The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-08-03
IN CENTRAL AFRICA.

Long ago.
e ". IN Daughters of America.
IN CENTRAL AFRICA.
A physician. who recently returned from
Central Africa, furnishes an interesting
article to the British Medical Journal, from
which the following 10 taken. The Nasal
tribes, who inhabit the rich volcanic coun-
try east of the Victoria Nyanza, are among
the most interesting people in Central
Africa. They are not negroes; they have
good cranial development, straight, we'll
shaped noses, eyes with slight Monaghan
slant upward, prominent cheek bones, jaws
rarely prognathous, chocolate colored skins
and extremely we'll proportional limbs.
Both men and women elongate the
lobes Of tho ear by ear-stretchers till
they nearly reach to the shoulders,
and their fists can be put through the orr
fee in the distended part. The chief
achievements of the young Nasal men OF
warriors seem to be to make eloquent
speeches and to commit murder. Interne-
cine wars have dep0pulated their country.
and their ferocious attacks on caravans
have made Nasal Land both the terror and
the terra incognita of travellers. Til! they
marry the young men feed on milk and
flesh food, and smoking and chewing to-
bacco and drinking fermented liquors are
strictly forbidden. Before setting out on
the mountains and gorge. themselves with
beef, with the idea that they thereby store
MP strength. After marriage they add veg
etables to their food, and they then chew
tobacco and indulge in an occasional ca
rouse. The married men and women live
n kraals apart, and the unmarried girls
and warriors live together in other villages
by themselves, in state Of promiscuous
free love. The women are completely
clothed in dressed hides, and are as immor-
al az the men are arrogant and ferOclous.
The Nasal will not allow the burial OF .
and it 10 therefore cast to the wild beasts
without ceremony.
They have no religion and no belief in a
future, but are extremely suspicious and
have complete belief in witchcraft. Thomp-
son, the traveller, the first European to ira
verse the country of this terrible Nasal, did
10 by posing AZ a great white wizard BY the
aid Of an electrical machine, an artificial
get of teeth removed at will, and Eno's
fruit salt, which, ON being made to fizz at
the firing Of gun, would, it was alleged,
To spit on q person is to confer the greatest
mark of respect. Whore the Nasal have,
a. the result of warfare. been Obliged to set
tie and mix with other tribes, and have
been cut off from the evil
traditions Of their race h.. their sa
suited in producing hybrid tribes distin-
Ruished for their energy in trade and their
GOOD government. This experience is en-
couraged at the present moment when we
IRE making arrangements to take these
Wild tribes under our protection.
The Wa-Karirondo who live north OF the
savage Nasal, are cultivators of the soil and
are a vegetarian people. They have a less
fine physique and less ferocity of DISPOSE
ton than the Nasal. The men go absolute
ly nnde; the women "wear necklace and
though unclothed they are as distinguished
for their modesty and virtue as the draped
Nasal women are for their audacity and
vice. They are fond of dancing, in which
violent muscular movements of the arms
and shoulders form the principal part
French Of Central Africa. They are peo-
pie with ideas, and they lead the fashions A
race which prides itself on descent from re-
mote white progenitors, the Waganda stand
out, by reason of their elaborate system of
autocratic, government, their laws and Gus
even the amount of bare leg permissible at
court; their higher civilization, which ID
shown in their dress, houses and sanitary
arrangements-asdi distinct and separate from
the naked savages which surround Uganda,
s.the pearl of Central Africa" The Emperor
Mtesa, with his barbaric court on the shores
of the Victoria Nyanza, his arrogance and
cruelty, his intelligence and eager desire to
learn, his vast armies and his huge harem
has been described by Spoke and Stanley
with such minuteness and brilliancy that his
name and character will never be forgotten
The Waganda are extremely intelligent. and
the missionaries who followed in Stanley's
steps and established q station at Uganda
tellwonderful stories of individual converts
who quickly learned to read the Bible il
their native tongue, and to write capita
letters, and who even suffered cruel martyr
doms for their faith; but all who have had
anything to do with these people agree that
as whole, they are crafty, lying, murder
ous thieves. Both men and women are
draped in bark cloth, and immodesty ia g
crime. The dwellings are clean: The
banana and plantains are staple articles OF
food, the savory cooking of which is prac-
ticed. The Waganda are very skillful Will
their fingers, and in the making of shields
spears and canoes they excel all othel
African tribes. They are extremely fonc
struments. Indeed, SO fond are all tn
African races of music that, in Sir Samue
Bakers opinion, man who plays the cor
net. or an organ-grinder, could pass un
harmed from one end of Africa to the other
and that a missionary, to be snccessful
ought to be able to dance a jig and play tn
baopipes. Women in Uganda are mer
baggage. and all wives have their price.
The Wanyamwezi, who have become tn
trusted posters, or pagazis, of all e1plorin
parties or trade caravans into the interio
are a people of great endurance and physi,
a strenth, and are docile, courageous an
obedient if we'll fed. A curious custol
prevails among the Wateita of coating Il
BODY with lampblack and castor oil. whic
acts az q protection against excessive he'
by day and chills by night.
The cannibals of the Congo. whom Stal
lev was the first to discover and visit, ar
Who pursued him and his followers {
down tho great river with yells and cries
aMeat! meat! ah, We shall have meat
dayv' show, in spite of their horrible tast.
q somewhat high standard of achieveme
IN the building Of THAR houses and canos
the snelting Of metals and ornamenting
weapons, etc.
Tie piemies Of the forests Of central
rica ere mentioned by Herodotus, and ha
been SPOKEN Of, mostly by hearsay,
B nearly ali African travellers, but Du Chat
mas the ifst to give an account OF thu
nd their eettlesants. and TO obtain me-
nre@ents o3 thar hodiee and heads. Thu
lsoog5bed ~ hin wsre The ObonRos OF A