Hope Springs Eternal In The Human Breast, For
The Bubi Has Shown Continually Since The 16th Century That He Takes
No Interest In These Things Whatsoever.
Now and again a man or
woman will come voluntarily and take service in Clarence, submit to
clothes, and rapidly pick up the ways of a house or store.
And just
when their owner thinks he owns a treasure, and begins to boast that
he has got an exception to all Bubidom, or else that he knows how to
manage them better than other men, then a hole in that man's
domestic arrangements suddenly appears. The Bubi has gone, without
giving a moment's warning, and without stealing his master's
property, but just softly and silently vanished away. And if hunted
up the treasure will be found in his or her particular village -
clothes-less, comfortable, utterly unconcerned, and unaware that he
or she has lost anything by leaving Clarence and Civilisation. It
is this conduct that gains for the Bubi the reputation of being a
bigger idiot than he really is.
For West Africans their agriculture is of a fairly high description-
-the noteworthy point about it, however, is the absence of manioc.
Manioc is grown on Fernando Po, but only by the Portos. The Bubi
cultivated plants are yams (Dioscorea alata), koko (Colocasia
esculenta - the taro of the South Seas,) and plantains. Their farms
are well kept, particularly those in the grass districts by San
Carlos Bay. The yams of the Cordillera districts are the best
flavoured, but those of the east coast the largest. Palm-oil is
used for domestic purposes in the usual ways, and palm wine both
fresh and fermented is the ordinary native drink. Rum is held in
high esteem, but used in a general way in moderation as a cordial
and a treat, for the Bubi is, like the rest of the West African
natives, by no means an habitual drunkard. Gin he dislikes. {55}
And I may remark you will find the same opinion in regard to the
Dualla in Cameroons river - on the undeniable authority of Dr.
Buchner, and my own extensive experience of the West Coast bears it
out.
Physically the Bubis are a fairly well-formed race of medium height;
they are decidedly inferior to the Benga or the Krus, but quite on a
level with the Effiks. The women indeed are very comely: their
colour is bronze and their skin the skin of the Bantu. Beards are
not uncommon among the men, and these give their faces possibly more
than anything else, a different look to the faces of the Effiks or
the Duallas. Indeed the people physically most like the Bubis that
I have ever seen, are undoubtedly the Bakwiri of Cameroons Mountain,
who are also liable to be bearded, or possibly I should say more
liable to wear beards, for a good deal of the African hairlessness
you hear commented on - in the West African at any rate - arises from
his deliberately pulling his hair out - his beard, moustache,
whiskers, and, occasionally, as among the Fans, his eyebrows.
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