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. The cuticle
is divided by a knife, and the edges of the incision are drawn apart
till the true skin appears. By a repetition of this process, lines
of raised cicatrices are formed, which are thought to give beauty, no
matter how much pain the fashion gives.
It would not be worth while to advert for a moment to the routine of
travelling, or the little difficulties that beset every one who
attempts to penetrate into a new country, were it not to show the
great source of the power here possessed by slave-traders.
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