The
tobacco they grow themselves.
Near the royal abode were the kitchen gardens. A tract of forest had
been fired, and this clearing planted with bananas, mandioca, sweet
potatoes, etc. The blackened trunks of the trees rose up like so many
evil spirits above the green foliage. The garden implements used were
of the most primitive description; a crooked stick served for hoe,
and long, heavy, sharpened iron-wood clubs were used instead of the
steel plough of civilization.
As I have already remarked, I found the people were sun-worshippers.
Each morning, just as the rising sun lit up the eastern sky, young
and old came out of their houses, the older ones carrying empty
gourds with the dry seeds inside. At a signal from the high priest, a
solemn droning chant was struck up, to the monotonous time kept by
the numerous gourd rattles. As the sun rose higher and higher, the
chanting grew louder and louder, and the echoes of "He! he! he! ha!
ha! ha! laima! laima!" were repeated by the distant hills. When the
altar of incense (described later) was illuminated by the sun-god,
the chanting ceased.
After this solemn worship of the Orb of Day, the women, with quiet
demeanor and in single file, went off to their work in the gardens.
On returning, each carried a basket made of light canes, slung on the
back and held up by plaited fibres forming a band which came across
their foreheads. The baskets contained the day's vegetables. Meat was
seldom eaten by them, but this was probably because of its scarcity,
for when we killed an ostrich they clamored for a share. Reptiles of
all kinds, and even caterpillars, are devoured by them when hungry.
The Caingwas are under the average height, but use the longest bows
and arrows I have ever seen. Some I brought away measure nearly seven
feet in length. The points are made of sharpened iron-wood, notched
like the back of a fish-hook, and they are poisoned with serpent
venom. Besides these weapons, it was certainly strange to find them
living in the stone age, for in the hands of the older members of
the tribe were to be seen stone axes. The handles of these primitive
weapons are scraped into shape by flints, as probably our savage
forefathers in Britain did theirs two thousand years ago.
Entering the low, narrow doorway of one of the bamboo frame houses, I
saw that it was divided into ten-foot squares by corn-stalk
partitions a yard high. These places, like so many stalls for horses,
run down each side of the hoga. One family occupies a division,
sleeping in net hammocks made of long, coarse grass. A "family man"
usually has bands of human hair twisted around his legs below the
knees, and also around the wrists. This hair is torn from his wife's
head.
