It Was Pitiable
To Observe The Worrying Life He Led.
There was the greatest contrast possible
between the conduct of his people and that of my faithful Makololo.
We crossed the Loange, a deep but narrow stream, by a bridge.
It becomes much larger, and contains hippopotami, lower down.
It is the boundary of Londa on the west. We slept also
on the banks of the Pezo, now flooded, and could not but admire
their capabilities for easy irrigation. On reaching the River Chikapa
(lat. 10d 10' S., long. 19d 42' E.), the 25th of March,
we found it fifty or sixty yards wide, and flowing E.N.E. into the Kasai.
The adjacent country is of the same level nature as that part of Londa
formerly described; but, having come farther to the eastward
than our previous course, we found that all the rivers had worn for themselves
much deeper valleys than at the points we had formerly crossed them.
Surrounded on all sides by large gloomy forests, the people of these parts
have a much more indistinct idea of the geography of their country than those
who live in hilly regions. It was only after long and patient inquiry
that I became fully persuaded that the Quilo runs into the Chikapa.
As we now crossed them both considerably farther down,
and were greatly to the eastward of our first route, there can be no doubt
that these rivers take the same course as the others, into the Kasai,
and that I had been led into a mistake in saying that any of them flowed
to the westward. Indeed, it was only at this time that I began to perceive
that all the western feeders of the Kasai, except the Quango,
flow first from the western side toward the centre of the country,
then gradually turn, with the Kasai itself, to the north;
and, after the confluence of the Kasai with the Quango,
an immense body of water, collected from all these branches,
finds its way out of the country by means of the River Congo or Zaire
on the west coast.
The people living along the path we are now following were quite accustomed
to the visits of native traders, and did not feel in any way bound
to make presents of food except for the purpose of cheating:
thus, a man gave me a fowl and some meal, and, after a short time, returned.
I offered him a handsome present of beads; but these he declined,
and demanded a cloth instead, which was far more than the value of his gift.
They did the same with my men, until we had to refuse presents altogether.
Others made high demands because I slept in a "house of cloth",
and must be rich. They seemed to think that they had a perfect right
to payment for simply passing through the country.
Beyond the Chikapa we crossed the Kamaue, a small deep stream
proceeding from the S.S.W., and flowing into the Chikapa.
On the 30th of April we reached the Loajima, where we had to form a bridge
to effect our passage. This was not so difficult an operation
as some might imagine; for a tree was growing in a horizontal position across
part of the stream, and, there being no want of the tough climbing plants
which admit of being knitted like ropes, Senhor P. soon constructed a bridge.
The Loajima was here about twenty-five yards wide, but very much deeper
than where I had crossed before on the shoulders of Mashauana.
The last rain of this season had fallen on the 28th, and had
suddenly been followed by a great decrease of the temperature.
The people in these parts seemed more slender in form, and their color
a lighter olive, than any we had hitherto met. The mode of dressing
the great masses of woolly hair which lay upon their shoulders, together with
their general features, again reminded me of the ancient Egyptians.
Several were seen with the upward inclination of the outer angles of the eye,
but this was not general. A few of the ladies adopt a curious custom
of attaching the hair to a hoop which encircles the head, giving it somewhat
the appearance of the glory round the head of the Virgin (wood-cut No. 1*).
Some have a small hoop behind that represented in the wood-cut.
Others wear an ornament of woven hair and hide adorned with beads.
The hair of the tails of buffaloes, which are to be found farther east,
is sometimes added. This is represented in No. 2. While others, as in No. 3,
weave their own hair on pieces of hide into the form of buffalo horns;
or, as in No. 4, make a single horn in front. The features given
are frequently met with, but they are by no means universal.
Many tattoo their bodies by inserting some black substance beneath the skin,
which leaves an elevated cicatrix about half an inch long: these are made
in the form of stars, and other figures of no particular beauty.
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* Unfortunately these wood-cuts can not be represented in this ASCII text.
No. 1 appears like a wheel with spokes of hair connecting it to the head.
No. 2 appears somewhat like a tiara sloped forward, as the bow of a ship.
No. 3 appears like gently curving horns. There is a part in the middle,
and the hair, on leather frames, curls outward and upward at the temples.
No. 4 is likewise, but the single horn curves outward and upward
from the forehead - it is labelled "A Young Man's Fashion".
Except for No. 1, all are represented as having the rest of their hair
hanging in braids around the sides and back. All of the faces,
as Livingstone asserts, appear much like paintings of ancient Egyptians,
and could easily be European except for the shading and the slanted eyes.
They are all handsome. - A. L., 1997.
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Chapter 23.
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