THE ISHOGO, ASHANGO, AND OBONGO TRIBES.
WESTERN AFRICA -- THE ISHOGO TRIBE AND ITS LOCALITY -- DRESS AND
ASPECT OF THE PEOPLE -- THE SINGULAR HEADDRESS OF THE WOMEN -- THEIR
SKILL IN WEAVING -- THE OUANDJAS, OR NATIVE FACTORIES -- THE LOOM
AND SHUTTLE -- ARCHITECTURE OF THE ISHOGOS -- CURIOUS DOORS -- THE
VILLAGE TREE -- THE M’PAZA OR TWIN CEREMONY -- GENERAL CHARACTER
OF THE ISHOGOS -- THE ASHANGO TRIBE -- CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE
-- AN UNLUCKY SHOT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES -- WAR CEREMONIES -- THE
TEMPLE, OR M’BUITI HOUSE, AND THE RELIGIOUS RITES PERFORMED IN IT --
SUPERSTITIONS OF THE ASHANGOS -- THE KENDO, OR BELL OF ROYALTY --
RECEPTION OF A VISITOR -- THE OBONGO TRIBE, OR BUSHMEN OF WEST AFRICA
-- THEIR SHORT AND STUNTED LOOK -- KINDNESS OF THE ASHANGOS TOWARD
THEM -- THE OBONGO MARKET -- DOMESTIC CUSTOMS AND FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
We are now coming among some of the negro tribes, and shall see them as
they are in their normal state before their customs and mode of life
have been altered by the influence of Europeans.
A little below the equator, and between 10° and 12° E. longitude, is a
district inhabited by the Ishogo, a very large and remarkable tribe.
The Ishogo live along a rather narrow tract of country that extends
diagonally southwestward, parallel with the Rembo N’gouyai River, but
divided from it by a range of hills.
The Ishogo are a fine race of men, black, with woolly hair, but not
exhibiting the extreme negro development which characterizes the
aborigines of the west coast. They decorate themselves in rather a
singular manner. Both sexes add a ruddy tinge to their native black by
rubbing themselves with a red powder obtained by scraping two pieces of
bar-wood together, and they also disfigure themselves by removing the
two middle teeth of the upper jaw.
Like other woolly-haired races, the Ishogo are very proud of their
heads, and diminish the already scanty supply of hair with which Nature
has supplied them. Eyelashes and eyebrows are unfashionable among them,
and are carefully erased, while the hair of the head is dressed in the
most extraordinary style. The men shave a circle round their heads,
only allowing a round patch to remain on the crown. This is separated
into three divisions, each of which is plaited into a lappet-like form,
coming to a point at the end, and being finished off with a large bead,
or perhaps a piece of polished wire. On account of the slow growth of
the hair, an Ishogo cannot complete his headdress under several years.
The women begin by making a sort of frame of grass cloth, and fixing it
to the head, at the top or at the back, as their taste may direct. They
then work the woolly hair into it, and, when that part of the process
is completed, shave away all the hair that is not required for the
purpose. When the headdress is complete, it stands some eight or ten
inches from the head, and consequently a term of years elapses before
this odd ornament reaches perfection. In fact, a complete headdress is
never seen on any one under five-and-twenty.
The “chignon,” if we may apply such a term to the headdress, has
four partings, one in front, one behind, and one at each side. Of
course this elaborate ornament cannot be dressed by the owners, and,
as a general rule, it is intrusted to professional hands, several
women in every town making hair-dressing a regular business. After
being arranged, the head is not touched for several months, when the
structure is taken to pieces, and elaborately rebuilt, the fresh
growth of hair being woven into it. The operation of taking down and
rebuilding one of these towers is a very long and tedious one, and
occupies a full day.
Four modes of arranging the tower, if it may be called so, prevail
among the Ishogo. The ordinary plan is to raise it perpendicularly from
the top of the head, so that at a distance it looks exactly as if the
woman were carrying a cylindrical basket on her head. Sometimes, when
the base of the tower is placed half way between the top of the head
and the neck, the direction is diagonal, and, when the hair at the back
of the head is retained, the tower projects backward and horizontally.
These are the usual fashions; but some of the women wear, in addition
to the tower, a tuft of hair, which is allowed to remain at each side
of the head, and is trained into a ball just above the ear.
The dress of the Ishogo is “grass cloth” of their own manufacture. They
are celebrated for the soft and close texture of this cloth, which
is, however, not made from grass, but from the cuticle of young palm
leaves, stripped off dexterously by the fingers. M. du Chaillu gives
the following account of the weavers:--
“In walking down the main street of Mokenga a number of ouandjas, or
houses without walls, are seen, each containing four or five looms,
with the weavers seated before them, weaving the cloth. In the middle
of the ouandja a wood fire is seen burning, and the weavers, as you
pass by, are sure to be seen smoking their pipes, and chatting to one
another whilst going on with their work. The weavers are all men, and
it is men also who stitch the ‘bongos’ together to make ‘denguis’
or robes of them. The stitches are not very close together, nor is
the thread very fine, but the work is very neat and regular, and
the needles are of their own manufacture. The bongos are very often
striped, and sometimes made even in check patterns. This is done by
their dyeing some of the threads of the warp, or of the warp and woof,
with various simple colors. The dyes are all made of decoctions of
different kinds of wood, except for black, when a kind of iron ore is
used. The bongos are employed as money in this part of Africa.”
Two of the words in this passage need explanation. The loom of the
Ishogo is made as follows:--A bar of wood, about two feet in length, is
suspended horizontally from the roof of the weaving hut, and over this
bar are passed the threads which constitute the warp, their other ends
being fastened to a corresponding bar below, which is fixed tightly
down by a couple of forked sticks thrust into the ground. The alternate
threads of the warp are divided by two slight rods, the ends of which
are held in the fingers of the left hand, which cross them alternately,
while the woof is interlaced by means of a sword-shaped shuttle, which
also serves to strike it down and lay it regularly.
In consequence of this form of loom it is only possible to weave
pieces of cloth of a limited length, and, as these cloths are used as
currency, they are all made of the same length. Each of these pieces is
called a “bongo,” and when two are sewed together they become “denguis.”
The women are only allowed to wear two of these pieces of cloth, the
size of the wearer not being taken into consideration. One is hung at
each side, and the edges are joined before and behind, so that a large
and fat woman presents a very absurd appearance, the pieces of cloth
being too short to meet properly.
The Ishogos seldom go armed, and although they have spears, and bows
and arrows, they do not carry them except when actually required. It
is thought etiquette, however, for them to take their swords with them
when they go to visit another village. They are a quiet and peaceful
people, and although they have at hand the means of intoxicating
themselves, they are remarkable for their sobriety, in which virtue
they present a pleasing contrast to their noisy, quarrelsome, and
intemperate neighbors, the Apono tribe.
The villages of the Ishogo tribe are often very large, containing two
hundred or more huts. Each hut is, on an average, twenty-two feet in
length, and ten or twelve feet in width, and is divided by partitions
into three compartments. The mud Avails are not quite five feet in
height, and the top of the roof is about nine feet from the ground.
The doors are placed in the middle of the central compartment, and are
very small, only a little more than two feet and a half in height, and
are not hung on hinges, but turn in the middle on a couple of pivots,
one at the top and the other at the bottom. Perhaps one reason for
this diminutive size is, that the natives have no saws, and their only
method of making a door is by felling the trunk of a tree, cutting it
into the proper length, and laboriously chipping away the wood at each
side. The doors are decorated with various devices, complicated and
even elegant patterns being painted on them in red, black, and white,
&c. Most of the houses have the outer surface of the walls covered with
the bark of trees.
The furniture of these huts is scarcely equal to the excellence of
the architecture. Hanging from the roof are a quantity of calabashes,
which contain water, palm wine, and oil, and are accompanied by plenty
of cotton bags and cooking vessels. A well-furnished hut has also a
number of plates and dishes, made either from reeds or from the rind of
a plant called “astang,” divided into strips, and against the avails
are stored the bundles of palm fibres from which the bongos are woven.
Tobacco is also stored within the hut, and is completely enveloped in
leaves.
[Illustration: (1.) THE CEREMONY OF M’PAZA. (See page 479.)]
[Illustration: (2.) OBONGO MARKET. (See page 482.)]
The usual form of a village is a single street, of great length, and
sometimes exceedingly wide. The street of one village was fully a
hundred yards in width, and was kept so neatly that not a single weed
was to be seen in it,--a really remarkable fact when we remember the
exceeding rapidity with which vegetation grows in this country. Each
village has at least one “palaver-house,” while many have several. The
“palaver-house” is more of a shed than a house, and consists chiefly
of a roof and the posts which support it. In this house the men meet
daily, to smoke, to hold trials, to receive strangers, and to indulge
in that interminable gossip of which a relic still exists in the
“discoursing” of Ireland.
There is also a temple, or M’buiti house, in which a kind of religious
service is held, and which always contains a large wooden idol, which
the people hold in great reverence. The proceedings within this edifice
will be presently described.
In the middle of every Ishogo and Ashango village there is a single
large tree, belonging to the genus Ficus. When the site of a village
is first laid out, a sapling of this tree is planted, the prosperity
of the future village being connected with it. If it should live and
flourish, the new village will be prosperous; but, if it should die,
the place is abandoned and a new site chosen. Some of the villages are
distinguished by having two heads of the gorilla, one male and the
other female, stuck on poles under the sacred tree, and M. du Chaillu
learned afterward that certain charms were buried at the root of the
same tree.
Among the Ishogos there is a very remarkable custom connected with the
birth of twins. In many parts of the world twins are destroyed as soon
as born, but in this country they are permitted to live, though under
restrictions which tell much more severely on the mother than on her
offspring. The Ishogo have a vague kind of a notion that no woman ought
to produce more than a single infant at a time, and that nature desires
to correct the mistake by killing one of the children before it is able
to take care of itself. After that time--_i. e._ when the children are
about six years old--the balance of the births and deaths is supposed
to be equalized, and no further precautions need be taken.
Therefore, as soon as twins are born, the house is marked off in
some way so as to distinguish it. In one instance, mentioned by M.
du Chaillu, two long poles were planted at each side of the door, a
piece of cloth was hung over the entrance, and a row of white pegs
driven into the ground just in front of the threshold. These marks are
intended to warn strangers from entering the hut, as, if any one except
the children and their parents do so, the delinquent is seized and sold
into slavery. The twins themselves are not allowed to play with the
other children, and even the very utensils and cooking pots of the hut
cannot be used.
In consequence of this curious law, there is nothing, next to being
childless, which the women dread so much as having twins born to them,
and nothing annoys an Ishogo woman so much as telling her that she
is sure to have twins. Perhaps the most irritating restriction is
that which forbids the woman to talk. She is allowed to go into the
forest for firewood, and to perform such necessary household tasks,
as otherwise she and her children must starve. But she is strictly
forbidden to speak a word to any one who does not belong to her own
family--a prohibition annoying enough to any one, but doubly so in
Africa, where perpetual talk is almost one of the necessaries of life.
At the expiration of the sixth year, a ceremony takes place by which
all parties are released from their long confinement, and allowed to
enter the society of their fellows. At daybreak proclamation is made
in the street, and two women, namely, the mother and a friend, take
their stand at the door of the hut, having previously whitened their
legs and faces. They next march slowly down the village, beating a
drum in time to the step, and singing an appropriate song. A general
dance and feast then takes place, and lasts throughout the night, and,
after the ceremony is over, all restrictions are removed. This rite is
called “M’paza,” a word which both signifies twins and the ceremony by
which they and their mother are set free from their imprisonment. It is
illustrated on the 478th page.
As in other parts of Africa, the natives have a way of keeping up their
dancing and drumming and singing all night, partly on account of the
coolness, and partly because they are horribly superstitious, and have
an idea that evil spirits might hurt them under cover of the night, if
they were not frightened away by the fires and noise.
One of these dances is called M’muirri, on account of the loud
reverberating sound produced by their lips. It is properly a war-dance,
and is performed by men alone. They form in line, and advance and
retreat simultaneously, stamping so as to mark the time, beating their
breasts, yelling, and making the reverberating sound which has been
already mentioned. Their throats being apparently of brass and their
lungs of leather, the Ishogo villagers keep up this horrid uproar
throughout the night, without a moment’s cessation, and those who are
for the moment tired of singing, and do not own a drum, contribute
their share to the general noise by clapping two pieces of wood
together.
With all their faults, the Ishogos are a pleasant set of people, and
M. du Chaillu, who lived with them, and was accompanied by Ishogos in
his expedition, says that they are the gentlest and kindest-hearted
negroes that he ever met. After his retreat from Ashango-land, which
will next be mentioned, the Ishogos received him with even more than
usual hospitality, arranged his journey westward, and the whole
population of the villages turned out of their houses and accompanied
him a little distance on his way.
ASHANGO.
Eastward of the Ishogos is a people called the Ashango. They speak a
different dialect from the Ishogo, and call themselves a different
race, but their manners and customs are so similar to those of the
Ishogos that a very brief account of them is all that is needed.
Ashango-land was the limit of M. du Chaillu’s second expedition, which
was suddenly brought to a close by a sad accident. The people had been
rather suspicious of his motives, and harassed him in his camp, so that
a few shots were fired in the air by way of warning. Unfortunately,
one of the guns was discharged before it was raised, and the bullet
struck an unfortunate man in the head, killing him instantly. The whole
village flew to arms, the war-drum sounded, and the warriors crowded to
the spot, with their barbed spears, and bows and poisoned arrows.
For a moment there was a lull: the interpreter, whose hand fired the
unlucky shot, explained that it was an accident, and that the price
of twenty men should be paid as compensation. Beads and cloth were
produced, and one of the headmen had just assented to the proposal,
when a loud wailing was heard, and a woman rushed out of a hut,
announcing that the favorite wife of the friendly headman had been
killed by the same fatal bullet, which, after scattering the brains of
the man, had passed through the thin walls of the hut, and killed the
poor woman within.
After this announcement all hopes of peace were at an end; the husband
naturally cried for vengeance; and, amid a shower of arrows, one
of which struck the interpreter, and another nearly severed M. du
Chaillu’s finger, the party retreated as they best could, refraining
from firing as long as they could, but at last being forced to fire in
self-defence. In order to escape as fast as they could, the porters
were obliged to throw away the instruments, specimens of natural
history, and photographs, so that the labor of months was lost, and
scarcely anything except the journal was saved. Each village to which
they came sent out its warriors against them. M. du Chaillu was
dangerously wounded in the side, and had at last to throw away his best
but heaviest rifle. It was only after the death of several of their
number that the Ashangos perceived that they had to contend with a foe
who was more than a match for them, and at last gave up the pursuit.
It was necessary, however, to conceal the fact of being wounded,
for several of the tribes had an idea that their white visitor was
invulnerable to spears and arrows, and it was a matter of great
consequence that such a notion should be encouraged. All kinds of
wild rumors circulated about him: some saying that the Ashango
arrows glanced off his body without hurting him, just as the Scotch
believed that the bullets were seen hopping like hail off the body of
Claverhouse; while others improved on the tale, and avowed that he had
changed himself into a leopard, a gorilla, or an elephant, as the case
might be, and under this strange form had attacked the enemies and
driven them away.
The Ashangos are even better clothed than the Ishogos, wearing denguis
of considerable size, and even clothing their children, a most unusual
circumstance in Central Africa. The women wear hair-towers like those
of the Ishogos, but do not seem to expend so much trouble upon them.
They seem to lead tolerably happy lives, and indeed to have their own
way in most things.
The Ashango warriors are well armed, carrying swords, spears, and
poisoned arrows. The spear and arrow-heads and swords are not made by
themselves, but by the Shimba and Ashangui tribes, who seem to be the
acknowledged smiths in this part of the country. The sword is carried
by almost every Ashango, and when one of these weapons is bought or
sold, the transaction is always carried on in private.
Before the Ashangos go out to war, they have a sort of magical
ceremony, called “Cooking the War-dish.” The witch-doctor is summoned,
and sets to work preparing a kind of porridge of all sorts of herbs
and fetishes in an enormous pot. None but the warriors are allowed to
see the preparation, and, when the mess is cooked, each warrior eats
a portion. None of it is allowed to be left, and after they have all
eaten, the remainder is rubbed over their bodies, until they have
excited themselves to the necessary pitch of enthusiasm, when they rush
out and at once proceed to the attack.
There are a number of minor ceremonies connected with food; one of
which is, that the women are not allowed to eat goat flesh or fowls,
the probable reason being, according to M. du Chaillu, that the men
want to eat these articles themselves.
In Ashango-land, as well as among the Ishogos, the temple, or idol hut,
is one of the most conspicuous buildings. Generally, the people did not
like strangers to enter their temples, but in one village he succeeded
in entering a temple, or M’buiti house, and seeing the strange worship
which was conducted.
“This idol was kept at the end of a long, narrow, and low hut, forty or
fifty feet long, and ten feet broad, and was painted in red, white, and
black colors. When I entered the hut, it was full of Ashango people,
ranged in order on each side, with lighted torches stuck in the ground
before them. Among them were conspicuous two M’buiti men, or, as they
might be called, priests, dressed in cloth of vegetable fibre, with
their skins painted grotesquely in various colors, one side of the
face red, the other white, and in the middle of the breast a broad,
yellow stripe; the circuit of the eyes was also daubed with paint.
These colors are made by boiling various kinds of wood and mixing the
decoction with clay.
“The rest of the Ashangos were also streaked and daubed with various
colors, and by the light of their torches they looked like a troop of
devils assembled in the lower regions to celebrate some diabolical
rite; around their legs were bound white leaves from the heart of the
palm tree; some wore feathers, others had leaves twisted in the shape
of horns behind their ears, and all had a bundle of palm leaves in
their hands.
“Soon after I entered, the rites began: all the men squatted down on
their haunches, and set up a deafening kind of wild song. There was an
orchestra of instrumental performers near the idol, consisting of three
drummers with two drumsticks each, one harper, and a performer on the
sounding-stick, which latter did not touch the ground, but rested on
two other sticks, so that the noise was made the more resonant. The two
M’buiti men, in the mean time, were dancing in a fantastical manner
in the middle of the temple, putting their bodies into all sorts of
strange contortions. Every time the M’buiti men opened their mouths to
speak, a dead silence ensued.
“As the ceremony continued, the crowd rose and surrounded the dancing
men, redoubling at the same time the volume of their songs, and, after
this went on for some time, returning to their former positions. This
was repeated several times. It seemed to me to be a kind of village
feast.
“The M’buiti men, I ought to mention, had been sent for from a distance
to officiate on the occasion, and the whole affair was similar to a
rude sort of theatrical representation. The M’buiti men, like the
witchcraft doctors, are important persons among these inland tribes;
some have more reputation than others, but in general those who live
furthest off are much esteemed. At length, wearied out with the noise,
and being unable to see any meaning or any change in the performances,
I returned to my hut at half past ten.”
Being exceedingly superstitious, the Ashangos generally thought that
their white visitor was not a man, but a spirit, as he could perform
such wonders. He had a musical box, and set it playing, to the great
consternation of the people. Their awe was increased by his leaving the
box where it stood, and going away into the forest. The fact that the
instrument should continue to play with no one near it was still more
terrible, and a crowd of people stood round in dead silence--a very
convincing proof of their awe-stricken state. An accordion produced
even a greater sensation, and none but the chief dared to utter a
sound. Even he was very much frightened, and continued beating his
“kendo,” or magic bell of office, and invoking help from the spirits of
his ancestors.
This chief was a very pious man in his own fashion. He had a little
temple or oratory of his own, and every morning and evening he repaired
to the oratory, shut himself up, beat his bell, and invoked the
spirits, and at night he always lighted a fire before beating the bell.
The “kendo” is a very remarkable badge of office. It is bell-shaped,
but has a long iron handle bent in a hook-like shape, so that the
“kendo” can be carried on the shoulder. Leopard’s fur is fastened to
it, much to the deadening of the sound, and the whole instrument forms
an emblem which is respected as much as the sceptre among ourselves. As
the chief walks along, he rings the bell, which announces his presence
by a sound like that of a common sheep or cow bell.
When M. du Chaillu was among the Ashango, scarcely any articles of
civilized manufacture had penetrated into the country. The universal
bead had reached them, and so had a few ornaments of brass. There was
an article, however, which was sometimes found among them, and which
was about the last that could be expected. It was the common black
beer-bottle of England. These bottles have penetrated almost as far
as the beads, and are exceedingly prized by the chiefs, who value no
article of property more than a black bottle, which they sling to their
belts, and in which they keep their plantain wine. Calabashes would, of
course, answer their purpose better, being less fragile, but the black
bottle is a chief’s great ambition. Mostly, the wives do as they like;
but, if a wife should happen to break a bottle, she has committed an
offence for which no pardon is expected.
The Ashangos have an odd custom of receiving a visitor. When they
desire to do him particular honor, they meet him with some dishes of
their red paint, with which he is expected to besmear himself. If a
stranger approach a house, and the owner asks him to make himself red,
he is quite happy, and, if the pigment should not be offered, he will
go off in dudgeon at the slight.
OBONGOS, OR BUSHMEN OF ASHANGO-LAND.
Somewhere near the equatorial line, and between long. 11° and 12° E.,
there is a tribe of dwarfed negroes, called the Obongos, who seem to be
among the very lowest of the human race, not only in stature, but in
civilization.
The Obongos have no settled place of residence, their houses being
simply huts made of branches, and constructed so slightly that no home
interests can possibly attach to them. They are merely made of leafy
boughs stuck in the ground, and are so slight that a whole village
of Obongos will change its residence with scarcely a warning. The
principal cause of abandonment seems to be summed up in the single word
“vermin,” with which the huts swarm to such an extent that, long after
they have been abandoned, no one can enter without being covered with
swarms of these offensive little insects. The huts are merely made of
green boughs, and the hole which serves as a door is closed with a
smaller bough. They are scattered about without any order in the open
space left among the trees.
The resemblance between the Obongos and the Bosjesmans of Southern
Africa is really wonderful. Like them, the Obongos are short, though
not ill-shaped, much lighter in hue than their neighbors, and have
short hair growing in tufts, while the Ashangos are tall, dark, and
have rather long bushy hair.
Their color is pale yellow-brown, their foreheads narrow, and their
cheek-bones high. The average height is about four feet seven inches,
according to M. du Chaillu’s measurements, though he found one woman
who was considered very tall, and who was five feet and a quarter of
an inch high. The men are remarkable for having their breasts and legs
covered with hair, which grows in tufts like that of the head.
This diminutive stature is not entirely owing to the small size of the
whole figure, but to the shortness of the legs, which, unlike those of
African races in general, are very short in proportion to the size of
the body. Thus, instead of looking like ordinary but well-shaped men
seen through a diminishing glass, as is the case with the Bosjesman of
Southern Africa, they have a dwarfish and stunted appearance, which,
added to the hairy limbs of the men, gives them a weird and elfish
appearance.
The dress of the Obongos--when they have any dress at all, which is
seldom the case--consists entirely of old and worn out denguis, which
are given to them by the Ashangos. Indeed, the Ashangos behave very
kindly to these wretched little beings, and encourage them to take up
their residence near villages, so that a kind of traffic can be carried
on. Degraded as these little beings seem to be, they are skilful
trappers, and take great quantities of game, the supplies of which
they sell to the Ashangos for plantains, iron cooking pots, and other
implements. (See illustration No. 2, on p. 478.) On one occasion M. du
Chaillu saw a dozen Ashango women going to the huts of the Obongos,
carrying on their heads plantains which they were about to exchange for
game. The men had not returned from hunting, but, on seeing that the
Obongo women were suffering from hunger, and forced to live on some
very unwholesome-looking nuts, they left nearly all the plantains, and
came away without the game.
The woods in which they live are so filled with their traps that a
stranger dares not walk in them, lest he should tumble into a pitfall
which was constructed to catch the leopard, wild boar, or antelope, or
have his legs caught in a trap which was laid for monkeys. There is not
a path through the trees which does not contain a pitfall or two, and
outside the path the monkey traps are so numerous that even by daylight
it is difficult to avoid them. Being a wandering race, the Obongos
never cultivate the ground, but depend for their food on the game which
they take, and on the roots, berries, and nuts which they find in the
woods. Animal food is coveted by them with astonishing eagerness, and
a promise of goat’s flesh will bribe an Obongo when even beads fail to
touch him.
The origin of the Obongos is a mystery, and no one knows whether they
are the aboriginal inhabitants of the soil, or whether they came from a
distance. The probability is, that they were the original inhabitants,
and that the Ashangos, being a larger and more powerful race, have
gradually possessed themselves of that fertile land, whose capabilities
were wasted by the nomad and non-laboring Obongos.
It is strange that they should have retained their individuality
throughout so long a period, in which phenomenon they present a curious
resemblance to the gipsies of Europe, who have for centuries been among
us, though not of us. The Obongos never marry out of their own tribe,
and as they live in little communities of ten or twelve huts, it is
evident that they can have but little matrimonial choice. Indeed,
the Ashangos say that the ties of kinship are totally neglected, and
that the Obongos permit marriages to take place between brothers and
sisters. This circumstance may perhaps account for their dwarfed
stature.
They are a timid people, and when M. du Chaillu visited them he could
hardly catch a sight of them, as they all dashed into the wood as soon
as they saw the stranger. It was with the greatest difficulty that
he succeeded in intercepting several women and some children, and by
presents of beads and promises of meat conciliating some of them, and
inducing them to inspire confidence in their comrades. One little
old woman named Misounda, who was at first very shy, became quite
confident, and began to laugh at the men for running away. She said
that they were as timid as the squirrel, which cried “Qué, Qué,” and
squeaked in imitation of the animal, at the same time twisting her odd
little body into all sorts of droll contortions, intended to represent
the terror of her frightened companions.
When an Obongo dies, it is usual to take the body to a hollow tree in
the forest, and drop it into the hollow, which is afterward filled to
the top with earth, leaves, and branches. Sometimes, however, they
employ a more careful mode of burial. They take the body to some
running stream, the course of which has been previously diverted. A
deep grave is dug in the bed of the stream, the body placed in it, and
covered over carefully. Lastly, the stream is restored to its original
course, so that all traces of the grave are soon lost. This remarkable
custom is not peculiar to the Obongos, but has existed in various parts
of the world from the earliest known time.