These Were Always Difficult To Pass,
And Being Numerous, Kept The Lower Part Of The Person Constantly Wet.
At Different
Points in our course we came upon votive offerings to the Barimo.
These usually consisted of food; and every deserted
Village
still contained the idols and little sheds with pots of medicine in them.
One afternoon we passed a small frame house with the head of an ox in it as
an object of worship. The dreary uniformity of gloomy forests and open flats
must have a depressing influence on the minds of the people.
Some villages appear more superstitious than others, if we may judge
from the greater number of idols they contain.
Only on one occasion did we witness a specimen of quarreling.
An old woman, standing by our camp, continued to belabor
a good-looking young man for hours with her tongue. Irritated at last,
he uttered some words of impatience, when another man sprang at him,
exclaiming, "How dare you curse my `Mama'?" They caught each other,
and a sort of pushing, dragging wrestling-match ensued.
The old woman who had been the cause of the affray wished us to interfere,
and the combatants themselves hoped as much; but we, preferring to
remain neutral, allowed them to fight it out. It ended by one falling
under the other, both, from their scuffling, being in a state of nudity.
They picked up their clothing and ran off in different directions,
each threatening to bring his gun and settle the dispute in mortal combat.
Only one, however, returned, and the old woman continued her scolding
till my men, fairly tired of her tongue, ordered her to be gone.
This trifling incident was one of interest to me, for, during the whole period
of my residence in the Bechuana country, I never saw unarmed men
strike each other. Their disputes are usually conducted with
great volubility and noisy swearing, but they generally terminate
by both parties bursting into a laugh.
At every village attempts were made to induce us to remain a night.
Sometimes large pots of beer were offered to us as a temptation.
Occasionally the head man would peremptorily order us to halt under a tree
which he pointed out. At other times young men volunteered to guide us
to the impassable part of the next bog, in the hope of bringing us to a stand,
for all are excessively eager to trade; but food was so very cheap that
we sometimes preferred paying them to keep it, and let us part in good humor.
A good-sized fowl could be had for a single charge of gunpowder.
Each native who owns a gun carries about with him a measure
capable of holding but one charge, in which he receives his powder.
Throughout this region the women are almost entirely naked,
their gowns being a patch of cloth frightfully narrow, with no flounces;
and nothing could exceed the eagerness with which they offered to purchase
strips of calico of an inferior description. They were delighted
with the large pieces we gave, though only about two feet long,
for a fowl and a basket of upward of 20 lbs. of meal. As we had now
only a small remnant of our stock, we were obliged to withstand
their importunity, and then many of their women, with true maternal feelings,
held up their little naked babies, entreating us to sell only a little rag
for them. The fire, they say, is their only clothing by night,
and the little ones derive heat by sticking closely to their parents.
Instead of a skin or cloth to carry their babies in, the women plait a belt
about four inches broad, of the inner bark of a tree, and this,
hung from the one shoulder to the opposite side, like a soldier's belt,
enables them to support the child by placing it on their side
in a sitting position. Their land is very fertile, and they can raise
ground-nuts and manioc in abundance. Here I observed no cotton,
nor any domestic animals except fowls and little dogs. The chief possessed
a few goats, and I never could get any satisfactory reason
why the people also did not rear them.
On the evening of the 2d of June we reached the village of Kawawa,
rather an important personage in these parts. This village
consists of forty or fifty huts, and is surrounded by forest.
Drums were beating over the body of a man who had died the preceding day,
and some women were making a clamorous wail at the door of his hut,
and addressing the deceased as if alive. The drums continued beating
the whole night, with as much regularity as a steam-engine thumps
on board ship. We observed that a person dressed fantastically
with a great number of feathers left the people at the dance and wailing,
and went away into the deep forest in the morning, to return again
to the obsequies in the evening; he is intended to represent
one of the Barimo.
In the morning we had agreeable intercourse with Kawawa; he visited us,
and we sat and talked nearly the whole day with him and his people.
When we visited him in return, we found him in his large court-house,
which, though of a beehive shape, was remarkably well built.
As I had shown him a number of curiosities, he now produced a jug,
of English ware, shaped like an old man holding a can of beer in his hand,
as the greatest curiosity he had to exhibit.
We had now an opportunity of hearing a case brought before him for judgment.
A poor man and his wife were accused of having bewitched the man
whose wake was now held in the village. Before Kawawa even heard the defense,
he said, "You have killed one of my children; bring all yours before me,
that I may choose which of them shall be mine instead."
The wife eloquently defended herself, but this availed little,
for these accusations are the means resorted to by some chiefs
to secure subjects for the slave-market.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 193 of 295
Words from 199142 to 200168
of 306638
