary hut, or to move about without being supported by a person on
either side. They are fed on boiled plantains and milk, and consume
vast quantities of the latter article, eating it all day long. Indeed,
they are fattened as systematically as turkeys, and are “crammed” with
an equal disregard of their feelings.
Captain Speke gives a very humorous account of his interview with
one of the women of rank, together with the measurements which she
permitted him to take:--
“After a long and amusing conversation with Rumanika in the morning, I
called on one of his sisters-in-law, married to an elder brother, who
was born before Dagara ascended the throne. She was another of these
victims of obesity, unable to stand except on all fours. I was desirous
to obtain a good view of her, and actually to measure her, and induced
her to give me facilities for doing so by offering in return to show
her a bit of my naked legs and arms. The bait took as I wished it, and,
after getting her to sidle and wriggle into the middle of the hut, I
did as I had promised, and then took her dimensions as noted.
“Round arm, one foot eleven inches. Chest, four feet four inches.
Thigh, two feet seven inches. Calf, one foot eight inches. Height,
five feet eight inches. All of these are exact except the height, and
I believe I could have obtained this more accurately if I could have
had her laid on the floor. But, knowing what difficulties I should have
to contend with in such a piece of engineering, I tried to get her
height by raising her up. This, after infinite exertions on the part of
us both, was accomplished, when she sank down again fainting, for the
blood had rushed into her head.
“Meanwhile the daughter, a lass of sixteen, sat stark naked before us,
sucking at a milk-pot, on which the father kept her at work by holding
a rod in his hand: for, as fattening is the first duty of fashionable
female life, it must be duly enforced with the rod if necessary. I got
up a bit of a flirtation with missy, and induced her to rise and shake
hands with me. Her features were lovely, but her body was as round as a
ball.”
In one part of the country, the women turned their obesity to good
account. In exchanging food for beads, the usual bargain was that a
certain quantity of food should be paid for by a belt of beads that
would go round the waist. But the women of Karague were, on an average,
twice as large round the waist as those of other districts, and the
natural consequence was, that food practically rose one hundred per
cent in price.
[Illustration: RUMANIKA’S PRIVATE BAND. (See page 405.)]
Despite their exceeding fatness, their features retain much beauty,
the face being oval, and the eyes peculiarly fine and intelligent. The
higher class of women are very modest, not only wearing the cow-skin
petticoat, but also a large wrapper of black cloth, with which they
envelope their whole bodies, merely allowing one eye to be seen. Yet
up to the marriageable age no clothing of any kind is worn by either
sex, and both boys and girls will come up to the traveller and talk
familiarly with him, as unconscious of nudity as their first parents.
Until they are married they allow their hair to grow, and then shave
it off, sometimes entirely, and sometimes partially. They have an odd
habit of making caps of cane, which they cover on the outside with the
woolly hair shaved off their own heads.
Mention has been made of various musical instruments used in Karague.
The most important are the drums, which vary in size as much as they
do in England. That which corresponds to our side-drum is about four
feet in length and one in width, and is covered at the wide end with
an ichneumon skin. This instrument is slung from the shoulder, and is
played with the fingers like the Indian “tom-tom.” The large drums used
at the new-moon levee are of similar structure, but very much larger.
The war drum is beaten by the women, and at its sound the men rush to
arms and repair to the several quarters.
There are also several stringed instruments employed in Karague. The
principal of these is the nanga, a kind of guitar, which, according to
Captain Grant, may be called the national instrument. There are several
varieties of the nanga. “In one of these, played by an old woman, six
of the seven notes were a perfect scale, the seventh being the only
faulty string. In another, played by a man, three strings were a full
harmonious chord. These facts show that the people are capable of
cultivation. The nanga was formed of heavy dark wood, the shape of a
tray, twenty-two by nine inches, or thirty by eight, with three crosses
in the bottom, and laced with one string seven or eight times over
bridges at either end. Sometimes a gourd or sounding-board was tied to
the back.
“Prince M’nanagee, at my request, sent the best player he knew.
The man boldly entered without introduction, dressed in the usual
Wanyambo costume, and looked a wild, excited creature. After resting
his spear against the roof of the hut, he took a nanga from under
his arm, and commenced. As he sat upon a mat with his head averted,
he sang something of his having been sent to me, and of the favorite
dog Keeromba. The wild yet gentle music and words attracted a crowd
of admirers, who sang the dog-song for days afterward, as we had it
encored several times.
“Another player was an old woman, calling herself Keeleeamyagga. As she
played while standing in front of me, all the song she could produce
was ‘sh! sh!’ screwing her mouth, rolling her body, and raising her
feet from the ground. It was a miserable performance, and not repeated.”
There is another stringed instrument called the “zeze.” It differs
from the nanga in having only one string, and, like the nanga, is
used to accompany the voice in singing. Their wind instruments may be
called the flageolet and the bugle. The former has six finger holes;
and as the people walk along with a load on their heads, they play the
flageolet to lighten their journey, and really contrive to produce
sweet and musical tones from it. The so-called “bugle” is made of
several pieces of gourd, fitting into one another in telescope fashion,
and is covered with cow-skin. The notes of a common chord can be
produced on the bugle, the thumb acting as a key. It is about one foot
in length.
Rumanika had a special military band comprised of sixteen men, fourteen
of whom had bugles and the other two carried hand drums. They formed in
three ranks, the drummers being in the rear, and played on the march,
swaying their bodies in time to the music, and the leader advancing
with a curiously active step, in which he touched the ground with each
knee alternately. The illustration opposite will give the reader a good
idea of Rumanika’s private band.
The code of laws in Karague is rather severe in some cases, and
strangely mild in others. For example, theft is punished with the
stocks, in which the offender is sometimes kept for many months.
Assault with a stick entails a fine of ten goats, but if with a deadly
weapon, the whole of the property is forfeited, the injured party
taking one half, and the sultan the other. In cases of actual murder,
the culprit is executed, and his entire property goes to the relations
of the murdered man. The most curious law is that against adultery.
Should the offender be an ordinary wife, the loss of an ear is thought
to be sufficient penalty; but if she be a slave, or the daughter of the
sultan, both parties are liable to capital punishment.
When an inhabitant of Karague dies, his body is disposed of according
to his rank. Should he be one of the peasants, or Wanyambo, the body
is sunk in the water; but if he should belong to the higher caste, or
Wahuma, the corpse is buried on an island in the lake, all such islands
being considered as sacred ground. Near the spot whereon one of the
Wahuma has died, the relations place a symbolical mark, consisting of
two sticks tied to a stone, and laid across the pathway. The symbol
informs the passenger that the pathway is for the present sacred, and
in consequence he turns aside, and makes a _détour_ before he resumes
the pathway. The singular funeral of the sultan has already been
mentioned.
THE WAZARAMO AND WASAGARA.
Before proceeding to other African countries, it will be as well
to give a few lines to two other tribes, namely,--the Wazaramo and
the Wasagara. The country in which the former people live is called
Uzaramo, and is situated immediately southward of Zanzibar, being the
first district through which Captains Speke and Grant passed. It is
covered with villages, the houses of which are partly conical after
the ordinary African fashion, and partly gable-ended, according to
the architecture of the coast, the latter form being probably due to
the many traders who have come from different parts of the world.
The walls of the houses are “wattle and daub,” _i. e._ hurdle-work
plastered with clay, and the roofs are thatched with grass or reeds.
Over these villages are set headmen, called phanzes, who ordinarily
call themselves subjects of Said Majid, the Sultan of Zanzibar. But as
soon as a caravan passes through their country, each headman considers
himself as a sultan in his own right, and levies tolls from the
travellers. They never allow strangers to come into their villages,
differing in this respect from other tribes, who use their towns as
traps, into which the unwary traveller is induced to come, and from
which he does not escape without suffering severely in purse.
The people, although rather short and thick-set, are good-looking, and
very fond of dress, although their costume is but limited, consisting
only of a cloth tied round the waist. They are very fond of ornaments,
such as shells, pieces of tin, and beads, and rub their bodies with
red clay and oil until they look as if they were new cast in copper.
Their hair is woolly, and twisted into numerous tufts, each of which
is elongated by bark fibres. The men are very attentive to the women,
dressing their hair for them, or escorting them to the water, lest any
harm should befall them.
A wise traveller passes through Uzaramo as fast as he can, the natives
never furnishing guides, nor giving the least assistance, but being
always ready to pounce on him should he be weak, and to rob him by open
violence, instead of employing the more refined “hongo” system. They
seem to be a boisterous race, but are manageable by mixed gentleness
and determination. Even when they had drawn out their warriors in
battle array, and demanded in a menacing manner a larger hongo than
they ought to expect, Captain Speke found that gentle words would
always cause them to withdraw, and leave the matter to peaceful
arbitration. Should they come to blows, they are rather formidable
enemies, being well armed with spears and bows and arrows, the latter
being poisoned, and their weapons being always kept in the same state
of polish and neatness as their owners.
Some of these Phanzes are apt to be very troublesome to the traveller,
almost always demanding more than they expect to get, and generally
using threats as the simplest means of extortion. One of them, named
Khombé la Simba, or Lion’s-claw, was very troublesome, sending back
contemptuously the present that had been given him, and threatening
the direst vengeance if his demands were not complied with. Five miles
further inland, another Phanze, named Mukia ya Nyani, or Monkey’s-tail,
demanded another hongo; but, as the stores of the expedition would have
been soon exhausted at this rate, Captain Speke put an abrupt stop to
this extortion, giving the chiefs the option of taking what he chose
to give them, or fighting for it; and, as he took care to display his
armory and the marksmanship of his men, they thought it better to
comply rather than fight and get nothing.
Owing to the rapidity with which the travellers passed through this
inhospitable land, and the necessity for avoiding the natives as much
as possible, very little was learned of their manners and customs.
The Wazaramo would flock round the caravan for the purpose of barter,
and to inspect the strangers, but their ordinary life was spent in
their villages, which, as has been already mentioned, are never
entered by travellers. Nothing is known of their religion, though it
is possible that the many Mahometans who pass through their land may
have introduced some traces of their own religion, just as is the
case in Londa, where the religion is an odd mixture of idolatrous,
Mahometan, and Christian rites, with the meaning ingeniously excluded.
In fact they do not want to know the meaning of the rites, leaving
that to the priests, and being perfectly contented so long as the
witch-doctor performs his part. That the Wazaramo have at all events
a certain amount of superstition, is evident from the fact that they
erect little model huts as temples to the Spirit of Rain. Such a hut
or temple is called M’ganga. They also lay broken articles on graves,
and occasionally carve rude wooden dolls and fix them in the ground at
the end of the grave; but, as far as is known, they have no separate
burying-place.
THE WASAGARA TRIBE.
The second of these tribes, the WASAGARA, inhabits a large tract of
country, full a hundred miles in length, and is composed of a great
number of inferior or sub-tribes. Like other African nations, who
at one time were evidently great and powerful, the Wasagara have
become feeble and comparatively insignificant, though still numerous.
Being much persecuted by armed parties from the coast, who attack
and carry them off for slaves, besides stealing what property they
have, the Wasagara have mostly taken to the lofty conical mountains
that form such conspicuous objects in their country, and there are
tolerably safe. But, as they are thus obliged to reside in such limited
districts, they can do but little in agriculture, and they are afraid
to descend to the level ground in order to take part in the system of
commerce, which is so largely developed in this country. Their villages
are mostly built on the hill spurs, and they cultivate, as far as
they can, the fertile lands which lie between them. But the continual
inroads of inimical tribes, as well as those of the slave-dealers,
prevent the inhabitants from tilling more land than can just supply
their wants.
So utterly dispirited are they, that as soon as a caravan is seen by a
sentry, warning is given, and all the population flock to the hill-top,
where they scatter and hide themselves so completely that no slaving
party would waste its time by trying to catch them. Resistance is never
even thought of, and it is hardly possible to induce the Wasagara to
descend the hills until the caravan has passed. Consequently it is
scarcely possible to obtain a Wasagara as a guide through his country.
If, however, the traveller does succeed in so doing, he finds that
the man is trustworthy, lively, active, and altogether an amusing
companion. The men seem to be good hunters, displaying great skill in
discovering and tracking game. Owing to the precarious nature of their
lives, the Wasagara have but little dress, a small strip of cloth round
the waist being the ordinary costume.