Part 5 (1/2)
_Ghresh_, or _Gresh_, is an expression in the Arabic tongue, meaning to expel or drive away, and, as I apprehend, by the repet.i.tion of the word, is the expression from which the African _gris-gris_ is derived, consisting of exorcised feathers, cloth, &c., short sentences from the Koran, written on parchment, and enclosed in small ornamented leathern cases, worn about their persons, under the idea that it will keep away evil spirits, and is a species of _fetish_.
The Mandingos, or book-men, are great _fetish_ makers, many of them being well versed in the Arabic tongue, and writing it in a neat character. From the impression of their superior learning and address, their influence and numbers daily increase, many of them having become rulers and chiefs in places where they sojourned as strangers, The religion they profess in common with the Foolahs, Jolliffs, and other Mahomedan tribes, is peculiarly adapted to the sensual effiminacy of the Africans: the doctrines of Mahomet contained in their book I have procured from a very intelligent chief in the Rio Pongo, and when I compare his account with others of his nation on this part of the coast, the Foolahs, and the Mahomedan tribes in the vicinity of the Island of Goree, I am persuaded the following is the portion of the Islam faith believed by them.
1st. That G.o.d is above all, and not born of woman.
2d. That Mahomet stands between G.o.d and man, to intercede for him; that he is superior to all beings born of woman, and is the favorite of G.o.d. And,
3d. That he has prepared for the meanest of his followers and believers _seventy-two bouris_, or black-eyed girls of superior beauty, who are to administer to all their pleasures, and partic.i.p.ate with them in the enjoyment of the fountains and groves of paradise, and in the gratification of those appet.i.tes congenial to their nature and existence in this world.
This nearly amounts to the entire belief of Mahomet's doctrine, which is nothing but a compound of this eternal truth and necessary fiction; namely, ”that there is only one G.o.d, and Mahomet is the apostle of G.o.d:” from hence, in the idiom of the Koran, the belief of G.o.d is inseparable from the apostolic character of Mahomet. The fertile and politic imagination of this impostor admirably adapted his tenets to the prevailing and established customs; he tolerates polygamy, &c. and to add to the sanct.i.ty of his pernicious doctrines, he represents himself as having been visited by the angel Gabriel, in the cave of Hera, where he communicated to him the precepts of the Koran, in the month of Ramadan, which he enjoins as a fast; he interdicts wine, and inculcates the necessity of praying five times a day, facing the holy city, &c.; forming together a system of the most insidious character towards the establishment of pure Christianity. In the performance of the duties of their belief, the Mahomedan nations of Africa, upon the coast, are exact and scrupulous, but they have no idea of the intellectual doctrines of the Islam faith, or the happiness described by Mahomet as enjoyed by superior saints in the beat.i.tude of vision; they are as perplexed on this subject as they are in their conceptions of the divine nature, and discover a surprising contraction of mental powers, when considered as human beings endowed with reason.
The nations, upon the Windward Coast, are in general little influenced by belief in their actions. Forgiveness of injuries they conceive incompatible with the nature of man; and a spirit of retaliation is very prevalent and hereditary, descending in succession from father to son. They are extremely jealous of white men, designing, ferocious, and cowardly; but there are, notwithstanding, a great variety of localities existing among them, and it will be found that their climate and habits are closely a.s.similated.
To the Africans, the indispensible articles of life are reduced to a very narrow compa.s.s, and they are unacquainted with the insatiate wants of Europeans. The heat of the climate renders cloathing an inc.u.mberance, and occasions a carelessness with regard to their dwellings: for the former, they require only a stripe of linen, and their _gris-gris_; while a building of mud, covered with an interwoven and thatched roof, forms the latter, which is reared with little labour, and, when circ.u.mstances require it, is abandoned without much regret.
The food of the Negro consists chiefly of rice, millet, &c. seasoned with palm oil, b.u.t.ter, or the juices of the cocoa-nut tree mixed with herbs of various kinds. They frequently regale themselves with other dishes, kous-kous, and country mess, to which they sometimes add fowls, fish, and flesh, heightened in the flavour by a variety of savory applications.
A contracted system of agriculture, conducted by their women and slaves, in a very few days prepares the _lugars_, or cultivated fields; and the harvest is distributed by the elders of the community, according to the portion and wants of the society of the village, or is stored up to be portioned out as circ.u.mstances may require.
Water is the ordinary drink of the Negroes; they, however, regale themselves with a wine extracted from the palm tree, as before described, which, in the luxury of indulgence, they frequently suck through a very small kind of cane, until inebriety and stupidity absorb them in a perfect state of apathy. They have also a very pleasant beverage, extracted from the cocoa nut and banana tree, besides several descriptions of beer, fermented from various roots and herbs. In the Rio Pongo, and adjacent countries, especially in the Bas.h.i.+a branch of that river, the Soosees extract a fermented and intoxicating liquor from a root growing in great abundance, which they call _gingingey_, something similar to the sweet potatoe in the West Indies. The distillation is commenced by forming a pit in the earth, into which a large quant.i.ty of the root is put, and covered with fuel, which is set on fire, and kept burning until the roots are completely roasted: the roots are then put into paloons, and beat, exposed afterwards in mats to the sun, by which they acquire a taste similar to honey; and are afterwards put into hampers for distillation. This is performed by making a funnel of sticks in a conical form, interwoven together like basket-work; the funnel is filled with the material, and water poured upon it; the succulent moisture therefrom pa.s.ses through a tube, and yields a liquid similar in colour to coffee, and of a violent purgative quality. It remains in this state about twenty-four hours, and is then incorporated with a quant.i.ty of the ashes of rice-straw, which excites a bubbling fermentation like boiling water, after which it becomes fit for use. In forty-eight hours it returns again to its purgative state, which interval is employed in drinking most copiously, until overtaken by insensibility and intoxication. The root, in its roasted state, is an excellent medicine for colds.
Indigo and cotton grow in wild exuberance almost every where, without culture, and the women collect such quant.i.ties as they consider requisite for their families, which they prepare and spin upon a distaff; the thread is woven, by an apparatus of great simplicity, into fillets, or pieces from six to nine inches broad, which are sewed together to any width, required for use. The indigo, in its indigenous state, and a variety of other plants, colour these cloths, an ell of which will serve as a dress for a Negroe of the lower cla.s.s.
They manufacture cloths, of a very fanciful pattern, from various substances. I have some from the rind of the cocoa-nut, of great beauty, and a fine texture; also cloth, fine mats, baskets, hats, ornaments, quivers, arrows, &c. which all prove the taste and ingenuity of the natives.
The Negro is attached by love about his thirteenth year, and from sixteen to twenty he seeks the object of his affection. This choice generally continues in his confidence during life; and in proportion as he acquires wealth, he a.s.sociates with her several concubines, who generally live cordially together. From this acquisition to his household, he is considered rich; and it is a common expression with the Negro to say, ”such a man be rich, he have much woman.” When an object excites his desire, he consults his head woman, who, without any apparent suspicion of rivalry, gives her a.s.sent, and forwards his suit; but she is displeased when not consulted; and it is not uncommon that the object falls a victim to her jealousy. Celibacy is a state almost unknown in Africa; and when it does occur, it is considered as a degradation.
The Negroe's existence is almost a gratuitous gift of nature; his wants are supplied without laborious exertion, his desires are gratified without restraint, his soul remains in peaceful indolence and tranquillity, and his life glides on in voluptuous apathy and tranquil calm: he has few solicitudes or apprehensions, and he meets the stroke of fate with perfect resignation.
In the countries which I have visited, and, as I understand from others, every princ.i.p.al village or town has its _bantaba_, or _palaver-house_, which I have before described. In this house, or under the shade of some venerable tree, all ranks occasionally a.s.semble in groups, from sun-rising to sun-set, and pa.s.s the time in chit-chat, or in conversation on public affairs. Their subjects are inexhaustible, and their t.i.ttle-tattle is carried on with surprising volubility, gaiety, and delight; their time thus occupied is so seducing, that they separate with great reluctance, sometimes pa.s.sing the entire day in this, pratling, smoaking, and diversion: night, however, terminates these amus.e.m.e.nts: They a.s.semble in the open air during the dry season, and under the palaver-houses in the wet, where they form themselves into dancing companies, generally during half the night, and not unfrequently the whole of it. Their instruments of music are upon a very rude construction, consisting of a _tabila_, or drum, hollowed out from a piece of wood, and covered at each end with a bull's hide, producing a most barbarous noise, accompanied by a _baba_, or rattle, loud shouts, palaver, songs, and violent gesticulations, forming a system of confused uproar, unmusical, and ungraceful. Their motions are irregular, sometimes in violent contortion, and at others voluptuous and slow. Nothing can be done without a palaver; and at the change of every dance, he from whom the proposition originates, makes a solemn harangue over the musical instruments, which is generally descriptive of some warlike action or exploit, when they again give themselves up with rapture to the pleasures of the dance, the females in particular, whose actions and shew of luxuriant pleasure are highly offensive to delicacy, exhibiting all the gradations of lascivious att.i.tude and indecency. At this period of unusual delight, they are applauded by the men with rapturous ardour; but suddenly a feeling of shame strikes the minds of the young creatures with a humiliating sense of their display, and amidst these plaudits they hastily retire to the matrons, who are spectators of the scene, and hide their blushes in their bosoms. So strongly implanted is this ingenuous and amiable modesty in youth, which is frequently laid aside when engaged in the vortex of pleasure, that it is one of the highest charms of beauty; and wretches only, degraded by debauchery and systematic vice, are capable of insulting this sentiment. A scrupulous regard to modesty and truth will not permit me to pursue the description of these amus.e.m.e.nts farther than observing, that they prepare them for a profound and tranquil sleep on their mats, from whence they arise at the dawn of day cheerful and easy.
Thus infancy and youth are singularly happy, and mothers attend their offspring with maternal feeling and delight; they are neither disturbed by painful commands or restraint; and it is a picture of perfect happiness to see these children of nature in sportive groups and infantine diversion.
This happy infancy and gay youth is peculiarly calculated to organise a vigorous manhood, and a firm old age; and, I am persuaded, that these are the physical causes why the Negro race are so muscular in body, and procreative of their species. In some countries innoculation is practised; but the small pox is not so common, or dreadful in its effects, in these countries as in Europe. The greatest term of their lives may be computed at from sixty to seventy years, it seldom or ever happening that life is prolonged beyond that period in this part of Africa. They retain their vigour, and enjoy a permanent and regular state of health until the last; and I have observed a venerable chief of advanced years having the possession of a dozen of young handsome wives, and the father of a young progeny, whose legitimacy was never disputed or suspected. In Europe the last stage of man is a daily antic.i.p.ation of dissolution; but in Africa, declining years are only insensible approaches to the termination of a journey, the event of which he considers as the end of life, unconscious of the future, but as a fatality equally attached to all the creation.
The picture I have endeavoured to delineate may serve to convey an idea to the mind of the moral and physical state of Africa, which, undisturbed by ferocious barbarism, fierce hostilities, and horrid customs, convey a blissful and happy state of being; but, alas! we must now take another view, and contemplate these beings in the most degrading state, absorbed in superst.i.tious idolatry, inhuman customs, and shut out from the civil arts of life, and the mild principles of Christianity. Their customs, their hostilities, slavery, and the mode I have conceived requisite to infranchise this unhappy race of men, I shall attempt to represent in the following chapter; and happy shall I feel if the description excites the attention and interference of more capacious minds on this subject, interesting to so large a portion of the human race, and to the claims of humanity.
CHAPTER VII.
_The Mode of Trial by_ Ordeal _and_ Red Water _in Africa.--The Wars of its Inhabitants.--The State of Barbarism and Slavery considered.--The Condition of the Africans will not be improved by a late Legislative Act, without further Interference.--Salutary Measures must be adopted towards the Negroes in the Colonies.--A System suggested to abolish Slavery in Africa, and the Slave Trade in general, and to enlarge the intellectual Powers of its Inhabitants.--The proper Positions to effect an Opening to the Interior of Africa, and to display to the World its manifold Resources._
Trial by _ordeal_ in Africa is a punishment for petty thefts and delinquincies. Trial by _red water_ is generally applied to crimes of greater magnitude. After the usual ceremonial of calling a palaver, the operation is performed by heating a piece of iron in the fire, the hand of the accused is dipped into a viscous preparation, and the iron is immediately drawn horizontally over the palm of the hand. If the judges (one of whom is always the executioner) have previously determined, in defiance of all the evidence, to prove the culprit guilty, the consequence is that the flesh is seared; but if they are predisposed to acquit him, the iron is dexterously applied so as to absorb the unctuous surface on the hand without affecting it, and a sentence of not guilty is p.r.o.nounced.
Trial by _red water_ consists in making the accused drink a quant.i.ty of water, into which is infused the poisonous juice of the melley or _gris-gris_ tree; this is prepared by these _equitable_ judges, and applied upon the same fraudulent principles as in the trial by the _ordeal of fire_; it is, however, less resorted to. If the unhappy object of suspicion is affected in such a manner as they consider as a proof of guilt, his brains are knocked out upon the spot, or the body is so inflated by the pernicious liquid that it bursts. In either of these catastrophes all his family are sold for slaves. Some survive these diabolical expedients of injustice, but the issue is uniformly slavery. When chiefs of influence, guilty of atrocity and fraud, become objects of accusation, the ingredient is of course qualified so as to remove its fatal tendency. Hence justice seldom or ever in this country can punish powerful offenders, or s.h.i.+eld the innocence of the weak and unprotected.
The iniquity and oppression sanctioned by these trials, is a dreadful consequence of their avarice and inhumanity, for it is a fact that slaves are created thereby, and human sacrifices offered to that spirit, which they consider as their tutelar guardian: it is a subject which humanity should seriously contemplate in the relinquishment of the slave trade, whether, by the hasty adoption of that measure, before the intellectual powers of the people are improved by civilization, this barbarous evil may not be increased. When I closely enquired of the chiefs and natives relative to these savage customs, they uniformly admitted the fact, ”that such live in their country,” but with their characteristic dissimulation, always denied having perpetrated these horrid acts, and s.h.i.+fted the diabolical practice to some other nation or tribe, adding, ”that only bad men do that thing.”
Circ.u.mcision is practised among men, and a certain infliction on women, not, however, from religious motives, but to guard against the consequences of a disease not uncommon among them. The infliction upon women is the result of infidelity, or a sacrifice of chast.i.ty to loose gratification. As a preliminary, they retire to the _bunda_, or penitentiary, and are there secluded from all s.e.xual intercourse. When the season of penitence is over, the operation is performed by the rude application of two stones, fas.h.i.+oned and sharpened for the purpose; this obliterates all delinquincy, and on their return to the world they are considered as restored to virgin purity.