The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell Part 21

[160] This may be quite true of earlier times, when Europeans were looked upon as great wizards, who rose out of the sea and were returned to that element when they died. At present, however, a burial-place is set apart for them, and is looked after by the Petra Praia (Salanganga), an office created since the arrival of the Portuguese for the purpose of looking after the affairs of the white men (R. E. Dennett).

[161] There is some confusion here. Angeca is evidently the Anziki or Anzique of D. Lopez and others, now represented by the Banteke, on Stanley Pool. The word may be derived from _anseke_, far or distant. The proper name of the tribe is Atio (A. Sims, _Kiteke Vocabulary_, 1886).

_Moc.o.c.ke_ (_Makoko_) is a t.i.tle. Bongo is evidently the country of the Obongo of Du Chaillu, the Babongo of Lenz, Bastian, and Falkenstein: a race of dwarfs between the coast and the Banteke, varying in stature between 51 and 56 ins. Compare note, p. 59.

[162] Identical with c.h.i.n.kanga, on the river Juma, where the French have a post, Wemba.

[163] The river Kuilu, 4 28' S.

[164] _As duas moutas_ (the two corpses) of Juan de la Cosa's map (1500), near the mouth of the Kuilu.

[165] Fifteen miles carry us to the Longebonda of the Admiralty Chart, 4 20' S.. which has very little water in it at the most favourable time of the year (_Africa Pilot_, vol. ii, 1893, p. 136), but the river meant is evidently the Numbi, which enters Chilunga (Kilonga) Bay in 4 13'

S., a mere stream (_Deutsche Loango Expedition_).

[166] Yumba is the name of the country. _Mayumba_ (_Mani Yumba_) means chief of Yumba. The Bay of Mayumba, 3 19' S., lies about 10 miles to the south of Cape Mayumba, which is undoubtedly the Cabo Negro of Battell.

[167] Dyewoods are still an article of export, but not logwood (see note, p. 43.)

[168] The Banya, a lagoon extending to the south-east, parallel with the coast.

[169] The _Mpungu_ is the gorilla. For _Engeco_ (printed _Encego_ in the earlier editions) we ought to read _Nsiku_, the native name for the chimpanzi, a larger variety of which is known as _Chimpenso_ (Pechuel-Loesche, _Loango Expedition_, vol. iii, p. 248). P. Du Chaillu, the first European to kill a gorilla in his native haunts (_Adventures in Equatorial Africa_), declares Battell's stories to be mere traveller's tales, "untrue of any of the great apes of Africa." Sir R.

F. Burton (_Two Trips to Gorilla Land_, vol. i, p. 240) suggests that as Battell had not seen a gorilla, he may have confounded gorillas with bushmen.

[170] Misprint for Mayumbas?

[171] Dr. Pechuel-Loesche (_D. Loango Exp._, vol. iii, p. 302) says that native dogs do _not_ bark, but that they often acquire the habit when living among European dogs. Most of them are mongrels, but there are some superior breeds trained for hunting. These dogs carry a wooden bell (_ndibu_) round the neck, the clatter of which scares the game. When the scent grows warm, the dogs begin to whine, and when the game is in sight they give tongue. After each beat the dogs sit down apart from the hunters, raise their heads, and howl for several minutes. Mr. Dennett, in a letter to me, confirms the barking (_kukula_, to bark) of the native dogs.

[172] See p. 82 for further information on this fetish.

[173] Neither Mr. Dennett, nor one of the officials in the French Colonial Office, thoroughly acquainted with the language, has been able to make sense out of this sentence. The latter suggests _Ku Kwiza bukie lika_, "I come for the truth!" For another version of this appeal, see p. 83. The sentence is evidently very corrupt.

[174] Circ.u.mcision is common in some districts, but no magical or mystic influence is ascribed to it (Bentley).

[175] For an account of the initiation into the guild called _Ndembo_, see Bentley's _Dictionary_, p. 506.

[176] The custom of prohibiting certain food to be eaten, etc., is very common. _Mpangu_ is the name for this taboo in the case of new-born infants; _Konko_, a taboo imposed in connection with an illness. The thing tabooed is called _nlongo_ (Bentley).

[177] This refers no doubt to Sette, the river of which enters the sea in 2 23' S. The capital of the same name being fifty miles up it.

Barwood is still exported, but no logwood.

[178] His modern representative seems to be the Mani Kasoche on the Upper Ngonga, who was visited by Gussfeldt.

[179] Not to be taken literally, for Co certainly touched at this bay.

[180] The usual designation for "Dwarf" is _mbaka_ or _kimbakabaka_ (the diminutive of _mbaka_), but _Batumba_ (with which Battell's _matimba_ seems to be identical) is likewise applied to a dwarf person or thing (Bentley). In Angola, _Matumbu_ means a far-off, unknown country (Cordeiro da Matta). Compare note, p. 52.

[181] "Marombos" seems to be a misprint for Mayumbas (see note, p. 55).

[182] The Mamboma is a sort of home secretary. He buries the Maloango, and summons the princes for the election of a successor. _Mboma_ is the black python; _boma_ means fear. Hence the t.i.tle has been translated "Lord of Terror."

[183] _Mbundu_, the powdered root of a species of strychnos, is administered to confessed witches accused of having caused the death of a person. If the accused be guilty, this poison causes him to lose all control over the _sphincter urethrae_; he discharges red urine profusely, runs a few paces, falls down and dies. An innocent person only discharges a few drops on a banana leaf (Pechuel-Loesche, _Loango Exp._, vol. iii, p. 188). _Nkasa_, prepared from the bark of _Erythrophlaeum guineense_, paralyses the action of the heart, but if thrown up at once, it will not kill (Dr. M. Boehr, _Correspon. der Deutschen Afrik. Ges._, vol. i, p. 332). It is administered to persons who deny being witches.

(For a full account of such a trial, see Dennett, _Seven Years Among the Fjort_, p. 165.) In the case of minor offences, the ordeal of the hot matchet-_bikalo_, _bisengo_, or _bau_-is resorted to. The knife is pa.s.sed thrice over the skin of the leg, and if it burns the accused is declared guilty (see also Dennett, _Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Fjort_, p. 162). The Nganga is, of course, open to a bribe, and in the case of a chief the poison may be administered to a subst.i.tute-a dog or a slave-and the penalty commuted to a fine. See also Bentley's _Pioneering on the Congo_, London, 1900.

[184] The poison administered in this case was _nkasa_, and not _mbundu_ (see p. 80).

[185] _Ndoki_, a witch; _undoki_, that which pertains to witchcraft (Bentley).

[186] That is, _Purchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World_, bk.

vii, ch. 10, dealing with Loango.

[187] Worthy Purchas grows quite incoherent in his indignation, but the reader will nevertheless be able to gather his meaning, and will appreciate his distinction between a Jewish priest and a heathen _Nganga_, both administering the same rite. He thus shares the opinion of the Roman Catholic missionaries who recognised the efficacy of native charms, but ascribed it to the Devil, whilst claiming greater potency for their crosses, relics, etc., deriving their potency from Heaven.

[188] The poison ordeal, which required a woman suspected of infidelity to her husband to drink "bitter water" administered by the Jewish priest, is here referred to. This ordinance, of course, was not applicable in case of a similar offence charged against a husband (Numbers v, 12-31).

[189] Valdez (_Six Years in Angola_, vol. ii, p. 130) calls this ordeal _quirigue tubia_ (_Kirike tubia_), and says that the hot hatchet may be applied to any part of the person. The meaning of _kiri_ is truth; of _tubia_, fire. Purchas is evidently mistaken when he calls this procedure _Motamba_, for _tambi_ or _mutambi_ is a kind of funeral feast or wake. The body having been buried, and potsherds, pipes, and other articles placed on the grave, the mourners devour a roast pig, the skull of which is afterwards thrown into a neighbouring river.

[190] Illness and death are frequently ascribed to witchcraft. If a disease does not yield to medical treatment by a _Nganga a moko_, the _nganga a ngombo_, or witch-doctor, is called in with his fetish. He may ascribe the death to natural causes, or to a charm worked by a person recently deceased and beyond his reach; or he may denounce one or more persons as witches. The persons thus denounced are compelled to submit to the poison ordeal (see, among others, Dennett's _Seven Years among the Fjort_, and his _Folk-Lore_).

[191] Garcia Mendes de Castellobranco, p. 33, says, in 1621, that hens abounded and also goats and sheep, but that cows were rare.

[192] Zebras are still found in Benguella, but not any longer in Angola or Congo. Duarte Lopez, p. 49, speaks of a "pet zebra" (in Bamba?) which was killed by a "tiger." Further on he says that zebras were common, but had not been broken in for riding. M. Garcia Mendez likewise mentions the "zebra." The native name is _ngolo_ (Kangolo). "Zebra" is a corruption of its Abyssinian appellation.

[193] Tandale, in Kimbundu, means councillor or minister of a _soba_ or kinglet; _tumba'ndala_ was an old t.i.tle of the Kings of Angola, and may be translated Emperor (Cordeiro da Matta, _Diccionario_).

[194] All this is borne out by Portuguese doc.u.ments. From the very beginning, Dias de Novaes handed over the Sovas to the mercy of his fellow-adventurers and the Jesuits. The system was still in force in 1620 when Garcia Mendez de Castellobranco proposed to King Philip a "regimen de aforamento" of the native chiefs, which would have yielded a revenue of fifteen million Reis, and would, at the same time, afforded some slight protection to the natives. Those who would have profited most largely by these "reforms" would have been the Jesuits.

[195] According to Dr. Pechuel-Loesche (_Die Loango Expedition_, vol.

iii, p. 279), this seems to be the cowfish of the whalers, or _Tursions gillii_, Dale. The natives call it _ngulu-mputu_ (_ngulu_, hog-fish;-_mputu_, Portugal). He says that the natives will not suffer this fish to be injured, as it drives other fish ash.o.r.e and into their nets; and that if one of these fish were to be wounded or killed they would stop away for ever so long. The Rev. W. M. Holman Bentley, in his _Dictionary of the Kongo Language_, says that the _ngola_ of the natives is a bagre, or catfish. A gigantic bagre, 8 ft. in length, is found in the Upper Coanza (Monteiro, _Angola_, vol. ii, p. 134). Mr. Dennett suggests the _Chialambu_, a kind of bream, which is said to chase other fish; _Mboa_, _Mbwa_, or _Imboa_ certainly means dog, and is not the name of a fish.

[196] _Ma.s.sa-ngo_, the _p.e.n.i.setum typhoideum_, introduced from abroad.

It is the _milho_, or millet, of the Portuguese (see Capello and Ivens, _Benguella_, vol. i, p. 103; vol. ii, p. 257).

[197] _Ma.s.sa-mballa_ is _sorghum_ (Ficalho). A white variety is known as _Congo-mazzo_.

[198] This is _luku_, or _Eleusine coracana_, introduced from Asia. It is extensively grown in Abyssinia and among the Niamniam (Schweinfurth, _The Heart of Africa_, vol. i, p. 248; Ficalho, _Plantas uteis_, p. 41).

[199] _Ma.s.sa-mamputo_, or Gro de Portugal, is _Zea mayz_, introduced from America (Ficalho). See note, p. 7.

[200] This is the ground-nut (_Arachis hypogaea_), or underground kidney bean. Its native name is _nguba_ or _mpinda_. According to Ficalho, p.

142, it was introduced from America, while _Voandzeia subterranea_, called _vielo_ in Angola, is certainly indigenous. The seeds of the latter are smaller and less oleaginous than those of _Arachis_, and hence its commercial value is less.

[201] _Wandu_ (of Congo) is the _mbarazi_ of the Swahili, the _Caja.n.u.s indicus_ of botanists. It is grown all over Africa, and Welwitsch considers it indigenous. In Angola a variety is known as _nsonje_ (Ficalho, p. 143; Burton, _Two Trips to Gorilla Island_, vol. ii, p.

119).

[202] In a marginal note to his reprint of Pigafetta's book (p. 1005), Purchas quotes Battell as confirming Lopez when he states, with regard to the _Cola_ (_c. ac.u.minata, R. Br._), that "the liver of a hen, or of any other like bird, which putrified and stinketh, being sprinkled over with the juice of this fruit (the _Cola_), returneth into its former estate, and becometh fresh and sound again."

[203] See note, p. 24. Monteiro (vol. ii, 165) confirms that hives are securely placed in the branches of a tree, the _Baobab_ being chosen in preference.

[204] A misprint from _Inganda_, i.e., _Nsanda_, banyan.