Chapter 25

[34]Burmeister—The Black Man, a pamphlet.

Other points, more or less characteristic, real or supposed, are to be found in the relations of the limbs to the trunk—the former being longer in proportion to the latter than is usual with Europeans.

It is more important, however, to investigate the amount of difference indicated by the difference of colour, and to do this we must look to the structure of the skin. The structure of the negro’s skin differs from that of the white man in degree only, the one containing much, the other but little colouring matter; this colouring matter being deposited in a particular layer, called themucous layer, thestratum Malpighii, or therete mucosum. The character of thismucous layer, orrete mucosum, is well given in the forthcoming plates, which, along with the description, is taken from[35]Kölliker’s Manual. It differs in some degree from the one which occurs in the ordinary works on Ethnology.

[35]Translated by Messrs. Busk and Huxley for the Sydenham Society.

The external integument of all men alike consists of thecutisor true skin, and theepidermis, or scarf-skin, the latter consisting of cells only, the former of cells, vessels and nerves.

As far as thecutisis concerned, the blackest and whitest of mankind are alike; so that it is in the scarf-skin orepidermisthat the difference lies. This consists of two layers, an external and an internal.

The internal layer is therete mucosum. It lies immediately upon the true skin, and consists solely and wholly of cells, being equally destitute of vessels and nerves. Here begin the first discrepancies in the opinion of writers. Some deny that it belongs to the epidermis, looking upon it as a separate substantive tissue, neither skin nor scarf-skin, but intermediate to the two. Others find it only in the coloured families of mankind. It occurs, however, universally; being of a yellowish-white colour in Europeans, and dark brown or black in negroes, Indians, and the so-called dark races. Hence, the real difference is not in the existence of an additional tissue, but in a greater amount of colouring matter.Similar in respect to the two layers of their cutis, similar in respect to the two layers of their epidermis, the black man and the white differ in the extent to which the second layer of the scarf-skin is charged with a black deposit.

Skin sectionSkin section

Skin section

The accompanying figure represents a section through the skin and scarf-skin of the ball of the thumb; whereinais the outer layer of the epidermis;b, the inner, orrete mucosum;c, andd, the cutis;e, glands, ducts, &c.

The next gives us the epidermis only—a, being the outer;b, the inner layer (rete mucosum;)c, the cutis, to the outline of which therete mucosumadapts itself.

It is in the deepest parts of the inner layer, in the parts more immediately in contact with the true skin, that the most colouring matter is accumulated. Hence, the horny, or outer part of the epidermis is white or yellowish, all the world over. A blister, in popular language,raises the skin; in reality, it only raises the outer layer of the epidermis. Now blisters rise equallywhitewith the African and with the European.

It is not until after birth that the colouring matter of the second layer of the scarf-skin becomes deposited. A negro child is born of somewhat deeper red colour than an European, but he is not born black. The edges of the nails and the nipple of the breast darken first; the body having darkened by the third day, there or thereabouts.

As the hue of the skin attains its deepest tinge with the groupe before us, the structure that exhibits it has been enlarged upon.

What is the moral and social state of these negroes of the Delta of the Niger? what their habits, customs, and creeds?

We cannot follow the account of any observer for these parts, without discovering that, overpowering as is the heat, and swampy as is the ground, unfavourable, in one word, as are the conditions of soil and climate, the whole of the low country represented by the groupe before us teems with human life; neither is there the absence of human industry. We first hear of villages of from twenty to thirty, from thirty to forty, from fifty to seventy huts; to each of which we may give, upon an average, some six occupants. Then there are large towns like Iboh and Iddah, wherein the inhabitants are counted by the thousand; where there are regularmarket-days, and where there is a king with his court, such as it is. It is with these kings that the treaties have to be made against the slave-trade, these kings who, as in the late case at Lagos, have disputes as to the “succession”; these kings who give licenses to trade, and who make the access to the interior part of the country practicable or the contrary. There are kings and viceroys—viceroys with kings over them, so that there is a sort of feudal chain of vassalage and sovereignty. King Emmery, for instance, was, at the time of the Niger Expedition, the chief of a village on the river Nun, himself being a subject to King Boy of Brass Town. Then there is the kingdom of Iddah, with its subordinate kingships, whilst Kakanda and Egga are the dependencies of a really consolidated monarchy at Sakkatu.

At best, however, the African monarch, except in the Mahometan kingdoms, is but a sorry potentate; a drunken, sensual, slave-dealing polygamist. When Drs. McWilliam and Stanger visited this same King Emmery, his dress was a uniform coatee that had belonged to a drummer[36]in some English regiment, a plain black hat, and a blue cotton handkerchief for the lower man—a blue cotton handkerchief for drawers, trowsers and stockings, collectively; the dress of the ordinary natives being limited to a simple shirt, with a cloth round the middle. In this we get one of the measures of the amount of English influence and trade.

[36]A drummer’s uniform is a favourite dress elsewhere. In the Ethnological Museum at Copenhagen, Professor Thompson can show no marriage-garment for amaleEsquimaux, although of female wedding-gear, and that a truly native and characteristic kind, he has abundance. But there are no male equivalents. The reason of this lies in the fact of a Danish Drummer’s dress having been left as a sort of general property to the community, to be lent or hired, as the case may be whenever a marriage ceremony takes place, to the utter obliteration of the old costume, and with a great disregard to fit.

The huts are of clay, arranged in squares rather than in rows, and when the soil is low and liable to be flooded, they are raised some feet from the ground on a foundation of wooden pillars, in which case a ladder leads to the principal opening. The King’s palace is an assemblage of such huts; a miniature town; one side of the square which they form being the “women’s quarters.” Here reside the numerous wives, half-wives, and ex-wives of the sovereign, the number of which is always considerable, since the rank of the man regulates it. The following table gives us, in the first column, the names of the different members of the Courtof King Obi of Iboh in 1840; in the others, their age, and the numbers of their wives andfamilies—

Let us see something more of this female quarter, which, in the negro parts of Africa, presents a social scene, in the way of barbarism, which the harems of Asia—bad as they are—far fall short of. Obi’s establishment was seen to advantage; for his wives were amused at the faces and dresses of the Europeans who visited their lord and master, and they flocked in swarms to laugh at them. Their mirth then “brought[37]out about twenty damsels of more mature age, who were superannuated wives, permitted to live within the precincts of the palace.” What will be the ultimate fate of these old and young, active and superannuate? Even this—that when the king dies, they will be sacrificed to his manes.

[37]Dr. McWilliam—Medical History of the Niger Expedition.

This practice is common throughout the districts under notice. At Old Calabar, the south-eastern angle of the Delta, the death of a well-known chief or caboceer,[38]named Ephraim, caused the death of some hundreds of men, women, and children who were immolated at his burial—decapitation, burning alive, and the administration of the poison-nut, being the methods resorted to for terminating their existence.

[38]From the PortugueseCabocero—Captain.

Again, when King Eyeo, father of the present Chief of CreekTown, died, an eyewitness, who had only arrived just after the completion of the funeral rites, informed me that a large pit had been dug, in which several of the deceased’s wives were bound and thrown in, until a certain number had been procured; the earth was then thrown over them, and so great was the agony of these victims, that the ground for several minutes was agitated with their convulsive throes. So fearful, in former times, was the observance of this barbarous custom, that many towns narrowly escaped depopulation.[39]

[39]Dr. Daniell on the Natives of Old Calabar, “Transactions of the Ethnological Society.”

The savage character of the negro warfare is on a level with such practices as these—the slave trade being the chief incentive to them. When these take place, and when the burial-place of a king is known to the enemy, they rifle his grave for his remains; and having obtained his scull, keep it as a trophy. For this reason the tombs of royalty are kept concealed.

But there is another peculiarity. In more than one part of the western coast, the woman serves as a soldier, or even as a captain. In Akkim, on the Gold Coast, the notice of a femalecolonel, when first made, excited as much incredulity as surprise. The fact, nevertheless, has been confirmed by respectable testimony, by Mr. Duncan, and Captain Forbes, more especially; inasmuch as in the kingdom of Dahomey, there is a whole regiment consisting exclusively of females—a large proportion being the ex-wives of the king. The following song, given on the authority of the last-named author, shows the temper and spirit of the unsexedAmazons:—

“When Yoribah[40]said she could conquer Dahomey;When we meet we’ll change their night into day;Let the rain fall:The season past, the river dries.Yoribah and Dahomey!Can two rams drink from one calabash?The Yoribahs must have been drunk to sayDahomey feared them,They could conquer Dahomey.

“There’s a difference between Gezo and a poor man;There’s a difference between Gezo and a rich man.If a rich man owned all,Gezo would still be king.All guns are not alike;Some are long, some short, some thick, some thin.The Yoribahs must be a drunken nation,And thus we will dance before them.

“Gezo is king of kings!While Gezo lives we have nothing to fear.Under him we are lions, not men.Power emanates from the king.

“Let all eyes behold the king!There are not two but one—One only, Gezo!All nations have their customs,But none so brilliant or enlightened,As those of Dahomey.People from far countries are here:Behold all nations, white and black,Send their ambassadors.

AMAZONS’ CHORUS.

“With these guns in our hands,And powder in our cartouch-boxes,What has the king to fear?When we go to war, let the king dance,While we bring him prisoners and heads.

GENERAL CHORUS.

“Let the king grant war speedily!Do not let our energies be damped.Fire cannot pass through water.The king feeds us;When we go to war.Remember this!“We are clothed and fed by Gezo;In consequence, our hearts are glad.””

[40]A neighbouring kingdom on the East.

War and slavery engender each other; war leading to slavery, and slavery stimulating to war. And slavery takes three forms, all bad—bad, but one worse than the other two. This is the slavery of thetraders. An expedition is undertaken against some neighbouring tribe, weak enough, or unprepared enough, to divest the attack of half its danger. Captives are taken, driven to the coast in groups, shut up in barracoons, and then sold for transportation to the new world. It is this form of slavery that engenders the miseries and atrocities of the middle passage.

The second form is that of simple domestic servitude, wherein the slave, although under constant compulsion, forms a part of his master’s family, and is ensured against removal from his native soil.

The third is like that of theNexiof ancient Rome, and occurs when a negro, in order to raise a particular sum of money, sells himself as a labourer for a certain period—pawns his body, so to say, or borrows money on himself.

The administration of justice is on the same low level as the other institutions; the punishments being cruel, and the rules of evidence barbarous.[41]Two methods, as may be expected, predominate, the ordeal and the torture. The commonest form of the latter is “what is called tying Guinea-fashion. In this the arms are closely drawn together behind the back, by means of a cord tied tightly round them, about midway between the elbows and shoulders. A piece of wood to act as a rack having been previously introduced, is then used so as to tighten the cord, and so intense is the agony, that one application is generally sufficient to occasion the wretch so tortured to confess to anything that is required of him.”

[41]From the United Service Journal, November, 1850.

Another form consists in “tying the head and hands, in such a way that by turning the body backwards, they may be drawn together by the cords employed. Another is securing the wrist or ankle to a block of wood by an iron staple. By means of a hammer any degree of pressure may thus be applied.”

The chief form of ordeal is, what is called on the Gold Coast, thedhoomtest, but which appears and reappears all along the intertropical parts of Western Africa. Thedhoomis a kind of wood with poisonous and emetic properties. The innocent man drinks and ejects it: the guilty one drinks and dies. In Old Calabar the seeds of an aquatic legume replace thedhoomwood. Unless emetic, they are poisonous.

Partaking of the nature of the ordeal, as a means of investigation in criminal matters, is the application to priest, sorcerer, medicine-man, orFetish-man; but as the principles of belief that this practice involves one illustrated in the Zulu group, we only make a passing allusion to it. The notice, too, of the festivals as connected with religion, will similarly stand over.

What applies to one of the negro populations of the western coast, applies, more or less, to all. There are, of course, differences, nevertheless the general character of the social and politicalinstitutions, of their habits and superstitions, is alike; so that the description of one tribe is the description of several others besides; the chief distinctions consist in the creeds. I do not mean by this that the particular form of the native and indigenous superstition is of much importance. They are all low and debasing, and even when an African form of faith aspires to the character of a mythology, it is a mythology of an unpoetical, unimaginative, and poverty-stricken character, never indicating much play of feeling, never any vigour or activity of imagination, never inspiring either art or poetry. Of such things we must not think here.

The difference I allude to, and which is one of practical and of ever increasing importance, is that between the Pagan and the Mahometan population, between those which hold to their original Fetishism, to their snake-worship and the like, and those who, having adopted the creed of Islam, are (whatever else they may be) at least, Monotheists.

The Mahometans of the African states must always be separated from the Pagans.

The negro districts of the western coast begin with the country of theWolofsorJolofs, as far north as the southern border of the Desert, and the lower course of the river Senegal. There are no better-shaped negroes than these sameWolofs, for they are tall, well-made, active, and intelligent men; Pagans, however, according to their original creed, rather than Mahometans.

TheSereresof Cape Verde, and theScrawoolliin the interior, are in the same predicament.

TheMandingoes, like the Wolofs, are negroes but not Pagans. They are amongst the first and foremost of the Mahometan negroes: but this applies only to the Mandingoes in the limited sense of the term—the Mandingoes of the Gambia. In the wider sense of the word, the great Mandingo class comprises more than twenty different populations, some of which are as Pagan as the most grovelling snake-worshippers of Dahomey.

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 ofFelups,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 theKrumen, whom a writer already quoted, calls the Scotchmen of Africa. The Kruman leaves without hesitation or reluctance his owncountry 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 thefree labourerof Africa; quick of perception and amenable to instruction. His language is theGrebotongue, and it has been reduced to writing by the American missionaries of Cape Palmas.

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

InDahomeywe reach thenadirof 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 ofYoruba, 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 theIbo.

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. Thelanguagechanged 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 suchfollies 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 analphabethas been evolved. A man of theVeycountry, 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 asyllabarium;i.e.there is a separate sign or letter, for the differentsyllablesof 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 areFellatas,Fellatahs, orFalatiya. Sometimes they are calledFellatiya 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 calledSudania—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 oftheir 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 wasAllah 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.

InBorgho,i. e.in the parts about Boussa, and Wawa, visited by Lander, there are two populations, one speaking a language akin to theYoruba, 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 isFilani. They have neither idea nor tradition as to the origin—not at least theFilaniof 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 ofFula,Fulahs,FouleorPeule, 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 bankof 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 aboutA.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 underthe 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.

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, aFetish-man,medium-man,mystery-man, orconjuror(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 canventure 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 givenelsewhere) 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

Man’sdog, we saiddandog,Sun’sbeam—bunbeam,Father’sdaughter—datherdaughter,Daughter’s father—faughterfather;

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 tonguesalldo this. It is done by the Amakosa, the Zulu, the Fingo, the Bechuana. It is done by the languages on thewesterncoast 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 theeasterncoast as well; indeed, it was very probably done by thelanguage 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 oflozenge-shapedskulls. 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 thedesertwith that of sand; whilststeppeis 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 akarro. 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 hebuysher 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 thewesternrather thaneasternside 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 thewesterncoast, onbothsides 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 asfollows:—

1. Gunyeman, nearest the Cape.

2. Kokhaqua, north of the Gunyeman.

3. Sussaqua, Saldanha Bay.

4. Odiqua.

5. Khirigriquas, on Elephants’ River.

6. Koopmans.

7. Hessaquas.

8. Sonquas, east of the Cape.

9. Dunquas.

10. Damaquas.

11. Guariquas.

12. Honteniquas.

13. Khantouers.

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

The chief divisions still existing are theGonaquas, theKoranas, theNamaquas(between Valvisch Bay and the Orange River), theSoun Darmup, of the Dammara Country (to the back of Valvisch Bay), and theSaabs, 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 theKarroo, 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 ofdacha, 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 akaross. 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 acircular 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 theleftof 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.

The wordBotocudomeansplugged; 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—isEngraecknung.

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 calledTierra 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.

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., toPortugueseAmerica.

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—theBlackfaces, 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.

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