A Circle Of Hair At The Top Of The Head,
Eight Inches Or More In Diameter, Is Woven Into A
Cone
eight or ten inches high, with an obtuse apex, bent, in some cases,
a little forward, giving it somewhat
The appearance of a helmet.
Some have only a cone, four or five inches in diameter at the base.
It is said that the hair of animals is added; but the sides of the cone
are woven something like basket-work. The head man of this village,
instead of having his brought to a point, had it prolonged into a wand,
which extended a full yard from the crown of his head.
The hair on the forehead, above the ears, and behind, is all shaven off,
so they appear somewhat as if a cap of liberty were cocked upon
the top of the head. After the weaving is performed it is said to be painful,
as the scalp is drawn tightly up; but they become used to it.
Monze informed me that all his people were formerly ornamented in this way,
but he discouraged it. I wished him to discourage the practice
of knocking out the teeth too, but he smiled, as if in that case the fashion
would be too strong for him, as it was for Sebituane.
Monze came on Monday morning, and, on parting, presented us with
a piece of a buffalo which had been killed the day before by lions.
We crossed the rivulet Makoe, which runs westward into the Kafue,
and went northward in order to visit Semalembue, an influential chief there.
We slept at the village of Monze's sister, who also passes by the same name.
Both he and his sister are feminine in their appearance, but disfigured
by the foolish custom of knocking out the upper front teeth.
It is not often that jail-birds turn out well, but the first person
who appeared to welcome us at the village of Monze's sister was the prisoner
we had released in the way. He came with a handsome present of corn and meal,
and, after praising our kindness to the villagers who had assembled around us,
asked them, "What do you stand gazing at? Don't you know
that they have mouths like other people?" He then set off
and brought large bundles of grass and wood for our comfort,
and a pot to cook our food in.
DECEMBER 12TH. The morning presented the appearance of a continuous rain
from the north, the first time we had seen it set in from that quarter
in such a southern latitude. In the Bechuana country, continuous rains
are always from the northeast or east, while in Londa and Angola
they are from the north. At Pungo Andongo, for instance,
the whitewash is all removed from the north side of the houses.
It cleared up, however, about midday, and Monze's sister conducted us
a mile or two upon the road. On parting, she said that she had
forwarded orders to a distant village to send food to the point where
we should sleep. In expressing her joy at the prospect of living in peace,
she said it would be so pleasant "to sleep without dreaming of any one
pursuing them with a spear."
In our front we had ranges of hills called Chamai, covered with trees.
We crossed the rivulet Nakachinta, flowing westward into the Kafue,
and then passed over ridges of rocks of the same mica schist
which we found so abundant in Golungo Alto; here they were surmounted
by reddish porphyry and finely laminated felspathic grit with trap.
The dip, however, of these rocks is not toward the centre of the continent,
as in Angola, for ever since we passed the masses of granite on the Kalomo,
the rocks, chiefly of mica schist, dip away from them,
taking an easterly direction. A decided change of dip occurs again
when we come near the Zambesi, as will be noticed farther on. The hills
which flank that river now appeared on our right as a high dark range,
while those near the Kafue have the aspect of a low blue range,
with openings between. We crossed two never-failing rivulets
also flowing into the Kafue. The country is very fertile,
but vegetation is nowhere rank. The boiling-point of water being 204 Deg.,
showed that we were not yet as low down as Linyanti; but we had left
the masuka-trees behind us, and many others with which we had become familiar.
A feature common to the forests of Angola and Benguela,
namely, the presence of orchilla-weed and lichens on the trees,
with mosses on the ground, began to appear; but we never,
on any part of the eastern slope, saw the abundant crops of ferns
which are met with every where in Angola. The orchilla-weed and mosses, too,
were in but small quantities.
As we passed along, the people continued to supply us with food
in great abundance. They had by some means or other got a knowledge
that I carried medicine, and, somewhat to the disgust of my men,
who wished to keep it all to themselves, brought their sick children for cure.
Some of them I found had hooping-cough, which is one of the few epidemics
that range through this country.
In passing through the woods I for the first time heard the bird called
Mokwa reza, or "Son-in-law of God" (Micropogon sulphuratus?), utter its cry,
which is supposed by the natives to be "pula, pula" (rain, rain).
It is said to do this only before heavy falls of rain. It may be a cuckoo,
for it is said to throw out the eggs of the white-backed Senegal crow,
and lay its own instead. This, combined with the cry for rain,
causes the bird to be regarded with favor. The crow, on the other hand,
has a bad repute, and, when rain is withheld, its nest is sought for
and destroyed, in order to dissolve the charm by which it is supposed
to seal up the windows of heaven.
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