Chapter IV: The African Negro: II. Bantus--Negrilloes--Bushmen--Hottentots (2)

The people who give their name to this river present some points of special interest. It is commonly supposed that the old "Kongo Empire" was a creation of the Portuguese. But Mbanza, afterwards rechristened "San Salvador," was already the capital of a powerful state when it was first visited by the expedition of 1491, from which time date its relations with Portugal. At first the Catholic missionaries had great success, thousands were at least baptised, and for a moment it seemed as if all the Congo lands were being swept into the fold. There were great rejoicings on the conversion of the _Mfumu_ ("Emperor") himself, on whom were lavished honours and Portuguese titles still borne by his present degenerate descendant, the Portuguese state pensioner, "Dom Pedro V, Catholic King of Kongo and its Dependencies." But Christianity never struck very deep roots, and, except in the vicinity of the Imperial and vassal Courts, heathenish practices of the worst description were continued down to the middle of the nineteenth century. About 1870 fresh efforts were made both by Protestant and Catholic missionaries to re-convert the people, who had little to remind them of their former faith except the ruins of the cathedral of San Salvador, crucifixes, banners, and other religious emblems handed down as heirlooms and regarded as potent fetishes by their owners. A like fate, it may be incidentally mentioned, has overtaken the efforts of the Portuguese missionaries to evangelise the natives of the east coast, where little now survives of their teachings but snatches of unintelligible songs to the Blessed Virgin, such as that still chanted by the Lower Zambesi boatmen and recorded by Mrs Pringle:--

Sina mama, sina mamai,
Sina mama Maria, sina mamai ...

Mary, I'm alone, mother I have none,
Mother I have none, she and father both are gone, etc.[271]

It is probable that at some remote period the ruling race reached the west coast from the north-east, and imposed their Bantu speech on the rude aborigines, by whom it is still spoken over a wide tract of country on both sides of the Lower Congo. It is an extremely pure and somewhat archaic member of the Bantu family, and W. Holman Bentley, our best authority on the subject, is enthusiastic in praise of its "richness, flexibility, exactness, subtlety of idea, and nicety of expression," a language superior to the people themselves, "illiterate folk with an elaborate and regular grammatical system of speech of such subtlety and exactness of idea that its daily use is in itself an education[272]." Kishi-Kongo has the distinction of being the first Bantu tongue ever reduced to written form, the oldest known work in the language being a treatise on Christian Doctrine published in Lisbon in 1624. Since that time the speech of the "Mociconghi," as Pigafetta calls them[273], has undergone but slight phonetic or other change, which is all the more surprising when we consider the rudeness of the present Mushi-Kongos and others by whom it is still spoken with considerable uniformity. Some of these believe themselves sprung from trees, as if they had still reminiscences of the arboreal habits of a pithecoid ancestry.

Amongst the neighbouring _Ba-Mba_, whose sobas were formerly _ex officio_ Commanders-in-chief of the Empire, still dwells a potent being, who is invisible to everybody, and although mortal never dies, or at least after each dissolution springs again into life from his remains gathered up by the priests. All the young men of the tribe undergo a similar transformation, being thrown into a death-like trance by the magic arts of the medicine-man, and then resuscitated after three days. The power of causing the cataleptic sleep is said really to exist, and these strange rites, unknown elsewhere, are probably to be connected with the resurrection of Christ after three days and of everybody on the last day as preached by the early Portuguese evangelists. A volume might be written on the strange distortions of Christian doctrines amongst savage peoples unable to grasp their true inwardness.

In Angola the Portuguese distinguish between the _Pretos_, that is, the "civilised," and the _Negros_, or unreclaimed natives. Yet both terms mean the same thing, as also does _Ba-Fiot_[274], "Black People," which is applied in an arbitrary way both to the Eshi-Kongos and their near relations, the _Kabindas_ of the Portuguese enclave north of the Lower Congo. These Kabindas, so named from the seaport of that name on the Loango coast, are an extremely intelligent, energetic, and enterprising people, daring seafarers, and active traders. But they complain of the keen rivalry of another dark people, the _Judeos Pretos_, or "Black Jews," who call themselves _Ma-Vambu_, and whose hooked nose combined with other peculiarities has earned for them their Portuguese name. The Kabindas say that these "Semitic Negroes" were specially created for the punishment of other unscrupulous dealers by their ruinous competition in trade.

A great part of the vast region within the bend of the Congo is occupied by the _Ba-Luba_ people, whose numerous branches--_Ba-Sange_ and _Ba-Songe_ about the sources of the Sankuru, _Ba-Shilange_ (_Tushilange_) about the Lulua-Kassai confluence, and many others--extend all the way from the Kwango basin to Manyemaland. Most of these are Bantus of the average type, fairly intelligent, industrious and specially noted for their skill in iron and copper work. Iron ores are widely diffused and the copper comes from the famous mines of the Katanga district, of which King Mzidi and his Wa-Nyamwezi followers were dispossessed by the Congo Free State in 1892[275].

Special attention is claimed by the _Ba-Shilange_ nation, for our knowledge of whom we are indebted chiefly to C. S. Latrobe Bateman[276]. These are the people whom Wissmann had already referred to as "a nation of thinkers with the interrogative 'why' constantly on their lips." Bateman also describes them as "thoroughly honest, brave to foolhardiness, and faithful to each other. They are prejudiced in favour of foreign customs and spontaneously copy the usages of civilisation. They are the only African tribe among whom I have observed anything like a becoming conjugal affection and regard. To say nothing of such recommendations as their emancipation from fetishism, their ancient abandonment of cannibalism, and their national unity under the sway of a really princely prince (Kalemba), I believe them to be the most open to the best influences of civilisation of any African tribe whatsoever[277]." Their territory about the Lulua, affluent of the Kassai, is the so-called Lubuka, or land of "Friendship," the theatre of a remarkable social revolution, carried out independently of all European influences, in fact before the arrival of any whites on the scene. It was initiated by the secret brotherhood of the _Bena-Riamba_, or "Sons of Hemp," established about 1870, when the nation became divided into two parties over the question throwing the country open to foreign trade. The king having sided with the "Progressives," the "Conservatives" were worsted with much bloodshed, whereupon the barriers of seclusion were swept away. Trading relations being at once established with the outer world, the custom of _riamba_ (bhang) smoking was unfortunately introduced through the Swahili traders from Zanzibar. The practice itself soon became associated with mystic rites, and was followed by a general deterioration of morals throughout Tushilangeland.

North of the Ba-Luba follows the great _Ba-Lolo_ nation, whose domain comprises nearly the whole of the region between the equator and the left bank of the Congo, and whose Kilolo speech is still more widely diffused, being spoken by perhaps 10,000,000 within the horseshoe bend. These "Men of Iron" in the sense of Cromwell's "Ironsides," or "Workers in Iron," as the name has been diversely interpreted (from _lolo_, iron), may not be all that they have been depicted by the glowing pen of Mrs H. Grattan Guinness[278]; but nobody will deny their claim to be regarded as physically, if not mentally, one of the finest Bantu races. But for the strain of Negro blood betrayed by the tumid under lip, frizzly hair, and wide nostrils, many might pass for average Hamites with high forehead, straight or aquiline nose, bright eye, and intelligent expression. They appear to have migrated about a hundred years ago from the east to their present homes, where they have cleared the land both of its forests and the aborigines, brought extensive tracts under cultivation, and laid out towns in the American chessboard fashion, but with the houses so wide apart that it takes hours to traverse them. They are skilled in many crafts, and understand the division-of-labour principle, "farmers, gardeners, smiths, boatbuilders, weavers, cabinet-makers, armourers, warriors, and speakers being already differentiated amongst them[279]."

From the east or north-east a great stream of migration has also for many years been setting right across the cannibal zone to the west coast between the Ogowai and Cameruns estuary. Some of these cannibal bands, collectively known as _Fans_, _Pahuins_, _Mpangwes_[280], _Oshyebas_ and by other names, have already swarmed into the Gabun and Lower Ogowai districts, where they have caused a considerable dislocation of the coast tribes. They are at present the dominant, or at least the most powerful and dreaded, people in West Equatorial Africa, where nothing but the intervention of the French administration has prevented them from sweeping the _Mpongwes_, _Mbengas_, _Okandas_, _Ashangos_, _Ishogos_, _Ba-Tekes_[281], and the other maritime populations into the Atlantic. Even the great _Ba-Kalai_ nation, who are also immigrants, but from the south-east, and who arrived some time before the Fans, have been hard pressed and driven forward by those fierce anthropophagists. They are still numerous, certainly over 100,000, but confined mainly to the left bank of the Ogowai, where their copper and iron workers have given up the hopeless struggle to compete with the imported European wares, and have consequently turned to trade. The Ba-Kalai are now the chief brokers and middlemen throughout the equatorial coastlands, and their pure Bantu language is encroaching on the Mpongwe in the Ogowai basin.

When first heard of by Bowdich in 1819, the Paaemways, as he calls the Fans, were an inland people presenting such marked Hamitic or Caucasic features that he allied them with the West Sudanese Fulahs. Since then there have been inevitable interminglings, by which the type has no doubt been modified, though still presenting distinct non-Bantu or non-Negro characters. Burton, Winwood Reade, Oscar Lenz and most other observers separate them altogether from the Negro connection, describing them as "well-built, tall and slim, with a light brown complexion, often inclining to yellow, well-developed beard, and very prominent frontal bone standing out in a semicircular protuberance above the superciliary arches. Morally also, they differ greatly from the Negro, being remarkably intelligent, truthful, and of a serious temperament, seldom laughing or indulging in the wild orgies of the blacks[282]."

M. H. Kingsley adds that "the average height in mountain districts is five feet six to five feet eight (1.67 m. to 1.72 m.), the difference in stature between men and women not being great. Their countenances are very bright and expressive, and if once you have been among them, you can never mistake a Fan. The Fan is full of fire, temper, intelligence and go; very teachable, rather difficult to manage, quick to take offence and utterly indifferent to human life." The cannibalism of the Fans, though a prevalent habit, is not, according to Miss Kingsley, due to sacrificial motives. "He does it in his common sense way. He will eat his next door neighbour's relations and sell his own deceased to his next door neighbour in return; but he does not buy slaves and fatten them up for his table as some of the Middle Congo tribes do.... He has no slaves, no prisoners of war, no cemeteries, so you must draw your own conclusions[283]." The Fan language has been grouped by Sir H. H. Johnston among Bantu tongues, but he describes it as so corrupt as to be only just recognisable as Bantu. In linguistic, physical and mental features they thus show a remarkable divergence from the pure Negro, suggesting Hamitic probably Fulah elements.

In the Camerun region, which still lies within Bantu territory, Sir H. H. Johnston[284] divides the numerous local tribes into two groups, the aborigines, such as the _Ba-Yong_, _Ba-Long_, _Ba-Sa_, _Abo_ and _Wuri_; and the later intruders--_Ba-Kundu_, _Ba-Kwiri_, _Dwala_, "_Great Batanga_" and _Ibea_--chiefly from the east and south-east. Best known are the Dwalas of the Camerun estuary, physically typical Bantus with almost European features, and well-developed calves, a character which would alone suffice to separate them from the true Negro. Nor are these traits due to contact with the white settlers on the coast, because the Dwalas keep quite aloof, and are so proud of their "blue blood," that till lately all half-breeds were "weeded-out," being regarded as monsters who reflected discredit on the tribe[285].

Socially the Camerun natives stand at nearly the same low level of culture as the neighbouring full-blood Negroes of the Calabar and Niger delta. Indeed the transition in customs and institutions, as well as in physical appearance, is scarcely perceptible between the peoples dwelling north and south of the Rio del Rey, here the dividing line between the Negro and Bantu lands. The _Ba-Kish_ of the Meme river, almost last of the Bantus, differ little except in speech from the Negro _Efiks_ of Old Calabar, while witchcraft and other gross superstitions were till lately as rife amongst the Ba-Kwiri and Ba-Kundu tribes of the western Camerun as anywhere in Negroland. It is not long since one of the Ba-Kwiri, found guilty of having eaten a chicken at a missionary's table, was himself eaten by his fellow clansmen. The law of blood for blood was pitilessly enforced, and charges of witchcraft were so frequent that whole villages were depopulated, or abandoned by their terror-stricken inhabitants. The island of Ambas in the inlet of like name remained thus for a time absolutely deserted, "most of the inhabitants having poisoned each other off with their everlasting ordeals, and the few survivors ending by dreading the very air they breathed[286]."

Having thus completed our survey of the Bantu populations from the central dividing line about the Congo-Chad water-parting round by the east, south, and west coastlands, and so back to the Sudanese zone, we may pause to ask, What routes were followed by the Bantus themselves during the long ages required to spread themselves over an area estimated at nearly six million square miles? I have established, apparently on solid grounds, a fixed point of initial dispersion in the extreme north-east, and allusion has frequently been made to migratory movements, some even now going on, generally from east to west, and, on the east side of the continent, from north to south, with here an important but still quite recent reflux from Zululand back nearly to Victoria Nyanza. If a parallel current be postulated as setting on the Atlantic side in prehistoric times from south to north, from Hereroland to the Cameruns, or possibly the other way, we shall have nearly all the factors needed to explain the general dispersion of the Bantu peoples over their vast domain.

Support is given to this view by the curious distribution of the two chief Bantu names of the "Supreme Being," to which incidental reference has already been made. As first pointed out I think by Dr Bleek, _(M)unkulunkulu_ with its numerous variants prevails along the eastern seaboard, _Nzambi_ along the western, and both in many parts of the interior; while here and there the two meet, as if to indicate prehistoric interminglings of two great primeval migratory movements. From the subjoined table a clear idea may be had of the general distribution:

MUNKULUNKULU NZAMBI

{ Mpondo: Ukulukulu | Eshi-Kongo: Nzambi }
{ Zulu: Unkulunkulu | Kabinda: Nzambi Pongo}
{ Inhambane: Mulungulu | Lunda: Zambi }
{ Sofala: Murungu | Ba-Teke: Nza[~m] }
{ Be-Chuana: Mulungulu | Ba-Rotse: Nyampe }
{ Lake Moero: Mulungu | Bihe: Nzambi }
{ Lake Tanganyika: Mulungu | Loango: Zambi, Nyambi}
Eastern { Makua: Moloko | Bunda: Onzambi }Western
Seaboard{ Quillimane: Mlugu | Ba-Ngala: Nsambi }Seaboard
and { Lake Bangweolo: Mungu | Ba-Kele: Nshambi }and
Parts { Tete, Zambesi: Muungu | Rungu: Anyambi }Parts
of { Nyasaland: Murungu | Ashira: Aniembie }of
Interior{ Swahili: Muungu | Mpongwe: Njambi }Interior
{ Giryama: Mulungu | Benga: Anyambi }
{ Pokomo: Mungo | Dwala: Nyambi }
{ Nyika: Mulungu | Yanzi: Nyambi }
{ Kamba: Mulungu | Herero: Ndyambi }
{ Yanzi: Molongo |
{ Herero: Mukuru |

Of _Munkulunkulu_ the primitive idea is clear enough from its best preserved form, the Zulu _Unkulunkulu_, which is a repetitive of the root _inkulu_, great, old, hence a deification of the great departed, a direct outcome of the ancestry-worship so universal amongst Negro and Bantu peoples[287]. Thus Unkulunkulu becomes the direct progenitor of the Zulu-Xosas: _Unkulunkulu ukobu wetu_. But the fundamental meaning of _Nzambi_ is unknown. The root does not occur in Kishi-Kongo, and Bentley rightly rejects Kolbe's far-fetched explanation from the Herero, adding that "the knowledge of God is most vague, scarcely more than nominal. There is no worship paid to God[288]."

More probable seems W. H. Tooke's suggestion that Nzambi is "a Nature spirit like Zeus or Indra," and that, while the eastern Bantus are ancestor-worshippers, "the western adherents of Nzambi are more or less Nature-worshippers. In this respect they appear to approach the Negroes of the Gold, Slave, and Oil Coasts[289]." No doubt the cult of the dead prevails also in this region, but here it is combined with naturalistic forms of belief, as on the Gold Coast, where _Bobowissi_, chief god of all the southern tribes, is the "Blower of Clouds," the "Rain-maker," and on the Slave Coast, where the Dahoman _Mawu_ and the Yoruba _Olorun_ are the Sky or Rain, and the "Owner of the Sky" (the deified Firmament), respectively[290].

It would therefore seem probable that the Munkulunkulu peoples from the north-east gradually spread by the indicated routes over the whole of Bantuland, everywhere imposing their speech, general culture, and ancestor-worship on the pre-Bantu aborigines, except along the Atlantic coastlands and in parts of the interior. Here the primitive Nature-worship, embodied in Nzambi, held and still holds its ground, both meeting on equal terms--as shown in the above table--amongst the Ba-Yanzi, the Ova-Herero, and the Be-Chuanas (_Mulungulu_ generally, but _Nyampe_ in Barotseland), and no doubt in other inland regions. But the absolute supremacy of one on the east, and of the other on the west, side of the continent, seems conclusive as to the general streams of migration, while the amazing uniformity of nomenclature is but another illustration of the almost incredible persistence of Bantu speech amongst these multitudinous illiterate populations for an incalculable period of time[291].

THE VAALPENS AND THE STRANDLOOPERS.

Among the ethnological problems of Africa may be reckoned the _Vaalpens_ and the _Strandloopers_. Along the banks of the Limpopo between the Transvaal and Southern Rhodesia there are scattered a few small groups of an extremely primitive people who are generally confounded with the Bushmen, but differ in some important respects from that race. They are the "Earthmen" of some writers, but their real name is _Kattea_, though called by their neighbours either _Ma Sarwa_ ("Bad People") or _Vaalpens_ ("Grey Paunches") from the khaki colour acquired by their bodies from creeping on all fours into their underground hovels. But the true colour is almost a pitch black, and as they are only about four feet high they are quite distinct both from the tall Bantus and the yellowish Hottentot-Bushmen. For the Zulus they are mere "dogs" or "vultures," and are certainly the most degraded of all the aborigines, being undoubtedly cannibals, eating their own aged and infirm like some of the Amazonian tribes. Their habitations are holes in the ground, rock-shelters, or caves, or lately a few hovels of mud and foliage at the foot of the hills. Of their speech nothing is known except that it is absolutely distinct both from the Bantu and the Bushman. There are no arts or industries of any kind, not even any weapons beyond those procured in exchange for ostrich feathers, skins or ivory. But they can make fire, and are thus able to cook the offal thrown to them by the Boers in return for their help in skinning the captured game. Whether they have any religious ideas it is impossible to say, all intercourse with the surrounding peoples being restricted to barter carried on with gesture language for nobody has ever yet mastered their tongue. A "chief" is spoken of, but he is merely a headman who presides over the little family groups of from thirty to fifty (there are no tribes properly so called), and whose purely domestic functions are acquired, not by heredity, but by personal worth, that is, physical strength. Altogether the Kattea is perhaps the most perfect embodiment of the pure savage still anywhere surviving[292].

When the Hottentots of South Africa were questioned by scientific men a hundred years ago and more regarding their traditions, they were wont to refer to their predecessors on the coast of South Africa as a savage race living on the seashore and subsisting on shellfish and the bodies of stranded whales. From their habits these were styled in Dutch the Strandloopers or "Shore-runners[293]." According to F. C. Shrubsall the Strandlooper of the Cape Colony caves preceded the Bushman in South Africa. They were a race of short but not dwarfish men with a much higher skull capacity than that of the average Bush race. The extreme of cranial capacity in the Strandloopers was a maximum of over 1600 c.c., while the extreme minimum among the Bush people descends as low as 955 c.c. The frontal region of the skull is much better developed than in the Bush race, and in that respect is more like the Negro. There is little or no brow prominence and one at least of the skulls is as orthognathous in facial angle as that of a European. L. Peringuey remarks also that the type was less dolichocephalic than the Bushmen and Hottentots, under 80 in cephalic index. "He was artistically gifted, like the race which occupied and decorated the Altamira ... and other caves of Spain and France. He painted; he possibly carved on rocks; he used bone tools; he made pottery; he perforated stones for either heading clubs or to be used as make-weights for digging tools; his ornaments consisted of sea-shells; and the ostrich egg-shell discs which he made may be said to be a typical product of his industry. And this culture is retained in South Africa by a kindred race, but more dolichocephalic--the Bushmen-Hottentots. Analogous are most of his tools and his expressions of culture to those of Aurignacian man."

THE NEGRILLOES.

The proper domain of the African Negrilloes is the intertropical forest-land, although they appear to be at present confined to somewhat narrow limits, between about six degrees of latitude north and south of the equator, unless the Bushmen be included. But formerly they probably ranged much farther north, and in historic times were certainly known in Egypt some 4000 or 5000 years ago. This is evident from the frequent references to them in the "Book of the Dead" as far back as the 6th Dynasty. Like the dwarfs in medieval times, they were in high request at the courts of the Pharaohs, who sent expeditions to fetch these _Danga_ (_Tank_) from the "Island of the Double," that is, the fabulous region of Shade Land beyond Punt, where they dwelt. The first of whom there is authentic record was brought from this region, apparently the White Nile, to King Assa (3300 B.C.) by his officer, Baurtet. Some 70 years later Heru-Khuf, another officer, was sent by Pepi II "to bring back a pygmy alive and in good health," from the land of great trees away to the south[294]. That the Danga came from the south we know from a later inscription at Karnak, and that the word meant dwarf is clear from the accompanying determinative of a short person of stunted growth.

It is curious to note in this connection that the limestone statue of the dwarf Nem-hotep, found in his tomb at Sakkara and figured by Ernest Grosse, has a thick elongated head suggesting artificial deformation, unshapely mouth, dull expression, strong full chest, and small deformed feet, on which he seems badly balanced. It will be remembered that Schweinfurth's Akkas from Mangbattuland were also represented as top-heavy, although the best observers, Junker and others, describe those of the Welle and Congo forests as shapely and by no means ill-proportioned.

Kollmann also, who has examined the remains of the Neolithic pygmies from the Schweizersbild Station, Switzerland, "is quite certain that the dwarf-like proportions of the latter have nothing in common with diseased conditions. This, from many points of view, is a highly interesting discovery. It is possible, as Nueesch suggests, that the widely-spread legend as to the former existence of little men, dwarfs and gnomes, who were supposed to haunt caves and retired places in the mountains, may be a reminiscence of these Neolithic pygmies[295]."

This is what may be called the picturesque aspect of the Negrillo question, which it seems almost a pity to spoil by too severe a criticism. But "ethnologic truth" obliges us to say that the identification of the African Negrillo with Kollmann's European dwarfs still lacks scientific proof. Even craniology fails us here, and although the Negrilloes are in great majority round-headed, R. Verneau has shown that there may be exceptions[296], while the theory of the general uniformity of the physical type has broken down at some other points. Thus the _Dume_, south of Gallaland, discovered by Donaldson Smith[297] in the district where the _Doko_ Negrilloes had long been heard of, and even seen by Antoine d'Abbadie in 1843, were found to average five feet, or more than one foot over the mean of the true Negrillo. D'Abbadie in fact declared that his "Dokos" were not pygmies at all[298], while Donaldson Smith now tells us that "doko" is only a term of contempt applied by the local tribes to their "poor relations." "Their chief characteristics were a black skin, round features, woolly hair, small oval-shaped eyes, rather thick lips, high cheekbones, a broad forehead, and very well formed bodies" (p. 273).

The expression of the eye was canine, "sometimes timid and suspicious-looking, sometimes very amiable and merry, and then again changing suddenly to a look of intense anger." Pygmies, he adds, "inhabited the whole of the country north of Lakes Stephanie and Rudolf long before any of the tribes now to be found in the neighbourhood; but they have been gradually killed off in war, and have lost their characteristics by inter-marriage with people of large stature, so that only this one little remnant, the Dume, remains to prove the existence of a pygmy race. Formerly they lived principally by hunting, and they still kill a great many elephants with their poisoned arrows" (pp. 274-5).

Some of these remarks apply also to the _Wandorobbo_, another small people who range nearly as far north as the Dume, but are found chiefly farther south all over Masailand, and belong, I have little doubt, to the same connection. They are the henchmen of the Masai, whom they provide with big game in return for divers services.

Those met by W. Astor Chanler were also "armed with bows and arrows, and each carried an elephant-spear, which they called _bonati_. This spear is six feet in length, thick at either end, and narrowed where grasped by the hand. In one end is bored a hole, into which is fitted an arrow two feet long, as thick as one's thumb, and with a head two inches broad. Their method of killing elephants is to creep cautiously up to the beast, and drive a spear into its loin. A quick twist separates the spear from the arrow, and they make off as fast and silently as possible. In all cases the arrows are poisoned; and if they are well introduced into the animal's body, the elephant does not go far[299]."

From some of the peculiarities of the Achua (Wochua) Negrilloes met by Junker south of the Welle one can understand why these little people were such favourites with the old Egyptian kings. These were "distinguished by sharp powers of observation, amazing talent for mimicry, and a good memory. A striking proof of this was afforded by an Achua whom I had seen and measured four years previously in Rumbek, and now again met at Gambari's. His comic ways and quick nimble movements made this little fellow the clown of our society. He imitated with marvellous fidelity the peculiarities of persons whom he had once seen; for instance, the gestures and facial expressions of Jussuf Pasha esh-Shelahis and of Haj Halil at their devotions, as well as the address and movements of Emin Pasha, 'with the four eyes' (spectacles). His imitation of Hawash Effendi in a towering rage, storming and abusing everybody, was a great success; and now he took me off to the life, rehearsing after four years, down to the minutest details, and with surprising accuracy, my anthropometric performance when measuring his body at Rumbek[300]."

A somewhat similar account is given by Ludwig Wolf of the Ba-Twa pygmies visited by him and Wissmann in the Kassai region. Here are whole villages in the forest-glades inhabited by little people with an average height of about 4 feet 3 inches. They are nomads, occupied exclusively with hunting and the preparation of palm-wine, and are regarded by their Ba-Kubu neighbours as benevolent little people, whose special mission is to provide the surrounding tribes with game and palm-wine in exchange for manioc, maize, and bananas[301].

Despite the above-mentioned deviations, occurring chiefly about the borderlands, considerable uniformity both of physical and mental characters is found to prevail amongst the typical Negrillo groups scattered in small hunting communities all over the Welle, Semliki, Congo, and Ogowai woodlands. Their main characters are thus described. Their skin is of a reddish or yellowish brown in colour, sometimes very dark. Their height varies from 1.37 m. to 1.45 m. (4 ft. 4-1/4 in. to 4 ft. 9-1/4 in.[302]). Their hair is very short and woolly, usually of a dark rusty brown colour; the face hair is variable, but the body is usually covered with a light downy hair. The cephalic index is 79. The nose is very broad and exceptionally flattened at the root; the lips are usually thin, and the upper one long; the eyes are protuberant; the face is sometimes prognathic. Steatopygia occurs. They are a markedly intelligent people, innately musical, cunning, revengeful and suspicious in disposition, but they never steal.

They are nomadic hunters and collectors, never resorting to agriculture. They have no domestic animals. Only meat is cooked. They wear no clothing. They use bows and poisoned arrows. Their language is unknown. They live in small communities which centre round a cunning fighter or able hunter. Their dead are buried in the ground. They differ from surrounding Negroes in having no veneration for the departed, no amulets, no magicians or professional priests. They have charms for ensuring luck in hunting, but it is uncertain whether these charms derive their potency from the supreme being, though evidence of belief in a high-god is reported from various pygmy peoples.[303]

THE BUSHMEN AND HOTTENTOTS.

Towards the south the Negrillo domain was formerly conterminous with that of the Bushmen, of whom traces were discovered by Sir H. H. Johnston[304] as far north as Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika, and who, it has been conjectured, belong to the same primitive stock. The differences mental and physical now separating the two sections of the family may perhaps be explained by the different environments--hot, moist and densely wooded in the north, and open steppes in the south--but until more is known of the African pygmies their affinities must remain undecided.

The relationship between the Bushmen and the Hottentots is another disputed question. Early authorities regarded the Hottentots as the parent family, and the Bushmen as the offspring, but the researches of Gustav Fritsch, E. T. Hamy, F. Shrubsall[305] and others show that the Hottentots are a cross between the Bushmen--the primitive race--and the Bantu, the Bushman element being seen in the leathery colour, prominent cheek-bones, pointed chin, steatopygia and other special characters.

In prehistoric times the Hottentots ranged over a vast area. Evidence has now been produced of the presence of a belated Hottentot or Hottentot-Bushman group as far north as the Kwa-Kokue district, between Kilimanjaro and Victoria Nyanza. The _Wa-Sandawi_ people here visited by Oskar Neumann are not Bantus, and speak a language radically distinct from that of the neighbouring Bantus, but full of clicks like that of the Bushmen[306]. Two Sandawi skulls examined by Virchow[307] showed distinct Hottentot characters, with a cranial capacity of 1250 and 1265 c.c., projecting upper jaw and orthodolicho head[308]. The geographical prefix _Kwa_, common in the district (Kwa-Kokue, Kwa-Mtoro, Kwa-Hindi), is pure Hottentot, meaning "people," like the postfix _qua_ (_Kwa_) of Kora-_qua_, Nama-_qua_, etc. in the present Hottentot domain. The transposition of prefixes and postfixes is a common linguistic phenomenon, as seen in the Sumero-Akkadian of Babylonia, in the Neo-Sanskritic tongues of India, and the Latin, Oscan, and other members of the Old Italic group.

Farther south a widely-diffused Hottentot-Bushman geographical terminology attests the former range of this primitive race all over South Africa, as far north as the Zambesi. Lichtenstein had already discovered such traces in the Zulu country[309], and Vater points out that "for some districts the fact has been fully established; mountains and rivers now occupied by the Koossa [Ama-Xosa] preserve in their Hottentot names the certain proof that they at one time formed a permanent possession of this people[310]."

Thanks to the custom of raising heaps of stones or cairns over the graves of renowned chiefs, the migrations of the Hottentots may be followed in various directions to the very heart of South Zambesia. Here the memory of their former presence is perpetuated in the names of such water-courses as Nos-ob, Up, Mol-opo, Hyg-ap, Gar-ib, in which the syllables _ob_, _up_, _ap_, _ib_ and others are variants of the Hottentot word _ib_, _ip_, water, river, as in _Gar-ib_, the "Great River," now better known as the Orange River. The same indications may be traced right across the continent to the Atlantic, where nearly all the coast streams--even in Hereroland, where the language has long been extinct--have the same ending[311].

On the west side the Bushmen are still heard of as far north as the Cunene, and in the interior beyond Lake Ngami nearly to the right bank of the Zambesi. But the Hottentots are now confined mainly to Great and Little Namaqualand. Elsewhere there appear to be no full-blood natives of this race, the Koraquas, Gonaquas, Griquas, etc. being all Hottentot-Boer or Hottentot-Bantu half-castes of Dutch speech. In Cape Colony the tribal organisation ceased to exist in 1810, when the last Hottentot chief was replaced by a European magistrate. Still the Koraquas keep themselves somewhat distinct about the Upper Orange and Vaal Rivers, and the Griquas in Griqualand East, while the Gonaquas, that is, "Borderers," are being gradually merged in the Bantu populations of the Eastern Provinces. There are at present scarcely 180,000 south of the Orange River, and of these the great majority are half-breeds[312].

Despite their extremely low state of culture, or, one might say, the almost total lack of culture, the Bushmen are distinguished by two remarkable qualities, a fine sense of pictorial or graphic art[313], and a rich imagination displayed in a copious oral folklore, much of which, collected by Bleek, is preserved in manuscript form in Sir George Grey's library at Cape Town[314]. The materials here stored for future use, perhaps long after the race itself has vanished for ever, comprise no less than 84 thick volumes of 3600 double-column pages, besides an unfinished Bushman dictionary with 11,000 entries. There are two great sections, (1) Myths, fables, legends and poetry, with tales about the sun and moon, the stars, the _Mantis_ and other animals, legends of peoples who dwelt in the land before the Bushmen, songs, charms, and even prayers; (2) Histories, adventures of men and animals, customs, superstitions, genealogies, and so on.

In the tales and myths the sun, moon, and animals speak either with their own proper clicks, or else use the ordinary clicks in some way peculiar to themselves. Thus Bleek tells us that the tortoise changes clicks in labials, the ichneumon in palatals, the jackal substitutes linguo-palatals for labials, while the moon, hare, and ant-eater use "a most unpronounceable click" of their own. How many there may be altogether, not one of which can be properly uttered by Europeans, nobody seems to know. But grammarians have enumerated nine, indicated each by a graphic sign as under:

Cerebral [Symbol] Palatal [Symbol]
Dental [Symbol] Lateral (Faucal) [Symbol]
Guttural [Symbol] Labial [Symbol]
Spiro-dental [Symbol] Linguo-palatal [Symbol]
Undefined [Symbol]

From Bushman--a language in a state of flux, fragmentary as the small tribal or rather family groups that speak it[315]--these strange inarticulate sounds passed to the number of four into the remotely related Hottentot, and thence to the number of three into the wholly unconnected Zulu-Xosa. But they are heard nowhere else to my knowledge except amongst the newly-discovered Wa-Sandawi people of South Masailand. At the same time we know next to nothing of the Negrillo tongues, and should clicks be discovered to form an element in their phonetic system also[316], it would support the assumption of a common origin of all these dwarfish races now somewhat discredited on anatomical grounds.

M. G. Bertin, to whom we are indebted for an excellent monograph on the Bushman[317], rightly remarks that he is not, at least mentally, so debased as he has been described by the early travellers and by the neighbouring Bantus and Boers, by whom he has always been despised and harried. "His greatest love is for freedom, he acknowledges no master, and possesses no slaves. It is this love of independence which made him prefer the wandering life of a hunter to that of a peaceful agriculturist or shepherd, as the Hottentot. He rarely builds a hut, but prefers for abode the natural caves he finds in the rocks. In other localities he forms a kind of nest in the bush--hence his name of Bushman--or digs with his nails subterranean caves, from which he has received the name of 'Earthman.' His garments consist only of a small skin. His weapons are still the spear, arrow and bow in their most rudimentary form. The spear is a mere branch of a tree, to which is tied a piece of bone or flint; the arrow is only a reed treated in the same way. The arrow and spear-heads are always poisoned, to render mortal the slight wounds they inflict. He gathers no flocks, which would impede his movements, and only accepts the help of dogs as wild as himself. The Bushmen have, however, one implement, a rounded stone perforated in the middle, in which is inserted a piece of wood; with this instrument, which carries us back to the first age of man, they dig up a few edible roots growing wild in the desert. To produce fire, he still retains the primitive system of rubbing two pieces of wood--another prehistoric survival."

Touching their name, it is obvious that these scattered groups, without hereditary chiefs or social organisation of any kind, could have no collective designation. The term _Khuai_, of uncertain meaning, but probably to be equated with the Hottentot _Khoi_, "Men," is the name only of a single group, though often applied to the whole race. _Saan_, their Hottentot name, is the plural of Sa, a term also of uncertain origin; _Ba-roa_, current amongst the Be-Chuanas, has not been explained, while the Zulu _Abatwa_ would seem to connect them even by name with Wolf's and Stanley's _Ba-Twa_ of the Congo forest region. Other so-called tribal names (there are no "tribes" in the strict sense of the word) are either nicknames imposed upon them by their neighbours, or else terms taken from the localities, as amongst the Fuegians.

We may conclude with the words of W. J. Sollas: "The more we know of these wonderful little people the more we learn to admire and like them. To many solid virtues--untiring energy, boundless patience, and fertile invention, steadfast courage, devoted loyalty, and family affection--they added a native refinement of manners and a rare aesthetic sense. We may learn from them how far the finer excellences of life may be attained in the hunting stage. In their golden age, before the coming of civilised man, they enjoyed their life to the full, glad with the gladness of primeval creatures. The story of their later days, their extermination and the cruel manner of it, is a tale of horror on which we do not care to dwell. They haunt no more the sunlit veldt, their hunting is over, their nation is destroyed; but they leave behind an imperishable memory, they have immortalised themselves in their art[318]."

FOOTNOTES:

[223] C. Meinhof holds that Proto-Bantu arose through the mixture of a Sudan language with one akin to Fulah. _An Introduction to the Study of African Languages_, 1915, p. 151 sqq.

[224] Bantu, properly Aba-ntu, "people." _Aba_ is one of the numerous personal prefixes, each with its corresponding singular form, which are the cause of so much confusion in Bantu nomenclature. To _aba_, _ab_, _ba_ answers a sing. _umu_, _um_, _mu_, so that sing. _umu-ntu_, _um-ntu_ or _mu-ntu_, a man, a person; plu. _aba-ntu_, _ab-ntu_, ba-ntu. But in some groups mu is also plural, the chief dialectic variants being, _Ama_, _Aba_, _Ma_, _Ba_, _Wa_, _Ova_, _Va_, _Vua_, _U_, _A_, _O_, _Eshi_, as in Ama-Zulu, Mu-Sarongo, Ma-Yomba, Wa-Swahili, Ova-Herero, Vua-Twa, Ba-Suto, Eshi-Kongo. For a tentative classification of African tribes see T. A. Joyce, Art. "Africa: Ethnology," _Ency. Brit._ 1910, p. 329. For the classification of Bantu tongues into 44 groups consult H. H. Johnston, Art. "Bantu Languages," _loc. cit._

[225] _Eth._ Ch. XI.

[226] _Le Naturaliste_, Jan. 1894.

[227] _Tour de Monde_, 1896, I. p. 1 sq.; and _Les Bayas_; _Notes Ethnographiques et Linguistiques_, Paris, 1896.

[228] D. Randall-MacIver, _Mediaeval Rhodesia_, 1906. But R. N. Hall, _Prehistoric Rhodesia_, 1909, strongly opposes this view. See below, p. 105.

[229] Even Tipu Tib, their chief leader and "Prince of Slavers," was a half-caste with distinctly Negroid features.

[230] "Afilo wurde mir vom Lega-Koenig als ein Negerland bezeichnet, welches von einer Galla-Aristokratie beherrscht wird" (_Petermann's Mitt._ 1883, V. p. 194).

[231] The Ba-Hima are herdsmen in Buganda, a sort of aristocracy in Unyoro, a ruling caste in Toro, and the dominant race with dynasties in Ankole. The name varies in different areas.

[232] _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1895, p. 424. For details of the Ba-Hima type see _Eth._ p. 389.

[233] J. Roscoe, _The Northern Bantu_, 1915, p. 103. Herein are also described the _Bakene_, lake dwellers, the _Bagesu_, a cannibal tribe, the _Basoga_ and the Nilotic tribes the _Bateso_ and _Kavirondo_.

[234] J. Roscoe, _loc. cit._ pp. 4, 5.

[235] "A Survey of the Ethnography of Africa," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLIII. 1913, p. 390.

[236] _Handwerk und Industrie in Ostafrika_, 1910, p. 147.

[237] "Die erste Ausbreitung des Menschengeschlechts." _Pol. Anthropol. Revue_, 1909, p. 72. Cf. chronology on p. 14 above.

[238] _Ethnology_, p. 199.

[239] Uganda is the name now applied to the whole Protectorate, Buganda is the small kingdom, Baganda, the people, Muganda, one person, Luganda, the language. H. H. Johnston, _The Uganda Protectorate_, 1902, and J. F. Cunningham, _Uganda and its Peoples_, 1905, cover much of the elementary anthropology of East Central Africa.

[240] The legend is given with much detail by H. M. Stanley in _Through the Dark Continent_, Vol. I. p. 344 sq. Another and less mythical account of the migrations of "the people with a white skin from the far north-east" is quoted from Emin Pasha by the Rev. R. P. Ashe in _Two Kings of Uganda_, p. 336. Here the immigrant Ba-Hima are expressly stated to have "adopted the language of the aborigines" (p. 337).

[241] Sir H. H. Johnston, _op. cit._ p. 514.

[242] Except the Lung-fish clan.

[243] J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, 1911.

[244] For the _Wa-Kikuyu_ see W. S. and K. Routledge, _With a Prehistoric People_, 1910, and C. W. Hobley's papers in the _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XL. 1910, and XLI. 1911. The _Atharaka_ are described by A. M. Champion, _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLII. 1912, p. 68. Consult for this region C. Eliot, _The East Africa Protectorate_, 1905; K. Weule, _Native Life in East Africa_, 1909; C. W. Hobley, _Ethnology of the A-Kamba and other East African Tribes_, 1910; M. Weiss, _Die Voelkerstaemme im Norden Deutsch-Ostafrikas_, 1910; and A. Werner, "The Bantu Coast Tribes of the East Africa Protectorate," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLV. 1915.

[245] _Official Report on the East African Protectorate_, 1897.

[246] _Vocabulary of the Giryama Language_, S.P.C.K. 1897.

[247] _Travels in the Coastlands of British East Africa_, London, 1898, p. 103 sq.

[248] A. Werner, "Girijama Texts," _Zeitschr. f. Kol.-spr._ Oct. 1914.

[249] Having become the chief medium of intercourse throughout the southern Bantu regions, Ki-swahili has been diligently cultivated, especially by the English missionaries, who have wisely discarded the Arab for the Roman characters. There is already an extensive literature, including grammars, dictionaries, translations of the Bible and other works, and even _A History of Rome_ issued by the S.P.C.K. in 1898.

[250] W. E. H. Barrett, "Notes on the Customs and Beliefs of the Wa-Giriama," etc., _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLI. 1911, gives further details. For a full review of the religious beliefs of Bantu tribes see E. S. Hartland, Art. "Bantu and S. Africa," _Ency. of Religion and Ethics_, 1909.

[251] The name still survives in _Zangue-bar_ ("Zang-land") and the adjacent island of _Zanzibar_ (an Indian corruption). _Zang_ is "black," and _bar_ is the same Arabic word, meaning dry land, that we have in _Mala-bar_ on the opposite side of the Indian Ocean. Cf. also _barran wa bahran_, "by land and by sea."

[252] _Viage por Malabar y Costas de Africa_, 1512, translated by the Hon. Henry E. J. Stanley, Hakluyt Society, 1868.

[253] In preference to the more popular form _Zulu-Kafir_, where _Kafir_ is merely the Arabic "Infidel" applied indiscriminately to any people rejecting Islam; hence the _Siah Posh Kafirs_ ("Black-clad Infidels") of Afghanistan; the _Kufra_ oasis in the Sahara, where _Kufra_, plural of _Kafir_, refers to the pagan Tibus of that district; and the Kafirs generally of the East African seaboard. But according to English usage _Zulu_ is applied to the northern part of the territory, mainly Zululand proper and Natal, while Kafirland or Kaffraria is restricted to the southern section between Natal and the Great Kei River. The bulk of these southern "Kafirs" belong to the Xosa connection; hence this term takes the place of _Kafir_, in the compound expression _Zulu-Xosa_. _Ama_ is explained on p. 86, and the _X_ of _Xosa_ represents an unpronounceable combination of a guttural and a lateral click, this with two other clicks (a dental and a palatal) having infected the speech of these Bantus during their long prehistoric wars with the Hottentots or Bushmen. See p. 129.

[254] See p. 86 above.

[255] See the admirable monograph on the Ba-Thonga, by H. A. Junod, _The Life of a South African Tribe_, 1912.

[256] Robert Codrington tells us that these A-Ngoni (Aba-Ngoni) spring from a Zulu tribe which crossed the Zambesi about 1825, and established themselves south-east of L. Tanganyika, but later migrated to the uplands west of L. Nyasa, where they founded three petty states. Others went east of the Livingstone range, and are here still known as Magwangwara. But all became gradually assimilated to the surrounding populations. Intermarrying with the women of the country they preserve their speech, dress, and usages for the first generation in a slightly modified form, although the language of daily intercourse is that of the mothers. Then this class becomes the aristocracy of the whole nation, which henceforth comprises a great part of the aborigines ruled by a privileged caste of Zulu origin, "perpetuated almost entirely among themselves" ("Central Angoniland," _Geograph. Jour._ May, 1898, p. 512). See A. Werner, _The Natives of British Central Africa_, 1906.

[257] Rev. J. Macdonald, _Light in Africa_, p. 194. Among recent works on the Zulu-Xosa tribes may be mentioned Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_, 1904, _Savage Childhood_, 1905; H. A. Junod, _The Life of a South African Tribe_ (Ba-Thonga), 1912-3; G. W. Stow and G. M. Theal, _The Native Races of South Africa_, 1905.

[258] From _Mwana_, lord, master, and _tapa_, to dig, both common Bantu words.

[259] The point was that Portugal had made treaties with this mythical State, in virtue of which she claimed in the "scramble for Africa" all the hinterlands behind her possessions on the east and west coasts (Mozambique and Angola), in fact all South Africa between the Orange and Zambesi rivers. Further details on the "Monomotapa Question" will be found in my monograph on "The Portuguese in South Africa" in Murray's _South Africa, from Arab Domination to British Rule_, 1891, p. 11 sq. Five years later Mr G. McCall Theal also discovered, no doubt independently, the mythical character of Monomotapaland in his book on _The Portuguese in South Africa_, 1896.

[260] _Proc. R. Geogr. Soc._ May, 1892, and _The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland_, 1892.

[261] D. Randall-MacIver, _Mediaeval Rhodesia_, 1906. But R. N. Hall strongly combats his views, _Great Zimbabwe_, 1905, _Prehistoric Rhodesia_, 1909, and _South African Journal of Science_, May, 1912. H. H. Johnston says, "I see nothing inherently improbable in the finding of gold by proto-Arabs in the south-eastern part of Zambezia; nor in the pre-Islamic Arab origin of Zimbabwe," p. 396, "A Survey of the Ethnography of Africa," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLIII. 1913.

[262] G. W. Stow, _The Native Races of South Africa_, 1905.

[263] The British Protectorate was limited in 1905 to about 182,000 square miles.

[264] Cf. A. St H. Gibbons, _Africa South to North through Marotseland_, 1904, and C. W. Mackintosh, _Coillard of the Zambesi_, 1907, with a bibliography.

[265] The Ma-Kololo gave the Ba-Rotse their present name. They were originally Aaelui, but the conquerors called them Ma-Rotse, people of the plain.

[266] _Ten Years North of the Orange River._

[267] Cf. G. M. Theal, _The History of South Africa_ 1908-9, and _The Beginning of South African History_, 1902.

[268] _Op. cit._ p. 47.

[269] G. Lagden, _The Basutos_, 1909.

[270] Variously termed _Ba-Kongo_, _Bashi-Kongo_ or _Ba-Fiot_.

[271] _Towards the Mountains of the Moon_, 1884, p. 128.

[272] _Dictionary and Grammar of the Kongo Language_, 1887, p. xxiii. F. Starr has published a _Bibliography of the Congo Languages_, Bull. V., Dept. of Anthropology, University of Chicago, 1908.

[273] "Li Mociconghi cosi nomati nel suo proprio idioma gli abitanti del reame di Congo" (_Relatione_, etc., Rome, 1591, p. 68). This form is remarkable, being singular (_Moci = Mushi_) instead of plural (_Eshi_); yet it is still currently applied to the rude "Mushi-Kongos" on the south side of the estuary. Their real name however is Bashi-Kongo. See _Brit. Mus. Ethnog. Handbook_, p. 219.

[274] Often written _Ba-Fiort_ with an intrusive _r_.

[275] Under Belgian administration much ethnological work has been undertaken, and published in the _Annales du Musee du Congo_, notably the magnificent monograph on the _Bushongo_ (_Bakuba_) by E. Torday and T. A. Joyce, 1911. See also H. H. Johnston, _George Grenfell and the Congo_, 1908; M. W. Hilton-Simpson, _Land and Peoples of the Kasai_, 1911; E. Torday, _Camp and Tramp in African Wilds_, 1913; J. H. Weeks, _Among Congo Cannibals_, 1913, and _Among the Primitive Bakongo_, 1914; and Adolf Friedrich, Duke of Mecklenburg, _From the Congo to the Niger and the Nile_, 1913.

[276] _The First Ascent of the Kassai_, 1889, p. 20 sq. See also my communication to the _Academy_, April 6, 1889, and _Africa_ (Stanford's Compendium), 1895, Vol. II. p. 117 sq.

[277] _Op. cit._ p. 20.

[278] _The New World of Central Africa_, 1890, p. 466 sq.

[279] _Op. cit._ p. 471.

[280] These _Mpangwe_ savages are constantly confused with the _Mpongwes_ of the Gabun, a settled Bantu people who have been long in close contact, and on friendly terms, with the white traders and missionaries in this district.

[281] The scanty information about the Ba-Teke is given, with references, by E. Torday and T. A. Joyce, "Notes on the Ethnography of the Ba-Huana," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XXXVI. 1906.

[282] My _Africa_, II. p. 58. Oscar Lenz, who perhaps knew them best, says: "Gut gebaut, schlank und kraeftig gewachsen, Hautfarbe viel lichter, manchmal stark ins Gelbe spielend, Haar und Bartwuchs auffallend stark, sehr grosse Kinnbaerte" (_Skizzen aus West-Afrika_, 1878, p. 73).

[283] M. H. Kingsley, _Travels in West Africa_, 1897, pp. 331-2.

[284] _Official Report_, 1886.

[285] H. H. Johnston, _George Grenfell and the Congo ... and Notes on the Cameroons_, 1908.

[286] Reclus, English ed., XII. p. 376.

[287] So also in Minahassa, Celebes, _Empung_, "Grandfather," is the generic name of the gods. "The fundamental ideas of primitive man are the same all the world over. Just as the little black baby of the Negro, the brown baby of the Malay, the yellow baby of the Chinaman are in face and form, in gestures and habits, as well as in the first articulate sounds they mutter, very much alike, so the mind of man, whether he be Aryan or Malay, Mongolian or Negrito, has in the course of its evolution passed through stages which are practically identical" (Sydney J. Hickson, _A Naturalist in North Celebes_, 1889, p. 240).

[288] _Op. cit._ p. 96.

[289] "The God of the Ethiopians," in _Nature_, May 26, 1892.

[290] A. B. Ellis, _Tshi_, p. 23; _Ewe_, p. 31; _Yoruba_, p. 36.