The Women Here Are In The Habit Of Piercing The Upper Lip,
And Gradually Enlarging The Orifice Until They Can Insert A Shell.
The Lip Then Appears Drawn Out Beyond The Perpendicular Of The Nose,
And Gives Them A Most Ungainly Aspect.
Sekwebu remarked,
"These women want to make their mouths like those of ducks;"
and, indeed, it does appear as
If they had the idea that female beauty of lip
had been attained by the `Ornithorhynchus paradoxus' alone.
This custom prevails throughout the country of the Maravi,
and no one could see it without confessing that fashion had never led women
to a freak more mad. We had rains now every day, and considerable cloudiness,
but the sun often burst through with scorching intensity.
All call out against it then, saying, "O the sun! that is rain again."
It was worth noticing that my companions never complained of the heat
while on the highlands, but when we descended into the lowlands of Angola,
and here also, they began to fret on account of it. I myself felt
an oppressive steaminess in the atmosphere which I had not experienced
on the higher lands.
As the game was abundant and my party very large, I had still
to supply their wants with the gun. We slaughtered the oxen
only when unsuccessful in hunting. We always entered into friendly relations
with the head men of the different villages, and they presented grain
and other food freely. One man gave a basinful of rice, the first we met with
in the country. It is never seen in the interior. He said he knew
it was "white man's corn", and when I wished to buy some more, he asked me
to give him a slave. This was the first symptom of the slave-trade
on this side of the country. The last of these friendly head men
was named Mobala; and having passed him in peace, we had no anticipation
of any thing else; but, after a few hours, we reached Selole or Chilole,
and found that he not only considered us enemies, but had actually
sent an express to raise the tribe of Mburuma against us.
All the women of Selole had fled, and the few people we met
exhibited symptoms of terror. An armed party had come from Mburuma
in obedience to the call; but the head man of the company,
being Mburuma's brother, suspecting that it was a hoax,
came to our encampment and told us the whole. When we explained our objects,
he told us that Mburuma, he had no doubt, would receive us well. The reason
why Selole acted in this foolish manner we afterward found to be this:
an Italian named Simoens, and nicknamed Siriatomba (don't eat tobacco),
had married the daughter of a chief called Sekokole, living north of Tete.
He armed a party of fifty slaves with guns, and, ascending the river in canoes
some distance beyond the island Meya makaba, attacked several
inhabited islands beyond, securing a large number of prisoners,
and much ivory.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 463 of 572
Words from 247561 to 248069
of 306638
