No Sooner Did They Reach The Edge Of The Plateau At
Ndonda, Than They Lay Down Prostrate, And Complained Of Pains All
Over Them.
The temperature was not much lower than that on the
shores of the Lake below, 76 degrees being the mean temperature of
the day, 52 degrees the lowest, and 82 degrees the highest during the
twenty-four hours; at the Lake it was about l0 degrees higher.
Of
the symptoms they complained of - pains everywhere - nothing could be
made. And yet it was evident that they had good reason for saying
that they were ill. They scarified almost every part of their bodies
as a remedial measure; medicines, administered on the supposition
that their malady was the effect of a sudden chill, had no effect,
and in two days one of them actually died in consequence of, as far
as we could judge, a change from a malarious to a purer and more
rarefied atmosphere.
As we were on the slave route, we found the people more churlish than
usual. On being expostulated with about it, they replied, "We have
been made wary by those who come to buy slaves." The calamity of
death having befallen our party, seemed, however, to awaken their
sympathies. They pointed out their usual burying-place, lent us
hoes, and helped to make the grave. When we offered to pay all
expenses, they showed that they had not done these friendly offices
without fully appreciating their value; for they enumerated the use
of the hut, the mat on which the deceased had lain, the hoes, the
labour, and the medicine which they had scattered over the place to
make him rest in peace.
The primitive African faith seems to be that there is one Almighty
Maker of heaven and earth; that he has given the various plants of
earth to man to be employed as mediators between him and the spirit
world, where all who have ever been born and died continue to live;
that sin consists in offences against their fellow-men, either here
or among the departed, and that death is often a punishment of guilt,
such as witchcraft. Their idea of moral evil differs in no respect
from ours, but they consider themselves amenable only to inferior
beings, not to the Supreme. Evil-speaking - lying - hatred -
disobedience to parents - neglect of them - are said by the intelligent
to have been all known to be sin, as well as theft, murder, or
adultery, before they knew aught of Europeans or their teaching. The
only new addition to their moral code is, that it is wrong to have
more wives than one. This, until the arrival of Europeans, never
entered into their minds even as a doubt.
Everything not to be accounted for by common causes, whether of good
or evil, is ascribed to the Deity. Men are inseparably connected
with the spirits of the departed, and when one dies he is believed to
have joined the hosts of his ancestors. All the Africans we have met
with are as firmly persuaded of their future existence as of their
present life. And we have found none in whom the belief in the
Supreme Being was not rooted. He is so invariably referred to as the
Author of everything supernatural, that, unless one is ignorant of
their language, he cannot fail to notice this prominent feature of
their faith. When they pass into the unseen world, they do not seem
to be possessed with the fear of punishment. The utensils placed
upon the grave are all broken as if to indicate that they will never
be used by the departed again. The body is put into the grave in a
sitting posture, and the hands are folded in front. In some parts of
the country there are tales which we could translate into faint
glimmerings of a resurrection; but whether these fables, handed down
from age to age, convey that meaning to the natives themselves we
cannot tell. The true tradition of faith is asserted to be "though a
man die he will live again;" the false that when he dies he is dead
for ever.
CHAPTER XIV.
Important geographical discoveries in the Wabisa countries - Cruelty
of the slave-trade - The Mazitu - Serious illness of Dr. Livingstone -
Return to the ship.
In our course westwards, we at first passed over a gently undulating
country, with a reddish clayey soil, which, from the heavy crops,
appeared to be very fertile. Many rivulets were crossed, some
running southwards into the Bua, and others northwards into the
Loangwa, a river which we formerly saw flowing into the Lake.
Further on, the water was chiefly found in pools and wells. Then
still further, in the same direction, some watercourses were said to
flow into that same "Loangwa of the Lake," and others into the
Loangwa, which flows to the south-west, and enters the Zambesi at
Zumbo, and is here called the "Loangwa of the Maravi." The trees
were in general scraggy, and covered, exactly as they are in the damp
climate of the Coast, with lichens, resembling orchilla-weed. The
maize, which loves rather a damp soil, had been planted on ridges to
allow the superfluous moisture to run off. Everything indicated a
very humid climate, and the people warned us that, as the rains were
near, we were likely to be prevented from returning by the country
becoming flooded and impassable.
Villages, as usual encircled by euphorbia hedges, were numerous, and
a great deal of grain had been cultivated around them. Domestic
fowls, in plenty, and pigeons with dovecots like those in Egypt were
seen. The people call themselves Matumboka, but the only difference
between them and the rest of the Manganja is in the mode of tattooing
the face. Their language is the same. Their distinctive mark
consists of four tattooed lines diverging from the point between the
eyebrows, which, in frowning, the muscles form into a furrow. The
other lines of tattooing, as in all Manganja, run in long seams,
which crossing each other at certain angles form a great number of
triangular spaces on the breast, back, arms, and thighs.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 120 of 134
Words from 121601 to 122630
of 136856
