Chapter XXXII: Part I: Ethnology (3)

Then come the tribes of the islands between the Gambia and Sierra Leone; as also of the lower part of the rivers Grande, Nuñez, Casamanca, &c. Under the names of _Felups_, _Papels_, _Nalus_, _Sapis_, _&c._, and we have some of the rudest, but at the same time, the least known of the western negroes.

Between Sierra Leone and Cape Palmas, along with several populations more or less akin to the Mandingo, lie the _Krumen_, whom a writer already quoted, calls the Scotchmen of Africa. The Kruman leaves without hesitation or reluctance his own country to push his fortune wherever he can find a wider field. He is ready for any employment which may enable him to increase his means, and ensure a return home in a state of improved prosperity. There the Kruman’s ambition is to purchase one or two head of cattle, and one or two head of wives, and to enjoy the luxuries of rum and tobacco. Half the Africans that we see in Liverpool and London are Krumen, who have left their own country when young, and taken employment on board a ship, where they exhibit a natural aptitude for the sea. Without being nice as to the destination of the vessel in which they engage, they return home as soon as they can; and rarely or never contract matrimony before their return. In Cape Coast Town, as well as in Sierra Leone, they form a bachelor community quiet and orderly; and in that respect stand in strong contrast to the other tribes, around them. Besides which, with all their blackness, and all their typical negro character, they are distinguishable from most other western Africans; having the advantage of them in make, features, and industry. Hence, a Kruman is preëminently the _free labourer_ of Africa; quick of perception and amenable to instruction. His language is the _Grebo_ tongue, and it has been reduced to writing by the American missionaries of Cape Palmas.

The Gold Coast gives as the chief populations the _Fantis_, and the _Ashantis_, pagan and negro; the latter remarkable for the consolidation of one of the more powerful kingdoms of Africa.

In _Dahomey_ we reach the _nadir_ of Negro rudeness; in Dahomey, where the wars are the cruelest, the slave trade the most rife, and the heathenism, at one and the same time eminently debasing in itself, and eminently unmodified by Mahometanism.

In the neighbouring kingdom of _Yoruba_, this is not so much the case, where the influence of the Fellatas has made itself felt.

This brings us to the Delta of the Niger, the chief population of which is the _Ibo_.

South of the Delta come the negroes of the Gaboon, and south of these those of Loango, Angola, and Benguela. Between this last-named country and Walvisch Bay, the type changes to that of the browner-coloured Caffres, and the Hottentots. The _language_ changed long before--in the parts between the Gaboon and the old Calabar rivers.

I do not profess that scientific imperturbability which enables me to write about such abominations as human sacrifice, and such follies as snake-worship, without branding them and the nations that adopt them as barbarous. They belong, however, to the darker side of the picture. The brighter gives us something better; warmth of domestic feeling, aptitude for such commercial dealings as their circumstances develop, adaptation to the habits of the European, susceptibility to the ameliorating influences both of Mahometanism and Christianity, are all negro characteristics.

We have noticed the character of the Kruman, we will now notice a negro tribe wherein an _alphabet_ has been evolved. A man of the _Vey_ country, to the back of Liberia, a truly negro locality, named Doala Bakara, having seen both Arabic and English books, conceived the idea of producing an alphabet for his own tongue. This idea, as he tells the story himself, haunted him in a dream, wherein he was shown a series of signs of letters. These he forgot in the morning; but remembered the impression. So he consulted his friends; and they and he, laying their heads together, coined new ones. The king of the country made its introduction a matter of state, and built a large house as a day-school. The effect of this has been, that a book in the Vey tongue has been deciphered by an English scholar, and that several Vey natives, of both sexes can read and write. The alphabet itself is a _syllabarium_; _i.e._ there is a separate sign or letter, for the different _syllables_ of which a word consists--not for the different elementary sounds.

The darker individuals of the group before us have furnished a text upon which a general sketch of the negro population of Western Africa has been the commentary. Let us now turn to the men of the lighter complexion, and the less prominent lips. They are _Fellatas_, _Fellatahs_, or _Falatiya_. Sometimes they are called _Fellatiya Arabs_; but they have nothing to do with the Arab of Arabia except so far as they are Mahometans in creed, and somewhat light-complexioned in respect to their colour.

The metropolis of the Fellatas is Sakkatu, visited by Clapperton, from whom the following remarkable history is taken:--Towards the end of the last century a vast number of wandering pastoral tribes spread over that part of Central Africa, which is called _Sudania_--underwent a change in respect to the social and political organisation, which Prichard compares with that of the Arabs at the time of Mahomet. Many--but not all--of them embraced Mahometanism, and that with more than ordinary zeal and devotion. They visited the more civilised parts of Barbary, they performed pilgrimages to Mecca, they recognised in one of their sheiks, called Danfodio, a prophet with a mission, to preach, to convert, to conquer. Under his inspiration they attacked the pagan population of the countries around--Guber to the north, and Kubbi to the south, Zamfra, Kashna, and parts of the Houssa country to the east. Their war-cry was _Allah Akbar_; their robes and flags white, emblematic of their purity. Kano was conquered without a blow, so was Yaouri, so was the town of Eyo or Katunga on the Niger, so was part of the Nufi or Tapua country--even the frontier of Bornou was violated.

Danfodio’s death, which took place in 1818, was preceded by fits of religious madness; not, however, before he had consolidated a great Fellatah kingdom, and become the terror to the states around. It was in vain that a portion of his conquests revolted. The present Sultan of Sakkatu, Mohammed Bello, is the most powerful prince of Africa, whether pagan or Mahometan.

Most of these Fellatas are Mahometans, some retaining their original paganism; but whether pagan or Mahometan, they are still the same people. Their features are the same, their pastoral habits the same, their language the same. This is one of the most isolated tongues of Africa; with plenty of miscellaneous, but no very definite or special affinities.

In _Borgho_, _i. e._ in the parts about Boussa, and Wawa, visited by Lander, there are two populations, one speaking a language akin to the _Yoruba_, one akin to the Fellatah; so that there Fellata offsets in Borgho. But here, according to Lander, they have been in the country from time immemorial. Here, too, they hold themselves as a separate people from the Fellatas of Sakkatu, dominant and powerful as that branch is, and respectable as would be the connexion. Such, at least, is Lander’s statement. Their name, too, undergoes a slight modification, and is _Filani_. They have neither idea nor tradition as to the origin--not at least the _Filani_ of Borgho.

All this looks as if Borgho were the original country of the Fellata stock, the starting-point from which they spread themselves abroad, If so, their movement must have been from south to north.

But we have yet to hear the whole of their history. Under the names of _Fula_, _Fulahs_, _Foule_ or _Peule_, they appear elsewhere. Where?--As far north as the Wolof (or Jolof) country--as far north as the parts between the Senegal and the desert--as far north as 17 N. L. Here between Galam and Kayor is a vast Fula district--the district of the Fulas of the Siratik. There on the south bank of the river lie the Fulas of Foutatorro, an elevated tract of land forming the watershed to the Senegal and the Gambia.

Thirdly, far in the interior, on the high ground over which Park passed from the drainage of the Senegal to that of the Niger, is a Fula-_du_, or country of the Fulas, between Bambuk and Bambarra.

Fourthly, there are the Fulas to the south of Bammakoo, in the parts called Wasselah, on the Niger itself.

Fifthly, in 11 N. L., on the head-water of the Rio Grande, is the large kingdom of the Fouta-jallo Fulahs, of which Timbu is the metropolis, surrounded by dry and rocky deserts, and exposed mountain pastures, prolific with sheep, oxen, goats, and horses. Here, although the use of the plough is unknown, the occupants cultivate the soil, and exercise more than one of the mechanical arts. They forge iron and silver, weave, and tan, and support schools and mosques. To the south lies the Sulimana tribe, more or less akin to the Mandingoes. From these, Laing learnt, that the acquisition of the country about Tembu by the Fulas of Futa-jallo was an event of no great antiquity, having taken place about A.D. 1700.

There are other Fula, Fellata, and Filani localities, but an enumeration of the foregoing has been sufficient. It shows the vast space of ground covered by the population so-called. It shows, too, the difficulty of ascertaining the original mother country. Indeed, upon the whole, this is a point upon which good writers are satisfied to suspend their judgment--no one having committed himself very decidedly to a preference for one district over another.

The main facts lie in the superiority of their organisation over the ordinary negro, and their higher civilisation--this being chiefly due to their Mahometanism. There is no doubt as to either. Although, the particular shade of the particular colour which best suits the Fula is not a matter upon which authors write with unanimity; the testimony of all observers goes to the fact that, whether Filani or Fellata, Fellata or Fula, whether pagan or Mahometan, whether Sudanian or Senegambian, whether mountaineer or desert-born, the Fula is something different from the typical Negro. Sometimes his complexion is intermediate to that of the African and the Moor; sometimes he is described as being tawny, with soft hair, and lips by no means prominent: sometimes the skin is of a reddish-black, the countenances being regular. “The tribe of Fulas,” writes Golberry, “which under the name of Foules or Peuls, have peopled the borders of the Senegal between Podhon and Galam, are black with a tinge of red or copper colour; they are in general handsome and well-made; the women are handsome, but proud and indolent.”

To the Fula-jallo Fulas the very definite and suggestive term “Red Peuls” has been applied; to which the name “Black Peuls” stands in opposition, this meaning the Fulas of the north bank of the lower Senegal.

What is our inference from these discrepancies of description--what our inference from the points of agreement? Even this[42]--that the Fula complexion varies with the physical conditions of the Fula locality. In the high and exposed tracts of Fula-jallo it is the least, in the lower levels of the parts about lake Kayor, it is most like that of the negro.

[42] For further details, see Prichard, _Researches, &c._, vol. ii.
pp. 66-73, and 121-125.

GROUP VIII.

SOUTHERN AFRICA.--NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE CAPE.--PORT NATAL.

A. ZULUS. (THE TALLER AND DARKER.) B. BUSHMEN. (THE SHORTER AND BROWNER.)

A. The Zulu group is taken from life--from the men lately exhibited at St. George’s Hall. The story told is the search for some lost article. When this is the case, a _Fetish-man_, _medium-man_, _mystery-man_, or _conjuror_ (we may choose our name), is called in, and set upon the suspected parties, who sit round in a circle. The conjuror then works himself, like the Pythoness of the old oracles, into a state of rabid excitement, and keeps it up until he fixes upon the culprit.

Nothing is less peculiar than this practice throughout Africa--throughout, indeed, most savage countries; nor is it without its value. Writing about the same practice on the Gold Coast, an author already quoted, after stating the “superstitious rites employed by the Fetish-men for the detection of crime,” adds, “and whether it is that these people really possess such powerful influence over their wretched dupes, as to frighten into confession of his guilt the perpetrator of crime, or whether it is that they manage by their numerous spies to obtain a clue sufficient in most cases to lead to the detection of the person, is more than I can venture to assert; but, be the means employed what they may, a Fetish-man will assuredly very often bring a crime home to the right person, even after the most patient investigation in the ordinary way has failed to elicit the slightest clue.”

The Zulus come from the part about Port Natal. They are closely allied, in language, at least, to the Kaffres--the Kaffres of the Amakosa, Amaponda, Amatembu, and other tribes, but too well known to the Cape Colonist and the English tax-payer.

They are similarly allied to the Bechuana tribes of the interior. The Bechuanas, however, are browner in colour, as is expected from their locality, which is high and dry.

The Fingoes are also an allied population.

The differences between the Proper Kaffres, the Bechuanas, the Fingoes, and the Zulus, lie within a small compass, so that the general likeness is pretty clear. But neither the differences nor the likenesses between the populations akin to the Kaffres end here.

The word (the derivation of which has been given elsewhere) has two meanings. It means, in its more limited sense, the Kaffres of Caffraria, chiefly of the Amakosa tribe, the men who have given so much trouble to the colonists. But it also has a wider or more general signification, and in this case it serves as the designation of a large family of allied populations--and a very large family--one of the largest in Africa.

The connecting link between its numerous branches is the language, of which the structure has (amongst others) the following characteristic peculiarities. Suppose that in English, instead of saying

_M_an’s _d_og, we said _d_an _d_og,
_S_un’s _b_eam--_b_un _b_eam,
_F_ather’s _d_aughter--_d_ather _d_aughter,
_D_aughter’s father--_f_aughter _f_ather;

in such a case we should accommodate the sound of the word in the possessive case to that with which the word in the nominative case began. And if we did this, we should assuredly do something very remarkable in the way of speech. Now the Kaffre tongues _all_ do this. It is done by the Amakosa, the Zulu, the Fingo, the Bechuana. It is done by the languages on the _western_ coast as far as the Cameroons, _i.e._, to the north of the equator--by the languages of Benguela, Angola, Congo, Loango, and the Gaboon, &c. It is done by the languages on the _eastern_ coast as well; indeed, it was very probably done by the language of the Moegurras. It is done, so far as we know, by all the languages of the interior south of the equator--save and except those of the Hottentot class. It is certainly done by the languages of the Great Lake Ngami.

The Kaffre division, then, is a large one; and it is based, chiefly, on similarity of language. In physical form, the range of difference is great. Some of the Kaffres are truly negro, others brown in colour, and with lips of moderate thickness. The Zulus before us certainly approach the negro.

On the other hand, more than one good writer has enlarged upon the points of contrast; and such there certainly are, if we take the more extreme forms--the typical Kaffre and typical Negro. In the latter, for instance, the skin (as aforesaid) may be brown rather than black. Then the cheek-bones may project outwards; and where the cheek-bones so project beyond a certain limit, the chin appears to taper downwards, and the vertex upwards. When this becomes exaggerated, we hear of _lozenge-shaped_ skulls. Be this as it may, the breadth in the malar portion of the face is often a remarkable feature in the Kaffre physiognomy. This he has in common with the Hottentot. Sometimes, too, the eye is oblique; the opening generally narrow.

An opinion often gives a better picture than a description. Kaffres, that have receded in the greatest degree from the negro type, have been so likened to the more southern Arabs, as to have engendered the hypothesis of an infusion of Arab blood.

The manners of the Kaffres of the Cape are those of pastoral tribes under chieftains; tribes which, from their habits and social relations, are naturally active, locomotive, warlike, and jealous of encroachment.

It would be strange indeed if the Kaffre life and Kaffre physiognomy had no peculiarities. However little in the way of physical influence we may attribute to the geography of a country, no man ignores them altogether. Now Kaffreland has very nearly a latitude of its own; inhabited lands similarly related to the southern tropic being found in South America and Australia only. And it has a soil still more exclusively South-African. We connect the idea of the _desert_ with that of sand; whilst _steppe_ is a term which is limited to the vast tracts of central Asia. Now the Kaffre, and still more the Hottentot, area, dry like the desert, and elevated like the steppe, is called a _karro_. Its soil is often a hard, cracked, and parched clay rather than a waste of sand, and it constitutes an argillaceous table-land.

Their polity and manners, too, are peculiar. The head-man of the village settles disputes, his tribunal being in the open air. From him an appeal lies to a chief of higher power; and from him to some superior, higher still. In this way there is a long chain of feudal or semi-feudal dependency.

The wife is the slave to the husband; and he _buys_ her in order that she should be so. The purchase implies a seller. This is always a member of another tribe. Hence the wish of a Kaffre is to see his wife the mother of many children, girls being more valuable than boys.

Why a man should not sell his offspring to the members of his own tribe is uncertain. It is clear, however, that the practice of doing so makes marriage between even distant relations next to impossible. To guard against the chances of this, a rigid and suspicious system of restraint has been developed in cases of consanguinity; and relations must do all they can to avoid meeting. To sit in the same room, to meet on the same road, is undesirable. To converse is but just allowable, and then all who choose must hear what is said. So thorough, however, has been the isolation in many cases, that persons of different sexes have lived as near neighbours for many years without having conversed with each other; and such communication as there has been, has taken place through the medium of a third person. No gift will induce a Kaffre female to violate this law.

B. The Bushmen, too, are taken from life, the two children being in England at the present time.

Just as the Zulu belongs to the Kaffre, the Bushman belongs to the Hottentot family--the latter family being a large one; not so large, however, as the former. The present Hottentot districts, wholly surrounded by the Kaffre, lie on the _western_ rather than _eastern_ side of South Africa, and extend from the parts about Valvisch Bay to the Cape; the original population of the last-named locality having become well-nigh extinct.

How has this extinction been effected? In two ways. By the European settlers of the colony---Dutch and English, English and Dutch; by the Kaffres, who have ever spread southwards. Before these encroachments had taken effect, there were Hottentot tribes on the eastern as well as the _western_ coast, on _both_ sides of South Africa. Now there are none, either on the side of the Pacific, or in the parts about the Cape itself--except (of course) so far as they are mixed up with the colonial population.

The names (all or some) of the extinct branches of the Hottentot family are as follows:--

1. Gunyeman, nearest the Cape.

2. Kokha_qua_, north of the Gunyeman.

3. Sussa_qua_, Saldanha Bay.

4. Odi_qua_.

5. Khirigri_quas_, on Elephants’ River.

6. Koopmans.

7. Hessa_quas_.

8. Son_quas_, east of the Cape.

9. Dun_quas_.

10. Dama_quas_.

11. Guari_quas_.

12. Honteni_quas_.

13. Khantouers.

14. Heykoms, as far on the north-east as Natal. Now replaced by Amakosah Kaffres.

The chief divisions still existing are the _Gonaquas_, the _Koranas_, the _Namaquas_ (between Valvisch Bay and the Orange River), the _Soun Darmup_, of the Dammara Country (to the back of Valvisch Bay), and the _Saabs_, or Bushmen.

The Koranas are the best-shaped and best-looking of the Hottentots; the Bushmen the worst. The latter, indeed, are the starvelings of the family. They belong to the most miserable part of the _Karroo_, and they have neither flocks nor herds.

The Laplander of Lapland is not more strongly contrasted with his strong and sturdy neighbour of the Duchy of Finland than are the Korana and the Saab. The former are well-grown men, though of the Hottentot family. The Saabs are described as having constitutions “so much enfeebled by the dissolute life they lead, and the constant smoking of _dacha_, that nearly all, including the young people, look old and wrinkled; nevertheless, they are remarkable for vanity, and decorate their ears, legs, and arms with beads, and iron, copper, or brass rings. The women likewise stain their faces red, or paint them, either wholly or in part. Their clothing consists of a few sheepskins, which hang about their bodies, and thus form the mantle or covering, commonly called a _kaross_. This is their only clothing by day or night. The men wear old hats, which they obtain from the farmers, or else caps of their own manufacture. The women wear caps of skins, which they stiffen and finish with a high peak, and adorn with beads and metal rings. The dwelling of the Bushman is either a low wretched hut, or a circular cavity, on the open plain, into which, at night, he creeps with his wife and children, and which, though it shelters him from the wind, leaves him exposed to the rain. In this neighbourhood, in which rocks abound, they had formerly their habitations in them, as is proved by the many rude figures of oxen, horses, serpents, &c. still existing. It is not a little interesting to see these poor degraded people, who formerly were considered and treated as little better than wild beasts in their rocky retreats. Many of those who have forsaken us live in such cavities not far from our settlement, and we have thus an opportunity of observing them in their natural condition. Several who, when they came to us from the farmers, were decently clothed and possessed a flock of sheep, which they had earned, in a short time returned to their fastnesses in a state of nakedness and indigence, rejoicing that they had got free from the farmers, and could live as they pleased in the indulgence of their sensual appetites. Such fugitives from civilised life, I have never seen otherwise occupied than with their bows and arrows. The bows are small, but made of good elastic wood; the arrows are formed of small reeds, the points furnished with a well-wrought piece of bone, and a double barb, which is steeped in a potent poison of a resiny appearance. This poison is distilled from the leaves of an indigenous tree. Many prefer these arrows to fire-arms, under the idea that they can kill more game by means of a weapon that makes no report. On their return from the chase, they feast till they are tired and drowsy, and hunger alone rouses them to renewed exertion. In seasons of scarcity they devour all kinds of wild roots, ants, ants’ eggs, locusts, snakes, and even roasted skins. Three women of this singular tribe were not long since met with, several days’ journey from this place, who had forsaken their husbands, and lived very contentedly on wild honey and locusts. As enemies, the Bushmen are not to be despised. They are adepts in stealing cattle and sheep; and the wounds they inflict when pursued, are ordinarily fatal if the wounded part is not immediately cut out. The animals they are unable to carry off, they kill or mutilate.

“To our great comfort, even some of these poor outcasts have shown eagerness to become acquainted with the way of salvation. The children of such as are inhabitants of the settlement, attend the school diligently, and of them we have the best hopes.

“The language of the Bushman has not one pleasing feature; it seems to consist of a collection of snapping, hissing, grunting, sounds, all more or less nasal. It is this language that shows that the Saab and Hottentot belong to the same family.”

We now move to the parts on the _left_ of the entrance, and begin with the parts opposite the Zulus and Bushmen. These give us the southern parts of South America--not, however, the extreme south.

GROUP IX.

BOTOCUDOS AND PAMPA GIRL.

The word _Botocudo_ means _plugged_; and it belongs to the Portuguese language. It is applied by the Brazilians to the populations of this group, from the fact of their perforating their lips and ears, and inserting pieces of wood in the openings. In their quarrels, these are torn out, and shreds of the lip or ear to which they belong left hanging. One of these quarrels described and sketched in the Travels of Prince Maximilian of Neuwied, is here represented, the faces being taken from casts in the possession of Professor Retzius, and the drawings in the Travels of Spix and Von Martius. The native name--the name by which the Botocudos designate themselves--is _Engraecknung_.

Their country lies to the north of Rio Janiero--between eighteen and twenty degrees N.L. It never touches the sea-coast now, whatever it may have once done. On the contrary, it lies inland, and is limited to the mountain-range called _Tierra dos Aymores_; wherein lie the sources of the rivers Doce and Pardo.

On each of these we find Botocudos; those of the latter having been induced to abandon, along with some of their more barbarous habits, their inveterate hostility to the Portuguese. The other still retain their original and notorious barbarism. They have ceased, however, to be formidable; though, in the sixteenth century, they carried on a destructive warfare against the settlers in the Government of Porto Seguro. They have the credit of being cannibals.

The language is peculiar, and different from the other Indians of the same range. Of these the Machacaris, the Patachos, the Camacans, the Malali, are the chief.

The girl in the bullock’s hide is one of the Pampa Indians; the face being taken from a cast of Professor Retzius.

The Pampas are vast plains to the south of the Rio Plata, destitute of trees, free from hills, and without rivers. They are traversed by innumerable herds of oxen and horses, in every stage of domestication or of wildness. The Indians, whose habits are determined by these physical conditions of the soil, are rude, ferocious, and independent; hardy even for Indians; and very Centaurs for their skill in horsemanship. They range over the whole district between the frontier of Buenos Ayres and the western foot of the Andes of Chili.

GROUP X.

INDIANS OF THE AMAZONS.

The tribes of so vast a river as the Amazons are numerous, even if we go no further than the main stream--much more so if we look to those on its feeders.

At the same time they are fragmentary, and most imperfectly known. Neither are they free from intermixture--Spanish intermixture on the western, and Portuguese on the eastern.

All the tribes, however, illustrated by the figures before us, belong to Brazil, _i.e._, to _Portuguese_ America.

Their history is that of aborigines in general; there is their period of independence, their period of oppression, their period of mitigated persecution--of reaction.

Let us look at the history of the parts about the rivers Negro and Madeira--the one joining the Amazons from the north, the others from the south.

In 1671, a company of soldiers was stationed to protect the Portuguese trade, and the foundation of the Villa da Barra de Rio Negro was laid by Antonio de Albuquerque Coelho. This was the area of the Juripixunas, or Juruuna--Indians--the _Blackfaces_, so called because they tattooed themselves black. These also were numerous, and not intractable; handy with their canoes, and active on the water. As many as 1000 at a time found their way to the slave-market at Pera. Sometimes they were stolen without the disguise of a quarrel--stolen, because the man-stealer was the stronger. But, at times, there was a clever piece of villany put in practice. The slave-hunter would get a cross, the symbol of his religion, lay it somewhere in the track of the Indians, look for it some days afterwards, miss it, and then make a charge of sacrilege against the Indians of the locality. Out of practices like these rose regular slave-hunting settlements, with barracoons, after the fashion of the negro slave-trade. There was the usual practice, with the usual incentives, the usual organisation, the usual wars to follow, violence, unscrupulousness, cruelty, blood. The enemy to the Indian was the trader; his best friend the priest.

When King John IV., in 1652, wished to enact a favourable code for the aborigines, the governors of Maranham and Para instigated the population of their respective governments to uproarious manifestations.

In A.D. 1661, the Jesuits were expelled; in A.D. 1679 reinstated. The interval was a time of sorrow to the Indians; the restoration a time of joy. The establishment of missions now began.

A settlement or village, _Aldea_, was founded in some favourable situation, and the Indians of the neighbourhood induced to put themselves under the tutelage of the resident and directorial father. They were then taught to cultivate the soil or to weave--taught as children, and, when the temper was not that of the wilder and more independent tribes, this training answered. They were also instructed in the Christian creed, the medium being the Tupi language. Their own dialects were numerous--too numerous to make the cultivation of them in detail practicable; and in each _aldea_ the variety of such dialects was considerable, each being spoken by but a few individuals. To learn a difficult language for the sake of so few, was an unnecessary expenditure of time for the Jesuits; whilst Portuguese was a difficult language for the Indians. The surer plan, then, of taking the most prevalent Indian tongue and making it into a kind of common medium, a lingua franca, was devised. This prevalent tongue was the Tupi, and the name it took was the Portuguese one of _Lingoa Geral_--_general language_. Until A.D. 1757, the _Lingoa Geral_ was used in the law-courts of Gram Parà. This state of things lasted till A.D. 1759, when the Jesuits were expelled; from Parà and Maranham as many as 112.

In 1718, the number of _aldeas_ was as follows:--

Jesuits 19
Capuchins 15
Carmelites 5

Officers called Directors took the places of the Jesuits. In many respects their orders were those of their predecessors. They were to teach and convert; but they were also to get some work out of the Indians in the way of public service, _e. g._, in the arsenals as pilots, as a kind of police in the case of Indian warfare and bush-ranging. And beside these points of difference, the Tupi, or _Lingoa Geral_, was to be replaced by the Portuguese. In the localities where the intercourse with the whites was important, judges were appointed to settle disputes. Kidnapping however continued, and things went ill with the Indians until the separation of Brazil from Portugal; and they have gone ill since. The Indians and the negroes form the lowest part of the not elevated population of Parà, the half-blood between them (the Indians) and the whites being called Cafusos. Both the Cafusos and the full-blooded Indians are free, but they are not flourishing. They drink and live lives of idleness. They live, in short, much as all the coloured races when the whites are in contact with them.

This prepares us for the necessity of seeking the Indian in his unmodified state on the feeders of the Amazons, rather than the main stream. Mr. Wallace has described those of the Uaupés--which falls into the Rio Negro from the west, and lie just under the equator.

He remarks upon the extent to which they are a truly unsophisticated population, and also upon the extent to which they differ from the Indians lower down, _i.e._, between Barra and Para, the junction of the Rio Negro and Amazons, and the mouth of that latter river. His description (founded on personal observation) is one of the best we have. I quote it freely:--“All the tribes of the Uaupés,” he writes, “construct their dwellings after one plan, which is peculiar to them. Their houses are the abode of numerous families, sometimes of a whole tribe. The plan is a parallelogram, with a semicircle at one end. The dimensions of one at Jauarité were one hundred and fifteen feet in length, by seventy-five broad, and about thirty high. This house would hold about a dozen families, consisting of near a hundred individuals. In times of feasts and dances, three or four hundred are accommodated in them. The roof is supported on fine cylindrical columns, formed of the trunks of trees, and beautifully straight and smooth. In the centre a clear opening is left, twenty feet wide, and on the sides are little partitions of palm-leaf thatch, dividing off rooms for the separate families: here are kept the private household utensils, weapons, and ornaments; while the rest of the space contains, on each side, the large ovens and gigantic pans for making caxirí, and, in the centre, a place for the children to play, and for their dances to take place. These houses are built with much labour and skill; the main supporters, beams, rafters, and other parts, are straight, well proportioned to the strength required, and bound together with split creepers, in a manner that a sailor would admire. The thatch is of the leaf of some one of the numerous palms so well adapted to the purpose, and is laid on with great compactness and regularity. The walls, which are very low, are formed also of palm thatch, but so thick and so well bound together, that neither arrow nor bullet will penetrate it. At the gable-end is a large doorway, about six feet wide and eight or ten high: the door is a large palm-mat, hung from the top, supported by a pole during the day, and let down at night. At the semicircular end is a smaller door, which is the private entrance of the Tushaúa, or chief, to whom this part of the house exclusively belongs. The lower part of the gable-end, on each side of the entrance, is covered with the thick bark of a tree unrolled, and standing vertically. Above this is a loose hanging of palm-leaves, between the fissures of which the smoke from the numerous fires within finds an exit. In some cases this gable-end is much ornamented with symmetrical figures painted in colours.

“The furniture consists principally of maqueiras, or hammocks, made of string, twisted from the fibres of the leaves of the _Mauritia flexuosa_: they are merely an open network of parallel threads, crossed by others at intervals of a foot; the loops at each end have a cord passed through them, by which they are hung up. The Uaupés make great quantities of string of this and other fibres, twisting it on their breasts or thighs, with great rapidity.

“They have always in their houses a large supply of earthen pots, pans, pitchers, and cooking utensils, of various sizes, which they make of clay from the river and brooks, mixed with the ashes of the caripé bark, and baked in a temporary furnace. They have also great quantities of small saucer-shaped baskets, called ‘Balaios,’ which are much esteemed down the river, and are the subject of a considerable trade.

“Two tribes in the lower part of the river, the Tariános and Tucános, make a curious little stool, cut out of a solid block of wood, and neatly painted and varnished; these, which take many days to finish, are sold for about a pennyworth of fish-hooks.

“Their canoes are all made out of a single tree, hollowed and forced open by the cross-benches; they are very thick in the middle, to resist the wear and tear they are exposed to among the rocks and rapids; they are often forty feet long, but smaller ones are generally preferred. The paddles are about three feet long, with an oval blade, and are each cut out of one piece of wood.

“These people are as free from the encumbrances of dress as it is possible to conceive. The men wear only a small piece of tururf passed between the legs, and twisted on to a string round the loins. Even such a costume as this is dispensed with by the women: they have no dress or covering whatever, but are entirely naked. This is the universal custom among the Uaupés Indians, from which, in a state of nature, they never depart. Paint, with these people, seems to be looked upon as a sufficient clothing; they are never without it on some parts of their bodies, but it is at their festivals that they exhibit all their art in thus decorating their persons: the colours they use are red, yellow, and black, and they dispose them generally in regular patterns, similar to those with which they ornament their stools, their canoes, and other articles of furniture.

“They pour the juice of a tree, which stains a deep blue-black, on their heads, and let it run in streams all down their backs; and the red and yellow are often disposed in large round spots upon the cheeks and forehead.

“The use of ornaments and trinkets of various kinds is almost confined to the men. The women wear a bracelet on the wrists, but none on the neck, and no comb in the hair; they have a garter below the knee, worn tight from infancy, for the purpose of swelling out the calf, which they consider a great beauty. While dancing in their festivals, the women wear a small tanga, or apron, made of beads, prettily arranged: it is only about six inches square, but is never worn at any other time, and immediately the dance is over, it is taken off.

“The men, on the other hand, have the hair carefully parted and combed on each side, and tied in a queue behind. In the young men, it hangs in long locks down their necks, and, with the comb, which is invariably carried stuck in the top of the head, gives to them a most feminine appearance: this is increased by the large necklaces and bracelets of beads, and the careful extirpation of every symptom of beard. Taking these circumstances into consideration, I am strongly of opinion that the story of the Amazons has arisen from these feminine-looking warriors encountered by the early voyager. I am inclined to this opinion, from the effect they first produced on myself, when it was only by close examination I saw that they were men; and, were the front parts of their bodies and their breasts covered with shields, such as they always use, I am convinced any person seeing them for the first time would conclude they were women. We have only therefore to suppose that tribes having similar customs to those now existing on the river Uaupés, inhabited the regions where the Amazons were reported to have been seen, and we have a rational explanation of what has so much puzzled all geographers. The only objection to this explanation is, that traditions are said to exist among the natives, of a nation of ‘women without husbands.’ Of this tradition, however, I was myself unable to obtain any trace, and I can easily imagine it entirely to have arisen from the suggestions and inquiries of Europeans themselves. When the story of the Amazons was first made known, it became of course a point with all future travellers to verify it, or if possible get a glimpse of these warlike ladies. The Indians must no doubt have been overwhelmed with questions and suggestions about them, and they, thinking that the white men must know best, would transmit to their descendants and families the idea that such a nation did exist in some distant part of the country. Succeeding travellers, finding traces of this idea among the Indians, would take it as a proof of the existence of the Amazons; instead of being merely the effect of a mistake at the first, which had been unknowingly spread among them by preceding travellers, seeking to obtain some evidence on the subject.

“Tattooing is very little practised by these Indians; they all, however, have a row of circular punctures along the arm, and one tribe, the Tucános, are distinguished from the rest by three vertical blue lines on the chin; and they also pierce the lower lip, through which they hang three little threads of white beads. All the tribes bore their ears, and wear in them little pieces of grass, ornamented with feathers. The Cobeus alone expand the hole to so large a size, that a bottle-cork could be inserted; they ordinarily wear a plug of wood in it, but, on festas, insert a little bunch of arrows.

“The men generally have but one wife, but there is no special limit, and many have two or three, and some of the chiefs more; the elder one is never turned away, but remains the mistress of the house. They have no particular ceremony at their marriages, except that of always carrying away the girl by force, or making a show of doing so, even when she and her parents are quite willing. They do not often marry with relations, or even neighbours,--preferring those from a distance, or even from other tribes. When a young man wishes to have the daughter of another Indian, his father sends a message to say he will come with his son and relations to visit him. The girl’s father guesses what it is for, and, if he is agreeable, makes preparations for a grand festival: it lasts perhaps two or three days, when the bridegroom’s party suddenly seize the bride, and hurry her off to their canoes; no attempt is made to prevent them, and she is then considered as married.

“Some tribes, as the Uacarrás, have a trial of skill at shooting with the bow and arrow, and if the young man does not show himself a good marksman, the girl refuses him, on the ground that he will not be able to shoot fish and game enough for the family.

“The dead are almost always buried in the houses, with their bracelets, tobacco-bag, and other trinkets upon them; they are buried the same day they die, the parents and relations keeping up a continual mourning and lamentation over the body, from the death to the time of interment; a few days afterwards, a great quantity of caxirí is made, and all friends and relatives invited to attend, to mourn for the dead, and to dance, sing, and cry to his memory. Some of the large houses have more than a hundred graves in them, but when the houses are small, and very full, the graves are made outside,

“The Tariánas and Tucános, and some other tribes, about a month after the funeral, disinter the corpse, which is then much decomposed, and put it in a great pan, or oven, over the fire, till all the volatile parts are driven off with a most horrible odour, leaving only a black carbonaceous mass, which is pounded into a fine powder, and mixed in several large couchés (vats made of hollowed trees) of caxirí: this is drunk by the assembled company till all is finished; they believe that thus the virtues of the deceased will be transmitted to the drinkers.

“The Cobeus alone, in the Uaupés, are real cannibals: they eat those of other tribes, whom they kill in battle, and even make war for the express purpose of procuring human flesh for food. When they have more than they can consume at once, they smoke-dry the flesh over the fire, and preserve it for food a long time. They burn their dead, and drink the ashes in caxirí, in the same manner as described above.

“Every tribe and every ‘malocca’ (as their houses are called) has its chief, or ‘Tushaúa,’ who has a limited authority over them, principally in war, in making festivals, and in repairing the malocca and keeping the village clean, and in planting the mandiocca-fields; he also treats with the traders, and supplies them with men to pursue their journeys. The succession of these chiefs is strictly hereditary in the male line, or through the female to her husband, who may be a stranger: their regular hereditary chief is never superseded, however stupid, dull, or cowardly he may be. They have very little law of any kind; but what they have is of strict retaliation,--an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; and a murder is punished or revenged in the same manner and by the same weapon with which it was committed.

“They have numerous ‘Pagés,’ a kind of priests, answering to the ‘medicine-men’ of the North American Indians. These are believed to have great power: they cure all diseases by charms, applied by strong blowing and breathing upon the party to be cured, and by the singing of certain songs and incantations. They are also believed to have power to kill enemies, to bring or send away rain, to destroy dogs or game, to make the fish leave a river, and to afflict with various diseases. They are much consulted and believed in, and are well paid for their services. An Indian will give almost all his wealth to a pagé, when he is threatened with any real or imaginary danger.

“They scarcely seem to think that death can occur naturally, always imputing it either to direct poisoning or the charms of some enemy, and, on this supposition, will proceed to revenge it. This they generally do by poisons, of which they have many which are most deadly in their effects: they are given at some festival in a bowl of caxirí, which it is good manners always to empty, so that the whole dose is sure to be taken. One of the poisons often used is most terrible in its effects, causing the tongue and throat, as well as the intestines, to putrefy and rot away, so that the sufferer lingers some days in the greatest agony: this is of course again retaliated, on perhaps the wrong party, and thus a long succession of murders may result from a mere groundless suspicion in the first instance.

“I cannot make out that they have any belief that can be called a religion. They appear to have no definite idea of a God; if asked who they think made the rivers, and the forests, and the sky, they will reply that they do not know, or sometimes that they suppose it was ‘Tupánau,’ a word that appears to answer to God, but of which they understand nothing. They have much more definite ideas of a bad spirit, ‘Juruparí,’ or Devil, whom they fear, and endeavour through their pagés to propitiate. When it thunders, they say the ‘Juruparí’ is angry, and their idea of natural death is that the Juruparí kills them. At an eclipse they believe that this bad spirit is killing the moon, and they make all the noise they can to frighten him away.

“One of their most singular superstitions is about the musical instruments they use at their festivals, which they call the Juruparí music. They consist of eight or sometimes twelve pipes or trumpets, made of bamboos or palm-stems hollowed out, some with trumpet-shaped mouths of bark and with mouth-holes of clay and leaf. Each pair of instruments gives a distinct note, and they produce a rather agreeable concert, something resembling clarionets and bassoons. These instruments however are with them such a mystery, that no woman must ever see them on pain of death. They are always kept in some igaripé, at a certain distance from the malocca, whence they are brought on particular occasions: when the sound of them is heard approaching, every woman retires into the woods, or into some adjoining shed, which they generally have near, and remains invisible till after the ceremony is over, when the instruments are taken away to their hiding-place, and the women come out of their concealment. Should any female be supposed to have seen them, either by accident or design, she is invariably executed, generally by poison, and a father will not hesitate to sacrifice his daughter, or a husband his wife, on such an occasion.

“They have many other prejudices with regard to women. They believe that if a woman, during her pregnancy, eats of any meat, any other animal partaking of it will suffer: if a domestic animal or tame bird, it will die; if a dog, it will be for the future incapable of hunting; and even a man will be unable to shoot that particular kind of game for the future. An Indian, who was one of my hunters, caught a fine cock of the rock, and gave it to his wife to feed, but the poor woman was obliged to live herself on cassava-bread and fruits, and abstain entirely from all animal food, peppers, and salt, which it was believed would cause the bird to die; notwithstanding all precautions however the bird did die, and the woman got a beating from her husband, because he thought she had not been sufficiently rigid in her abstinence from the prohibited articles.”

Few ethnological phenomena deserve more attention than the re-appearance of similar customs in the distant parts of the world, where, however, the physical conditions are alike.

Borneo and the Uaupés country, both are under the equator; and the same mode of building large houses for joint occupation prevails in both.

Observe, too, the use of the blow-pipe; it appears equally on the Amazons and in Borneo.

The details of the group before us are as follows:--

The tattoed and painted individual with the skull of a slain enemy on a pole, is a Mundrucu, of the River Tapajos, the most formidable, numerous, and independent of the Brazilian Indians.

When a Mundrucu has slain an enemy, he cuts off his head, extracts the brain through the occipital _foramen_, washes the blood away, fills the skull with cotton, and then converts the whole into a kind of mummy, by drying it before the fire. The eyes he gouges out, and he fills up the orbits with colouring matter. Thus prepared, the head is placed outside his hut. On festive occasions it is placed at the top of a spear. Such is the history of the head of an enemy. Those, however, of friends and relations are preserved, and kept--though with certain differences of detail. Thus, on certain days dedicated to the obsequies and memory of the dead, the widow of the deceased takes his skull, seats herself before the cabin, and indulges either in melancholy lamentation, or in fierce encomium--the assembled friends meanwhile dancing round her.

The one behind is a Mura; the Muras being a numerous tribe, and from the vast extent of country over which they are spread, or rather scattered, a tribe whose number seems greater than it is. Settled habitations they have none; but, just as necessity or inclination takes them, they wander from wood to wood, from stream to stream. Taking the different divisions of them altogether, their number may amount to between 6000 and 7000 “bows,” (this “bow” meaning “fighting-man;”) the rest of the population being in proportion. This gives us from 20,000 to 30,000 persons. The lower Madeira was their original area, but the lower Madeira was vexed and harassed by tribes of the powerful and hostile Mundrucus; and the Mundrucus and Muras are ever at war with each other. At present the Mundrucus are the superior population. They are bigger in body, and they are more closely allied to the Portuguese. Indeed the Portuguese used them as a sort of military police against the Muras; who fear them so much that the presence of a single Mundrucu on board Von Martius’ canoe terrified a whole family of Muras.