The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1858-06-01
HUMAN DEGRADATION.

native country as an argument i'll favor of enslavng
them here:
Mr. Freeman, who visited Upper Guinea, on the
West coast and writes to the Wesleyan Missionary
Society of London 1888, of the people of Ashantee
says: 'When Ashantee of any description dies,
several of his slaves sacrificed; and as walked
out early in the morning | the mangled corpse
of poor female slave who had been beheaded dur
ing the night, lying the public street. 1t was
partially covered with cotton mat, and as this
covering is unusual | concluded that it thrown
over it to hide it from my view. In the course OF
the day saw groups of natives dancing round it
with all manner of fantastic gestures, appearing to
be in the very zenith of their happiness" Speak
ing of another he says: 1.-The head was severed from
the BODY. and several turkey buzzards were feast
ing on the wounds and literally rolling the head In
the dust"
Mr. Robert Moffat, who for twenty years, had
been agent of the London Missionary Society in
South Africa, and who wrote i'll 1915, OF the Bush
men of Zah River, says "The practice is, that
when mother dies, whose infant is unable to shit
for itself it is without ceremony buried alive with
her" And again: Their huts formed, by
digging hole in the earth about three feet deep,
and making a roof of reeds, which, however, IS III
sufficient to keep off the rain Thus they lie close
together like pigs in stye. They are extremely
lazy, so that nothing will arouse them but hunger
The men have several wives Hottentots seldom
destroy their children, except in fit OF passion,
but the Bushmen will kill their children without
anv remorse on various occasions. They know no
God, nothing of eternity, and yet dread DEATH
Of the Bechuanas he says: They have no tradl-
tons of religion, and do not rise even to ldolatry.
They are brought to religious exercises by bits OF
tobacco and were attentive so long as they had the
hope of gaining anything by it.
In one of his excursions he came to decrepld
Hottentot mother who had been abandoned by her
tl,o no HaVO
beasts
Of the Boralongs, he says: "They view murder
with Indifference and he was immoderately laughed
at for complaining to chief that a man had just
dashed his spear through his wife,
Rev Mr. Owen, who wrote in 1886, says OF the
Yaronba tribe, that ''when man dies the Oldest
son inherits the house and all the wives but his
own mother; and of the Kruman, he says, Gas age
advances he loses the control Of his female house
hold most of the members of which now run away,
unless he is wise enough Gas usuaGe permts) to
dispose of them to his more youthful relations.
Lander speaking Of the Lootoo, says that ovid
ows arc dubbed or poisoned there, as they are
burned in India"
Capt. Canot, an old slaver who was taken and
confined by the Kree Bushmen, speaks Of what he
saw on the morning after the battle: 'Prescntly
slowly approached from distance procession OF
women whose naked limbs were smeared with
chalk and ochre poured into the palaver house, to
Join the beastly rites. Each of these devils was
armed with a knife, and bore in her hands some
cannibal trophy. jenkins wife, corpulent wench
of As, dragged along the ground by single limb
the Shiny corpse of an infant.
DIR. Barth, who visited the North and Central
Africa, under the auspices Of her Britannia Males
tvs government in 1880, says of the Berries tribes,
which have at least the merit of hereditary disnc
tions that the few of the ruling live in tolera
bic comfort upon the plumber of caravans and the
labor Of their many Subjects and that under the
influence of those advantages they have abandon
ed tents to some extent, and live Ill huts made OF
bushes and dry grass.
Bruce the traveller, visited Abysinia, which has
not only hereditary arstocracy, but some hnger-
ing forms of the Christian religion; and speaking
Of their habits, SAYS of their slaug htering animals
that 'two or of them fall to work the back
of the beast while it is still alive, and stripping the
skin half way down the sides, begin to cut away
from it. The noise made by the poor creature is
the announcement that dinner is ready
Mr. Mansfield Perkyns, who visited the same
country in 1850, says that "there has been much
: improvement since the time Of Bruce, and that
though the better classes still sleep naked, with
block of wood for pillow, and still eat the flesh
of animals while it is yet warm and quvcring, they
vet in most cases, kill the animal before they Gu
: it up
DIR. Livingston passed from the Cape of Coco
: Hope to Central Africa, and through Central AT
): RIGA from Loonda to the mouths of the Gambezi
and though he gets up feeling Of much regard fo
the people whom he met, he fails to show the rca
e son for it. "Katama, a naked six foot chieftain
of the river Luba, receives his presents of rec
bazc cloak and iron spoon, with great satisfac
G ton, and then mounting the shoulders Of hi
q slender spokesman, retires with imposing dignity
Sckeetu the chief of the Mokoloos, is his disciple
: and his friend" But when the Doctor returned
, from excursion to Loonda he finds that tn,
wives of his men had taken to other husbands an'
/ that Sekeletu himself, his hopeful convert, hao
made two excursions to depredate upon the slave
e and cattle of his ne glbors
> OF these Mokoloo, whom he much admires, h
: says that 'the rich show kindness to the poor, blu
only i'll the hope of service and that the poor VIII
: have relations. will seldom be supplied will
even water when they sick; and when they die
are dragged out to the hyenas
n At Magoro, on his way down the Gambez h
u counted 81 skulls around stakes, and We learne'
that the chiefs Of that region vie with each other il
e the number Of skulls they exhibit.
- VIOLENCE IN KANSAS.
* BooSvHLE May 27.-An Extra issue of the Lawrenc