Volume Ii Part 2 (2/2)

_20th September, 1869._--Up to a broad range of high mountains of light grey granite; there are deep dells on the top filled with gigantic trees, and having running rills in them. Some trees appear with enormous roots, b.u.t.tresses in fact like mangroves in the coast swamps, six feet high at the trunk and flattened from side to side to about three inches in diameter. There are many villages dotted over the slopes which we climbed; one had been destroyed, and revealed the hard clay walls and square forms of Manyuema houses. Our path lay partly along a ridge, with a deep valley on each side: one on the left had a valley filled with primeval forests, into which elephants when wounded escape completely.

The forest was a dense ma.s.s, without a bit of ground to be seen except a patch on the S.W., the bottom of this great valley was 2000 feet below us, then ranges of mountains with villages on their bases rose as far as they could reach. On our right there was another deep but narrow gorge, and mountains much higher than on our ridge close adjacent. Our ridge looked like a glacier, and it wound from side to side, and took us to the edge of deep precipices, first on the right, then on the left, till down below we came to the villages of Chief Monandenda. The houses here are all well filled with firewood on shelves, and each has a bed on a raised platform in an inner room.

The paths are very skilfully placed on the tops of the ridges of hills, and all gullies are avoided. If the highest level were not in general made the ground for pa.s.sing through the country the distances would at least be doubled, and the fatigue greatly increased. The paths seem to have been used for ages: they are worn deep on the heights; and in hollows a little mound rises on each side, formed by the feet tossing a little soil on one side.

_21st September, 1869._--Cross five or six rivulets, and as many villages, some burned and deserted, or inhabited. Very many people come running to see the strangers. Gigantic trees all about the villages.

Arrive at Bambarre or Moenekuss.

About eighty hours of actual travelling, say at 2' per hour = say 160'

or 140'. Westing from 3rd August to 21st September. My strength increased as I persevered. From Tanganyika west bank say =

29 30' east - 140' = 2 20,'

2 20 ------- 27 10' Long.

Chief village of Moenekuss.

Observations show a little lower alt.i.tude than Tanganyika.

_22nd September, 1869._--Moenekuss died lately, and left his two sons to fill his place. Moenembagg is the elder of the two, and the most sensible, and the spokesman on all important occasions, but his younger brother, Moenemgoi, is the chief, the centre of authority. They showed symptoms of suspicion, and Mohamad performed the ceremony of mixing blood, which is simply making a small incision on the forearm of each person, and then mixing the bloods, and making declarations of friends.h.i.+p. Moenembagg said, ”Your people must not steal, we never do,”

which is true: blood in a small quant.i.ty was then conveyed from one to the other by a fig-leaf. ”No stealing of fowls or of men,” said the chief: ”Catch the thief and bring him to me, one who steals a person is a pig,” said Mohamad. Stealing, however, began on our side, a slave purloining a fowl, so they had good reason to enjoin honesty on us! They think that we have come to kill them: we light on them as if from another world: no letters come to tell who we are, or what we want. We cannot conceive their state of isolation and helplessness, with nothing to trust to but their charms and idols--both being bits of wood. I got a large beetle hung up before an idol in the idol house of a deserted and burned village; the guardian was there, but the village destroyed.

I presented the two brothers with two table cloths, four bunches of beads, and one string of neck-beads; they were well satisfied.

A wood here when burned emits a horrid faecal smell, and one would think the camp polluted if one fire was made of it. I had a house built for me because the village huts are inconvenient, low in roof, and low doorways; the men build them, and help to cultivate the soil, but the women have to keep them well filled with firewood and supplied with water. They carry the wood, and almost everything else in large baskets, hung to the shoulders, like the Edinburgh fishwives. A man made a long loud prayer to Mulungu last night after dark for rain.

The sons of Moenekuss have but little of their father's power, but they try to behave to strangers as he did. All our people are in terror of the Manyema, or Manyuema, man-eating fame: a woman's child had crept into a quiet corner of the hut to eat a banana--she could not find him, and at once concluded that the Manyuema had kidnapped him to eat him, and with a yell she ran through the camp and screamed at the top of her shrill voice, ”Oh, the Manyuema have stolen my child to make meat of him! Oh, my child eaten--oh, oh!”

_26th-28th September, 1869._--A Lunda slave-girl was sent off to be sold for a tusk, but the Manyuema don't want slaves, as we were told in Lunda, for they are generally thieves, and otherwise bad characters. It is now clouded over and preparing for rain, when sun comes overhead.

Small-pox comes every three or four years, and kills many of the people.

A soko alive was believed to be a good charm for rain; so one was caught, and the captor had the ends of two fingers and toes bitten off.

The soko or gorillah always tries to bite off these parts, and has been known to overpower a young man and leave him without the ends of fingers and toes. I saw the nest of one: it is a poor contrivance; no more architectural skill shown than in the nest of our Cushat dove.

_29th September, 1869._--I visited a hot fountain, an hour west of our camp, which has five eyes, temperature 150, slightly saline taste, and steam issues constantly. It is called Kasugwe Colambu. Earthquakes are well known, and to the Manyuema they seem to come from the east to west; pots rattle and fowls cackle on these occasions.

_2nd October, 1869._--A rhinoceros was shot, and party sent off to the River Luamo to buy ivory.

_5th October, 1869._--An elephant was killed, and the entire population went off to get meat, which was given freely at first, but after it was known how eagerly the Manyuema sought it, six or eight goats were demanded for a carcase and given.

_9th October, 1869._--The rite of circ.u.mcision is general among all the Manyuema; it is performed on the young. If a headman's son is to be operated on, it is tried on a slave first; certain times of the year are unpropitious, as during a drought for instance; but having by this experiment ascertained the proper time, they go into the forest, beat drums, and feast as elsewhere: contrary to all African custom they are not ashamed to speak about the rite, even before women.

Two very fine young men came to visit me to-day. After putting several preparatory inquiries as to where our country lay, &c., they asked whether people died with us, and where they went to after death. ”Who kills them?” ”Have you no charm (Buanga) against death?” It is not necessary to answer such questions save in a land never visited by strangers. Both had the ”organs of intelligence” largely developed. I told them that we prayed to the Great Father, ”Mulungu,” and He hears us all; they thought this to be natural.

_14th October, 1869._--An elephant killed was of the small variety, and only 5 feet 8 inches high at the withers. The forefoot was in circ.u.mference 3 feet 9 inches, which doubled gives 7 feet 6 inches; this shows a deviation from the usual rule ”twice round the forefoot = the height of the animal.” Heart 1-1/2 foot long, tusks 6 feet 8 inches in length.

_15th October, 1869._--Fever better, and thankful. Very cold and rainy.

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