Chapter III: Part 3

While Japanese gardens frequently contain none, the people are wonderfully fond of flowers. Among the favorites are the chrysanthemum, plum blossoms, and cherry blossoms. When these are in bloom every one goes to the places where they grow and delight in their beauty. These flower picnics are looked forward to for months. The cherry and plum trees are covered: “You see no leaves—only one great filmy mass of petals. Japanese chrysanthemums are wonderful; there are many strange or beautiful varieties. At one place in Tokyo, these flowers are wrought into all sorts of curious compositions—men and gods, boats, bridges, castles, etc.”

The Japanese love to hear stories. There are fairy stories for the little people and tales of adventure and history for the larger ones. There are men whose business is story telling. Some of these wander about until they find a good spot, when they will stop and begin the tale; a crowd soon gathers to listen. Others are hired to tell their stories in a story-telling house, where people gather every evening, just as at the theatre.

We have said so much about amusements and festivals that you may think the Japanese are always playing. No indeed, they are hard workers. They cultivate their fields industriously; they have many trades; they are great traders; they are fine artists. Their silk weaving, their metal work, their lacquer work, and their porcelains are famous.

In these last years Japan has made great changes. She has borrowed so much from the whites that they have little left to teach her. To-day she has all our great inventions—telegraphs and telephones, electric lights and railroads; and in borrowing so much that is new she has lost and is losing much—very much—of the happy old life.

XVII.
AINU.

Before the Japanese entered what is now Japan that country was occupied by the Ainu, among the most interesting people of the world. There are not many of them. In Yezo, the northern island of Japan, there are about seventeen thousand, and in the island of Saghalien, formerly Japanese, but now Russian, there are others. They are not like the Japanese, but are considered whites, not Mongolians. The men measure about five feet four inches; the women not more than five feet two inches. Their color is flesh, with a tinge of red or yellow; their eyes are large and do not appear to slant like those of the yellow peoples; their hair is abundant and tangled and they have much beard. Their body is very hairy. They are filthy and rarely wash themselves.

The women tattoo, beginning in girlhood. The patterns are cut in the flesh with a razor and soot is rubbed into the lines; to render the color permanent, water in which ash-tree bark has been steeped is rubbed over the part tattooed. The tattooing first done is at the centre of the upper lip; later the lower lip. The marks are added to from time to time until they cover the upper lip and reach from ear to ear. Such women appear to have a great moustache. After marriage a woman’s forehead may be tattooed, also patterns may be made up the backs of the hands and on the arms, and rings may be tattooed around her fingers.

Ainu clothing is generally made of elm bark, and that worn by men and women is much alike. The bark is stripped from the tree in spring, when it is full of sap. It is soaked in water to separate the inner and outer bark. Fibres are secured from the inner bark, which can be woven like thread into cloth. The men’s garments of this fibre cloth are adorned with patterns embroidered with colored threads; those of women are generally plain.

The Ainu house is rectangular, with a rather frail support and a substantial thatched roof. The roof is built first; then the chief posts of the walls are set and the roof is lifted up and put on them. Ainu houses grow as the family grows. A young married couple build a small house; as they have children a new and larger house is built behind the old one, which remains as a sort of hall; when the family is still larger and richer, the hall is torn down and a larger house is built behind the second one, which now becomes a hall or porch to it. There are two windows and one door in these houses. The windows are on the south and east sides, while the door is at the west end. The east end of the house and its window are sacred; people must not throw things through this window nor spit out of it. Sometimes the men worship the rising sun as they see it through this east window.

The Ainu are hunters and have ingenious ways of capturing or killing animals. In hunting deer they use a little squeaking whistle, the sound of which attracts the animals. They set bows, with arrows on the stretched cord, near trails over which deer and bears pass; in passing, the animal strikes a cord which lets loose a trigger, and the arrow flies. They also set a trap consisting of a stout bow, which, when sprung, shuts two boards tightly together; the foot of the animal is caught between these and held fast. Formerly the Ainu used poisoned arrows in hunting. These had a broad, hollowed point, in which a little of the poisonous paste was stuck. The poison was made from the root of aconite mixed with tobacco, peppers, and poisoned spiders. These, and other substances, were carefully mixed into a gummy paste. At present the Japanese government forbids the Yezo Ainu to use these poisoned arrows.

The bear hunt is looked forward to with anxiety. It is in the spring while snow is yet on the ground. Before starting the hunters pray to their gods for help and direction. Dogs accompany them. When a den is found, there is great excitement. They try to draw the animal out by teasing him with long poles. If he will not come out, one of the men draws his knife, enters the den, and faces the bear. The animal pushes him aside, when the hunter pricks him from behind with his knife. The angry animal then rushes forth, growling and snarling. The hunters and dogs waiting outside soon despatch him, though frequently some one is hurt or killed. The hunters then sit down near the dead bear and say all kinds of pretty things to him, pretending that they are sorry to have killed him, and asking his forgiveness. They then skin him, cut up the meat, carry it home, and have a feast.

At Ainu feasts the men always become dreadfully drunk from drinking rice wine. When he drinks, the Ainu uses a little stick to lift his moustache and keep it from the wine. These moustache lifters are made for the purpose and are frequently neatly carved.

Sometimes Ainu hunters secure a little bear cub, which they carry carefully home. It is fed with the best of food, and treated as a great pet. When it is so big as to be rough and troublesome, they put it in a cage. When it is quite grown, a bear feast is planned. Many guests are invited. The men eat millet-cakes and drink rice wine. After feasting for some time two men noose the bear with ropes and drag him around; the whole company then worry and tease the poor creature, finally choking him, after which they eat him.

The Ainu have many gods. In praying to them they use _inao_. These are little sticks which are so whittled with knives that curls of shavings hang from them. There are several ways of cutting these, and they are believed to please the gods. They are stuck up in the ground and left where prayers are made. Ainu men spend much time whittling these inao.

XVIII.
HINDUS.

The Hindus are but one of the many peoples living in India. They are considered a Caucasic, white people, though their skin is a dark brown and they have black hair and eyes. Their language belongs to the Aryan family, to which most European languages belong.

The dress of the Hindus is too well known to need description. Hindu women are fond of jewelry, and wear rings, arm-rings, ankle rings, earrings, and nose rings of many kinds and made of gold, silver, or brass. The Hindus bear marks stamped upon themselves. Thus a round spot in the middle of the forehead, horizontal lines across the forehead, or perpendicular lines from the root of the nose to the top of the forehead, show to which of the great religious sects the man belongs. These marks are made fresh every morning.

The Hindus are divided into four _castes_, or classes. These are named Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras. There is a yet lower population called Pariahs. The Brahmans are the highest; they are priests or religious men; everybody must yield to them. The Kshatriyas come second, and are soldiers or warriors. The Vaisyas are the traders, or merchant class. The Sudras are the lowest, and are the people who have trades, or are laborers. The Hindus say that these different classes of men came from the body of Brahma, their great god; that the Brahmans came from his mouth; the Kshatriyas from his arm; the Vaisyas from his thigh; and the Sudras from his feet. As for the poor Pariahs, they do not seem to have come from Brahma, and no one has anything to do with them. Each of these castes was so much higher than the next one that they might not even be touched by them without being defiled and needing to be purified. People of different castes might not drink from the same vessel or eat from the same dish. One writer says: “I saw a high-caste Hindu dash an earthen jar of milk upon the ground and break it to atoms, merely because the shadow of a Pariah had fallen upon it as he passed.” Under English government many of these notions in India are passing away. The Pariah’s lot, however, is perhaps as hard as ever.

Many trades are practised in India, some of them most skilfully. Whatever trade a man follows will be that of his son after him, as it was that of his father before him. Hindus are fine weavers, and some of their muslins are delicate and costly. They are glass-makers, potters, carpenters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, brass founders, shell workers, shoemakers, barbers. These trades are carried on in the open streets; the men carry tools with them, and when they secure an order they set up their outfit and fall to work. Among pretty things sold in India are figures in clay representing all sorts of tradesmen at work.

Hindus tame and train elephants as beasts of burden. The native princes, in particular, use them. A palanquin in which the prince sits is mounted on the elephant’s back. These royal elephants are gorgeously decked out, and the palanquin is brilliant with metals and precious stones. Elephants are also employed in caravans and in the exciting tiger hunts.

The Hindus love amusements. They are fond of music and have many curious instruments. Dancing girls dance for the amusement of guests at feasts given in the homes of the wealthy. They usually take their own musicians with them; one of these plays upon a little drum, the other on a kind of guitar. Street exhibitions are frequent. Parties of acrobats go about performing feats. Everyone has heard of the Hindu jugglers. Mr. Ward describes some tricks he saw done. Thus, the juggler spreads a cloth on the ground: in a moment a movement is seen under it: the cloth is raised and under it are pineapples growing. The juggler picks the fruit and presents it to the spectators to show that it is real. Again, he takes a large, clay jar, fills it with water, and turns it upside down to let the water run out; when he turns it up again, it is full of water. Again, he puts a lean dog into a common basket; opening it, he shows the dog with a litter of pups; covering these and opening again, there is a goat; again the basket is put down and raised and shows a live pig; again—and the pig is dead with its throat cut; then he ends the trick by again covering and uncovering, when the pig is seen alive and well. _How_ does he do it? Almost as wonderful as these juggler’s tricks are the performances of the snake charmers. They carry the dreaded, poisonous cobras around in baskets and handle them, playing at the same time on their little flutes, quite as if the creatures were entirely harmless.

Nowhere in the world are there more dreadful religious customs than in India. People there are so crowded that life is hard. The result of this was that parents often destroyed their little babies, particularly girls. Often the mothers themselves threw the little beings into the sacred river, where they were drowned in its waters or were eaten by crocodiles. At the great religious festivals, men tortured themselves fearfully, or threw themselves under the chariot of the god that they might be crushed to death. The dead among the Hindus were usually cremated—burned upon a great open fire of wood. Formerly the widow of the dead man mounted the funeral pyre and was burned with his body. The English government has put an end to many of these practices, and among them this _suttee_, or burning of the widow. It has really done little good, as a widow’s life is so sad that she might almost better die. A widow must shave her head, wear miserable clothing, and serve every one like a slave: she is despised and harshly treated.

Few peoples have caused as much wonder as the Gypsies. With their swarthy complexions, black hair and eyes, and handsome faces, they are a striking type. They love out-door life, and hate to be within walls. They wander from place to place, pitching their tents where fancy leads them. They are tinkers, mending pots and kettles; they are horseshoers, jockeys, horse traders, horse doctors; they tell fortunes, in which almost all of us believe a little, and every one fears them a little. There are many thousands of them in the United States: there are many in Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Poland, and other European countries; they are in North Africa, in Mexico, in Brazil, in India. Everywhere they are the same, and everywhere they talk their own language, the _Romany_. It is believed that they first came from India, and that they are related to the Hindus.

XIX.
TODAS.

In the “hill country” of India live many curious brown peoples whose languages are different from the Aryan tongue of the Hindus. These peoples, called Dravidians, are considered the earliest occupiers of India. Among them no tribe is more curious than the Todas. In some ways they are like the Ainu. Though brown, they are probably really white or Caucasic. They have the features, strong beards, and hairy bodies of whites, and in these respects are like the Ainu.

The Todas live on a tableland whose surface is covered with hills and rolling prairies. The hills are clad with coarse grass, and in some of the valleys are deep forests. The sunshine is bright and warm, and the dry season is long.

The Todas think only of their cattle. They do not hunt—in fact, they have no weapons; they do not cultivate any fields, getting what plant food they use from the Badagas and other neighboring tribes. But they _do_ raise cattle—buffalo. Their villages are located in the midst of pasture land. No village is occupied for a whole year, but the people have always at least two villages and live first in one, then in the other. This is to have fresh pasture for their cattle and to be secure in the wet season. Toda villages contain but few houses, most of which consist of a single room eight feet square; sometimes two or three such rooms are set side by side—these do not open into each other, but each has an outside door. The roofs of these houses are thatched and project a yard or so beyond the house walls. The people sit under the shelter of these projecting roofs while they work or visit. There are no windows or chimneys to the houses. Everything in the house has its proper place—the pestle and mortar for pounding grain, the fireplace, and the raised bank of clay that serves the old people as a sleeping place. Near the house is a pen of stones and mud for the owner’s cattle.

All the cattle of the villages are herded together. There is one dairy for the village, and all the cattle are milked there by special dairymen. After milking, these men give out so much milk as is needed to every one in the village; from the balance they make butter which they divide to the men of the village according to the number of cattle each owns. We have already said that the Todas raise no crops. The Badagas and Kotas live on the land of the Todas; they are stronger and more vigorous than the Todas, and both tribes have weapons and could easily defeat them in battle. But they live in peace with them and pay them, as rent for their land, grains and other produce they need.

We have spoken of the common village herds. There are other (sacred) herds, which are cared for by dairymen priests, who are themselves almost worshipped. The priest has an assistant who cuts wood for him and otherwise serves him. When the priest milks the sacred cows, and he alone may do so, he repeats a prayer. He does the same when he carries the milk into the dairy. The village people treat him and his assistant with great respect and may not touch them, nor any of the implements they use. Men and boys may go to the wall that encloses the dairy buildings, but may not enter. Women may not go near the place.

The cows in the sacred herds have descended from sacred cows of the past. In each herd there is an especially sacred “bell-cow.” This means that she is the owner of an ancient cow-bell which the dairyman priest keeps in the dairy. It belonged to her mother before her and to _her_ mother, and so on back. When a bell-cow dies, the bell has to be put upon her daughter. The priest brings it out from the dairy and waves it around and around the head of the cow morning and night for three days. As he does so he says:—

“What a fine cow your predecessor was.
How well she supported us with milk;
Won’t you supply us in like manner?
You are a god among us.
Do not let the Tirieri[2] go to ruin.
Let one become a thousand!
Let all be well!
Let us have plenty of calves!
Let us have plenty of milk!”

The cow wears the bell for three days and nights, after which it is taken off forever. It is not used again until the old cow dies and her daughter is then made bell-cow in her place.

Footnote 2:

Sacred dairy.

Perhaps you would like to know how the priest fills his time? One day is much like another with him. When he rises he washes his face, hands, and teeth. He makes a little lamp from a leaf and after filling it with butter places five wicks in it. After lighting it he sets it to burn in front of the ancient bells and other sacred objects. He then takes his staff and bamboo milk pail and goes to milk the cows. He salutes them and prays to them before milking. Carrying the milk into the dairy, he sprinkles some drops upon the sacred bells as an offering and repeats the names of the gods. He then makes butter from the milk of the preceding day. His work is now done, and he prepares food for himself and his assistant. This man then drives the herd to pasture and gathers firewood. The last thing before going to sleep at night, the priest puts fresh butter and wicks into the little lamp before the bells.

The Todas have other curious customs, but we have no space to describe them. Their salutations, the naming of children, the yearly feast, when they eat a young buffalo bull (they rarely eat meat at any other time), and their funeral customs are all interesting. Every man who dies among the Todas has _two_ funerals, called the green and the dry funeral, a year apart.

XX.
ANDAMANESE: MINCOPIES.

East of British India and south of Cochin-China in the Bay of Bengal are the Andaman Islands, on which the Mincopies live. They are small in stature, black or _dark_ brown, with broad round heads, and crinkly or woolly hair. They are often called _negritos_, or little negroes.

An Englishman named Man lived for some years in the Andaman Islands and became much interested in the little blacks. He learned their language and has described their customs.

The Mincopies are true savages, living entirely on wild food; they are gentle and non-savage in disposition. The islands are well supplied with food. “The sea which washes their coasts is full of fish and abounds with turtles; the jungles are filled with wild pigs; the bees furnish abundance of wild honey.” From plants they get roots and fruits. They have no cultivated fields and no domestic animals. Although savages, these little people know how to build good houses. These are huts some thirty-five by forty feet; the framework is of posts and poles and the firm thatch is of palm leaves. The huts are arranged about an oval or elliptical cleared space, where they hold their dances. When off on long hunting trips the Mincopies build rude shelters of branches and leaves. In their villages boys and girls, unless they are still babies, do not sleep in the houses with grown persons, but there are two special sleeping houses—one for boys and the other for girls. In the houses of the Mincopies fires are kept burning. It is said that these people do not know how to kindle fire; if this is true, they are almost the only people who are ignorant of this important knowledge. They are careful of the fires they have and feed them well.

Unless they think they have some reason to fear strangers, the Mincopies receive them kindly. The little children are taught to respect visitors. “They are the first served; the best dishes are offered to them; they are accompanied at their departure; before separating they clasp hands, and instead of embracing they blow in each other’s faces; then they engage in an affectionate dialogue. Finally they separate with mutual promises of meeting again.”

The adoption of children is common among Mincopies. It is rare that any child remains with its parents after it is six or seven years old. Some friend of the family wishes to show his friendship and asks to adopt the child. The little one goes to his house and belongs to him. The parents may visit him in his new home, but no longer have any control over him. His new father may do what he likes with him, even to giving him away to some other person who may wish to adopt him. When children are about twelve years of age, they begin a fast, which is kept up until they are almost men and women; during that time they must not eat turtle, pork, fish, or honey. After several years of thus fasting, they may again eat these foods.

There are rules about foods for grown persons, too. During certain parts of the year they must not eat some kinds of roots and fruits; their god Puluga will be displeased if they do. Children must not eat the flesh of the two water animals, the dugong and porpoise. And to _every_ person there is some one kind of food which he must not eat in all his life; this forbidden food differs with the persons.

We have said a good deal about the kindness of the Mincopies: they are not always good. They have their quarrels and battles like the rest of the world. They are quick-tempered and often become angry for a small offence. When a Mincopy _is_ angry, he acts like a naughty child, striking and breaking everything around him, even his own choicest treasures. Trouble sometimes breaks out between two tribes in the midst of a feast. In their wars they destroy and carry off property; they take no prisoners among the men, killing the wounded, but children of the enemy are usually kept alive and kindly treated. Sometimes they try to harm enemies by witchcraft, or conjuring. They think that Puluga dislikes the smell of burning beeswax and will, in his anger, send forth a storm. So, when they know that their enemy is going fishing or hunting, they burn beeswax so that the angry Puluga will send a storm.

Most curious is the funeral of a child among the Andamanese. When a little one dies there is general weeping. Parents and friends paint their bodies with clay; their heads are fresh shaved, and upon them, over the forehead, men place a lump of clay, while women put one upon the top of the head. The mother prepares the little body for burial; she shaves and paints the head, neck, wrists, and knees with red ochre; she then folds the little body together and wraps it in great leaves and binds the bundle thus made with cords. The grave is dug in the floor of the hut, under the fireplace. After gently blowing a few times upon the little face in farewell, the child is buried and the fire is rebuilt over the grave. The mother leaves a few drops of her own milk in a cup on the grave. The hut is then deserted, a garland of rushes being fastened around it to show that a death has taken place. The whole village then moves, that the child’s spirit may not be disturbed. After three months of mourning, they all return. The little skeleton is dug up, the bones are painted red or yellow and distributed as keepsakes to the friends, who wear them as necklaces in memory of the dead child. This seems dreadful to us, but our people often keep locks of hair cut from a dead child’s head; it is the same thing. At this time the lumps of clay, signs of mourning, are removed from the heads and foreheads. Some days later, there is a gathering of all the friends. The father, holding his remaining children in his arms, sings a mourning song: the women take part in the chorus, and all the rest cry noisily. The parents then dance “the dance of tears,” after which they withdraw to the hut. The visitors keep up the dance some hours longer.

XXI.
ARABS.

The old home of the Arabs was Arabia; to-day they are found not only in Arabia, but over half of Asia and all of Northern Africa. Their great wanderings began with the founding of Mohammedanism about the year 622 A.D. Full of zeal, the Arabs carried the new religion in every direction.

The Arab is a white man, but a dark one. His language belongs to the Semitic family and resembles the old Hebrew language. Arabic is a soft and poetical language which is spoken to-day by myriads of people who are not Arabs by blood. The Arab is of moderate stature; he is thin but muscular, and has great endurance; he has a long head and a narrow, oval face; his nose is long, thin, and prominent; his hair and eyes are black.

We always think of the Arab as dwelling in tents. This is only partly true. In Arabia itself about one-fourth of the Arabs are wandering tent-dwellers; in Northern Africa, especially near the great desert, many are nomadic. But everywhere we also find settled, town-inhabiting Arabs also.

The tents of the desert Arabs are large, low, and flat; the covering is a firm wool and camel’s-hair cloth. During the daytime, at least, the sides are raised to permit the air to circulate. These tents are easily taken down and packed, and as easily set up. Desert Arabs have flocks of sheep and herds of goats, camels, and horses. Every one has heard of the beauty, gentleness, and spirit of the Arabian horses—the finest perhaps in the world. Their owners love them and treat them as tenderly as children. Horses are rarely used by Arabs as draught animals or burden bearers, but only for riding. The camel it is upon which the Arab packs his heavy burdens for desert travel. The nomad Arab lives chiefly on food drawn from his flocks and herds. Mutton is his most important meat; couscous is a favorite food (see Kabyles). The nomad Arabs are pillagers, and fall upon caravans of traders to rob them. Still they are hospitable to the stranger who comes to their tent asking shelter; in fact, they treat him with the greatest politeness. A table is set before him; he is given water to wash his hands; the master himself receives the food from the servants and places it before his guest. The Arabs admire strength and agility, and at evening, before their tents, the young men of the encampment practise tumbling, wrestling, hurling, and other feats of strength.

The town Arabs live in comfortable houses. Most of these are of a single story, though some are of two; they enclose a central open court; they are flat-roofed; a large gateway gives entrance to the court, and is high enough for a man on horseback to ride through. The flat house tops make a favorite resting-place in the cool of the day. Streets in Arab towns are narrow, crooked, and filthy. In Arab towns are noticed at once many domes and minarets: the domes usually mark some famous grave; the minarets, mosques. These graves are those of some pious Mohammedan saint. There are thousands of them to which the Arabs flock to say their prayers and to be cured of disease. Often at such tombs dervishes go through with their strange performances. Some pierce themselves with swords, with no signs of pain; others spin around and around on their heels until one wearies of watching them, and wonders why they do not fall.

The town Arab is more particular about his religion than the Bedouin dweller in the desert. He must—and every good Mohammedan _should_—wash his hands before eating; he must pray five times a day with his face turned toward Mecca. Mecca is so sacred to them because it was the home of Mohammed; every Arab and other good Mohammedan tries, once in his life, to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he must see the _Kaabah_, or black-stone. Arabs are much given to pious exclamations. Thus before eating or beginning any business they say _Bismallah_, which means _In God’s name_, and on finishing the meal or successfully completing the business they say _Hamdouallah_, _Praise God_. This piety does not interfere with the town Arab driving hard bargains in business. He loves trade and money. He frequently goes in caravans to trade in other places. The Arabs, too, are the slave-traders in Africa. This cruel business has not yet been stopped completely. The traders buy negroes where they can, and hunt them almost like wild animals when they cannot buy them. In some places the hunted beings take refuge in trees, which have been prepared as places of safety from which they defend themselves.

Formerly the Arabs were more important than now. Seven or eight hundred years ago Arabia was the world’s centre of learning—or at least the Arab cities were. At a time, when Europe had lost much of what she once possessed, the Arab world was full of philosophers, physicians, poets, and astrologers. From the Arabs Europe gained much of the knowledge that we now possess. But those bright days of Arabian glory are past. To-day the boys in Arab schools learn little but reading, writing, and arithmetic. They learn long passages from the Koran—the sacred book of Mohammedanism. The little fellows—for girls do not go to school—sit on the floor, and all study aloud, the louder the better, because then the teacher will know that they _are_ studying.

XXII.
THE PEOPLES OF AFRICA: KABYLES.

We rightly think of Africa as the home of the negroes, but it is a mistake to think that no other peoples dwell in that continent. The peoples of North Africa are white peoples; their complexions are often dark, but in head, form, features, and character they are like Europeans, rather than negroes. There are many types in North Africa. There are the modern Egyptians, who look like their great and famous distant ancestors; there are the Berbers and Kabyles, of whom we shall say more later; there are Arabs; there are “Jews,” especially in Algeria, Morocco, and the other Barbary States; there are Moors also, who are a mixed people with some negro blood.

True Negro-Africa begins near the Equator and stretches southward. The Sudan is the great negro country. There are four areas in this Sudanese negro belt: the upper Nile valley, the Sudan proper, the Senegambian district, and Guinea. In these four sections the people are negroes, though here and there somewhat mixed. Most of Africa south of this negro belt is occupied by negroids, who consist of many tribes and resemble negroes in their narrow heads and woolly hair; they are, however, less dark in color, more graceful in build, and more intelligent. Scattered here and there in Equatorial Africa are bands of Pygmies, men and women among whom are like boys and girls among us in size. In far Southern Africa live the Bushmen and Hottentots, among negroid tribes.

The Kabyles are among the most interesting of North African peoples. There are two types, the dark and the light Kabyles. The latter have light skin, fair hair, blue eyes, and much resemble the light whites of Europe. The Kabyles are tall, well built, and active. They are industrious and love labor. They are a mountain people and love their home. Their towns are located upon the slopes or on the summits. The houses are usually of one story and have flat roofs. There are two rooms,—one for the family and the other for the animals. When there are two stories to a house, it shows that the owner has a married son living with him; the upper story has been built above the old house for the young couple. A little garden always surrounds the house. The Kabyl country is rather cold, and the houses are not widely separated, so that they assist in protecting each other against the winds. In winter the family lives in a sort of cellar under the house.

The Kabyles work hard to raise their little crops. Their fields are down in valleys or are terraced out on the hill slopes. They raise barley, wheat, gourds, cucumbers, and melons; they raise flax; they have some common cultivated plants that have been introduced from Mexico, as the prickly-pear cactus, maguey, maize, tobacco, and potato. The prickly pear and maguey are so common that landscapes in Algeria resemble those of Mexico. The Kabyles raise apples, pears, apricots, olives, figs, grapes, and nuts. They keep bees, and have quite a trade in wax. The men are good workers in metals and leather, and trade their wares to their neighbors.

The women, like all women in the Mohammedan world, delight in jewelry and ornaments, and as they are not wearers of veils they have a good chance to display their treasures. Couscous is a favorite food in Northern Africa, not only among Kabyles, but Arabs and other peoples. Kabyl women spend much of their time in its preparation. Flour is mixed with water into a sort of thick dough, which is divided into little masses which are rolled between the fingers. These little pellets, almost like seeds, they steam and eat with bits of meat and hot, peppery sauce.

The Kabyles love horseback riding, and are bold hunters. They fight bravely in defence of their homes. Among their amusements, perhaps falconry stands first. The falcon, you know, is a bird much like a hawk, which is trained to chase and kill or capture smaller birds or animals. It is carried to the field by the hunter on horseback. The bird is perched upon its master’s wrist, and is blinded by a hood over its head. When the hunter sees game, he unhoods the falcon and lets it fly after the victim.

XXIII.
NEGROES.

We have already spoken of the district of true negroes. In the Sudan they are at their best and purest type. The skin is almost black; the head long and narrow; the face narrow; the hair kinky and woolly. The lower part of the face projects far beyond the upper part. The lips are thick. Negroes have an odor which is peculiar to them, and which most white persons dislike. Many of the negro tribes are composed of persons who are tall, strong, and well built.

Almost all negroes are agriculturists, living in settled villages. Their houses are usually round huts. The Bongo of the upper Nile build huts about twenty feet in diameter and the same in height, which are firm and well built, though made only of poles and thatch. The entrance is so low that one crawls into the hut on hands and knees. On the conical roof are built benches of straw, on which persons sit to overlook and guard the planted fields. The floor inside the hut is made of hard, well-beaten clay. Skins of animals serve as beds. The Wolofs of the Sudan make very similar huts, but do not construct the seats on the roof. Among both tribes they build little granaries near the huts; these are made of basketwork and are set up on posts to place them out of reach of animals.

The African negroes are fond of bright colors and tawdry ornaments. Objects of metal and glass beads are particularly prized. They use rings of iron, copper, and brass of all sizes for the arms, legs, and fingers. Sometimes so many rings will be put upon the arms that they completely cover them. The negroes in some tribes pierce ears, noses, and lips for inserting ornaments. The Bongo women, for example, pierce a series of holes along the rim of each ear, along the edges of the nose, and at the corners of the mouth, and through each hole they thrust a short bit of grass stalk. The men in negro tribes often bear a tribal mark; this is usually the scar or scars left by cutting lines or patterns on the face or chest. Thus the mark of one tribe might be three cuts across each cheek; that of another a pattern of criss-cross lines upon the forehead; another tribe in the central lake district had a line of wart-like swellings, at equal distances from each other, extending from the root of the nose to the top of the forehead. All these tribal marks were cut in childhood, and the cutting must have been painful. It is said that the Bornu baby boys have one hundred and three cuts made on their little bodies for their tribal sign.

African negroes often dress their hair into strange and curious forms, as do also the neighboring negroids. They build it up into great horns, train it out in little strings, the ends of which they fasten to a wooden ring, build it into thick mats or wigs, and insert all sorts of fibres, beads, and ornaments in it. Of course such carefully trained hair must not be spoiled by lying on it, so they have the same sort of wooden pillows as the Fiji Islanders, to keep the head off the ground.

These wooden pillows are often decorated with carvings of human and animal figures. Many negroes delight in wood-carving and sometimes make strange masses of many human and animal figures crowded together in the most curious way. These they paint in bright colors. Near the west coast of Africa several tribes are ivory carvers, and their artists will cover an elephant’s tusk with human figures, animal forms, and geometrical designs; no space will be lost; every spot will be filled.

Most of the negro tribes know how to weave, and some of their cloth made from grass or vegetable fibres is closely and well woven. The most remarkable art of the negroes, however, is their working of iron. They know how to get iron from its ore and to work it into desired forms. They build a little conical smelting furnace or oven of clay, into which they put their fuel and ore. They then blow air through the fire with their rude bellows. This consists of two earthen vessels, or boxes of some sort, over the top of which bladders or skin are tied; tubes lead from these vessels and the lower end of a stick is tied to the middle of each bladder covering. The smith takes the upper ends of the sticks in his hands and works them up and down, first one and then the other. He thus forces air first into one tube and then into the other: these two tubes end in a single clay tube which conducts the air into the furnace. After the blacksmith gets his iron from the ore he works it with heat and beating to the forms wanted. At Benin City, which was at the head of a dreadful negro kingdom, they had learned how to cast bronze and made wonderful objects in it. They made rings, bells, animal figures, plaques with human figures represented on them, and masks of the human head of life size.

Negroes love music and have many instruments, not only rattles, drums, whistles, flutes, and trumpets, but stringed instruments also. In some tribes there are wandering minstrels, who go from place to place playing on their three-stringed guitar and singing songs in praise of the chief or king whom they visit. They sing in his praise if he pays them well; if, however, he is stingy, their songs make bitter fun of him. These minstrels are either men or women: they are feared and disliked, but well treated, as no one wishes to gain their ill will.

Some of the most brutal and cruel acts in the world are done among negro kingdoms like Ashanti, Dahomey, and Benin. No human life is there safe. The king orders instant death to those who offend him. The executioner’s knife is kept busy. Cruel butcheries are connected with their religion, and sometimes the king will have dozens, scores, or even hundreds of men killed to carry messages to his dead father. It is also among negroes that we find cannibalism existing in revolting forms and frightful belief in witchcraft. Any old man or old woman may be accused, at any time, of being a witch: it takes little to prove their guilt, and they are speedily executed.

Negroes often believe that some men can change themselves into wild animals and then resume their own form. They are especially afraid of man-leopards: not unfrequently men who have been thought to be such have been executed. We cannot, however, blame the negroes much for such ideas. Not long ago white Europeans generally believed in werewolves (or manwolves), and there are still districts in Europe where such beliefs exist.

Many African negroes wear charms to protect themselves against harm. Such charms are called _gri-gris_. Almost anything may be a gri-gri: a part of some animal, a plant, a curious stone. Where the negroes have had much to do with Arabs or other Mohammedans a favorite gri-gri is a verse from the Koran, written on paper done up in a little leathern pouch and hung about the neck. Sometimes a man will be almost covered with gri-gris. He may have so many “as to weigh thirty pounds,” and they may hamper him so “that he must be helped in mounting a horse.”

We have already told you that the Arabs still hunt negro slaves. Many of the negro tribes themselves keep slaves—thus the Wolofs do so. They, however, treat their slaves more kindly than the Arabs do.

XXIV.
NEGROIDS.

The negroids of Southern and Eastern Africa resemble the negroes. They are generally tall; they have a fine dark brown color, long narrow heads, hair less kinky and woolly than the negroes, flat nose and thick lips. They do not have the negro’s odor. The negroids comprise many different tribes, but all speak related languages known as the Bantu languages. The tribes we shall consider are the Zulus, Kaffirs, and Waganda.

The Zulus and Kaffirs wear generally but little clothing. A man wears a cord about the waist with flaps of leather hanging from it in front and behind; the woman wears a fringed girdle about her waist. Sometimes they wear a mantle of hairy skins. At great festivals the men deck themselves finely. A traveller, describing a young man who was going visiting, says: “He will wear furs, among them the Angora goat; feathers in his head-dress; globular tufts of beautiful feathers on his forehead or at the back of his head; eagle feathers in fine head-dresses, as also ostrich, lory, and peacock feathers. He ties so many tufts and tails to his waist girdle that he may almost be said to wear a kilt.”

The negroids, like the negroes, are agriculturists and live in towns of huts. Some tribes are raisers of cattle and have large herds that yield milk, meat, and skins. They are hunters, too, and that on a large scale. They set up long hedges or lines of brush and stakes, which converge toward certain points where they dig pits and cover them. They then scatter over a large district and beat it, scaring in the animals and driving them between the lines of brush into the pits, where they easily kill them.

The two great weapons of the southern negroids are the _kerry_ and the _assegai_. The kerry is a short wooden club with a knob at the end. This is thrown at the game. The assegai is a spear, the shaft of which is long and slender and the head of which, made of iron, is long and wide. Assegais are used all through South and Central Africa. The form and size of the blade varies with tribes: sometimes it is two feet in length and several inches across. Mrs. French-Sheldon saw the assegai maker, in one tribe she visited, using a natural leaf as his pattern, and he was careful to exactly copy its form. Both negro and negroid tribes in some parts of Africa, especially Western Central Africa, use throwing-knives; they are made from a flat piece of iron, worked into several blades projecting in different directions. They are thrown through the air, and some one of the ugly blades is quite sure to strike.

Kaffirs and Zulus make long oval shields almost as tall as themselves, for protection in battle. A cowskin, with the hair on, is stretched over a light and simple wooden frame. Each great section of Africans has its own kind of shield. The Niam-Niams and some Congo tribes weave beautiful close and light shields of wicker or basket work; they are long and narrow, and protect the whole body. The splints of which they are woven differ in color and are worked into rather handsome patterns. In Nubia they use shields made of thick and heavy hide, like elephant or rhinoceros hide; these are circular, not very large, and have a round or conical knob or boss raised at the centre.

Kaffirs and Zulus are fond of war and are brave in battle. They have war dances in which they are inflamed for the fray. A Kaffir who slays an enemy may have a great gash cut in his leg on his return home to show that fact. The scars of such gashes are objects of great pride. The Kaffirs are fine speakers and their speeches on important occasions are stirring and impressive. Like negroes, the negroids delight in music and have many instruments. None, however, is a greater favorite than the noisy drum.

Among Zulus and Kaffirs, the sorcerer is much feared and dreaded. When men are ill, or in trouble, they go to him for help and advice. He goes through with many strange performances. The people believe that he can detect thieves and find stolen property, that he can bewitch and cure bewitchment; he is frequently, also, a rain-maker. There is much jealousy between the sorcerers or rain-makers in a tribe, and they sometimes challenge each other to tests of their power. The description of such a test between two rain-makers, in one of Rider Haggard’s books, is probably true to life.

XXV.
PYGMIES.

Many centuries ago, the Greek writers, Homer, Herodotus, and Aristotle, spoke of dwarf peoples, whom they called _Pygmies_, living in Africa. On an ancient Egyptian wall there is painted a queer little dwarf-like figure with the word _Akka_ written near it. It is plain that little African peoples were known both to the Greeks and Egyptians. But for hundreds of years after the old Greek writers and Egyptian artists were dead, no one believed in real Pygmies. Every one felt that the accounts of them were “travellers’ lies,” told to amuse people. But travellers who have been going into Africa during the last two hundred years and more have from time to time told us of such tribes, and to-day there can be no doubt of their existence. There are really Pygmies, and they are curious and interesting.

When the great German traveller Schweinfurth was visiting King Munza of the Monbuttus in “the heart of Africa,” he learned that tribes of Pygmies lived near. There were nine clusters of them, and they were called _Akkas_—just like the little creature represented on the old Egyptian wall—and each cluster had its own chief. At one time Schweinfurth saw several hundred of these little people together. Munza traded one of these Pygmies, whose name was Neevoué, to Schweinfurth. The traveller was kind to the little fellow, and wanted to take him to Germany, but Neevoué died in Egypt. He was a cruel little creature, not very bright, and had great difficulty in learning. Later on, in Ashango Land, much farther to the west, Du Chaillu found the dwarf Obongos, whom he described, and whose houses he pictured. An Italian traveller named Miani secured two Akkas in trade. He planned to take them to Italy, but he died on his journey home. His two Pygmies, however, reached Italy, where a kind-hearted nobleman took care of them. They were gay and happy, though fitful, and were rather quick to learn; they learned to speak, read, and write Italian.

So much was known about the Pygmies before Stanley’s journey. He saw many of them, and tells a good deal about them and their life. The Akkas were the tribe he saw. They measure from three feet to four feet and six inches; a full-grown man weighs about ninety pounds. Some of them have long heads, long, narrow faces, small, reddish eyes placed near together, and are sour looking and morose. The others have round faces with fine, large, bright eyes placed wide apart, high foreheads, skin of a rich ivory-yellow color. All African Pygmies seem to have their bodies covered with short, rather stiff, grayish hair. Stanley says the Akkas place their villages near the towns of bigger people, and that sometimes eight to twelve Pygmy villages will surround one negro (or negroid) town. These Pygmies are lively and active; they do not cultivate any plants, but devote themselves to hunting.

They use little bows and arrows, and small spears. The tips of the arrows and spears are often poisoned. With these weapons these little folk attack and kill antelopes, buffalo, and even elephants. They dig pitfalls and make traps. Some of their traps are like sheds, the roofs of which are held in place by vines; bananas and nuts are placed in these as bait; when chimpanzees or other animals try to take the bait, the roof falls. The Pygmies catch birds for their feathers, and hunt for wild honey.

The Pygmies use two kinds of arrow poison. One is dark and thick and made from the leaves of a plant quite like our Jack-in-the-pulpit or Indian turnip. The other is believed to be made from red ants,—which are dried and crushed to powder,—mixed with palm oil. Both are said to act quickly when fresh. Stanley mentions one man who died within one minute from a small wound in his right arm and chest. When the poison is old it acts less rapidly.