Man, Past and Present Part 8

It was also the policy of the Muhammadans, whose system is based on slavery, not to push their religious zeal too far, for, if all the natives were converted, where could they procure a constant supply of slaves, those who accept the teachings of the Prophet being _ipso facto_ ent.i.tled to their freedom? Hence the pagan districts were, and still are, regarded as convenient preserves, happy hunting-grounds to be raided from time to time, but not utterly wasted; to be visited by organised razzias just often enough to keep up the supply in the home and foreign markets. This system, controlled by the local governments themselves, has long prevailed about the borderlands between Islam and heathendom, as we know from Barth, Nachtigal, and one or two other travellers, who have had reluctantly to accompany the periodical slave-hunting expeditions from Bornu and Baghirmi to the territories of the pagan Mosgu people with their numerous branches (_Margi, Mandara, Makari, Logon, Gamergu, Keribina_) and the other aborigines (_Bede, Ngisem, So, Kerrikerri, Babir_) on the northern slopes of the Congo-Chad water-parting. As usual on such occasions, there is a great waste of life, many peris.h.i.+ng in defence of their homes or even through sheer wantonness, besides those carried away captives. "A large number of slaves had been caught this day," writes Barth, "and in the evening a great many more were brought in; altogether they were said to have taken one thousand, and there were certainly not less than five hundred. To our utmost horror, not less than 170 full-grown men were mercilessly slaughtered in cold blood, the greater part of them being allowed to bleed to death, a leg having been severed from the body[191]." There was probably just then a glut in the market.

A curious result of these relations is that in the wooded districts some of the natives have reverted to arboreal habits, taking refuge during the raids in the branches of huge bombax-trees converted into temporary strongholds. Round the vertical stem of these forest giants is erected a breast-high look-out, while the higher horizontal branches, less exposed to the fire of the enemy, support strongly-built huts and store-houses, where the families of the fugitives take refuge with their effects, including, as Nachtigal a.s.sures us[192], their domestic animals, such as goats, dogs, and poultry. During the siege of the aerial fortress, which is often successfully defended, long light ladders of withies are let down at night, when no attack need be feared, and the supply of water and provisions is thus renewed from _caches_ or hiding-places round about. In 1872 Nachtigal accompanied a predatory excursion to the pagan districts south of Baghirmi, when an attack was made on one of these tree-fortresses. Such citadels can be stormed only at a heavy loss, and as the Gaberi (Baghirmi) warriors had no tools capable of felling the great bombax-tree, they were fain to rest satisfied with picking off a poor wretch now and then, and barbarously mutilating the bodies as they fell from the overhanging branches.

Some of these aborigines disfigure their faces by the disk-like lip-ornament, which is also fas.h.i.+onable in Nya.s.saland, and even amongst the South American Botocudos. The type often differs greatly, and while some of the widespread Mosgu tribes are of a dirty black hue, with disagreeable expression, wide open nostrils, thick lips, high cheek-bones, coa.r.s.e bushy hair, and disproportionate knock-kneed legs, other members of the same family astonished Barth "by the beauty and symmetry of their forms, and by the regularity of their features, which in some had nothing of what is called the Negro type. But I was still more astonished at their complexion, which was very different in different individuals, being in some of a glossy black, and in others of a light copper, or rather rhubarb colour, the intermediate shades being almost entirely wanting. I observed in one house a really beautiful female who, with her son, about eight or nine years of age, formed a most charming group, well worthy of the hand of an accomplished artist.

The boy's form did not yield in any respect to the beautiful symmetry of the most celebrated Grecian statues. His hair, indeed, was very short and curled, but not woolly. He, as well as his mother and the whole family, were of a pale or yellowish-red complexion, like rhubarb[193]."

There is no suggestion of albinism, and the explanation of such strange contrasts must await further exploration in the whole of this borderland of Negroes and Bantus about the divide between the Chad and the Congo basins. The country has until lately been traversed only at rare intervals by pioneers, interested more in political than in anthropological matters.

Of the settled and more or less cultured peoples in the Chad basin, the most important are the _Kanembu_[194], who introduce a fresh element of confusion in this region, being more allied in type and speech to the Hamitic Tibus than to the Negro stock, or at least taking a transitional position between the two; the _Kanuri_, the ruling people in Bornu, of somewhat coa.r.s.e Negroid appearance[195]; and the southern _Baghirmi_, also decidedly Negroid, originally supposed to have come from the Upper Shari and White Nile districts[196]. Their civilisation, such as it is, has been developed exclusively under Moslem influences, but it has never penetrated much below the surface. The people are everywhere extremely rude, and for the most part unlettered, although the meagre and not altogether trustworthy Kanem-Bornu records date from the time of Sef, reputed founder of the monarchy about 800 A.D. Duku, second in descent from Sef, is doubtfully referred to about 850 A.D. Hame, founder of a new dynasty, flourished towards the end of the eleventh century (1086-97), and Dunama, one of his successors, is said to have extended his sway over a great part of the Sahara, including the whole of Fezzan (1221-59). Under Omar (1394-98) a divorce took place between Kanem and Bornu, and henceforth the latter country has remained the chief centre of political power in the Chad basin.

A long series of civil wars was closed by Ali (1472-1504), who founded the present capital, Birni, and whose grandson, Muhammad, brought the empire of Bornu to the highest pitch of its greatness (1526-45). Under Ahmed (1793-1810) began the wars with the Fulahs, who, after bringing the empire to the verge of ruin, were at last overthrown by the aid of the Kanem people, and since 1819 Bornu has been ruled by the present Kanemiyin dynasty, which though temporarily conquered by Rabah in 1893, was restored under British administration in 1902[197].

EASTERN SUDANESE.

As some confusion prevails regarding the expression "Eastern Sudan," I may here explain that it bears a very different meaning, according as it is used in a political or an ethnical sense. Politically it is practically synonymous with Egyptian Sudan, that is the whole region from Darfur to the Red Sea which was ruled or misruled by the Khedivial Government before the revolt of the Mahdi (1883-4), and was restored to Egypt by the British occupation of Khartum in 1898. Ethnically Eastern Sudan comprises all the lands east of the Chad basin, where the Negro or Negroid populations are predominant, that is to say, Wadai, Darfur, and Kordofan in the West, the Nile Valley from the frontier of Egypt proper south to Albert Nyanza, both slopes of the Nile-Congo divide (the western tributaries of the White Nile and the Welle-Makua affluent of the Congo), lastly the Sobat Valley with some Negro enclaves east of the White Nile, and even south of the equator (Kavirondo, Semliki Valley).

Throughout this region the fusion of the aborigines with Hamites and Arabs, Tuareg, or Tibu Moslem intruders, wherever they have penetrated, has been far less complete than in Central and Western Sudan. Thus in Wadai the dominant Maba people, whence the country is often called Dar-Maba ("Mabaland"), are rather Negro than Negroid, with but a slight strain of foreign blood. In the northern districts the _Zoghawa_, _Gura'an_, _Baele_ and _Bulala_ Tibus keep quite aloof from the blacks, as do elsewhere; the _Aramkas_, as the Arabs are collectively called in Wadai. Yet the _Mahamid_ and some other Bedouin tribes have here been settled for over 500 years, and it was through their a.s.sistance that the Mabas acquired the political supremacy they have enjoyed since the seventeenth century, when they reduced or expelled the _Tynjurs_[198], the former ruling race, said to be Nubians originally from Dongola. It was Abd-el-Kerim, founder of the new Moslem Maba state, who gave the country its present name in honour of his grandfather, _Wadai_. His successor Kharub I removed the seat of government to Wara, where Vogel was murdered in 1856. Abeshr, the present capital, dates only from the year 1850. Except for Nachtigal, who crossed the frontier in 1873, nothing was known of the land or its people until the French occupation at the end of the last century (1899). Since that date it has been prominent as the scene of the attack on a French column and the death of its leader, Colonel Moll, in 1910, and the tragic murder of Lieutenant Boyd Alexander earlier in the same year[199].

_Nubas._ As in Wadai, the intruding and native populations have been either imperfectly or not at all a.s.similated in Darfur and Kordofan, where the Muhammadan Semites still boast of their pure Arab descent[200], and form powerful confederacies. Chief among these are the _Baggara_ (Baqqara, "cow-herds"), cattle-keepers and agriculturalists, of whom some are as dark as the blackest negroes, though many are fine-looking, with regular, well-shaped features. Their form of Arabic is notoriously corrupt. Their rivals, the _Jaalan_ (Jalin, Jahalin), are mostly riverain "Arabs," a learned tribe, containing many scribes, and their language is said to be closer to cla.s.sical Arabic than the form current in Egypt. These are the princ.i.p.al slave-hunters of the Sudan, and the famous Zobeir belonged to their tribe. The _Yemanieh_ are largely traders, and trace their origin from South Arabia. The _Kababish_ are the wealthiest camel-owning tribe, perhaps less contaminated by negro blood than any other Arab tribe in the Sudan[201].

The _Nuba_ and the _Nubians_ have been a source of much confusion, but recent investigations in the field such as those of C. G. Seligman[202]

and H. A. MacMichael[203], and the publications of the Archaeological Survey of Nubia conducted by G. A. Reisner, help to elucidate the problem. We have first of all to get rid of the "Nuba-Fulah" family, which was introduced by Fr. Muller and accepted by some English writers, but has absolutely no existence. The two languages, although both of the agglutinative Sudanese type, are radically distinct in all their structural, lexical, and phonetic elements, and the two peoples are equally distinct. The Fulahs are of North African origin, although many have in recent times been largely a.s.similated to their black Sudanese subjects. The Nuba on the contrary belong originally to the Negro stock, with hair of the common negro type, and are among the darkest skinned tribes in the Sudan, their colour varying from a dark chocolate brown to the darkest shade of brown black.

But rightly to understand the question we have carefully to avoid confusion between the Nubians of the Nile Valley and the Negro _Nubas_, who gave their name to the Nuba Mountains, Kordofan, where most of the aborigines (_Kargo, Kulfan, Kolaji, Tumali, Lafofa, Eliri, Talodi_) still belong to this connection[203]. Kordofan is probably itself a Nuba word meaning "Land of the Kordo" (_fan_ = Arab, _dar_, land, country).

There is a certain amount of anthropological evidence to connect the Nuba with the _Fur_ and the _Kara_ of Darfur to the west[204]. But it is a different anthropological type that is represented in the three groups of _Matokki_ (_Kenus_) between the First Cataract and Wadi-el-Arab, the _Mahai_ (_Marisi_) between Korosko and Wadi-Halfa, at the Second Cataract, and the _Dongolawi_, of the province of Dongola between Wadi-Halfa and Jebel Deja near Meroe.

These three groups, all now Muhammadans, but formerly Christians, const.i.tute collectively the so-called "Nubians" of European writers, but call themselves _Barabra_, Plural of _Berberi_, _i.e._ people of Berber, although they do not at present extend so far up the Nile as that town[205]. Possibly these are Strabo's "Noubai, who dwell on the left bank of the Nile in Libya [Africa], a great nation etc.[206]"; and are also to be identified with the _n.o.batae_, who in Diocletian's time were settled, some in the Kharga oasis, others in the Nile Valley about Meroe, to guard the frontiers of the empire against the incursions of the restless Blemmues. But after some time they appear to have entered into peaceful relations with these Hamites, the present Bejas, even making common cause with them against the Romans; but the confederacy was crushed by Maximinus in 451, though perhaps not before crossings had taken place between the n.o.batae and the Caucasic Bejas. Then these Bejas withdrew to their old homes, which they still occupy, between the Nile and the Red Sea above Egypt, while the n.o.batae, embracing Christianity, as is said, in 545, established the powerful kingdom of Dongola which lasted over 800 years, and was finally overthrown by the Arabs in the fourteenth century, since which time the Nile Nubians have been Muhammadans.

There still remains the problem of language which, as shown by Lepsius[207], differs but slightly from that now current amongst the Kordofan Nubas. But this similarity only holds in the north, and is now shown to be due to Berberine immigration into Kordofan[208]. Recent investigations show that the Nuba and the Barabra, in spite of this linguistic similarity which has misled certain authors[209], are not to be regarded as belonging to the same race[210]. "The Nuba are a tall, stoutly built muscular people, with a dark, almost black skin. They are predominantly mesaticephalic, for although cephalic indices under 70 and over 80 both occur, nearly 60 per cent. of the individuals measured are mesaticephals, the remaining being dolichocephalic and brachycephalic in about equal proportions." The hair is invariably woolly. The Barabra, on the contrary, is of slight, or more commonly medium build, not particularly muscular and in skin colour varies from a yellowish to a chocolate brown. The hair is commonly curly or wavy and may be almost straight, while the features are not uncommonly absolutely non-Negroid.

"Thus there can be no doubt that the two peoples are essentially different in physical characters and the same holds good on the cultural side" (p. 611). Barabra were identified by Lepsius with the Wawat, a people frequently mentioned in Egyptian records, and recent excavations by the members of the Archaeological Survey of Nubia show a close connection with the predynastic Egyptians, a connection supported also on physical grounds. It seems strange, therefore, to meet with repeated reference on Egyptian monuments to Negroes in Nubia when, as proved by excavations, the inhabitants were by no means Negroes or even frankly Negroid. Seligman's solution of the difficulty is as follows (p. 619).

It seems that only one explanation is tenable, namely that for a period subsequent to the Middle Kingdom the country in the neighbourhood of the Second Cataract became essentially a Negro country and may have remained in this condition for some little time. Then a movement in the opposite direction set in; the Negroes, diminished by war, were in part driven back by the great conquerors of the New Empire; those that were left mixed with the Egyptian garrisons and traders and once more a hybrid race arose which, however, preserved the language of its Negro ancestors. Although Seligman regards the conclusion that this race gave rise directly to the present-day inhabitants of Nubia as "premature,"

and suggests further mixture with the Beja of the eastern deserts, Elliot Smith recognises the essential similarity between the h.o.m.ogeneous blend of Egyptian and Negro traits which characterise the Middle Nubian people (contemporary with the Middle Empire, XII-XVII dynasties), a type which "seems to have remained dominant in Nubia ever since then, for the span of almost 4000 years[211]."

Before the incursions of the Nubian-Arab traders and raiders, who began to form settlements (_zeribas_, fenced stations) in the Upper Nile regions above Khartum about the middle of the nineteenth century, most of the Nile-Congo divide (White Nile tributaries and Welle-Makua basin) belonged in the strictest sense to the Negro domain. Sudanese tribes, and even great nations reckoned by millions, had been for ages in almost undisturbed possession, not only of the main stream from the equatorial lakes to and beyond the Sobat junction, but also of the Sobat Valley itself, and of the numerous south-western head-waters of the White Nile converging about Lake No above the Sobat junction. Nearly all the Nile peoples--the _s.h.i.+lluks_ and _d.i.n.kas_ about the Sobat confluence, the _Bari_ and _Nuers_ of the Bahr-el-Jebel, the _Bongos_ (_Dors_), _Rols_, _Golos_, _Mittus_, _Madis_, _Makarakas_, _Abakas_, _Mundus_, and many others about the western affluents, as well as the _Funj_ of Senaar--had been brought under the Khedivial rule before the revolt of the Mahdi.

The same fate had already overtaken or was threatening the formerly powerful _Momb.u.t.tu_ (_Mangbattu_) and _Zandeh_[212] nations of the Welle lands, as well as the _Krej_ and others about the low watersheds of the Nile-Congo and Chad basins. Since then the Welle groups have been subjected to the jurisdiction of the Congo Free State, while the political destinies of the Nilotic tribes must henceforth be controlled by the British masters of the Nile lands from the Great Lakes to the Mediterranean.

Although grouped as Negroes proper, very few of the Nilotic peoples present the almost ideal type of the blacks, such as those of Upper Guinea and the Atlantic coast of West Sudan. The complexion is in general less black, the nose less broad at the base, the lips less everted (s.h.i.+lluks and one or two others excepted), the hair rather less frizzly, the dolichocephaly and prognathism less marked.

Apart from the more delicate shades of transition, due to diverse interminglings with Hamites and Semites, two distinct types may be plainly distinguished--one black, often very tall, with long thin legs, and long-headed (_s.h.i.+lluks, d.i.n.kas, Bari, Nuers, Alur_), the other reddish or ruddy brown, more thick-set, and short-headed (_Bongos_, _Golos_, _Makarakas_, with the kindred _Zandehs_ of the Welle region).

No explanation has been offered of their brachycephaly, which is all the more difficult to account for, inasmuch as it is characteristic neither of the aboriginal Negro nor of the intruding Hamitic and Semitic elements. Have we here an indication of the transition suspected by many between the true long-headed Negro and the round-headed Negrillo, who is also brownish, and formerly ranged as far north as the Nile head-streams, as would appear from the early Egyptian records (Chap.

IV.)? Schweinfurth found that the Bongos were "hardly removed from the lowest grade of brachycephaly[213]," and the same is largely true of the Zandehs and their Makaraka cousins, as noticed by Junker: "The skull also in many of these peoples approaches the round form, whereas the typical Negro is a.s.sumed to be long-headed[214]." But so great is the diversity of appearance throughout the whole of this region, including even "a striking Semitic type," that this observer was driven to the conclusion that "woolly hair, common to all, forms in fact the only sure characteristic of the Negro[215]."

d.i.n.ka is the name given to a congeries of independent tribes spread over a vast area, stretching from 300 miles south of Khartum to within 100 miles of Gondokoro, and reaching many miles to the west in the Bahr-el-Ghazal Province. All these tribes according to C. G.

Seligman[216] call themselves _Jieng_ or _Jenge_, corrupted by the Arabs into d.i.n.ka; but no d.i.n.ka nation has arisen, for the tribes have never recognised a supreme chief, as do their neighbours, the s.h.i.+lluk, nor have they even been united under a military despot, as the Zulu were united under Chaka. They differ in manners and customs and even in physique and are often at war with one another. One of the most obvious distinctions in habits is between the relatively powerful cattle-owning d.i.n.ka and the small and comparatively poor tribes who have no cattle and scarcely cultivate the ground, but live in the marshes in the neighbourhood of the Sudd, and depend largely for their sustenance on fis.h.i.+ng and hippopotamus-hunting. Their villages, which are generally dirty and evil-smelling, are built on ground which rises but little above the reed-covered surface of the country. The d.i.n.ka community is largely autonomous under leaders.h.i.+p of a chief or headman (_bain_) who is sometimes merely the local magician, but in one community in each tribe he is the hereditary rain-maker whose wish is law. "Cattle form the economic basis of d.i.n.ka society; ... they are the currency in which bride-price and blood-fines are paid; and the desire to acquire a neighbour's herds is the common cause of those inter-tribal raids which const.i.tute d.i.n.ka warfare."

Some uniformity appears to prevail amongst the languages of the Nile-Welle lands, and from the rather scanty materials collected by Junker, Fr. Muller was able to construct an "Equatorial Linguistic Family," including the Mangbattu, Zandeh, Barmbo, Madi, Bangba, Krej, Golo and others, on both sides of the water-parting. Leo Reinisch, however, was not convinced, and in a letter addressed to the author declared that "in the absence of sentences it is impossible to determine the grammatical structure of Mangbattu and the other languages. At the same time we may detect certain relations, not to the Nilotic, but the Bantu tongues. It may therefore be inferred that Mangbattu and the others have a tolerably close relations.h.i.+p to the Bantu, and may even be remotely akin to it, judging from their tendency to prefix formations[217]." Future research will show how far this conjecture is justified.

Although Islam has made considerable progress, throughout the greater part of the Sudanese region, though not among the Nilotic tribes, the bulk of the people are still practically pagan. Witchcraft continues to flourish amongst the equatorial peoples, and important events are almost everywhere attended by sanguinary rites. These are absent among the true Nilotics. The d.i.n.ka are totemic, with ancestor-wors.h.i.+p. The s.h.i.+lluk have a cult of divine kings.

Cannibalism however, in some of its most repulsive forms, prevails amongst the Zandehs, who barter in human fat as a universal staple of trade, and amongst the Mangbattu, who cure for future use the bodies of the slain in battle and "drive their prisoners before them, as butchers drive sheep to the shambles, and these are only reserved to fall victims on a later day to their horrible and sickly greediness[218]."

In fact here we enter the true "cannibal zone," which, as I have elsewhere shown, was in former ages diffused all over Central and South Africa, or, it would be more correct to say, over the whole continent[219], but has in recent times been mainly confined to "the region stretching west and east from the Gulf of Guinea to the western head-streams of the White Nile, and from below the equator northwards in the direction of Adamawa, Dar-Banda and Dar-Fert.i.t. Wherever explorers have penetrated into this least-known region of the continent they have found the practice fully established, not merely as a religious rite or a privilege reserved for priests, but as a recognised social inst.i.tution[220]."

Yet many of these cannibal peoples, especially the Mangbattus and Zandehs, are skilled agriculturists, and cultivate some of the useful industries, such as iron and copper smelting and casting, weaving, pottery and wood-carving, with great success. The form and ornamental designs of their utensils display real artistic taste, while the temper of their iron implements is often superior to that of the imported European hardware. Here again the observation has been made that the tribes most addicted to cannibalism also excel in mental qualities and physical energy. Nor are they strangers to the finer feelings of human nature, and above all the surrounding peoples the Zandeh anthropophagists are distinguished by their regard and devotion for their women and children.

In one respect all these peoples show a higher degree of intelligence even than the Arabs and Hamites. "My later experiences," writes Junker, "revealed the remarkable fact that certain negro peoples, such as the Niam-Niams, the Mangbattus and the Bantus of Uganda and Unyoro, display quite a surprising understanding of figured ill.u.s.trations or pictures of plastic objects, which is not as a rule exhibited by the Arabs and Arabised Hamites of North-east Africa. Thus the Unyoro chief, Riongo, placed photographs in their proper position, and was able to identify the negro portraits as belonging to the Shuli, Lango, or other tribes, of which he had a personal knowledge. This I have called a remarkable fact, because it bespoke in the lower races a natural faculty for observation, a power to recognise what for many Arabs or Egyptians of high rank was a hopeless puzzle. An Egyptian pasha in Khartum could never make out how a human face in profile showed only one eye and one ear, and he took the portrait of a fas.h.i.+onable Parisian lady in extremely low dress for that of the bearded sun-burnt American naval officer who had shown him the photograph[221]." From this one is almost tempted to infer that, amongst Moslem peoples, all sense of plastic, figurative, or pictorial art has been deadened by the Koranic precept forbidding the representation of the human form in any way.

The Welle peoples show themselves true Negroes in the possession of another and more precious quality, the sense of humour, although this is probably a quality which comes late in the life of a race. Anyhow it is a distinct Negro characteristic, which Junker was able to turn to good account during the building of his famous _Lacrima_ station in Ndoruma's country. "In all this I could again notice how like children the Negroes are in many respects. Once at work they seemed animated by a sort of childlike sense of honour. They delighted in praise, though even a frown or a word of reproach could also excite their hilarity. Thus a loud burst of laughter would, for instance, follow the contrast between a piece of good and bad workmans.h.i.+p. Like children, they would point the finger of scorn at each other[222]."

One morning Ndoruma, hearing that they had again struck work, had the great war-drum beaten, whereupon they rushed to arms and mustered in great force from all quarters. But on finding that there was no enemy to march against, and that they had only been summoned to resume operations at the station, they enjoyed the joke hugely, and after a general explosion of laughter at the way they had been taken in, laid aside their weapons and returned cheerfully to work. Some English overseers have already discovered that this characteristic may be utilised far more effectively than the cruel kurbash. Ethnology has many such lessons to teach.

FOOTNOTES:

[129] For a tentative cla.s.sification of African tribes see T. A. Joyce, Art. "Africa: Ethnology," _Ency. Brit._ 1910, p. 329.

[130] Graphically summed up in the cla.s.sical description of the Negress:

"Afra genus, tota patriam testante figura, Torta comam labroque tumens, et fusca colorem, Pectore lata, jacens mammis, compressior alvo, Cruribus exilis, spatiosa prodiga planta."

[131] See H. R. Hall, papers and references in _Man_, 19, 1905.

[132] T. A. Joyce, "Africa: Ethnology," _Ency. Brit._ 1910, I. 327.

[133] J. P. Johnson, _The Prehistoric Period in South Africa_, 1912.

[134] See H. H. Johnston, "A Survey of the Ethnography of Africa,"

_Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLIII. 1913.

[135] The skeleton found by Hans Reck at Oldoway in 1914 and claimed by him to be of Pleistocene age exhibits all the typical Negro features, including the filed teeth, characteristic of East African negroes at the present day, but the geological evidence is imperfect.

[136] H. H. Johnston, _British Central Africa_, 1897, p. 393.

[137] Zandeh is the name usually given to the groups of tribes akin to Nilotics, but probably with Fulah element, which includes the _Azandeh_ or Niam Niam, _Makaraka_, _Mangbattu_ and many others. Cf. T. A. Joyce, _loc. cit._ p. 329.

[138] _British Central Africa_, p. 472. But see R. E. Dennett, _At the Back of the Black Man's Mind_, 1906, and A. G. Leonard, _The Lower Niger and its Tribes_, 1906, for African mentality.

[139] For theories of Bantu migrations see H. H. Johnston, _George Grenfell and the Congo_, 1908, and "A Survey of the Ethnography of Africa," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Soc._ XLIII. 1913, p. 391 ff. Also F.

Stuhlmann, _Handwerk und Industrie in Ostafrika_, 1910, p. 138, f. 147, with map, Pl. 1. B. For the date see p. 92.

[140] Even a tendency to polysynthesis occurs, as in Vei, and in Yoruba, where the small-pox G.o.d _Shakpanna_ is made up of the three elements _shan_ to plaster, _kpa_ to kill, and _enia_ a person = one who kills a person by plastering him (with pustules).

[141] The Nilotic languages are to a considerable extent tonic.

[142] A. B. Ellis, _The Ts.h.i.+-speaking Peoples_, etc., 1887, pp. 327-8.

Only one European, Herr R. Betz, long resident amongst the Dualas of the Cameruns district, has yet succeeded in mastering the drum language; he claims to understand nearly all that is drummed and is also able to drum himself. (_Athenaeum_, May 7, 1898, p. 611.)

[143] Cf. H. S. Harrison, _Handbook to the cases ill.u.s.trating stages in the evolution of the Domestic Arts_. Part II. Horniman Museum and Library. Forest Hill, S.E.