CHAPTER VI

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CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

44.—BIRTH.

When the time of a child’s birth draws near, the mother does not stay in her house, or even in the village. Accompanied by one or two female friends, she goes forth to seek the retirement of the great forest. As a rule she will soon be able to return, but if the delivery be protracted it is usual to apply to a physician, who sends a medicine to drink, which is viewed as a charm. Though the native women are generally hardy, it would not do to assume that they are entirely made of iron. Many poor women suffer severely, and die in the bush, the child being generally unborn.

45.—THE INFANT.

On the birth of the child, one of the female friends takes it and carries it to the village. The mother is able to accompany on foot. In the case of a first-born child, the party is met with considerable rejoicing, in which the grandmother of the child takes a prominent part, and raises the song, Ngwete chisukulu none sechelele, “I have got a grandchild, let me rejoice”. On arriving, mother and child are put into a house, where they stay from three to six days. No one enters their abode except the elder women (achakulungwa).

After this there is the ceremony of introducing the child into the world—bringing out the little stranger to public notice. The head of the mother is shaved, as also the head of the child. The child is now named. Both mother and child come out of the house, and are received with rejoicing, at which the elder women are present. The mother has received a medicine or charm, in which the child has to be washed for a great many months to come.

If the child should die before being brought out of the house it receives no mourning. The relatives do not shave their heads on account of it, nor do they present offerings to its spirit. But if it has been brought out of the house, even if it should survive but a very short time, the usual mourning is held, and offerings are presented to it, especially by the mother. Such a denizen of the spirit world is supposed to be able to affect the fortunes of the survivors; besides, it may be very powerful in interceding with the older spirits (10).

Several African customs with reference to young children remind us of the well-known superstition about “Changelings”.

46.—NAMING.

The child receives a name, which it retains until it goes to the mysteries. The name is given by the relatives: if a female child is betrothed she may be named by her future husband. The name the child receives may be determined by some circumstance connected with its birth, as in the case of Jacob or Joseph, or such Scripture names. Sometimes it is named after other relatives of the family, as is the custom in Britain.

The person who receives a name at the mysteries has some choice in determining what he will be called. We knew a boy who assumed much at his own instance the name of Kalikalanje, the hero about whom there are so many native tales, reminding one of the class of tales that Jack the Giant Killer belongs to. All the names of the people are significant. Every name may be assumed to have originally had some meaning, very much as every effect has a cause.

47.—NAMING EUROPEANS.

One point where natives show a great deal of cleverness is in giving names to white people. They never talk of a white man by his own name, which is generally unsuited to their pronunciation. They have an invention of their own, and the new name is generally very happy. It hits off some peculiarity in personal appearance, and, over and above this, it aims at pointing to some mental habit. After seeing a few efforts of their naming, we almost become prepared for the theory that physical appearance is a reflection of character.

Thus they meet with a man who is a miser, they regard his miserliness for some time in silence; at last they begin to take a look round him. They wish to discover some of his physical peculiarities. He cuts his hair very close. “Ah! we have it now,” and they call him “The close shaver!” When an Englishman with any marked peculiarity arrives among them he generally creates a profound impression. The natives, like the Greeks of old, are fond of hearing some new thing. It is often very trying to one’s sense of the ludicrous to go about the country with English companions and hear the remarks and criticisms, while the new comers are quite unconscious of what is being said, and feel sure that they are complimented. If one do not make progress in the native tongue, he may be in the country for as long as five years without knowing his native name, although it is a household word all over the place, and no one speaking to the natives would ever think of using anything else.

Some names, again, are general designations, not so much of the individual as his work, and in this way they may be modified, so that the original meaning is lost. One man had besides his own proper name the name of Kasisi or priest. This word means originally shaven, or without hair (kabe sisi, or kalibe sisi). It was first applied to the monks with reference to their shorn heads. There is a rock that is seen on the Zambeze at the Lupata mountains, which, at a distance, looks exactly like a monk. The natives call this rock Kasisi. A clergyman will get the name applied to him, and that although there be no baldness in the case. The word is used too of Makukani, who acts as the priest of the Magololo, especially when rain is required. But it was entirely unused in the native language till the first man with a tonsure appeared on the Zambeze. He would get it as a nickname, or rather as a name (for they would not necessarily want to make fun of him), and the word would linger after the monks disappeared, and would be applied to any that resembled them in other particulars.

Visitors sometimes throw a great deal of responsibility on those that are in the country already. The latter are asked to tell all about them, and if there be anything peculiar the danger falls on the old settlers. It is a rule in Africa that where a stranger pays a visit and gets into trouble in his friend’s district, the whole responsibility lies on his friend; the same rule is generally applied when travellers are following a guide. Though it may seem strange, yet the appearance of many people is apt to be deemed “uncanny”. The phenomenon of a person without an arm, of people able to change the colour of their hair, or “to take out their teeth and put them in again,” though easily turned to a laugh among friendly natives, especially the young, is nevertheless felt to demand explanation, and might cause serious results among natives disposed to quarrel.

48.—THE DESTINY OF THE CHILD.

In civilised countries the destiny of the new arrival is left to unfold itself gradually. No definite course is chalked out. In the life of the civilised infant there is consequently a great amount of uncertainty and plot interest, especially with reference to marriage, as every romance bears witness to. Here this is not the case. Take the instance of a little girl. All the lovely day dreams, all the pleasures of hope and pictures of fancy are rudely set aside long before she has reached sweet seventeen. While the child is yet unborn she may be sought in marriage. This is often done. Very usually the ardent suitor will wait until it is known whether the child is to be a boy or a girl. Then he begins at once to ask for her. He goes with his suit to the Surety (Angoswe), whose name we intended to translate “undertaker,” only the Awilo (34) usurped that word. The Surety promises to attend to it, and tells him to come back soon. When he returns in a day or two, if he has not been forestalled, the Surety refers him to the mother. The first comer is almost always successful, especially if he bring a decent present, and the infant is at once betrothed. When the mother’s consent is given the future son-in-law offers the present which he has taken with him, and promises to keep the little girl supplied with clothes. Her clothing, of course, is nothing but a scanty loin cloth. It is the acceptance of this cloth and the wearing of it that is the great token of betrothal.

The same word that is used for betrothing a girl is also applied to the selecting of a piece of ground for hoeing. A person who wants a new farm goes forth and makes his selection. After doing so he takes bunches of long grass and ties round the trees in that field. Everyone that passes knows by the grass put upon the trees that the field has been taken possession of. Anyone that interfered with it would be liable to have an

## action brought against him. In the same way the intending husband points

to the cloth that he has given to the girl, and says, “She is mine”. If any one interfere with her the intending husband may put him to death.

A boy may also be betrothed in his early days. His guardians will try to secure a girl about his own age, by arranging with other guardians that may have a female child to dispose of.

If a girl have a husband betrothed to her she often cooks food for him. But her claim on him is not of an exclusive nature, as he may have more wives than one, while the misfortune of an unhappy union is more bitter to her, as she is excluded from others that she might prefer.

In the Mission School at Zomba there were many couples of twelve years and under, that were engaged to each other. The boys could tell what girls they were to marry, and the girls could also point out their husbands. The marriages of the natives are generally very happy. This result gives some countenance to Dr. Johnson’s view that there would be more happiness if all marriages were made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The parents seem never to doubt that they know the “minds” of their sons and daughters better than they can do themselves. At the same time I have seen many cases where the girl would have done anything rather than marry the man that had been assigned her.

49.—INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD.

While the mother goes about her ordinary pursuits she carries her child upon her back. Native children learn to walk and to talk much sooner than white children do. They are put upon the ground at an early stage; little supervision is exercised, and they are accustomed to eat handfuls of mud. There seems to be no very good food for young children, consequently they are suckled for a long time. By and by they get a species of thin porridge (likoko). No cradles are used; the child sleeps on a mat. Very often it will be asleep on its mother’s back as she is hard at work under the tropical sun.

It is not common to see a mother beat her child; in fact, there is very little occasion. There are no clothes to soil, no house to spoil, no windows to smash, no dishes to break, no spoons to lose; the child may play with anything that it can find; it may go where it likes without going into much danger, and without destroying flower-beds or favourite plants!

50.—BOYHOOD.

As the child grows, his life is equally wild and free. He has to pay no penalties to the requirements of polite society, he has to go through no ordeal of being taught to sit properly at table, to hold his knife and fork properly, and such things—Simple child of nature, thou hast neither table nor chair, knife nor fork!

He has no School Board to confine him, his time is all his own; he goes forth to swim in the brooks, or play in the woods. There is no clock in the hall that will tell tales about his long stay; he watches the course of the great clock in the face of the heavens, which he learns to read with astonishing accuracy. As darkness sets in he must go home (from danger of wild beasts), and may be seen returning to the village. Perhaps he carries a great bag full of beetles or of field-rats, which are to serve as a relish (mboga) to his evening meal. Possibly he is laden with wild fruits; in any case he has the appearance of brightness and buoyancy that an English child has when returning from a pic-nic. He carries his little bow and arrows, and is accompanied by two or three companions like himself.

Apprenticed to no trade, he is left to acquire what he wishes at his own discretion. Still he has some duties. A very common occupation is to watch the baboons (majani), and keep them from eating the corn. All this time the boy is picking up a great deal of information. He hears the talk of his elders as he sits with them at their meals, or when they are engaged in public counsel; and by and by, for amusement in the first instance, he will take to some little occupation himself. Of course, in this country he can live and become rich (as a native counts riches), without learning any trade. Hoeing comes naturally to him, but his wives will hoe.

51.—AMUSEMENTS (1) TALES, AND CONUNDRUMS.

I was once walking along a native path with a little boy, and when the conversation began to flag I proposed a native riddle for him. He turned round with a very peculiar look, and asked me if we recited riddles at our home. “Yes,” was the reply, “and you do it too.” Then he asked, “Do you do it at mid-day?” And by and by, after smothering many conflicting thoughts and some irresolution, he began to explain that the old people said that “if boys recited riddles at mid-day, horns would grow on their foreheads!” Tales and conundrums are generally recited after sunset. While asleep, as our companions thought, in a tent beside the camp fires, we have often lain almost bursting with suppressed laughter, as we listened to the tales and conundrums that went round. Natives have plenty of such traditional literature, which, accompanied by their shrewd observations on men and manners, makes their society highly interesting.

(2) A very simple method of amusement in the villages is for the children to dance or skip along the roads, singing simple songs and choruses (Cf. chilewe).

(3) The out-door games are numerous; (indoor games will not be looked for when we remember the size of the houses). One of the commonest is playing at ball (kung’anda mpila). In the usual game there are two sides: the players mix with each other, and the object of each is to throw the ball so that it will always be caught by one of the same side. If one of the other side catch it, the ball changes owners, and the side that originally had it must try to recover it. The side that keeps the ball longest is victorious. It must be thrown up as soon as it is received. Sometimes the time of throwing is regulated by beating a drum.

(4) TOPS.

They set up maize cobs (isonde), which represent soldiers. The player on one side has the same number of “soldiers” as his opponent. Each discharges tops (njengo) upon the opposing army, and the man that first demolishes those of his opponent is victorious. Another amusement with tops is the same as in Britain, and consists in merely trying how long they can make a top spin. They often shout or sing something as it revolves.[7]

(5) DRAUGHTS (NJOMBWA).

A game reminding us somewhat of draughts is very common. Little holes are dug in the ground, the players have a certain number of plums. The object of one player is to take possession of all the plums of his opponent. We have seen regular boards used for this game about the size of a draught board, but with little holes like those in a bagatelle board. These holes are in four rows or lines (nyili). The councillors of Malemya, the chief of Zomba, are very fond of this amusement during their beer drinkings.

(6) SKIPPING ROPE (CHIWEWE).

They tie a large bunch of African grass (like a bunch of hay or straw) to the end of a rope. One man swings this rapidly in a circle of which he is the centre. The skipper stands within this circle, and must jump over the rope each time it comes round. If he cannot clear the rope in time it “ties his legs, and he falls and gets laughed at”.

All these games are for the boys, but they do not forget them when they grow up; in fact, the young men seem to be the most zealous players. The girls have not so much time for play; they are kept constantly pounding at corn as soon as they are able to lift the pestle.

(7) Both boys and girls have games, in which they imitate the graver pursuits of their fathers and mothers (kulinganila misingu jao). They build little houses, where they go to dwell during the day. Girls in their play often break down soft stones between harder ones, after the fashion that women grind flour. Boys go about with miniature bows and grass arrows (sugumbe). Playing at war and stealing slaves is a common game. In teaching young natives substraction, the illustration found simplest was like this: given a village with 30 people, the slavers catch 11, how many are left?

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