Even The Women Contented Themselves
With A Few Fibres Hung Like Tails Before And Behind.
Some of our
men who had seen the Watuta in Utambara, declared these savages
to resemble them in every particular, save one small specialty in
their costume, alluded to in the description of the Zulu Kafir's
dress.
The hair of the men was dressed in the same fantastic
fashion, and the women placed half-gourds over the baby as it
rode on its mother's back. They also, like the Kidi people, whom
they much fear, carry diminutive stools to sit upon wherever they
go.
Their habitat extends from this to the Asua river, whilst the
Madi occupy all the country west of this meridian to the Nile,
which is far beyond sight. The villages are composed of little
conical huts of grass, on a framework of bamboo raised above low
mud walls. There are no sultans here of any consequence, each
village appointing its own chief. The granitic hills, like those
of Unyamuezi, are extremely pretty, and clad with trees,
contrasting strangely with the grassy downs of indefinite extend
around, which give the place, when compared with the people, the
appearance of a paradise within the infernal regions. From the
site of Koki we saw the hills behind which, according to Bombay,
Petherick was situated with his vessels; and we also saw a nearer
hill, behind which his advanced post of elephant-hunters were
waiting our arrival.
I tried to ascertain if there were any prefixes, as in the South
African dialects, by which one might determine the difference
between the people and the country; but I was assured that both
here and in the adjacent countries these people saw Chopi, Kidi,
Gani, Madi, Bari, alike for person and place, though Jo in their
language is the equivalent for Wa in South Africa, and Dano takes
the place of Mtu.
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