GANI, MADI, OBBO, AND KYTCH.
POSITION OF THE GANI TRIBE -- THEIR HOSPITABLE CHARACTER -- GANI
ARCHITECTURE -- SINGULAR MODE OF DRESS -- THE GANI QUEUE -- TOILET
MAKING IN PUBLIC -- THE MADI TRIBE -- CARE OF CHILDREN -- DRESS OF
THE WOMEN -- VARIOUS DANCES -- MADI VILLAGES -- ILL TREATMENT OF THE
NATIVES -- POSITION OF THE OBBO TRIBE -- GENERAL APPEARANCE OF THE
NATIVES -- SINGULAR MODE OF DRESS -- KATCHIBA, THE OBBO CHIEF -- HIS
LARGE FAMILY -- HIS REPUTATION AS A SORCERER -- INGENIOUS ESCAPE
FROM A DILEMMA -- KATCHIBA’S PALACE -- A VISIT TO THE CHIEF -- HIS
HOSPITALITY AND GENEROUS CONDUCT -- CHARACTER OF KATCHIBA.
We now come to a large district about lat. 3° N. and long. 32° E.
This country is inhabited by a group of tribes, who are perhaps more
remarkable for their style of dress than any which we have yet noticed.
We will first take the GANI.
The Gani are a hospitable people, and, when Captains Speke and Grant
passed through their country, received them with great kindness, even
though they had never seen white men before, and might be expected to
take alarm at an armed party penetrating into their land.
One day, when Captain Grant was walking in search of plants, he was
hailed by a native, who contrived to make him understand that he wished
to conduct the white man. He was very polite to his guest, acting as
pioneer, beating down the thorny branches that obstructed the path, and
pointing out the best places for crossing rocks. He evidently thought
that Captain Grant had lost his way, and so guided him back to the
camp, previously leaving his spear in a hut, because to appear armed in
the presence of a superior is contrary to their system of etiquette.
The mode of welcome was rather remarkable. The old chief of the village
advanced to meet the strangers, accompanied by his councillors and a
number of women, one of whom carried a white chicken, and the others
beer and a bunch of a flowering plant. When the two parties met, the
chief, whose name was Chongi, took the fowl by one leg, stooped, and
swung it backward and forward close to the ground, and then passed it
to his male attendants, who did the same thing. He then took a gourd
full of beer, dipped the plant in it, and sprinkled the liquid over his
guests, and then spread cow-skins under a tree by way of couches, on
which his guests might repose. They were next presented with a supply
of beer, which was politely called water.
The villages of the Gani are extremely neat, and consist of a quantity
of huts built round a flat cleared space which is kept exceedingly
smooth and neat. In the middle of this space are one or two miniature
huts made of grass, and containing idols, and a few horns are laid
near them. When the Gani lay out plans for a new village, they mostly
allow one large tree to remain in the centre of the cleared space, and
under its shade the inhabitants assemble and receive their guests. The
houses are shaped like beehives, are very low, and composed simply of a
mud wall, and a roof made of bamboo thatched with grass. The doors are
barely two feet high, but the supple-bodied Gani, who have never been
encumbered with clothes, can walk through the aperture with perfect
ease. The floor is made of clay beaten hard, and is swept with great
care. Cow-skins are spread on the floor by way of beds, and upon these
the Gani sleep without any covering.
Close to the huts are placed the grain stores, which are very
ingeniously made. First, a number of rude stone pillars are set in a
circle, having flat stones laid on their tops, much resembling the
remains of Stonehenge. Upon these is secured an enormous cylinder of
basket work plastered with clay, the top of which is covered with a
conical roof of bamboo and grass. When a woman wishes to take grain out
of the storehouse, she places against it a large branch from which the
smaller boughs have been cut, leaving stumps of a foot or ten inches in
length, and by means of this rude ladder she easily ascends to the roof.
The appearance of this tribe is most remarkable, as they use less
clothing and more ornament than any people at present known. We will
begin with the men. Their dress is absolutely nothing at all as far
as covering the body is concerned, but, as if to compensate for this
nudity, there is scarcely a square inch of the person without its
adornment. In the first place, they use paint as a succedaneum for
dress, and cover themselves entirely with colors, not merely rubbing
themselves over with one tint, but using several colors, and painting
themselves in a wonderful variety of patterns, many of them showing
real artistic power, while others are simply grotesque.
Two young men who came as messengers from Chongi had used three colors.
They had painted their faces white, the pigment being wood ashes, and
their bodies were covered with two coats of paint, the first purple,
and the second ashen gray. This latter coat they had scraped off in
irregular patterns, just as a painter uses his steel comb when graining
wood, so that the purple appeared through the gray, and looked much
like the grain of mahogany. Some of the men cover their bodies with
horizontal stripes, like those of the zebra, or with vertical stripes
running along the curve of the spine and limbs, or with zigzag markings
of light colors. Some very great dandies go still further, and paint
their bodies chequer fashion, exactly like that of a harlequin. White
always plays a large part in their decorations, and is often applied in
broad bands round the waist and neck.
The head is not less gorgeously decorated. First the hair is teased
out with a pin, and is then dressed with clay so as to form it into a
thick felt-like mass. This is often further decorated with pipe-clay
laid on in patterns, and at the back of the neck is inserted a piece
of sinew about a foot in length. This odd-looking queue is turned up,
and finished off at the tip with a tuft of fur, the end of a leopard’s
tail being the favorite ornament. Shells, beads, and other ornaments
are also woven into the hair, and in most cases a feather is added by
way of a finishing touch. The whole contour of the headdress is exactly
like that of the pantaloon of the stage, and the sight of a man with
the body of a harlequin and the head of a pantaloon is too much for
European gravity to withstand.
Besides all this elaborate decoration, the men wear a quantity of
bracelets, anklets; and earrings. The daily toilet of a Gani dandy
occupies a very long time, and in the morning the men may be seen in
numbers sitting under the shade of trees, employed in painting their
own bodies or dressing the hair of a friend, and applying paint where
he would not be able to guide the brush. As may be inferred, they
are exceedingly vain of their personal appearance; and when their
toilet is completed, they strut about in order to show themselves, and
continually _pose_ themselves in attitudes which they think graceful,
but which might be characterized as conceited.
Each man usually carries with him an odd little stool with one leg,
and instead of sitting on the ground, as is done by most savages, the
Gani make a point of seating themselves on these little stools, which
look very like those which are used by Swiss herdsmen when they milk
the cows, and only differ from them in not being tied to the body. The
engraving No. 1 on page 431 will help the reader to understand this
description.
The women are not nearly such votaries of fashion as their husbands,
principally because they have to work and to nurse the children, who
would make short work of any paint that they might use. Like the
parents, the children have no clothes, and are merely suspended in a
rather wide strap passing over one shoulder of the mother and under the
other. As, however, the rays of the sun might be injurious to them, a
large gourd is cut in two pieces, hollowed out, and one of the pieces
inverted over the child’s head and shoulders.
The Gani have cattle, but are very poor herdsmen, and have suffered the
herd to deteriorate in size and quality. They cannot even drive their
cattle properly, each cow recognizing a special driver, who grasps the
tail in one hand and a horn in the other, and thus drags and pushes the
animal along.
THE MADI TRIBE.
Not very far from the Gani are situated the MADI tribe. They are
dressed, or rather undressed, in a somewhat similar fashion. (See
engraving on page 431.) The women are very industrious, and are
remarkable for the scrupulously neat and clean state in which they keep
their huts. Every morning the women may be seen sweeping out their
houses, or kneeling in front of the aperture which serves as a door,
and patting and smoothing the space in front of the doorway. They are
also constantly employed in brewing beer, grinding corn, and baking
bread.
[Illustration: (1.) GROUP OF GANI AND MADI. (See page 430.)]
[Illustration: (2.) REMOVAL OF A VILLAGE. (See page 434.)]
They take great care of their children, washing them daily with warm
water, and then, as they have no towels, licking them dry as a cat
does with her kittens. When the child is washed and dried, the mother
produces some fat with which vermilion has been mixed, and rubs it over
the child’s body until it is all red and shining. The next process is
to lay the child on its back upon a goatskin, the corners of which are
then gathered up and tied together so as to form a cradle. Should the
mother be exceedingly busy, she hangs the cradle on a peg or the branch
of a tree, the child offering no objection to this treatment.
The dress of the women consists of a petticoat reaching a little below
the knees, but they often dispense with this article of dress, and
content themselves with a few leathern thongs in front, and another
cluster of thongs behind. In default of leathern thongs, a bunch of
chickweed answers every purpose of dress. They wear iron rings round
their arms above the elbow, and generally have a small knife stuck
between the rings and the arm.
They are fond of wearing little circular disks cut from a univalve
shell. These shells are laid out to bleach on the tops of the huts,
and, when whitened, are cut into circles about as large as fourpenny
pieces, each having a hole bored through the middle. They are then
strung together and worn as belts, and have also the advantage of being
used as coin with which small articles of food, as fruit or beer, could
be purchased. The men are in the habit of wearing ornaments made of the
tusks of the wild boar. The tusks are tied on the arm above the elbow,
and contrast well with the naturally dark hue of the skin and the
brilliant colors with which it is mostly painted.
Whenever a child is born, the other women assemble round the hut of
the mother, and make a hideous noise by way of congratulation. Drums
are beaten violently, songs are sung, hands are clapped, gratulatory
sentences are yelled out at the full stretch of the voice, while a wild
and furious dance acts as an accompaniment to the noise. As soon as
the mother has recovered, a goat is killed, and she steps backward and
forward over its body. One of the women, the wife of the commandant,
went through a very curious ceremony when she had recovered her health
after her child was born. She took a bunch of dry grass, and lighted
it, and then passed it from hand to hand three times round her body
while she walked to the left of the door. Another grass tuft was then
lighted, and she went through a similar performance as she walked to
the front of the door, and the process was again repeated as she walked
to the right.
The dances of the Madi are rather variable. The congratulatory dance is
performed by jumping up and down without any order, flinging the legs
and arms about, and flapping the ribs with the elbows. The young men
have a dance of their own, which is far more pleasing than that of the
women. Each takes a stick and a drum, and they arrange themselves in a
circle, beating the drums, singing, and converging to the centre, and
then retiring again in exact time with the rhythm of the drumbeats.
Sometimes there is a grand general dance, in which several hundred
performers take part. “Six drums of different sizes, slung upon poles,
were in the centre; around these was a moving mass of people, elbowing
and pushing one another as at a fair; and outside them a ring of
girls, women, and infants faced an outer circle of men sounding horns
and armed with spears and clubs, their heads ornamented with ostrich
feathers, helmets of the cowrie shell, &c. Never had I seen such a
scene of animated savage life, nor heard a more savage noise. As the
two large circles of both sexes jumped simultaneously to the music, and
moved round at every leap, the women sang and jingled their masses of
bracelets, challenging and exciting the men, forcing them to various
acts of gallantry, while our Seedees joined in the dance, and no doubt
touched many a fair breast.”
The weapons of the Madi are spears and bows and arrows. The spears are
about six feet long, with bamboo shafts, and with an iron spike at the
butt for the purpose of sticking it in the ground. They are better
archers than the generality of African tribes, and amuse themselves
by setting up marks, and shooting at them from a distance of forty or
fifty yards. The arrows are mostly poisoned, and always so when used
for war.
The villages of the Madi are constructed in a very neat manner, the
floors being made of a kind of red clay beaten hard and smoothed. The
thresholds of the doors are of the same material, but are paved with
pieces of broken earthenware pressed into the clay, and ingeniously
joined so as to form a kind of pattern. In order to prevent cattle from
entering the huts, movable bars of bamboo are generally set across the
entrance. The villages are enclosed with a fence, and the inhabitants
never allow the sick to reside within the enclosure. They do not merely
eject them, as they do in some parts of Africa, but build a number of
huts outside the walls by way of a hospital.
The roofs of the huts are cleverly made of bamboo and grass, and upon
them is lavished the greater part of the labor of house-building. If
therefore the Madi are dissatisfied with the position of a village,
or find that neighboring tribes are becoming troublesome, they quietly
move off to another spot, carrying with them the most important part
of their houses, namely, the roofs, which are so light that a few men
can carry them. A village on the march presents a most curious and
picturesque spectacle, the roofs of the huts carried on the heads of
four or five men, the bamboo stakes borne by others, while some are
driving the cattle, and the women are carrying their children and their
simple household furniture. The engraving No. 2 on page 431 represents
such a removal.
The Turkish caravans that occasionally pass through the country are the
chief cause of these migrations, as they treat the Madi very roughly.
When they come to a village, they will not take up their abode inside
it, but carry off the roofs of the huts and form a camp with them
outside the enclosure. They also rob the corn-stores, and, if the
aggrieved owner ventures to remonstrate, he is knocked down by the
butt of a musket, or threatened with its contents. In some parts of
the country these men had behaved so cruelly to the natives that, as
soon as the inhabitants of a village saw a caravan approaching, all the
women and children forsook their dwellings, and hid themselves in the
bush and grass.
THE OBBO.
We now come to OBBO, a district situated in lat. 4° 55´ N. and long.
31° 45´ E. Sir S. Baker spent a considerable time in Obbo,--much more,
indeed, than was desirable,--and in consequence learned much of the
peculiarities of the inhabitants.
In some respects the natives look something like the Gani and Madi,
especially in their fondness for paint, their disregard of clothing,
and the mode in which they dress their heads. In this last respect
they are even more fastidious than the tribes which have been just
mentioned, some of them having snowy white wigs descending over their
shoulders, and finished off with the curved and tufted pigtail. The
shape of the Obbo headdress has been happily compared to that of a
beaver’s tail, it being wide and flat, and thicker in the middle
than at the edges. The length of this headdress is not owing to the
wearer’s own hair, but is produced by the interweaving of hair from
other sources. If, for example, a man dies, his hair is removed by
his relations, and woven with their headdresses as a souvenir of the
departed, and an addition to their ornaments. They also make caps of
shells, strung together and decorated with feathers; and instead of
clothing they wear a small skin slung over one shoulder.
The men have an odd fashion of wearing round their necks several thick
iron rings, sometimes as many as six or eight, all brightly polished,
and looking like a row of dog collars. Should the wearer happen to
become stout, these rings press so tightly on his throat that he is
nearly choked. They also are fond of making tufts of cow’s tails,
which they suspend from their arms just above the elbows. The most
fashionable ornaments, however, are made of horse tails, the hairs
of which are also highly prized for stringing beads. Consequently, a
horse’s tail is an article of considerable value, and in Obbo-land a
cow can be purchased for a horse’s tail in good condition.
Paint is chiefly used as a kind of war uniform. The colors which the
natives use are vermilion, yellow, and white, but the particular
pattern is left much to their own invention. Stripes of alternate
scarlet and yellow, or scarlet and white, seem, however, to form the
ordinary pattern, probably because they are easily drawn, and present a
bold contrast of color. The head is decorated with a kind of cap made
of cowrie shells, to which are fixed several long ostrich plumes that
droop over the shoulders.
Contrary to usual custom, the women are less clad than the men, and,
until they are married, wear either no clothing whatever, or only three
or four strings of white-beads, some three inches in length. Some of
the prudes, however, tie a piece of string round their waists, and
stick in it a little leafy branch, with the stalk uppermost. “One great
advantage was possessed by this costume. It was always clean and fresh,
and the nearest bush (if not thorny) provided a clean petticoat. When
in the society of these very simple, and, in demeanor, always modest
Eves, I could not help reflecting upon the Mosaical description of
our first parents.” Married women generally wear a fringe of leathern
thongs, about four inches long and two wide. Old women mostly prefer
the leaf branch to the leathern fringe. When young they are usually
pretty, having well-formed noses, and lips but slightly partaking of
the negro character. Some of the men remind the spectators of the
Somauli.
Katchiba, the chief of Obbo, was rather a fine-looking man, about sixty
years of age, and was a truly remarkable man, making up by craft the
lack of force, and ruling his little kingdom with a really firm, though
apparently lax, grasp. In the first place, having a goodly supply of
sons, he made them all into sub-chiefs of the many different districts
into which he divided his domains. Owing to the great estimation
in which he was held by his people, fresh wives were continually
being presented to him, and at first he was rather perplexed by the
difficulty of accommodating so many in his palace. At last he hit on
the expedient of distributing them in the various villages through
which he was accustomed to make his tour, so that wherever he was he
found himself at home.
It so happened that when Sir S. Baker visited Katchiba he had one
hundred and sixteen children living. This may not seem to be a very
wonderful fact when the number of his wives is considered. But, in
Africa, plurality of wives does not necessarily imply a corresponding
number of children, several of these many-wived chiefs having only one
child to every ten or twelve wives. Therefore the fact that Katchiba’s
family was so very large raised him greatly in the minds of his people,
who looked upon him as a great sorcerer, and had the most profound
respect for his supernatural power.
Katchiba laid claim to intercourse with the unseen world, and to
authority over the elements; rain and drought, calm and tempest, being
supposed by his subjects to be equally under his command. Sometimes, if
the country had been afflicted with drought beyond the usual time of
rain, Katchiba would assemble his people, and deliver a long harangue,
inveighing against their evil doings, which had kept off the rain.
These evil doings, on being analyzed, generally proved to be little
more than a want of liberality toward himself. He explained to them
that he sincerely regretted their conduct, which “has compelled him
to afflict them with unfavorable weather, but that it is their own
fault. If they are so greedy and so stingy that they will not supply
him properly, how can they expect him to think of their interests? No
goats, no rain; that’s our contract, my friends,” says Katchiba. “Do
as you like: _I_ can wait; I hope you can.” Should his people complain
of too much rain, he threatens to pour storms and lightning upon them
forever, unless they bring him so many hundred baskets of corn, &c.,
&c. Thus he holds his sway.
“No man would think of starting on a journey without the blessing of
the old chief, and a peculiar ‘hocus-pocus’ is considered necessary
from the magic hands of Katchiba, that shall charm the traveller, and
preserve him from all danger of wild animals upon the road. In case
of sickness he is called in, not as M. D. in our acceptation, but as
Doctor of Magic, and he charms both the hut and patient against death,
with the fluctuating results that must attend professionals, even in
sorcery. His subjects have the most thorough confidence in his power;
and so great is his reputation, that distant tribes frequently consult
him, and beg his assistance as a magician. In this manner does old
Katchiba hold his sway over his savage but credulous people; and so
long has he imposed upon the public, that I believe he has at length
imposed upon himself, and that he really believes that he has the power
of sorcery, notwithstanding repeated failures.”
Once, while Sir S. Baker was in the country, Katchiba, like other
rain-makers, fell into a dilemma. There had been no rain for a long
time, and the people had become so angry at the continued drought, that
they assembled round his house, blowing horns, and shouting execrations
against their chief, because he had not sent them a shower which would
allow them to sow their seed. True to his policy, the crafty old man
made light of their threats, telling them that they might kill him if
they liked, but that, if they did so, no more rain would ever fall.
Rain in the country was the necessary result of goats and provisions
given to the chief, and, as soon as he got the proper fees, the rain
should come. The rest of the story is so good, that it must be told in
the author’s own words.
“With all this bluster, I saw that old Katchiba was in a great dilemma,
and that he would give anything for a shower, but that he did not know
how to get out of the scrape. It was a common freak of the tribes to
sacrifice their rain-maker, should he be unsuccessful. He suddenly
altered his tone, and asked, ‘Have you any rain in your country?’ I
replied that we had every now and then. ‘How do you bring it? Are
you a rain-maker?’ I told him that no one believed in rain-makers
in our country, but that we knew how to bottle lightning (meaning
electricity). ‘I don’t keep mine in bottles, but I have a house full of
thunder and lightning,’ he most coolly replied; ‘but if you can bottle
lightning, you must understand rain-making. What do you think of the
weather to-day?’
“I immediately saw the drift of the cunning old Katchiba; he wanted
professional advice. I replied that he must know all about it, as he
was a regular rain-maker. ‘Of course I do,’ he answered; ‘but I want
to know what _you_ think of it.’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘I don’t think we
shall have any steady rain, but I think we may have a heavy shower
in about four days’ (I said this, as I had observed fleecy clouds
gathering daily in the afternoon). ‘Just my opinion,’ said Katchiba,
delighted. ‘In four, or perhaps in five, days I intend to give them one
shower--just one shower; yes. I’ll just step down to them, and tell the
rascals that if they will give me some goats by this evening, and some
corn by to-morrow morning, I will give them in four or five days just
one shower.’
“To give effect to his declaration, he gave several toots on his magic
whistle. ‘Do you use whistles in your country?’ inquired Katchiba.
I only replied by giving so shrill and deafening a whistle on my
fingers, that Katchiba stopped his ears, and, relapsing into a smile
of admiration, he took a glance at the sky from the doorway, to see
if any effect had been produced. ‘Whistle again,’ he said; and once
more I performed like the whistle of a locomotive. ‘That will do; we
shall have it,’ said the cunning old rain-maker; and, proud of having
so knowingly obtained ‘counsel’s opinion’ in his case, he toddled off
to his impatient subjects. In a few days a sudden storm of rain and
violent thunder added to Katchiba’s renown, and after the shower horns
were blowing and nogaras beating in honor of their chief. _Entre nous_,
my whistle was considered infallible.”
When his guests were lying ill in their huts, struck down with the
fever which is prevalent in hot and moist climates such as that of
Obbo, Katchiba came to visit them in his character of magician, and
performed a curious ceremony. He took a small leafy branch, filled his
mouth with water, and squirted it on the branch, which was then waved
about the hut, and lastly stuck over the door. He assured his sick
guests that their recovery was now certain; and, as they did recover,
his opinion of his magical powers was doubtless confirmed.
After their recovery they paid a visit to the chief, by his special
desire. His palace consisted of an enclosure about a hundred yards
in diameter, within which were a number of huts, all circular, but
of different sizes; the largest, which was about twenty-five feet in
diameter, belonging to the chief himself. The whole of the courtyard
was paved with beaten clay, and was beautifully clean, and the
palisades were covered with gourds and a species of climbing yam.
Katchiba had but little furniture, the chief articles being a few
cow-hides, which were spread on the floor and used as couches. On these
primitive sofas he placed his guests, and took his place between them.
The rest of his furniture consisted of earthen jars, holding about
thirty gallons each, and intended for containing or brewing beer.
After offering a huge gourdful of that beverage to his guests, and
having done ample justice to it himself, he politely asked whether he
should sing them a song. Now Katchiba, in spite of his gray hairs, his
rank as chief, and his dignity as a sorcer, was a notable buffoon,
a savage Grimaldi, full of inborn and grotesque fun, and so they
naturally expected that the performances would be, like his other
exhibitions, extremely ludicrous. They were agreeably disappointed.
Taking from the hand of one of his wives a “rababa,” or rude harp
with eight strings, he spent some time in tuning it, and then sang
the promised song. The air was strange and wild, but plaintive and
remarkably pleasing, with accompaniment very appropriate, so that this
“delightful old sorcerer” proved himself to be a man of genius in music
as well as in policy.
When his guests rose to depart, he brought them a sheep as a present;
and when they refused it, he said no more, but waited on them through
the doorway of his hut, and then conducted them by the hand for about
a hundred yards, gracefully expressing a hope that they would repeat
their visit. When they reached their hut, they found the sheep there,
Katchiba having sent it on before them. In fine, this chief, who at
first appeared to be little more than a jovial sort of buffoon, who by
accident happened to hold the chief’s place, turned out unexpectedly to
be a wise and respected ruler, a polished and accomplished gentleman.
THE KYTCH.
Not far from Obbo-land there is a district inhabited by the KYTCH
tribe. In 1825 there was exhibited in the principal cities of Europe a
Frenchman, named Claude Ambroise Seurat, who was popularly called the
“Living Skeleton,” on account of his extraordinary leanness, his body
and limbs looking just as if a skeleton had been clothed with skin, and
endowed with life. Among the Kytch tribe he would have been nothing
remarkable, almost every man being formed after much the same model. In
fact, as Sir S. Baker remarked of them, they look at a distance like
animated slate-pencils with heads to them. The men of the Kytch tribe
are tall, and, but for their extreme emaciation, would be fine figures;
and the same may be said of the women. These physical peculiarities are
shown in the engraving No. 1 on the next page.
Almost the only specimens of the Kytch tribe who had any claim to
rounded forms were the chief and his daughter, the latter of whom was
about sixteen, and really good-looking. In common with the rest of the
tribe she wore nothing except a little piece of dressed hide about a
foot square, which was hung over one shoulder and fell upon the arm,
the only attempt at clothing being a belt of jingling iron circlets,
and some beads on the head.
[Illustration: (1.) GROUP OF THE KYTCH TRIBE. (See page 436.)]
[Illustration: (2.) NEAM-NAM FIGHTING. (See page 443.)]
Her father wore more clothing than his inferiors, though his raiment
was more for show than for use, being merely a piece of dressed leopard
skin hung over his shoulders as an emblem of his rank. He had on his
head a sort of skull-cap made of white beads, from which drooped a
crest of white ostrich feathers. He always carried with him a curious
instrument,--namely, an iron spike about two feet in length, with a
hollow socket at the butt, the centre being bound with snake skin. In
the hollow butt he kept his tobacco, so that this instrument served at
once the offices of a tobacco box, a dagger, and a club.
It is hardly possible to conceive a more miserable and degraded set of
people than the Kytch tribe, and, were it not for two circumstances,
they might be considered as the very lowest examples of humanity.
For their food they depend entirely upon the natural productions of the
earth, and pass a life which is scarcely superior to that of a baboon,
almost all their ideas being limited to the discovery of their daily
food. From the time when they wake to the hour when they sleep, they
are incessantly looking for food. Their country is not a productive
one; they never till the ground, and never sow seed; so that they are
always taking from the ground, and never putting anything into it. They
eat almost every imaginable substance, animal and vegetable, thinking
themselves very fortunate if they ever find the hole of a field-mouse,
which they will painfully dig out with the aid of a stick, and then
feed luxuriously upon it.
So ravenous are they, that they eat bones and skin as well as flesh;
and if by chance they should procure the body of an animal so large
that its bones cannot be eaten whole, the Kytch break the bones to
fragments between two stones, then pound them to powder, and make the
pulverized bones into a sort of porridge. In fact, as has been forcibly
remarked, if an animal is killed, or dies a natural death, the Kytch
tribe do not leave enough for a fly to feed upon.
The two facts that elevate the Kytch tribe above the level of the
beasts are, that they keep cattle, and that they have a law regarding
marriage, which, although repugnant to European ideas, is still a law,
and has its parallel in many countries which are far more advanced in
civilization.
The cattle of the Kytch tribe are kept more for show than for use, and,
unless they die, they are never used as food. A Kytch cattle-owner
would nearly as soon kill himself, and quite as soon murder his nearest
relation, as he would slaughter one of his beloved cattle. The milk
of the one is, of course, a singular luxury in so half-starved a
country, and none but the wealthiest men are likely ever to taste it.
The animals are divided into little herds, and to each herd there is
attached a favorite bull, which seems to be considered as possessing
an almost sacred character. Every morning, as the cattle are led out
to pasture, the sacred bull is decorated with bunches of feathers tied
to his horns, and, if possible, with little bells also. He is solemnly
adjured to take great care of the cows, to keep them from straying, and
to lead them to the best pastures, so that they may give abundance of
milk.
The law of marriage is a very peculiar one. Polygamy is, of course,
the custom in Kytch-land, as in other parts of Africa, the husband
providing himself with a succession of young wives as the others become
old and feeble, and therefore unable to perform the hard work which
falls to the lot of African wives. Consequently, it mostly happens
that when a man is quite old and infirm he has a number of wives much
younger than himself, and several who might be his grandchildren. Under
these circumstances, the latter are transferred to his eldest son, and
the whole family live together harmoniously, until the death of the
father renders the son absolute master of all the property.