THE APONO AND APINGI TRIBES.
LOCALITY OF THE APONO TRIBE -- THEIR LIVELY CHARACTER -- DRESS AND
ORNAMENT -- THE GIANT DANCE -- WEAPONS -- APONO ARCHITECTURE --
RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION -- SICKNESS, DEATH, AND BURIAL -- AN APONO
LEGEND -- THE APINGI TRIBE -- THEIR GENERAL APPEARANCE AND MODE OF
DRESS -- SKILL IN WEAVING -- DEXTERITY AS BOATMEN -- A SCENE ON THE
REMBO -- CURIOUS MATRIMONIAL ARRANGEMENT -- SLAVERY AMONG THE APINGI
-- A HUNTER’S LEOPARD-CHARM -- FUNERAL CUSTOMS.
Proceeding toward the western coast of Africa, we now come to the Apono
tribe, which inhabit a district just below the Equator, and between
long. 11° and 12° E.
They are a merry race, and carry to excess the African custom of
drumming, dancing, and singing throughout the entire night. Drinking,
of course, forms a chief part of the amusements of the night, the
liquid used being the palm wine, which is made in great quantities in
many parts of tropical Africa. Perhaps the innate good nature of the
Apono people was never shown to greater advantage than on one occasion
when M. du Chaillu determined to stop the revelry that cost him his
repose at night, and the services of his intoxicated porters by day. He
did so by the very summary process of going to the hut where the feast
was held, kicking over the vessels of palm wine, and driving the chiefs
and their attendants out of the hut. They were certainly vexed at the
loss of so much good liquor, but contented themselves with a grumble,
and then obeyed orders.
The Aponos proved to be very honest men, according to the African
ideas of honesty; and, from M. du Chaillu’s account, did not steal his
property, and always took his part in the numberless squabbles with
different chiefs. They are not pleasing in appearance, not so much
from actual ugliness of feature, but from their custom of disfiguring
themselves artificially. In the first place, they knock out the two
middle teeth of the upper jaw, and file all the rest to sharp points.
Tattooing is carried on to a considerable extent, especially by the
women, who have a habit of raising little elevated scars in their
foreheads, sometimes arranged in the form of a diamond, and situated
between the eyes. Several marks are made on the cheeks, and a few on
the chest and abdomen.
The dress of the Aponos resembles that of the Ishogo tribe, and is
made of grass cloth. The men wear the denguis or mantles, composed of
several grass cloths sewed together, while the women are restricted to
two, one of which is attached on either side, and made to meet in the
back and front if they can. While the women are young, the dress is
amply sufficient, but when they become old and fat, the cloths, which
are always of uniform size, cannot be made to meet by several inches.
However, the dress in question is that which is sanctioned by ordinary
custom, and the Aponos are perfectly satisfied with it.
The palm wine which has just been mentioned is made by the Aponos in a
very simple manner. When the fruit is nearly ripe, the natives climb
the trees and hang hollowed gourds under the fruits for the purpose of
receiving the precious liquor. They are so fond of this drink, that
even in the early morning they may be seen climbing the trees and
drinking from the suspended calabashes. During the season the Apono
people are constantly intoxicated, and, in consequence, are apt to be
quarrelsome and lazy, willing to take offence at any slight, whether
real or imagined, and to neglect the duties which at other times of the
year they are always ready to perform.
[Illustration: (1.) THE GIANT DANCE. (See page 487.)]
[Illustration: (2.) FISHING SCENE. (See page 492.)]
Fortunately for themselves, the palm wine season lasts only a few
months, and during the remainder of the year the Aponos are perforce
obliged to be sober. While it lasts, the country is most unpleasant to
a stranger, the sound of the drum, the dance, and the song scarcely
ever ceasing night or day, while the people are so tetchy and
quarrelsome that a day never passes without a fight, which often leaves
considerable scars behind it.
One of their dances is very peculiar, and is called by the name of
Ocuya, or Giant Dance. The reader will find it illustrated on the
previous page.
This curious dance is performed by a man who enacts the part of the
giant, and raises himself to the necessary height by means of stilts.
He then endues a wicker-work frame, shaped like the body of a man,
and dressed like one of the natives, in large grass cloths. The dress
reaches to the ground, so as to conceal the stilts, and, in spite of
this drawback, the performer walks and dances as if he were using
his unaided feet. Of course he wears a mask, and this mask is mostly
of a white color. It has large, thick lips, and a mouth partly open,
showing the gap in which the upper incisor teeth had once existed. The
headdress is much like a lady’s bonnet of 1864 or 1865. The material of
which it is made is monkey skin, and it is ornamented with feathers.
The Aponos are not distinguished as warriors, their weapons being
very formidable in appearance, and very inefficient in practice. Each
Apono has his bow and arrows. The former is a stiff, cumbrous kind of
weapon. It is bent nearly in a semi-circle, the string being nearly two
feet from the centre of the bow. The string is of vegetable fibre. The
arrows are ingeniously armed with triangular iron heads, each being
attached to a hollow neck, through which the shaft passes loosely. The
head is poisoned, and when it penetrates the flesh it remains fixed in
the wound, while the shaft falls to the ground, just as is the case
with the Bosjesman arrows already described.
Their spears are also rather clumsy, and are too heavy to be thrown.
They are, however, rather formidable in close combat. The weapon
which is most coveted by the Apono tribe is a sort of sword, or
rather scimitar, with a wooden handle and a boldly curved blade. An
ambitious young Apono is never happy until he has obtained one of
these scimitars, and such a weapon, together with a handsome cap and
a well-made “dengui,” will give a man a most distinguished appearance
among his fellows. Although the curved form is most common, some of
these swords are straight, and are not made by themselves, but by
the Abombos and Iljavis, who live to the east of them. The blade of
this weapon is four feet in length, and the handle is shaped like a
dice-box, the “tang” of the blade running through it and being clenched
on the end of the hilt. From the same tribes they procure their anvils,
which are too large for their resources; their only melting pots being
scarcely able to hold more than a pint of iron ore. The shields of the
Apono are circular and made of basket work.
The villages of the Apono are well and neatly built. One of them,
belonging to Nchiengain, the principal chief of the Apono tribe, was
measured by M. du Chaillu, and found to consist of one long street,
nearly four hundred and fifty yards long, and eighteen yards wide.
The houses were all separated by an interval, and each house was
furnished with a little veranda in front, under which the inhabitants
sit and smoke their pipes, eat their meals, and enjoy a chat with their
neighbors. The material of the houses is chiefly bamboo, and strips of
the leaf-stalks of palm trees, and the average height of a hut is about
seven feet.
One of the villages, named Mokaba, deserved the name of a town, and was
arranged in a somewhat different manner. The houses were arranged in
three parallel rows, forming one wide principal street in the middle,
and a narrow street on either side. The houses are arranged in hollow
squares, each square belonging to one family. As often as a man marries
a fresh wife, he builds a separate house for her, and all these new
houses are arranged in the form of a quadrangle, the empty space being
planted with palm trees, which are the property of the headman of each
group, and which pass at his death to his heir. These palm trees are
valuable property, and are especially prized as furnishing material for
the palm wine which the Apono tribe drink to such an extent.
Superstition is as rife among the Aponos as among other tribes which
have been mentioned, and preserves its one invariable characteristic,
_i. e._ an ever-present fear of evil. When M. du Chaillu visited them,
they were horribly afraid of such a monster as a white man, and jumped
to the conclusion that any one who was unlike themselves must be both
evil and supernatural.
It was with some difficulty that the chief Nchiengain was induced to
allow the travellers to pass through his territories; and even after
permission had been granted, it was thought better to send a man who
was the personal friend of the chief, and who would serve to calm the
fears with which he regarded the approach of his visitors. There was
certainly some reason for his fear, for, by some unfortunate mischance,
the small-pox swept through the country during the time of M. du
Chaillu’s travels, and it was very natural that the people should think
that the white stranger was connected with the disease.
When, at last, the traveller entered the Apono village, there was a
general consternation, the men running away as fast as their legs
could carry them, and the women fleeing to their huts, clasping their
children in their arms, and shrieking with terror. The village was,
in fact, deserted, in spite of the example set by the chief, who,
although as much frightened as any of his subjects, bore in mind the
responsibilities of his office, and stood in front of his house to
receive his visitor. In order to neutralize as much as possible the
effects of the white man’s witchery, he had hung on his neck, body, and
limbs all the fetishes which he possessed, and had besides covered his
body with mysterious lines of alumbi chalk. Thus fortified, he stood
in front of his hut, accompanied by two men, who bravely determined to
take part with their chief in his perilous adventure.
At first Nchiengain was in too great a fright to look at his visitor,
but before very long he ventured to do so, and accept some presents.
Afterward, when he had got over the fear with which he regarded the
white man, he acted after the fashion of all African chiefs, _i. e._ he
found all sorts of excuses for not furnishing his guests with guides
and porters; the real object being to keep in his hands the wonderful
white man who had such inexhaustible treasures at command, and who
might make him the richest and most powerful chief in the country.
The idols of the Apono tribe are hideously ugly. When M. du Chaillu was
in Apono-land, he naturally wished to bring home a specimen of a native
idol, and after some trouble induced Nchiengain to present him with a
specimen. The chief obligingly sent his wife to the temple to fetch
an idol, which he generously presented to his guest. It was a wooden
image, so large that the woman could scarcely carry it, and was of such
a character that it could not possibly be exhibited in Europe.
These people seem to possess inventive faculties of no small extent,
if we may judge from a strange legend that was told by one of them.
According to this tale, in former times there was a great chief called
Redjiona, the father of a beautiful girl called Arondo. He was very
fond of this daughter, and would not allow any one to marry her,
unless he promised that, if his daughter died before her husband, he
should die with her and be buried in the same grave. In consequence
of this announcement, no one dared to ask for Arondo’s hand, and she
remained unmarried for several years.
At last a suitor showed himself, in the person of a man named Akenda
Mbani. This name signifies “he who never goes twice to the same place;”
and he had taken it in consequence of a law or command of his father,
that he must never go twice to the same place. He married Arondo, and,
being a mighty hunter, he brought home plenty of game; but if he had by
chance killed two large animals, such as antelopes or boars, together,
he brought home one, and made his father-in-law fetch the other, on the
plea that he could not go twice to the same place.
After some years Arondo was taken ill with a headache, which became
worse and worse until she died, and, according to agreement, Akenda
Mbani died with her. As soon as she was dead, her father gave orders
to prepare a large grave for the husband and wife. In the grave was
placed the bed of the married pair, on which their bodies were laid,
and they were accompanied by a slave killed to wait on them in the land
of spirits, and by much wealth in the shape of ivory, plates, mats, and
ornaments. Akenda Mbani was also furnished with his sword, spear, and
hunting bag. The grave was then filled up, and a mound of sand heaped
upon it.
When Agambouai, the village orator, saw these arrangements, he
disapproved of them, and told Redjiona that the hyænas would scratch
up the mound of sand, and devour the bodies of his daughter and her
husband. So Redjiona ordered the grave to be made so deep that the
hyænas could not get at the bodies. Accordingly, the sand was removed,
and the bodies of Akenda Mbani and his wife were seated on stools while
the grave was deepened. When it was deep enough, the people replaced
the bed, and lowered the slave and Arondo into the grave. They then
proceeded to place Akenda Mbani by her, but he suddenly revived, and
declined to take his place in the grave a second time, on the ground
that he never went twice to the same place. Redjiona was very angry at
this, but admitted the validity of the excuse, and consoled himself by
cutting off the head of Agambouai.
THE APINGI.
Passing westward toward the coast, we come to the APINGI tribe. These
people inhabit a tolerably large tract of country, and extend along the
west side of a range of hills which separates them from the Ishogo.
The Apingi are not a handsome race. Their skin is black, with a decided
tinge of yellow, but this lightness of hue may probably be owing to
the mountainous regions which they inhabit. They wear the usual
grass cloth round the waist, and the women are restricted to two of
the squares, each twenty-four inches long by eighteen wide, as is the
custom throughout a large portion of West Africa. They do not, however,
look on clothing in the same light as we do, and so the scantiness of
their apparel is of no consequence to them.
This was oddly shown by the conduct of the head wife of Remandji, an
Apingi chief. She came with her husband to visit M. du Chaillu, who
presented her with a piece of light-colored cotton cloth. She was
delighted with the present, and, much to her host’s dismay, proceeded
to disrobe herself of her ordinary dress, in order to indue the new
garment. But, when she had laid aside the grass-cloth petticoat, some
object attracted her attention, and she began to inspect it, forgetting
all about her dress, chattering and looking about her for some time
before she bethought herself of her cotton robe, which she put on quite
leisurely.
This woman was rather good-looking, but, as a rule, the Apingi women
are exceedingly ugly, and do not improve their beauty by the custom of
filing the teeth, and covering themselves with tattooing. This practice
is common to both sexes, but the women are fond of one pattern, which
makes them look much as if they wore braces, a broad band of tattooed
lines passing over each shoulder, and meeting in a V-shape on the
breast. From the point of the V, other lines are drawn in a curved
form upon the abdomen, and a similar series is carried over the back.
The more of these lines a woman can show, the better dressed she is
supposed to be.
The grass cloths above-mentioned are all woven by the men, who can make
them either plain or colored. A square of the former kind is a day’s
work to an Apingi, and a colored cloth requires from two to three days’
labor. But the Apingi, like other savages, is a very slow workman, and
has no idea of the determined industry with which an European pursues
his daily labor. Time is nothing to him, and whether a grass cloth
takes one or two days’ labor is a matter of perfect indifference. He
will not dream of setting to work without his pipe, and always has
his friends about him, so that he may lighten the labors of the loom
by social converse. Generally, a number of looms are set up under the
projecting eaves of the houses, so that the weavers can talk as much as
they like with each other.
The Apingi are celebrated as weavers, and are said to produce the best
cloths in the country. These are held in such estimation that they are
sold even on the coast, and are much used as mosquito curtains. The men
generally wear a robe made of eight or nine squares. Barter, and not
personal use, is the chief object in making these cloths, the Apingi
thinking that their tattooing is quite enough clothing for all social
purposes. Indeed, they openly say that the tattooing is their mode of
dress, and that it is quite as reasonable as covering up the body and
limbs with a number of absurd garments, which can have no object but
to restrain the movements. Sometimes the Apingi wear a cloth over one
shoulder, but this is used as a sign of wealth, and not intended as
dress.
Like most tribes which live on the banks of rivers, the Apingi, who
inhabit the district watered by the Rembo River, are clever boatmen,
and excellent swimmers. The latter accomplishment is a necessity, as
the canoes are generally very small and frail, flat-bottomed, and are
easily capsized. They draw scarcely any water, this structure being
needful on account of the powerful stream of the Rembo, which runs so
swiftly that even these practised paddlers can scarcely make more than
three or four miles an hour against the stream.
When M. du Chaillu was passing up the Rembo, he met with an accident
that showed the strength of the current. An old woman was paddling
her boat across the stream, but the light bark was swept down by the
stream, and dashed against that of Du Chaillu, so that both upset.
As for the old woman, who had a bunch of plantains in her boat, she
thought of nothing but her fruit, and swam down the stream bawling
out lustily, “Where are my plantains? Give me my plantains!” She soon
captured her canoe, took it ashore, emptied out the water, and paddled
off again, never ceasing her lamentations about her lost bunch of
plantains.
There is a curious matrimonial law among the Apingi, which was
accidentally discovered by M. du Chaillu. A young man, who had just
married the handsomest woman in the country, showed all the marks of
poverty, even his grass cloth dress being ragged and worn out. On being
asked the reason of his shabby appearance, he pointed to his young
wife, and said that she had quite ruined him. On further interrogation,
it was shown that among the Apingi, if a man fell in love with the wife
of a neighbor, and she reciprocated the affection, the lover might
purchase her from the husband, who was bound to sell her for the same
price that he originally paid for her. In the present instance, so
large a sum had been paid for the acknowledged belle of the country
that the lover had been obliged to part with all his property before he
could secure her.
As is often the case in Africa, the slaves are treated very well
by their masters. Should a slave be treated harshly, he can at any
time escape by means of a curious and most humane law. He finds an
opportunity of slipping away, and goes to another village, where he
chooses for himself a new master. This is done by “beating bongo,” _i.
e._ by laying the hands on the head and saying, “Father, I wish to
serve you. I choose you for my master, and will never go back to my old
master.” Such an offer may not be refused, neither can the fugitive
slave be reclaimed, unless he should return to the village which he
left.
The Apingi are very fond of palm wine, and, like other neighboring
tribes, hang calabashes in the trees for the purpose of receiving the
juice. Being also rather selfish, they mostly visit their palm trees in
the early morning, empty the calabashes into a vessel, and then go off
into the woods and drink the wine alone, lest some acquaintance should
happen to see them, and ask for a share.
Hospitality is certainly one of the virtues of the Apingi tribe. When
M. du Chaillu visited them, the chief Remandji presented him with
food, the gift consisting of fowls, cassava, plantains, and _a young
slave_. The latter article was given in accordance with the ordinary
negro’s idea, that the white men are cannibals, and purchase black men
for the purpose of eating them. “Kill him for your evening meal,” said
the hospitable chief; “he is tender and fat, and you must be hungry.”
And so deeply was the idea of cannibalism implanted in his mind, that
nothing would make this really estimable gentleman comprehend that men
could possibly be wanted as laborers, and not as articles of food.
However, a very fair meal (_minus_ the slave) was prepared, and when it
was served up, Remandji appeared, and tasted every dish that was placed
before his guests. He even drank a little of the water as it was poured
out, this custom being followed throughout the tribe, the wives tasting
the food set before their husbands, and the men that which they offer
to their guests. It is singular to see how ancient and universal is the
office of “taster,” and how a custom which still survives in European
courts as a piece of state ceremonial is in active operation among the
savage tribes of Western Africa.
The religious, or rather the superstitious, system of the Apingi
differs little from that which we have seen in other districts, and
seems to consist chiefly in a belief in fetishes, and charms of
various kinds. For example, when M. du Chaillu told Remandji that he
would like to go on a leopard hunt, the chief sent for a sorcerer, or
“ouganga,” who knew a charm which enabled him to kill any number of
leopards without danger to himself. The wizard came, and went through
his ceremonies, remarking that the white man might laugh as much as he
please, but that on the next day he would see that his charm (monda)
would bring a leopard.
On the following morning he started into the woods, and in the
afternoon returned with a fine leopard which he had killed. He asked
such an exorbitant price for the skin that the purchase was declined,
and the skin was therefore put to its principal use, namely, making
fetish belts for warriors. A strip of skin is cut from the head to the
tail, and is then charmed by the ouganga, whose incantations are so
powerful that neither bullet, arrow, nor spear, can wound the man who
wears the belt. Of course such a belt commands a very high price, which
accounts for the unwillingness of the sorcerer to part with the skin.
As is usual in many parts of the world, when twins are born, one of
them is killed, as an idea prevails that, if both are allowed to live,
the mother will die. Only one case was known where twins, boys seven
years of age, were allowed to survive, and, as their mother did not
die, she was respected as a very remarkable woman.
Seeing the treasures which their white visitor brought among them, the
Apingi could not be disabused of the notion that he made, or rather
created, them all himself, and that he was able, by his bare word,
to make unlimited quantities of the same articles. One day a great
consultation was held, and about thirty chiefs, with Remandji at their
head, came and preferred the modest request that the white man would
make a pile of beads as high as the tallest tree, and another of guns,
powder, cloth, brass kettles, and copper rods. Nothing could persuade
them that such a feat was impossible, and the refusal to perform the
expected miracle was a severe disappointment to the Apingi chiefs, who
had come from great distances, each bringing with him a large band of
followers. There was even an Ashango chief, who had come from his own
country, more than a hundred miles to the eastward, bringing with him a
strong party of men to carry away his share of the goods.
This scene appears to have made a great impression on the natives, for
when Remandji and his son died, an event which happened not long after
Du Chaillu had left the country, the people firmly believed that the
latter had killed him on account of his friendship for him, desiring
that they should be companions in the spirit land, which they believed
was the ordinary habitation of white men.
Their burial customs are rather curious, and not at all agreeable.
The body is left in the house where the sick person has died, and is
allowed to remain there as long as it can hold together. At last, the
nearest relation of the deceased comes and carries off the body on his
shoulders, bearing it to some convenient spot at a little distance from
the village. No grave is dug, but the corpse is laid on the ground,
some pieces of ivory or a few personal ornaments are laid by it, and
the funeral ceremony is at an end.