So Is The Savage Buffalo, Especially Delighting In
Dark Places, Where He Can Wallow In The Mud And Slake His Thirst
Without Much Trouble; And Here Also We Find The Wild Pig.
The gruff hippopotamus is as widespread as any, being found
wherever there is water to float him; whilst the
Shy giraffe and
zebra affect all open forests and plains where the grass is not
too long; and antelopes, of great variety in species and habits,
are found wherever man will let them alone and they can find
water. The lion is, however, rarely heard - much more seldom
seen. Hyenas are numerous, and thievishly inclined. Leopards,
less common, are the terror of the villagers. Foxes are not
numerous, but frighten the black traveller by their ill-omened
bark. Hares, about half the size of English ones - there are no
rabbits - are widely spread, but not numerous; porcupines the
same. Wild cats, and animals of the ferret kind, destroy game.
Monkeys of various kinds and squirrels harbour in the trees, but
are rarely seen. Tortoises and snakes, in great variety, crawl
over the ground, mostly after the rains. Rats and lizards - there
are but few mice - are very abundant, and feed both in the fields
and on the stores of the men.
The wily ostrich, bustard, and florikan affect all open places.
The guinea-fowl is the most numerous of all game-birds.
Partridges come next, but do not afford good sport; and quails
are rare. Ducks and snipe appear to love Africa less than any
other country; and geese and storks are only found where water
most abounds. Vultures are uncommon; hawks and crows much
abound, as in all other countries; but little birds, of every
colour and note, are discoverable in great quantities near water
and by the villages. Huge snails and small ones, as well as
fresh-water shells, are very abundant, though the conchologist
would find but little variety to repay his labours; and insects,
though innumerable, are best sought for after the rains have set
in.[FN#3]
The Wanguana or Freed Men
The Wa-n-guana, as their name implies, are men freed from
slavery; and as it is to these singular negroes acting as hired
servants that I have been chiefly indebted for opening this large
section of Africa, a few general remarks on their character
cannot be out of place here.
Of course, having been born in Africa, and associated in
childhood with the untainted negroes, they retain all the
superstitious notions of the true aborigines, though somewhat
modified, and even corrupted, by that acquaintance with the outer
world which sharpens their wits.
Most of these men were doubtless caught in wars, as may be seen
every day in Africa, made slaves of, and sold to the Arabs for a
few yards of common cloth, brass wire, or beads. They would then
be taken to the Zanzibar market, resold like horses to the
highest bidder, and then kept in bondage by their new masters,
more like children of his family than anything else. In this new
position they were circumcised to make Mussulmans of them, that
their hands might be "clean" to slaughter their master's cattle,
and extend his creed; for the Arabs believe the day must come
when the tenets of Mohammed will be accepted by all men.
The slave in this new position finds himself much better off than
he ever was in his life before, with this exception, that as a
slave he feels himself much degraded in the social scale of
society, and his family ties are all cut off from him - probably
his relations have all been killed in the war in which he was
captured. Still, after the first qualms have worn off, we find
him much attached to his master, who feeds him and finds him in
clothes in return for the menial services which he performs. In
a few years after capture, or when confidence has been gained by
the attachment shown by the slave, if the master is a trader in
ivory, he will intrust him with the charge of his stores, and
send him all over the interior of the continent to purchase for
him both slaves and ivory; but should the master die, according
to the Mohammedan creed the slaves ought to be freed. In Arabia
this would be the case; but at Zanzibar it more generally happens
that the slave is willed to his successor.
The whole system of slaveholding by the Arabs in Africa, or
rather on the coast or at Zanzibar, is exceedingly strange; for
the slaves, both in individual physical strength and in numbers,
are so superior to the Arab foreigners, that if they chose to
rebel, they might send the Arabs flying out of the land. It
happens, however, that they are spell-bound, not knowing their
strength any more than domestic animals, and they even seem to
consider that they would be dishonest if they ran away after
being purchased, and so brought pecuniary loss on their owners.
There are many positions into which the slave may get by the
course of events, and I shall give here, as a specimen, the
ordinary case of one who has been freed by the death of his
master, that master having been a trader in ivory and slaves in
the interior. In such a case, the slave so freed in all
probability would commence life afresh by taking service as a
porter with other merchants, and in the end would raise
sufficient capital to commence trading himself - first in slaves,
because they are the most easily got, and then in ivory. All his
accumulations would then go to the Zanzibar market, or else to
slavers looking out off the coast. Slavery begets slavery. To
catch slaves is the first thought of every chief in the interior;
hence fights and slavery impoverish the land, and that is the
reason both why Africa does not improve, and why we find men of
all tribes and tongues on the coast.
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