Part 1 — NOTES TO PART I

This process of snipping off little pieces has gone on for thirty years, and the result is that the brass rod has gradually decreased in length until now, on the Lower Congo, it is scarcely five inches, and among the Boloki of the Monsembe district it is only eleven inches, and if the introduction of money does not displace the rod it will become only four or five inches in that part also.

Of course, as the rod lessens in length the seller of an article demands more of them for his goods. Thus an article that once cost three rods of thirty-inch wire now costs thirty of the five-inch rods; for not only has the rod shortened in length, but through the introduction of so much brass wire into the country during the last quarter of a century it has decreased in value. I hope some day to take the Rod among those people who use an eleven-inch brass rod as their money.

Most captains had a head man who gathered a gang ready by the time his ship returned from its European port. For example: a ship leaves Liverpool, and on arriving at the coast picks up its head man and gang of “boys,” who work the winches, man the boats and handle the cargo all the way along the coast and back again to their own country, where they are paid off in barter goods, powder, guns, rum and gin at the rate of one shilling a day. They then rest after their arduous work until that ship returns, and they engage themselves for another trip. The Congo boats now pick up their Kroo “boys” at Sierra Leone on the outward voyage, and drop them there on the homeward journey, and pay them in cash at the rate of about one shilling to one and sixpence per day and their rations.

When not in port these Kroo “boys” polished the brasswork, scraped the iron, cleaned the paint, holystoned the deck, etc.; but when in port they went into the holds, tied up the cargo in slings, hoisted it by winches, put it over the side into boats, and rowed it ashore. They were hard-working men who toiled from 4 a.m. until 10 or 12 p.m., only resting for their meals of boiled rice, salt beef or fish, and ship’s biscuits.

PEASOUP

Captain Jolly’s Head Man.

A Rogue, Thief, and a Liar.

343Peasoup was a tall, thin, grey-headed, bandy-legged man; and I used to see him polish the plate every morning, hang it across his chest, and with knock-knees and bandy legs strut the deck and order his men about as proud as any general with a breast hidden by medals.

Peasoup knew English fairly well, but, of course, could not read it; but he would never accept as true the accurate rendering of his much-prized brass plate. Passengers read it correctly to him; but with a laugh he would retort: "You white men, you no sabbe read them thing properly. Him live for say: ‘Peasoup, Captain Jolly’s Head Man. Him be plenty, proper, good man.’"

Since those days Peasoup has passed away, leaving his brass plate as an heirloom to his family, and if not melted down into a brass ornament, it may turn up some day as a relic of a joke played by a master on a decent servant in “the good old days” on the West African Coast.

Ngwala also means spirits, rum, gin, from a corruption and a shortening of the Portuguese word aguardente = gwaladente = ngwala. The “r” is always turned into “l,” and the “g” takes the nasal “n” before it. It is very probable that they pun on the double meaning of the word ngwala = riddle, and gin. Hence the usual form of asking a conundrum is--

Ngwala yeye = here is gin, i. e. here is a riddle.

Ta e ngwala = pour out the gin, i. e. state the riddle (or twasa e ngwala = bring the gin here).

If those asked cannot give the answer, they say--

Nua e ngwala = drink the gin, i. e. give us the answer yourself, as we cannot guess it.

The natives of the Lower Congo are very fond of this pastime, but one needs to understand the customs, language, and surroundings to properly appreciate the conundrums; consequently only a few almost self-evident ones, or those easily explained, are put in the text.

This fetish exercised little, if any, deterrent power over the natives for two reasons: (1) No witch-doctor would waste good “medicine,” procured with difficulty, on making a fetish powerful for a mere white man, and the natives knew this; and (2) supposing the witch-doctor put proper “medicine” into the fetish, yet it needed periodic reinvigorating at the hands of the witch-doctor, otherwise it became weak and useless; and it would also require a sacrifice, certainly not less frequently than once a month, of either a large fowl or a goat, or it would become sulky and not act on behalf of its owner. Now I never heard of a white man renewing the energy of his fetish by paying a witch-doctor to palaver over it at stated intervals, nor did I ever hear of a white man offering a sacrifice to the fetish in his store; therefore while the trader was relying on his fetish to guard his goods, his native servants and workpeople were laughing at it as an ineffective carved figure.

The introduction of glass, guns, etc., into their stories are indicative of native readiness to expand their tales by the free assimilation of new ideas received from contact with foreigners. This has also had a wide influence on their language and fetish religion. This story I first heard in 1882 at San Salvador.

Occasionally I have been with a white man who, in spite of scrupulous cleanliness, was very malodorous through suffering from empyreuma; and I have met here and there a native whose smell was especially offensive, and it was as objectionable to his black neighbours as to us. The natives have a definite word for such malodorous emanations. Some lads have told me that the perspiration of some white men has made them vomit.

24 Mboma.--See note 19.

“But why did you think we bought corpses?” I asked, with much wonder and amazement.

“We can understand why traders come to this country,” they answered, “but we cannot understand why your kind of white men come, for you do not trade, so we think you have some wicked purpose underlying your presence in our land.”

Believing such ghastly things about us, their opposition to us and hatred of us were no longer a surprise to me. The wonder is that they did not murder all of us. We have had to live down their prejudices, remove their foolish beliefs about us, and turn their suspicions into confidence and love.

At birth a native name is given to the boy (or girl), and later in life--at twelve or fourteen--the lad can take another name of his own choice if, for any reason, he is dissatisfied with his birth name, and allow his first one to be forgotten by disuse. While in their teens they also select a santu which is a Congoized form of a Portuguese name, as Manwele = Manuel = Emanuel; Nzwau = Jaõa = John; Petelo = Pedro = Peter, etc.; and the women take Madia = Maria = Mary, etc. To their santus they prefix “Dom” and “Donna” respectively.

In San Salvador and the near towns every man and woman has a santu, but the farther you travel from San Salvador, the less frequently is the santu found among the people. Undoubtedly it is a survival of the sancto given by the Roman Catholics to those who were baptized into their Church.

Although the possession of “Dom” and “Donna” was so common, yet the use of them was somewhat restricted to the better class of natives, much the same as our use of Mr. and Mrs. and Miss. Of some men the natives never spoke without calling them “Dom,” and to others they never prefixed the “Dom” except when they wanted to ingratiate themselves or ask a special favour.

351When I first saw this performance--nearly thirty years ago--I felt great pity for the wee girls having such poor dolls, and sent home to buy a few for them. In due time they arrived, and the first girl I met carrying a cassava root (in shape like a parsnip) I offered her one of my dolls. She looked at it in great consternation--it was something uncanny to her. It had legs, arms, body, head and a face just like a human being. It was only with much persuasion that I prevailed on her to exchange her root for my doll. A few days afterwards I heard that my doll was sold on the market at a good price as a white man’s powerful fetish. The other dolls remained in the box, although there were many requests for them. We had not gone there to supply fetishes.

"The measurements are as follows--

"Across the shoulders, 2 feet 11 inches.

"Waist, 5 feet 8 inches in circumference.

"Armholes, 23 inches in circumference.

"Round the neck, 20 inches.

"Arm, 1 foot 3 inches, not including the cuff, which is 5 inches long.

"Cuff, 9 inches round.

"From top to bottom, 3 feet 6 inches.

"I should tell you the King is clever with his needle, and his twenty-two wives are just as clever at farming.

“One boy wants to know what sort of work our Queen does.”

The shirts had to be larger than above measurements to be loose on him.

In 1884, a copy of Le Mouvement Geographique fell into my hands, and in it was a letter that was said to have been sent by Dom Pedro V, King of Congo, to the King of Portugal. In it the former acknowledged the latter as his liege lord and used every expression of fealty, loyalty, and submission. I remember that the letter was, at the time, put forward as a proof of the righteousness of the Portuguese claim to the Congo; and it certainly helped them in gaining a part of what is now called Portuguese Congo.

Having occasion to speak with the King about that time, I asked him if he had written the said letter, and I gave him a translation of it. The old man was sitting in a high-back, embossed, leather chair, and rising from it, he said, “My brother, the King of Portugal, sent me this chair, and I sent 354him a letter thanking him for his gift, and that is the only letter I ever signed my mark to or ordered to be sent.” He had signed away his country in saying “thank you for a chair.”

Attached to the letter were the names of the head Portuguese Roman Catholic priest, a Portuguese trader, and a French trader, as witnesses to the King’s mark. Shortly after reading this letter I met M. D----, the French trader, and told him I had just seen the said letter. I reminded him of its date, and asked, “Why was not I requested to sign this letter, for all the other white men in San Salvador signed it, and I was here on that date? Am I not a white man?”

M. D---- answered, “We did not ask you to witness the King’s mark because we felt sure you would not do it until the King thoroughly understood the real purport of the letter.”

I thanked M. D---- for his estimate of my character, and gave him my view of the manner in which they had deceived and defrauded the King.

The King thought he was saying: Thank you for a few presents sent him by a brother sovereign; but he was signing away his territory to another power, and in this way he and his people were defrauded of their true rights. They have every reason to hate white men for robbing them of their country and reducing them to slavery.

He claimed the great bulk of the marriage money for this reason: Suppose he received £3 for his niece, and after five years she died, her husband would come to the uncle and say, “I gave you £3 for the loan of your niece, and she is now dead. I want my money back, and as you have had the use of it for five years I expect 20s. interest on top.” Now probably the uncle would not be able to pay this relatively large sum, and in lieu of it would give another woman as a wife to the man. In another five years, we will say, the second wife dies, and the husband goes to the uncle and says, “The second woman you let me have is dead, and as you have had the use of my money for ten years I want it returned with 40s. interest.” (Sometimes they demand the equivalent of 80s. to 100s. interest.)

The uncle cannot meet so large a demand, so he gives another--the third--woman, and should she die the husband has no further claim either for the capital sum, interest, or another woman. Should the husband die, then his heir has the same claim on the uncle up to three women, or the money with interest; and if the uncle dies, then his heir who receives his property is responsible for the claims of the husband or of his heir up to three women or the money. (See note 54.) As the uncle took the greater risks, it was only right that he should take most of the money. Whatever the father received was his absolutely, without any risks.

(1) Swearing by one’s relations, as shown in the text. Any near relative may be substituted for mother. This may be extended into: By my mother, may I never see her deathbed, or may my mother desert me.

(2) Swearing by a notable person or place: By the great King. By Dom Alvaro. By the road to Congo. By the path to the tomb of the deceased King.

(3) Swearing by the fetishes; and this may be divided into two classes: (a) Those who swear by the ordinary fetishes, as: By the lightning fetishes (nzaji), etc., and (b) those who have been initiated into the ndembo guild and swear by the fetishes of this secret society, as: May the nkita cause me to go mad. By the ndembo enclosure. By albinos and dwarfs. These latter are all powerful in the ndembo guild. (See Folk-Lore, June 1909, p. 189.)

(4) Swearing by God, as: May God punish me.

If a man fires at an antelope and it rushes away, the hunter looks to see if any blood has fallen, or any hairs; if not, it is decided that he has not killed it, although he may have mortally wounded it; if another man fires and it drops, it is the latter’s animal. If there is any dispute as to whether it was killed by the first shot or the second, the one who is positive and over-rides all argument must take the heart of the antelope and eat it (not raw). If his shot really killed it all is well, but if not, the eating of the heart will destroy his kinkongo, or hunting skill. Many a man has relinquished his claim to an animal for fear of spoiling his luck.