CHAPTER XVI

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AFRICAN ETHNOLOGY.

In trying to settle whether tribes are of the same race the Ethnologist turns his attention to such points as (1) their language, (2) their customs and beliefs, and (3) their physical characteristics. Though in this chapter we refer only to the second of these particulars, we may remark that on the evidence of language alone we can decide that the Wayao, Walolo, Anyasa, Achikunda, Machinga, Mangoni, Makua, and others in their neighbourhood, are sprung from common ancestors, and that all these tribes are of the same race as the majority of the tribes found south of the Equator, which have been grouped together as the Bantu.[12] The other important inhabitants of South Africa besides the Bantu are the Hottentots and Bushmen, who again have been often classed together. The Hottentots and Bushmen seem to have been first in the Continent. Then the Bantu came into the middle of them, and split them into two sections. One section (Hottentots and Bushmen) is found in the South, the other section (represented by tribes like the Akka) is found in the North. As to the time when the Bantu established themselves in South Africa there is little to guide us. It is said that the Kafirs were forcing their way down by the West Coast at the time when the Portuguese were settling on the East Coast. It seems clear that Santos on one side of Africa and Merolla on the other both mingled with this great people.

African Ethnology is a vast subject, and in treating it some have been led to maintain that there was once a continent to the east of Africa, which has become submerged. The traditions common among these African tribes to the effect that the Bantu came from the North tempt us to look northward along the map of Africa with the view of discovering whence they came. On examining the tribes of Northern Africa, we find that one obstacle has been put before the Ethnologist by Mahommedanism, which, pressing into the country by the seventh century, changed the ancient tribal customs. On the other hand, the customs of certain ancient races like the Egyptians have been preserved by history.

Putting aside language for the present, we shall note the customs of various African races. This besides pointing to certain ethnological conclusions, will throw light on the customs that have been laid before the reader, and may increase the interest in those tribes. Taking our stand in the Nyassa region, we shall, after glancing at customs of Eastern Africa supplied by earlier missionaries, look towards the South, the West, and the North in succession; and then conclude the chapter with notes on ancient races that might have had contact with the African Bantu.

EAST CENTRAL AFRICA.

_Santos_[13] (1586) remarks: “The people bewail their dead by dint of drumming, and desist from leaping and dancing only when fatigue obliges them to cease (33). They regard their king as the favourite of the souls of the dead, and think that he learns from them all that passes in his dominions (1). The Portuguese delivered from their dreadful slavery a number of women and children whom this wretch kept with a number of men in pens for the purpose of killing and eating them in succession (79, 106). They acknowledge a God who, both in this world and in the world to come, measures retribution for the good or evil done in this.” [This looks, I fear, somewhat like reading our ideas into their language. Still, natives might easily fancy that the old chief to whom they go at death will treat his subjects much as he did in this life.]

The Rev. H. Rowley, of the Magomero Mission, gives an account of a public supplication for rain amongst the Anyasa (20). In conducting war, “The Yao,” he says, “left their camp before daybreak, marched direct to the principal village, destroyed that, and fired the others which lay in their line of march home. The difficulty was to get messengers to the Yao.... When we asked our own men to be the messengers, they put their hands instinctively to their throats” (101).

In a case of accidental death “it was difficult to convince one party that it was an accident, and both that witchcraft had nothing to do with it” (86).

SOUTH AFRICA.

The Zulu and Kafir have customs so similar to the Yao that I refer only to a few, some of which are quoted on account of the difference.

They do not eat fowls, ducks, or eggs, lest they should be barren (D). They conceal birth-names (52). A man must not see the face of his mother-in-law. The eldest son succeeds his father. They bury in a circular hole, placing the body in a sitting posture. On returning from a funeral they get a charm administered to them. A spirit may come back as a snake (5). Their Witch-doctors and Fetishmen are more set apart from the people than those in Eastern Central Africa. Feathers, claws, teeth, pieces of wood, &c., are charms. Prophets smell a person to see whether he speaks the truth. The witch is believed not to eat the body taken from the grave, but to use it as a charm.

A recent account of one of the southern Bantu tribes, the _Amandebele_, which was formed of 30 or 40 smaller tribes, is given by Thomas, from which we take the following customs:—

The first to “bleed” a field with his pick possesses it (48). Soldiers going to war charm themselves before and after the expedition (14, &c.). An invalid is removed from the village to a field (19). At funerals there is an offering of cattle, and the deceased is introduced to his father, grandfather, and others. In cases where the spirit of a deceased friend enters an invalid, this spirit gets a sacrifice: sometimes the

## particular animal wanted by the spirit is named. The dead may be changed

into elephants, buck, lions, snakes, &c. Hence offerings are given to such animals.

Mr. Thomas carefully distinguishes two classes of professional men that are often put together: one is the class of diviners, each of whom is trained by an older diviner. The other class is the common _izinyanga_, and includes self-taught physicians and those doctors that are priests as well as physicians (I). Witchcraft is carried on and punished in ways similar to what we have described (107), and yet with important points of difference. Their traditions on cosmology state that when men came out of the earth they found the animal and vegetable kingdoms prepared for them, and that they received the opposite messages of life and death. This last statement refers to the chameleon legend common among the Bantu (_Appendix_, Tale 15).

WEST CENTRAL AFRICA.

_Merolla_ (1682) says:—“The people ate serpents. They had an oath by which a person’s limbs were bound tighter or looser to force out the truth. [In § 104, we saw this principle applied to the head]. They did not approve of marrying in _facie ecclesiæ_, for they must be satisfied before marriage whether their wife will have children, and whether she will prove diligent in her work and obedient. When the fault proceeds from the wife’s side, the present that was made by the husband is restored; when the fault is on his side, he recovers nothing (59). When the father receives the present he complains not even if it should be small—for that would look like selling his daughter; but he asks in public beforehand how much the man will give. [This is more like the Kafir custom than the Yao (48)]. Sometimes a man leaves a concubine to his kinsman (54, 43). The wife waits at table on her husband; after he is satisfied he gives the rest of the food to her, and she shares it with her children (67). Whilst children are young they are bound with superstitious cords made by the wizards (45). They are put down naked on the ground; when they can move, a bell is tied to them, to show where they have gone. The fields are planted round with stakes, which being bound with bundles of herbs by the wizards, will kill any thief (K). When they have private quarrels, they do not decide them singly, but each man gets as many friends as he can. The parties meet, begin to argue quietly, proceed to invectives, and lastly they fall to it ‘helter-skelter’. [We could give no better account of many native trials in Eastern Africa.] On a death, the kindred collect: hens are killed; they besprinkle the house of the deceased with the blood, and throw the carcases on the top of the house, to prevent the soul of the dead from coming to give Zumbi to any future inhabitants (40). The dead person is believed to summon others out of this world (41). They weep over the dead, if not naturally they hold Indian pepper to their noses, which causes the tears to flow plentifully. When they have howled and wept for some time, all of a sudden they pass to mirth, feasting at the expense of the person that is nearest akin to the deceased (43). Many abominations take place after these feasts. The Giaghi offer human sacrifices to the dead (28). Burial places are in the fields, and have something placed over them—_e.g._, horns or earthen pots (39). The poorer people wrap their dead in straw mats. All are given to ‘idolatry’ and the eating of man’s flesh (106). If any person whatsoever pass by where the guests are eating, he or she thrusts into the ring and has an equal share with the rest (D). Their wives work in the fields till noon, and must get their husbands’ food ready, and wait till he finish” (57).

_Battel_ (1590—Angola and adjoining countries) writes:—“The Gagas ate their captives, except those under fourteen years of age. The women draw out two teeth above and two below (A). A dead man has his hair dressed, and is put on a seat in a vault dug in the ground. Two of his wives are put by him with their arms broken, then the vault is covered up. The greatest part of his goods is buried with him (39). Every month there is a meeting of his kindred, who mourn and kill goats and pour the blood and palm-tree wine on the grave. [The Yao have dances every month, when the moon is full; on other occasions there would be difficulty in lighting their great ball-room.] They suffer no white man to be buried in the land. The body is thrown into the sea about two miles from the coast. [Unless where the English possess land, or are well known, this custom can be traced in East Africa. On Lake Nyassa, at least one English body had difficulty in obtaining a grave. In the same way some of the deceased Magomero missionaries were exhumed. In keeping with this is the custom of carrying about bodies for long distances, as in the case of Livingstone and some Portuguese.] If a person denies a charge, he drinks a root (Imbando), which kills him if he is guilty. _No one on any account dies but they kill another for him._ They believe that some one bewitched the deceased (106). Many times 500 men and women come to drink Imbando” (104).

_Bosman_ (1700—Bosman’s Guinea) mentions 5 classes of people: (1) kings, (2) chief men who take care of a city or village, (3) those that have got riches, (4) the common people, (5) slaves. [This exactly applies to the Eastern tribes.] In their salutations the first question is, “How did you sleep?” to which the reply is, “Very well” (G). At Fida, if any visit his superior, he falls on his knees, kisses the earth, claps his hands. [Here we find kneeling and clapping the hands.] The women suckle the infants for two or three years. Child-bearing is not troublesome; here is no long lying-in nor expensive gossiping or groaning feasts (44). The chief handiwork is smithery. They have no notion of steel. A hard stone is their anvil, and they have a pair of tongs, a small pair of bellows, and three or more pipes (H). When they begin a war, drive a bargain, travel, or attempt anything of importance, their first business is to consult their false god by means of their priest, who may tell them to offer sheep, &c. [14. Another resemblance to the Zulu and Kafirs. Among the simpler Yao, a man may be his own priest.] Questions may be put to the idol, which are answered in this way:—About 20 bits of leather are shuffled by the priest; if those indicating success come much together, success is announced (I). Public general religious exercises are customary on account of great drought (20). They kill a cock or a sheep to their god in words alone: for when it is dead they immediately fall upon it, tearing it to pieces with their fingers (27). Most of them believe that after death they live in another world in the same character as here; but they have no idea of future rewards or punishments (10). They drive devils out of villages (107). Children don’t inherit their father’s goods (97). If a woman is with child for the first time, rich offerings are made to the false god to obtain her safe delivery (53). They call in medicine men when sick, who prescribe offerings to deities. They have medicaments of the roots, branches, and gum of trees, and about 30 different herbs (I).

From various other writers on Western Central Africa we gather the following facts:—

When a child is 7 days old, the parents make a small feast, imagining that the infant is past its greatest dangers; and in order to prevent evil spirits from doing it any mischief, they strew all the ways with dressed victuals to appease them (44).

If a man like a virgin, he tells the most considerable among her relations, who goes to her house and asks her of her relations, who, if she is not before promised, seldom deny the request: then the bridegroom clothes his future bride with a rich suit of clothes and ornaments (48).

A man contracts with his wife when she is under age (48), and afterwards carries her forcibly to his home amidst her struggles and shrieks. A dower is reserved for her, so that, in case of widowhood, she may be able to buy a husband (59). When a present is paid to her parents, the bride is led to her husband’s hut, and he sends her for water, wood, and other necessaries. One of the wives is the superior (55). Adultery is punished by selling both offenders. The husband may turn off an unfaithful wife at pleasure; he makes her take all her children with her, unless he want to keep any himself (59). Wives do all the hard work, do not eat with their husbands, and are in great subjection. They name the child by shaving its head and rubbing it with oil (46). The women carry the children on their back as they go about their ordinary work. Many writers “impute the flat noses and pot bellies to this mode of carriage”. As soon as a person dies the neighbours are collected by loud cries and lamentations. They cry over the dead for several days. They give the deceased about a twelvemonth’s provisions, and make a point of securing the body from carrion-eaters (38). The brothers, sisters, and relations take possession of the goods of the dead man, and leave little to his children (97). If the deceased be a man, his wives shave their heads. [40, 43. All the Yao shave the head for any deceased relative.] If they drink liquor belonging to a European that they do not know, they ask him to drink first that they may see that there is no poison (98). They use no bread, but eat the flour of their various grains. They use the Indian corn when green, roasting it on the coals—or make flour by pounding in mortars. The houses are like beehives, and have pointed roofs: persons of quality have palisades round them. The domestic utensils are only earthen pots, calabashes, and baskets (C). They use bows, poisoned arrows and assagais.

[Illustration: WOMAN OF WESTERN AFRICA POUNDING MEAL.]

The Mahommedan negroes of the West Coast practise circumcision in some place remote from a village (52).

The above customs of the Western African are taken from the older writers on the subject. After coming into contact with Europeans the natives are apt to change their more primitive manners. They are fond of discarding round huts in favour of square. The above illustration shows a basket very different from the East African ones, all of which are carried on the head.

NORTHERN CENTRAL AFRICA.

The BONGO believe that evil and not good comes from spirits. Old people procure roots in the forest glades at night to destroy others. The Nubians, besides having superstitions of their own, confirm them in all this. Old women are compared to hyenas, and believed to enter their bodies by night. The dead are put in a crouching form—as prescribed in the law of Islam (_Schweinfurth_). Among the NYAM-NYAM no bodies are rejected as unfit for food except those that died of a cutaneous disease. The eldest son of a chief succeeds his father. Chieftains rarely lead their armies (98). A man that wishes a wife goes to a chief or sub-chief, who endeavours to procure one (48). The women eat alone in their own huts. The game “mungala” is played sometimes on a board, sometimes with holes in the ground (51, 5).

The BALONDA (Livingstone) ratify friendship by partaking of each other’s blood. They believe in a kind of supreme deity. When they take a poison ordeal they hold up their hands, as if to appeal to a great judge above. [It will be observed that the last clause is an inference.] They have idols, and a cross-road is considered sacred (40).

The WANYAMWESI have also a ceremony of making “blood-brothers”.

The WAGANDA have a stringent code of etiquette. A man that makes any mistake in saluting the king is executed at once. The account given by Speke of the chief of Uganda shows what a terrible curse a strong government may become (104). A powerful chief kills scores of people in cold blood, till the thing becomes an established custom, and ceases to be wondered at. Stanley’s details are equally instructive. When a warlike expedition is thought of, the sorcerer flays a child, and lays its body on the path as the soldiers pass forth to battle.

The GANI go quite naked, but instead of sitting on the ground as most natives do, they carry a small stool. In this district mothers wash their children and then lick them dry with their tongues as cats do. Towels are no part of native appliances.

Among the OBBO, when a man dies, his relatives take off his hair and wear it in his memory.

The DJOUR country resembles the Yao in being infested by the _tsetse-fly_, which kills cattle; consequently the people, though with a taste for agriculture, have nothing except goats.

In many tribes the women wear no clothing till marriage. The birth of twins is often considered unlucky; among the Ishogo the mother of twins is forbidden to speak to any but relatives for six years.

The APINGI offered Du Chaillu a “tender and fat” slave for his “evening meal”.

Among the FANS (Ba-Fan) the executed wizards (_cf._ 107) are eaten, and cannibalism (according to Reade) is made no secret.

Among ABYSSINIANS (like the Gallas, Samali, &c.) we find customs like the following:—

Children are circumcised the eighth day. The baptismal name is concealed, to prevent an evil spirit from taking possession of the party. They have civil marriages which are readily dissolved. On a death the relatives of the deceased shave their heads. There is much “wailing,” for which professionals attend, and a funeral banquet.

Lobo, the Abyssinian missionary, was cupped by a native by three cups of horn about half-a-foot long (I).

The GALLAS have a god called Wak. Their priests divine by the fat of goats and intestines. It is honourable to kill an alien, to kill a countryman is criminal. On death the relatives feast on the cattle. Wood that has been burning a little is put on the grave. If the wood grow the man is happy in the world beyond (_Krapf_).

The ARABS are found everywhere in Northern Africa, and their customs are better known: still I shall note a few for the sake of comparison.

Boys are named at the ceremony of circumcision. This is about their seventh year among the Turks. Some make it the 13th after the analogy of Ishmael (compare 52). Whatever is touched by a corpse is defiled (34). They pay visits to the graves of the dead; pilgrimages are a great feature in their religion. There are a few superstitions connected with the use of salt, _e.g._, when an infant is named, some may be put into its mouth. An assemblage of families all from a common stock forms a tribe—the government is paternal (62).

RACES OF ANTIQUITY.

It would be interesting to determine to which of the ancient nations known to history these Bantu tribes are most related. For light on this question we must look at the great nations of antiquity that had most to do with Africa.

The first race that we find in African history is the ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, whose country, Mizraim, is named after one of the sons of Ham. Whether they pressed farther south at an early date it is difficult to determine. It would have been strange if they had not: they had enterprise enough to build the pyramids. As dynasty succeeded dynasty, many that were driven before invaders in those barbarous times may have discovered that the world was wide. It is agreed, however, that in the 18th dynasty, about 1400 B.C., Sesostris found tribes in Nubia, Abyssinia, Senaar, &c., and subdued them. It is instructive to note that about 718 B.C. Egypt had a dynasty of Ethiopian kings; and that about 600 B.C. Necho, an Egyptian king, sent a Phenician fleet down the Red Sea, which appeared in the Mediterranean three years after—having sailed round Africa.

The next of the ancient races that may be mentioned in connection with Africa is the PHENICIANS or CANAANITES. Before Homer’s time they had the commerce of the Mediterranean. By the time of Solomon they were making voyages down the Red Sea to a place called Ophir, regarding which there have been many theories. In connection with one of these, we quote the following from Baines. Speaking of the long-sought ruins in the land of Ophir, he says:—“They are extensive, and one collection covers a considerable portion of a gentle rise, while another, apparently a fort, stands upon a bold granite hill. The walls are still thirty feet in height, and are built of granite hewn into small blocks about the size of our bricks, and put together without mortar. The most remarkable of these walls is situated on the very edge of a precipitous cliff, and is in perfect preservation to the height of thirty feet. The walls are about ten feet thick at the base, and seven or eight at the top. In many places there remain beams of stone, eight or ten feet in length, projecting from the walls, in which they must be inserted to a depth of several feet, for they can scarcely be stirred.” This explorer finds Ophir in Southern Africa.

The JEWS had contact with most of the nations of antiquity, and it is said that the kings of Abyssinia were descended from Solomon, through the Queen of Sheba, who on her return was accompanied by many Jews. It is also maintained that numbers of Jews found refuge in Abyssinia at various periods. The Abyssinians, as their name implies, are a mixed race.

Herodotus mentions a party of young men that travelled through the desert and went on till they came to a black people who lived by a large river which flowed westwards.

On comparing the customs of the modern tribes of Africa with those of the Ancient Egyptians, the Phenicians, or the Jews, we find many points of difference. Still there are points of similarity also. In describing African manners we have already noted many agreements with old Jewish customs. The customs of the Canaanites need not detain us long. Even in the time of the Patriarchs this race could make seals and graven images, had silver money, and could dye purple. It may be mentioned, however, that they believed themselves to have sprung from slime; while the worship of Ashtaroth involved the pollution of the young of both sexes, and Moloch demanded sacrifices of children. Divination was also practised.

It is interesting to note the following particulars regarding Ancient Egypt:—

The civilisation of Egypt did not come down the Nile—the black people from the land of Cush being represented on Egyptian monuments as Pharoah’s servants. The Egyptians are akin in customs to the Asiatics. Some say the Egyptians and Indians are of the same origin (_cf._ Prichard).

_Weapons, Tools, &c._—The old Egyptians had bows, shields, javelins, and slings. [The latter we have not seen among Eastern Central African tribes, but their hoes and wooden pillows resemble the Egyptian.] The old Egyptians pounded in stone mortars with metal pestles, and knew something of glass-blowing 3500 years ago—a trade which our African pupils considered “too wonderful”. Young children were carried at their mother’s breast, rarely at her back as in Central Africa.

_Offerings, &c._—The people inquired whether the deceased deserved the rites of burial Weapons, &c., were buried with him (39). When mourning, they abstained from “the bath, wine, delicacies of the table, or rich clothing” (49). (The priests in their purifications excluded _salt_ from their meals, ... shaved the head and the whole body every third day.) They called on the deceased according to the degree of relationship, as “O my father”. A dirge was chanted to the sound of a tambourine. Mummies were kept in their houses in order that relations might have their deceased with them. (So the Romans gave funeral oblations to their dead, flowers, libations, and victims.) The offerings to the dead were similar to the ordinary oblations in honour of the gods. Offerings were made to Osiris in name of the deceased after the burial.

The first fruits of the lentils was placed on the altars of the Egyptian gods (20). The offering of first fruits was an offering of obligation. Offerings of wine (24), oil, bread (21), salt, were offerings of devotion. Ears of new corn were parched at the fire. There is some testimony to the effect that human beings were sacrificed.

_Mysteries._—Circumcision was practised from the earliest times, and when it was administered instruction was given in the mysteries. One part of the initiation was to see the figure of the god (53).

_Oracles_ were consulted on all important occasions (14). Dreams were regarded with religious reverence (15), and thus the gods told the proper remedies for disease (Diodorus). But it was known that most diseases proceed from “indigestion and excess of eating”. Bodies were examined to find the causes of death (Pliny).

Women suspected of infidelity drank a cup of bitter water to prove innocence or guilt (107). The king was the chief of the church and of the state (7).

On studying tribal customs we find that much similarity arises from the very constitution of human nature. Circumstances also exert a great influence. Races are so modified when they obtain cows, horses, or even the rudiments of a calendar, that we are at once puzzled by the difference between them and the rest of their clan. Besides, we must ever remember the enormous influence of the individual. A whole tribe like the Ovambo derived the habit of squirting water in the face to prevent witchcraft from one king. If a stray man settled in Negroland with two or three wives 3000 years ago, the descendents of this person would now count by millions on millions! What are now large African tribes evidently descended from an ancestor that lived not so many centuries ago. The whole tribe naturally follows and develops certain characteristics of this ancestor, and as it keeps aloof from other tribes, it soon has distinct peculiarities in speech and customs. Even in England almost each county has certain peculiarities, a fact which will illustrate to what a great extent such developments may grow among tribes that have no written literature, and no means of keeping up communication with their neighbours. Often have I wondered, as I gazed on these African mountains and valleys, what tales they could tell, if they only found a tongue. Much, I believe, may be yet learned by the study of native legends and mythologies, which frequently condescend on names; but after all, there are many secrets which will remain undisclosed until those mountains and valleys give up their dead.

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