Chapter XVIII: Governing, Marketing, and Trading Customs

The making and enforcing of laws--Fines imposed--Division of
fines--Congo week of four days probably named after their
markets--Raids and robberies--Preparing a caravan for the
road--Rules of the road--Arriving at a trading-station--Mode of
trading--Goods given and received.

From this time Satu could not engage in trading expeditions, but devoted himself to governing the country by helping to make new laws or administering old ones. As a noble of exalted rank he presided over the chiefs of his district at the big palavers when difficult cases were judged, or called them together to give their sanction to new regulations.

Recently there had been much quarrelling on the markets, resulting in severe wounds and a few deaths. After much thought and many talks with his head men, Satu determined to stop these fatal fights by making a law that in future no guns should be carried on a market-place nor force used during market-time. He therefore sent for all the chiefs of the district, and on their arrival laid clearly and forcibly before them the new law and the reasons for it. He also suggested that for every breach of the law a fine of three pieces of good cloth should be inflicted.

This was discussed, and it was finally settled that for taking a gun on the market the fine should be two pieces of cloth, and for originating a quarrel the fine should be five pieces, and the defaulter to pay all the damages of the disturbance.

As soon as this was settled Old Plaited-Beard was nominated as the _N enkondo_, or enforcer of the new law; and Satu divided the flesh of three pigs among the assembled chiefs; and they accepted it as a proof of their assent to the new law, and their promised aid in enforcing it. After this the witnessing chiefs went to a cross-road and one of their number proclaimed the new law. Lying on the ground he rubbed his mouth in the dirt, and then striking his knees with his hands he called down a bitter curse on any one who dared to break this edict.

This ceremony has often a very terrifying effect on the people, and he will be a bold fellow who risks the curse.

Each chief returned to his village or town, and told all his people of the new law and its penalties; thus, a day or two after the new rule was made and promulgated at the cross-roads, every one affected by it had heard of it.

It was now the duty of Old Plaited-Beard to follow up quickly any infringement of the new command, no matter who the culprit might be; and it was not long before a slave of a neighbouring chief carried a gun on to a market and in a drunken quarrel severely wounded a man. Old Plaited-Beard, the _N enkondo_, had to bestir himself at once to follow up the man who had broken the law.

This activity was necessitated by a curious view taken by the natives of laws in general. From the time a law was broken until the breaker of it was punished, that particular law did not exist, it was broken, dead; hence, for instance, any man could take a gun on a market and shoot another person and go unpunished, because the law against that crime was dead and could not be mended or brought again to life until the first breaker of it was punished by paying the penalty. This ensured quick dealing with culprits, and impartial administration of the law, for if a chief broke the law he was judged immediately like an ordinary man and paid the penalty, otherwise anarchy reigned until the law was vindicated by the infliction of the fine on the law-breaker. To neglect to punish the chief would mean that any one could repeat the crime with impunity, for the law was dead.

The slave was quickly caught and brought before the chiefs; but as a master is responsible for the actions of his slave, it was really the owner who was on his trial and had to pay the fine of five pieces of cloth and compensate the wounded man. On meeting all the demands the master received his slave again, and did with him as he liked. The slave was his property in the same sense as his goats, fowls or pigs, and after cruelly punishing the man he sold him away from his wife and children to a distant tribe of people, and we never saw nor heard of him again.

The fines imposed on law-breakers are periodically divided among the chiefs of the district. They are one source of their income, and repay them for the trouble of administering the laws and governing the people. Satu, of course, took a larger share of the fines than the other chiefs. He not only presided over the palavers, but he also acted as treasurer and stored the fines until the time of division, and if he had failed to give the other chiefs their proper share at stated intervals, they would have refused to judge cases with him, and the country would have quickly become unmanageable and disorderly.

A share of the fines, however, would not support Satu as a chief and noble; consequently he had to turn his attention to trading on the markets and with the white men down at the coast. Bakula on account of his smartness was often employed by his chief to sell pigs, cloth, goats, gunpowder and other goods on the markets.

There are four days in a Congo week--_Konzo_, _N kenge_, _N sona_ and _N kandu_, and these are also the names of the markets held on those days. All the markets on a certain day all over our part of the Congo are called _Konzo_, and all the markets next day are called _N kenge_, and so on. These markets are all held in different places, _e. g._ all the _Konzo_ markets are held in different places from all the rest of the markets on the other three successive days; and these markets are so arranged that one in four comes within two to five miles of every town or village on the Lower Congo.

Thus one of the _Konzo_ markets was only four miles from our town; the nearest _N kenge_ one was nine miles away from us, but near some other towns, the nearest _N sona_ market was sixteen miles away, and the _N kandu_ market was nearly twenty miles distant from us, but not far from some other villages. Again, some of these markets were famous for certain articles that were always to be found on sale at them. For instance, at one _N kenge_ a person could always find pigs, and buyers and sellers of pigs consequently travelled to that particular _N kenge_; another _N kenge_ was noted for pots, calabashes and sauce-pans. One _N sona_ would be noted for cloth and another for palm-wine. At all the markets cassava roots, _kwanga_, or native bread, peanuts, beans and various other food-stuffs were on sale, besides the speciality of the market.

There are also five important markets that are held every eight days, not on the same but on the successive eighth days. These are called _N kenge_ _Elembelo_, held not far from the King’s town; _Konzo Kinsuka_, about two days north of the previous one; two days farther north is _Konzo Kikandikila_; three days north of that is _Konzo Makwekwe_, and about another two days north, but on the other side of the great river, is the _N kenge N kila_. Perhaps these great markets are to be found well established much farther north and south of the points I have named, and are only limited by the boundaries of the old kingdom of Congo, which formerly included Landana on the north and Bihe on the south.

While there were stringent laws against fighting, raiding, quarrelling and capturing people on the markets, no law could be enforced to guard small, unprotected parties on the way to or from the markets. Rowdy rascals would lie in wait and pounce on any defenceless child or adult, and, hurrying them away to some distant place, sell them into slavery, to the intense grief of their relatives.

I heard Bakula once tell how his young sister was sent by her mother to buy a saucepan at a market only four miles from home. She had bought the vessel and was returning to her town in the company of some neighbours, when, in a forest, she strayed from the path and was never heard of again, although the whole town turned out to search the forest.

Now and again some of these daring, reckless scamps were caught, and the whole countryside would wreak its vengeance on them, for there was scarcely a family but had lost one or more of its members or some of its goods by these kidnappings and robberies.

Bakula and some of the men were sent to the various markets far and near to buy up rubber and tusks of ivory. Sometimes they would take pigs and goats to sell, and having sold them would then buy what rubber and ivory there were for sale on the market. At other times they would take cloth and gunpowder to give in exchange for those products that white men bought at the coast--rubber and ivory. Occasionally they had to go to distant markets to buy pigs for cloth, and then travel to another market to exchange the pigs for rubber, peanuts and tusks.

Thus the rubber and ivory were gradually accumulated by the richer natives, and when enough were gathered a large caravan of men, from eighty to a hundred and twenty in number, was dispatched to the trading houses at the coast. As the natives could neither read nor write, it needed a clear head and a complicated system of knots and notches to keep a record of what was spent in pigs, goats, cloth and gunpowder in buying up the little stores of rubber and ivory on the markets. A man would tie a knot in a string for every pig sold, another string was used for every goat, another for every keg of gunpowder, and a notch was cut in a stick for every piece of cloth. By counting the knots and notches he knew just how much the ivory, rubber and peanuts had cost him; he also knew how much each man would “eat” on the road, and therefore he was quite able to ask of, and only accept from, the white traders a price that would pay for his stuff, meet the expenses of his carriers, and leave him a fair margin of profit for his risk of capital and trouble.

After months of petty trading on the markets, sufficient rubber, peanuts and ivory were collected to warrant a journey to the coast. Satu himself could not go, so he sent one of his head men, and told him how much he wanted for the produce he was sending, which would require forty men to carry it. Satu’s agent had ten loads, and neighbouring chiefs and head men joined the caravan with their porters, so that when all were ready to start there were nearly one hundred and forty men and lads in the party, and as most had knives, guns or spears they were well able to protect themselves on the long, wearisome road.

When all was arranged for the journey a “medicine man,” named _N gang’ a mpungu_, or the Luck-giver, was called. He came with his bag, containing pieces of leopard’s skin, hyæna’s skin, lion’s skin, and, in fact, a piece of the skin of every strong animal he could procure, and also some albino’s hair; and he carried with him his wooden fetish image with grass tied round its neck, knotted back and front.

The “medicine man” sat in the middle of the caravan, which stood round him with their bundles tied ready for the journey, and put the fetish image in front of him. The _nganga_ spoke to the image, telling it to give the traders good luck on the road and at the trading-station. A man then held a fowl by the head and the “medicine man” took it by the body and cut its head off and let the blood drop on the image. After this the fowl was cooked and eaten outside the houses; and during and after this ceremony no one could enter a house or turn back from the road.

The fowl having been eaten, a shell was brought containing very small pieces of everything that was in the fetish bag of charms, and this shell was placed on the road by which the men had to travel to the coast. Every one in the caravan had then to step carefully over the shell, for if any one had touched it he would not have been allowed to proceed or he would die on the journey. Having passed safely over the shell of charms, we were not to look back or our luck would have been destroyed. Bakula performed these various rites in a very half-hearted manner, for he was losing faith in them.

As we were starting the members of our party shouted to the people left in the town: “Good health to you, and let no one follow us to give us bad luck in trading”; and those left behind said: “Good journey to you, and do not any of you return to bewitch us, or carry us to sell to the white traders.” The idea behind these requests was that any living person who is a _ndoki_, or witch, can visit a place by his _nkwiya_, or evil spirit, and take a person away, or work them great harm by his witchcraft. Hence they live in constant fear of each other, and all their charms, fetishes, and witch-doctors are employed in protecting them from one another. Before Bakula reached the shell his mother came hurrying towards him, and, pretending to spit on his face, said: “May you have all that you desire, may you have happiness and good luck, and may your words find favour with the people.” It was her mode of saying farewell to her son.

We were now fairly started on the road, and as all the omens were in our favour and the _nganga_ had performed his ceremonies without the slightest hitch, everybody was in good spirits, and more ready to laugh and sing than grumble at the weight of the loads. Many points of etiquette had to be remembered as we passed through the numerous towns and villages on our road to the coast.

On passing through a village we were not allowed to let our sticks touch the ground or we should destroy the luck of that place and that would mean a heavy fine. While in the open country or bush many of the men hitched up their cloths (exposing their thighs) to give greater freedom to their legs; but on passing through a town they dropped their cloths out of respect to the town, or otherwise they would have been taken to the chief’s house and well beaten. In passing through any town every carrier was careful not to put his load on his head, as that was regarded as an exhibition of insolent pride, and would have aroused the anger of the towns-people, and a fight, with heavy fines, would have resulted. If we sat resting on the ground in any town we had to be careful not to shake off the dust from our cloths until we got outside the town, as such an action was regarded as putting a curse on the place.

Tolls had to be paid for using all bridges and canoes in crossing the larger rivers in our path; and a tax, according to the number of carriers and the value of their loads, was demanded by the overlords of the districts through which we passed. The non-observance of these customs and points of etiquette led sometimes to quarrels and fights between insolent travellers and insulted townsfolk.

On our arrival at the coast we were met by a native interpreter, who had visited our town and given Satu twenty pieces of cloth on the understanding that he was to have the privilege of selling our chief’s “trade produce” to one of the white traders. This interpreter showed us much hospitality, hoping thereby to be seller for the whole caravan.

The morning after our arrival we sorted Satu’s stuff into three lots--ten loads of ivory, eight loads of peanuts, and twenty-two loads of rubber. It was decided to sell the rubber first, so the men carried their loads to the trader’s store accompanied by the interpreter. The following conversation then took place, the white man and the interpreter talking Portuguese, and the native trader and the interpreter talking the vernacular--

Interpreter to white man: “How much for this rubber?”

The rubber was carefully examined and weighed.

White man: “I will give 200 pieces of cloth.”

Interpreter to native trader: “He will give you 80 pieces of cloth.”

Native trader: “That is not enough, I want 170 pieces.”

Interpreter to white man: “They want 250 pieces of cloth.”

White man: “That is too much; I will give 210 pieces.”

Interpreter to native trader: “He will give you 90 pieces.”

After much haggling the white man reached his limit of 220 pieces; and after much talking, lasting nearly the whole day, the native trader brought his price down to 150 pieces, and the interpreter worked his up gradually to that amount. Being now agreed, the interpreter told the white man to take the rubber, and pay 150 pieces to Satu’s agent. Satu had instructed his agent not to take less than 135 pieces of cloth, and had also informed him what goods he was to select from the store. Having received fifteen pieces more than they anticipated, they reckoned that they had sold to great advantage.

Having settled the price, we went over to the store to draw the goods. Arranged round the store were the trade goods: cloths of various colours, lengths and qualities; plates, dishes, basins, ewers, mugs, cups, glasses, looking-glasses of different sizes, bright beads of gorgeous colours, machets, knives and guns. In another store was a huge pile of bags of salt, and isolated from the other houses was a store full of gunpowder.

Satu’s agent, according to his instructions, picked out fifty pieces of cloth; gunpowder to the value of fifty pieces, and fifty pieces worth of beads, mugs, trinkets, rum and gin.

All these articles were carried over to the shed in which we were living while transacting our business with the trader. Then the ivory was sold in the same manner, and, the price having been settled, guns, powder, liquor, blankets, cloth, etc., were selected up to the agreed amount. The sale of the peanuts was a very simple matter. We put the nuts on the scale, and salt was weighed against them, and when they balanced a gaudy coloured plate was put on top and the sale was completed, _i. e._ we received weight for weight in salt for our peanuts and a make-weight of a plate on top of each load.

Every article in the white man’s store had a price on it. It was either equivalent to one piece of cloth, or to two or more pieces, or so many of it equalled the value of one piece. The first kind of cloth taken to Congo was probably of a common quality worth about 2_s_. for a piece of twelve yards. By and by other qualities were taken, and they were reckoned as equal to one and a half, two, or three pieces of the original quality. Then the natives wanted other things besides cloth, and as they were introduced the traders put a cloth value on them, _e. g._ six knives were equal to one piece of cloth, eight looking-glasses ditto, four strings of one kind of beads, or twenty strings of another sort, were priced at one piece; and thus through the whole list of goods stocked by the traders.

If a trader priced his goods high it was quickly known, and his store was avoided by the natives. They always went to that store where they received the best prices for their produce, where the articles in the store were cheapest, and where they were treated properly.

We remained ten days at the coast, selling the rubber, peanuts and ivory our caravan had brought from the interior. Some of the native traders were dissatisfied with the prices offered by the white trader, or were suspicious that the interpreter was retaining too much for himself, and for these reasons went to other white men and employed other interpreters; others of our party thought the prices of the store goods were too high, and went to those traders whom they thought sold their barter goods at reasonable rates.

It took us, as I have already stated, ten long, wearisome days of haggling, bargaining and chaffering to dispose of our produce to the best advantage. During this time our food supply was running low, and we often had not half enough to eat. Food at the coast was very dear, and we were all glad when our business was concluded and we could turn our faces homeward.

The return journey was accomplished without any incident more serious than the breaking of a few china ornaments belonging to Old Plaited-Beard, who had seen such things in the King’s house and had instructed his men to buy him similar ones with some of the produce he had sent for sale. The man, however, who carried them slipped on some huge boulders while crossing a river, and down he fell, cutting his own knees and smashing the fragile contents of his load. The old man, when he saw the results of the accident, did not blame his carrier of carelessness, but rather accused some one of bewitching him and thus causing the destruction of the goods. And with a look of hate in his eyes and a curse on his lips he threatened to punish the witch.

All the men and lads of our party were glad to be again among their own families. During the whole journey to and from the coast, and while at the trading centre, they had eaten very sparingly, as food was heavy to carry and very dear on the road; but now that they had returned they made amends for lost time and hungry days. Huge dishes of food quickly disappeared, and those who had become thin during the twenty-five days of short rations began to fill out again, and those who were feeling exhausted by the heavy loads they carried up and down hill and along rugged, narrow tracks began, after some refreshing, restful sleeps, to feel strong and active again and ready for the next trading expedition.