Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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The Constant Fear Which They Entertained Of Being Taken
Away And Sold, Now, However, Changed That Lively Feeling Of
Discontent Into Sullen-Ness And Despondency.
What made the matter
still worse was the fact, that having lost their needles and kowries
at Kirree, they had not the means of purchasing any thing, although
the kowrie shell was not current where they then were.
Obie was in
the habit of sending them a fowl, or a yam or two every morning, but
as they were ten in number, it made but a slender meal, and it was
barely sufficient to keep them from actual starvation. To stop, if
possible, the sullen murmurings of their people, they were now
reduced to the painful necessity of begging, but they might as well
have addressed their petitions to the stones and trees, and thereby
have spared themselves the mortification of a refusal. They never
experienced a more stinging sense of their own humbleness and
imbecility than on such occasions, and never had they greater need
of patience and lowliness of spirit. In most African towns and
villages, they had been regarded as demi-gods, and treated in
consequence with universal kindness, civility, and veneration; but
here, alas! what a contrast, they were classed with the most degraded
and despicable of mankind, and were become slaves in a land of
ignorance and barbarism, whose savage natives treated them with
brutality and contempt. It would be hard to guess whence these
unkindly feelings originated, but they felt that they had not
deserved them, yet the consciousness of their own insignificance
sadly militated against every idea of self-love or self-importance,
and taught them a plain and useful moral lesson. Although they made
the most charitable allowances for the Eboe people, they were,
notwithstanding, obliged to consider them the most inhospitable
tribe, as well as the most covetous and uncivil, that they were
acquainted with. Their monarch, and a respectable married female, who
had passed the meridian of her days, were the only individuals,
amongst several thousands, that showed them anything like civility or
kindness, and the latter alone acted, as they were convinced, solely
from disinterested motives.
All ranks of people here are passionately fond of palm wine, and
drank of it to excess, whenever they had an opportunity, which often
occurred, as great quantities of it are produced in the town and its
neighbourhood. It was a very general and favourite custom with them,
as soon as the sun had set, to hold large meetings and form parties
in the open air, or under the branches of trees, to talk over the
events of the day, and make merry with this exciting beverage. These
assemblies are kept up until after midnight, and as the revellers
generally contrive to get inebriated very soon after they sit down to
drink, the greater part of the evening is devoted to wrangling and
fighting, instead of convivial intercourse, and occasionally the most
fearful noises that it is possible for the mind to conceive.
Bloodshed, and even murder, it is said, not unfrequently terminate
these boisterous and savage entertainments. A meeting of this
description was held outside the yard of their residence every
evening, and the noise which they made was really terrifying, more
especially when the women and young people joined in the affray, for
a quarrel of some sort was sure to ensue. Their cries, groans, and
shrieks of agony were dreadful, and would lead a stranger to suppose,
that these dismal and piercing sounds proceeded from individuals
about to be butchered, or that they were extorted by the last pangs
of anguish and suffering. The Landers trembled with alarm for the
first night or two, imagining from these loud and doleful cries, that
a work of bloodshed and slaughter was in progress. They found it
useless to endeavour to sleep till the impression of the first wild
cry that was uttered, and the last faint scream had worn away. But by
degrees they became in some measure more reconciled to them, from the
frequency of their occurrence, or rather they felt less apprehension
than formerly, as to their origin; understanding with surprise that
they were only the effects of a simple quarrel, and excite from the
inhabitants no more than a casual remark, although it is said that in
fits of ungovernable passion, the most heinous crimes are consummated
in these frantic revels.
Their matronly female acquaintance, though excessively fat, was of
diminutive stature, and by her cheerful pleasantry she beguiled in
some degree the wearisomeness of the long evening hours, and banished
that ennui, which the disagreeableness of their situation had
partially induced, simply by her endeavours to do so. For not content
with paying them formal visits in the day time, she came into their
yard every night, instead of joining the orgies of her acquaintance,
accompanied by two or three friends of congenial natures, with the
very benevolent intention of pitying their misfortunes, and
dissipating their melancholy. Two or three slaves followed their
mistress into the yard, carrying a few bottles of their favourite
palm wine, and perhaps with a plate of bananas also, that the evening
might be passed more agreeably.
Their sleeping quarters were in a recess, which was elevated three or
four feet from the ground, and supported by wooden columns. It was
without a door, or indeed anything answering the same purpose, so
that they enjoyed the refreshing coolness of the evening air, with
the disadvantage of being gazed at by whoever had the curiosity to
enter their premises. They generally laid down shortly after sunset,
and presently their fat, jolly little friend, duck-like, comes
waddling into their yard, with her companions and slaves, to offer
them the evening salutations, and enter into the usual familiar
discourse. This was commonly preceded by a large potation of palm
wine, which was always relished with a loud and peculiar smack,
expressive of the pleasure and satisfaction afforded by so copious a
draught, and betokening also much internal warmth and comfort.
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