They Are Of Low Stature And Thick Set And Their
Nature Tends To The Boisterous.
Expert slavehunters, they mostly
clothe themselves by the sale of their victims on the coast,
though they do business by the sale of goats and grain as well.
Nowhere in the interior are natives so well clad as these
creatures. In dressing up their hair, and otherwise smearing
their bodies with ochreish clay, they are great dandies. They
always keep their bows and arrows, which form their national arm,
in excellent order, the latter well poisoned, and carried in
quivers nicely carved. To intimidate a caravan and extort a hongo
or tax, I have seen them drawn out in line as if prepared for
battle; but a few soft words were found sufficient to make them
all withdraw and settle the matter at issue by arbitration in
some appointed place. A few men without property can cross their
lands fearlessly, though a single individual with property would
stand no chance, for they are insatiable thieves. But little is
seen of these people on the journey, as the chiefs take their
taxes by deputy, partly out of pride, and partly because they
think they can extort more by keeping in the mysterious distance.
At the same time, the caravan prefers camping in the jungles
beyond the villages to mingling with the inhabitants, where rows
might be engendered. We sometimes noticed Albinos, with greyish-
blue eyes and light straw-coloured hair. Not unfrequently we
would pass on the track side small heaps of white ashes, with a
calcined bone or two among them.
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