CHAPTER XIX

.—ESTIMATE OF NATIVE CHARACTER.

_Physical_: Features, Figures, Powers of Endurance. _Moral_: Truthfulness, Avarice. _Intellectual_: Native Oratory. Effect of their circumstances on Character. Docility in Religion, 258-276

APPENDIX.—COSMOLOGICAL TALES. 277-301

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

VOL. I.

The Letter Carrier, _Frontispiece_

South African making fire, 12

Liberated Slaves—Blantyre, 15

The Supelele, 17

Native Knives and Arrows, 19

Native Pipes and Pottery, 40

Natives in the African jungle, 176

Women of West Central Africa, 226

Native Musical Instrument, 272

INTRODUCTORY.

INTRODUCTORY.

There are no books, so far as we are aware, that aim at giving a systematic account of the beliefs and customs of any of the tribes in Eastern Central Africa. Indeed, it is not long since these tribes have been known at all. Those beliefs and customs are to a great extent _Arcana Africana_, and form the main subject of this work.

Those that know how long it takes to become thoroughly acquainted with new races of people will object to a work like this appearing so soon. To this objection we would reply that, after a Christian Mission has been established for a few years in a district, the views of the people around may become so modified, especially on religion, that it is difficult to distinguish how much is native and how much is imported. This is specially true of these Africans. They rapidly throw aside everything that is native, and grasp after the views and customs introduced by the foreigner. Even as it was, we often got answers that seemed to be an echo of our teaching, but we made a point of rejecting every statement of this kind. The reader may rest assured that we have here put before him no religious belief that was suggested or modified by Christian teaching.

Again, there are some that think it is not possible to give an account of native beliefs and customs, because they differ so much in different districts. The same objection might be raised with reference to English beliefs and customs. A man that wished to give an account of the Religious beliefs of the people of England, would find that he had undertaken a difficult task, but such an account, so far from being impossible, might be made not only perfectly accurate, but also highly interesting and profitable.

So in the case of Native Law. We have seen the natives settle their disputes in methods so many and so different, that we might have said “There is no such thing as Native Law”. Might not the very same opinion be expressed with reference to English Law?

As we tried to reduce Native beliefs to an intelligible form, we were often discouraged by finding that one man would make a statement that his nearest neighbour would contradict. But as years passed on, I discovered that this accident was not so much the fault of the African, or of his belief, as of the European that questioned him. In many respects there is a greater fixity of belief in Central Africa than in England, although it may be freely admitted that these African customs are subject to many modifications due to local ingenuity and caprice. On the subject of Native Law the reader is ever at liberty to read between the lines that _our statements may be often modified_ by a maxim which is but ill concealed in Native Jurisprudence _by the maxim, “that might is right”_.

DIFFICULTIES.

There are enormous difficulties to overcome before we can be sure that our statements are correct. We once knew a man of good abilities try to get information on a small section of native customs, and the result was in wonderful disagreement with facts. We were so tickled at the production that we went to our friend’s informer and read over the expressions one by one, half inclined to ask regarding each “Would you be surprised to learn?” In most cases he was very much surprised indeed! The causes of error are so numerous and subtle as to deserve extended notice.

IMPORTING EUROPEAN IDEAS.

One cause of error is that we mix up what the African tells us with our own ideas, which are European. As a consequence of this, we put questions to him that he cannot understand. Many of our questions strike the African exactly as a question like the following would strike a European, “If seventy miles of the sea were burned, who would be the losers, the Insurance Companies? or the Harbour Commissioners? or ——?” If an African put this question to a European the European would laugh at him; but if the European put it to an African, the latter would be more polite, and would think that the European was very ingenious in finding out a supposition that would have never occurred to himself; and although the African knows that the difficulty could never arise in his own country, yet he feels bound to believe that the poor European is perplexed by it, and states what he thinks _would happen_ in Africa on such an extraordinary occurrence: thus _he gives an answer_, which the ingenious European carefully lays past.

For instance, a person that had never been out of England would see nothing amiss in asking a Makua or a Machinga, “If a dog were to tear your trousers and your housemaid were to mend them, how much would you give her in addition to her ordinary wages?” Now the native will not say “We wear no trousers,” “Women in our country never sew,” “No one receives wages in our country for domestic service,” “Special services are not defined, and if they were, the duties of a housemaid would not be anything like what they are in England”. Instead of making statements of this kind, which would all be interesting to his questioner, the African will take up the question as it stands, he will consider that it is quite worthy of the genius of a European, and will probably answer that the housemaid would get “two fowls, one hoe, and a string of beads!” And he may reply without the least hesitation; for if he be a professional oracle-man, remember he has been trained all his lifetime to answer hypothetical questions. He would reason that if a man possessed trousers, and servants, yea, a female that obtained wages and had been taught to sew, he ought to give her some handsome present for what she did beyond her ordinary duties, and then our oracle would state what was his idea of a handsome present. His answer is utterly misleading, but he deserves credit for his polite attempt to humour the European, who forthwith translates the answer into pounds, shillings, and pence!

Another cause of error is found in

NATIVE POLITENESS.

One evening I questioned a professional judge on a point of native law; he replied by stating what was entirely untrue; when I pointed this out he merely laughed at the circumstance; he thought he had invented something that would appear better to a foreigner. He reminded me of a Scotch guide who kept telling what was false, because the Southerns all liked to hear that some “old king was killed beside the great big stane”. Bishop Steere says—“In Africa they never say _no_, they always say _yes, certainly_; but possibly you are no nearer your object”. One must be careful never to _suggest_ an answer to a native; if the native and his questioner are strangers to each other the former will make it a point of etiquette to find out what answer the stranger would like, and may by and by take occasion to compliment him on his cleverness and the accuracy of his knowledge! Statements made in answer to direct questions are not to be relied on unless the questioner has had years of experience in conversation with natives, and knows the subject he converses about. What is arrived at in an indirect manner is almost always more valuable. I lay down these principles as to native evidence with some confidence, as I have tried them in hundreds of cases, especially in endeavours to fix the exact meaning of native words. One statement where the word occurred spontaneously was worth ten statements contrived for the purpose of eliminating the meaning.

In my first efforts to learn African languages I found that a great deal of what was said to me, especially by interpreters, was quite useless, simply because the poor fellows were trying to adapt their language to a European capacity!

NATIVE IDIOMS.

When one attempts to obtain information through interpreters, without knowing anything of their peculiar idioms, he is liable to the strangest blunders. Those that try to speak with him carry their African idioms into English. Natives have great difficulty in knowing the difference between _before_ and _after_. Boys that have been writing English essays for more than a year, think nothing of writing deliberately about what men did on the earth _before_ they were created. There is another idiom still more fitted to produce confusion, and when an Englishman writes down in a multitude of instances what is the reverse of the truth we are often able to point out the cause. He puts to a native the question, “He did not go, did he?” The native replies “_Yes_,” where an Englishman would say “No”. Consequently every question put in this form will be answered in a manner that cannot fail to mislead. In the same way natives confound the active and the passive voice in verbs.

DISTRACTING CIRCUMSTANCES.

Even after one has become familiar with some of their idioms he cannot trust to all the information that he supposes himself to acquire. I had begun to hold conversations with the natives, in their own tongue, about six weeks after my arrival, and I well remember that I often got information exactly similar to what Mr Pickwick got from his cabman. When a native sees a person noting down anything, he makes up his mind to say something worth noting! So much did I feel this that at one time I endeavoured to keep my book out of sight. While they were unaccustomed to it, it introduced into the conversation an element that was very unnatural. One plan I took was to have a pencil in my hand which I pretended to be playing with. I thus got down some new words upon my thumb-nail, and was beginning to congratulate myself on the success of my stratagem. After I sat for about ten minutes another man approached our group, when my friends hailed him in these words, “Come here and talk with the white man. He is writing on his fingers. He has written three new things already!” After this I saw that such a trick was quite useless. Not only had they seen it all, but they could tell how many words I had written. Great was the laughter that followed, and the new comer examined the guilty thumb-nail!

ROMANTIC INFORMATION.

I sometimes got romantic information that I was sorry at a later date to have to put my pen through. Thus with reference to the High Priest of a new government (98), I gathered from one man that the first person _seen_ by the chief after his installation became the High Priest of his government. I had carefully noted down that a little _boy_ playing in the village found his way to the house of one important chief on the morning after his installation, and was the first to see His Royal Highness; for whom, as a matter of fact, he now officiates as sacrificer, &c. Then, _having taken up_ this meaning of the incident, I was farther informed that the chief made a note of the first _five_ people that he saw in case of the death of any; and my informer was eager to know who was the first man that I saw after coming to Blantyre. Subsequent information threw discredit on the beautiful story. But the peculiar thing was that I found long afterwards another native make the very same statements. This referred me back to my old notes. All I could say about it was that the word I had translated _see_ meant also _find_, that a _boy_ might be over 50 years for anything that the native word indicated, and that it was not clear from my text whether the chief was _seen_ by the boy or the boy by the chief.

Much of what we have written was not made the subject of special investigation, except where we found any doubt arise or any verification necessary. Our special object was to obtain such an accurate knowledge of the language as would enable us to give a good translation of the Bible. Most of the knowledge gradually grew upon us as we mingled with the natives, and for the purpose of translation attended closely to every word that we heard.

Other parts, especially those that refer to religion, were the subject of special inquiry. It is walking in the dark for a missionary to endeavour to appeal either to the feelings or to the reason of a people whose prejudices and beliefs are unknown to him, and how he is to convince them without appeals to their feelings or their reason I cannot tell. I would have given much to have had an account of those beliefs put into my own hands when I left for Africa.

I have tried to make all my statements as accurate as possible, but it would be too much to expect that in such a difficult investigation I should have escaped the influence of these many and subtle sources of error.

THE VALUE OF STUDYING NATIVE CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS.

What is the use of minute investigations among the ignorant heathen of Central Africa? We reply that such investigations throw light on many points that men of science consider to be of great importance.

To take a few instances:—

I. IN THE SCIENCE OF THE HUMAN MIND.

(A) THE SENSES.

Some speak as if men were made at first with the power of perceiving only a few colours, for instance, black and white, and that by and by they trained themselves to perceive brown. One argument advanced in favour of this view is that many native languages have words for black and white, but no word for brown. Now I knew several languages where the natives called brown and black by the same word; but they knew that there was a great difference between brown and black. I found that they could discriminate every shade of colour that I could discriminate myself.

(B) THE INTELLECT.

Many facts that I shall lay before the reader will seem so strange that he may doubt whether these savages have the same minds as Europeans, whether they reason or think in the same way at all. It is true, however, that after one places himself in their circumstances, and tries to see and feel as they do, he will understand all their strangeness; he will even see that it would have been still more strange if their reasonings and conclusions had been different.

(C) THE FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS.

Have we in Europe so developed ourselves as to become possessors of emotions that are entirely wanting in savage Africa?

We have what is called gratitude: have these heathen? Without any hesitation I answer that they have, and that even though we define gratitude as being much more than “an acute sense of favours to come”.

Again we have pity. A stranger might think that they were destitute of this. I have said to a boy, “Don’t carry that fowl so, you give it pain”. At this he would laugh. It would become the standing joke for a day or two. Everyone would be told that the Englishman said that “the fowl would be sore”. A whole village would collect at the strange report and receive the news with loud laughter. Yet all would admit that it was a cruel thing to pain the fowl; but they did not reflect that their method of carrying the fowl gave it pain. They were used to their own way, and thought no more of the matter than a butcher does of killing an ox. At the same time they have fables in their language, which show a desire to enter minutely into the feelings of the lower animals. For instance, they represent fowls as reasoning on their hard fate in being killed for their master’s supper.

(D) MORAL PHILOSOPHY.

It has long been disputed whether men have a “Conscience” that distinguishes between right and wrong; or whether they merely look at certain actions that please or profit them, and call these actions good and the opposite actions bad.

Savages have been referred to on this subject. We have found that they distinguish the good from the evil in the same way as Europeans do, and usually agree with our conclusions. They know the difference between an injury of accident and one of intention. As to the moral judgment, “A man _ought_ to do such a thing,” “It is his _duty_,” we find this lesson is brought home to slaves or inferiors by positive law. In others there are aspirations more akin to the exuberant activities and bright dreams of youth. They would rather ask, “How can we do best?” as did the Ancients who talked of a _summum bonum_. As the spirit of the world became older and sadder this view gave place, and the idea of “duty” was more emphasised by moralists. Spirited Africans savour more of the Golden Age of Moral Science.

It is to be remembered that appeals to savage nations form only a part of scientific investigations like the above.

II. IN ETHNOLOGY.

On looking at the many different races that inhabit the earth, some say that they did not all spring from the same stock, others that they did. If we say that they are all of one family we should try to show how some broke away from the rest, and at what time. Now let us make a supposition to show how the _customs_ of races might come in here.

[Illustration: SOUTH AFRICAN MAKING FIRE.]

In LIGHTING A FIRE some tribes rub a stick along a groove; other tribes have an improvement on this, they produce fire by making a little notch or hole in one stick, and whirling the other round very rapidly with the point of it in the notch. Now we may hold that before mankind discovered the second method, many nations, like the South Sea Islanders, who knew only the first, had broken up communication with the rest of their kindred; but that the Africans who use the improved method had likely been with the main body of mankind till the time of this great improvement.

Again, take the case of COOKING. Some tribes have no pots. They boil water by throwing hot stones into a skin. They must have separated very early from their more cultivated brethren. Others waited till some one fell on the plan of boiling water in a hollow stone. Others waited on till it was discovered that clay could be shaped into a kind of pot, and then carried this important discovery to the land of their adoption. Boiling with hot stones was the only way known to certain American, Australian, and Polynesian tribes; some tribes in Africa also used this method. The Esquimaux had pot-stones. It seems to have been the daubing of these with clay that first suggested pottery.

I have taken down traditions from African natives that point to some recollection of the hollow stone, used either by themselves or some other race; but the tribes here treated of know the value of clay pots. Of course they are far behind the Indians, who have metal pots.

With regard to THE CAUSE OF DISEASE there existed a widespread belief (held by many tribes in America and Australia, as also by these Africans) that disease came from bones, horns, balls of hair or something of this kind. The ancient Egyptians at a very early date considered that disease was to a great extent caused by excess of eating. The inference is that these tribes had not staid long enough to benefit by this wisdom of the Egyptians.

Other peculiar customs are spread over many tribes, and might be used in a similar manner. Many of these are observances in FAMILY LIFE. Among the Kaffirs a son-in-law must not see the face of his mother-in-law. This custom is found among South American tribes. Sometimes a father has to fast after the birth of his child, or take some such method of showing that he recognises that he as well as the mother should take care of the young stranger.

When races are found knowing nothing of the art of writing, and making no attempt to use stone or bricks for building, we feel that a wide gulf separates them from the most ancient races of history. Of course it is to be remembered that they might have once been aware of such arts. Many Africans, as a matter of fact, have seen Portuguese architecture for centuries without adopting it.

III. IN THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION.

A position has often been maintained that there is no tribe without some knowledge of God. This bears on investigations in the science of mind and on primitive traditions and ethnology. We do not now dwell on native religion, as it will claim special attention in subsequent chapters.

Besides throwing light on many subjects like the above, a knowledge of tribal beliefs and customs is of vital importance to the missionary and also to the trader. Indeed, any attempt to deal with people without knowing their customs and beliefs is a mere groping in the dark.

[Illustration: LIBERATED SLAVE-WOMAN, BLANTYRE.

(_Photographed in ordinary Costume._)]

[Illustration: LIBERATED SLAVE-GIRL, BLANTYRE.

(_Trained to Household Work._)]

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