Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-09-18
THE HEART OF AFRICA.
SIGHTS AND SCENES AMONG
BARBAROUS TRIBES.
A village That Looks Like "a Large Mush-
room Bed-Styles OF Hairdressing
and Other characterization
I'm Vogue.

internecine warfare in which those
savage communities pass their exist
ence. The strong are continually
preying on the weak, old feuds are
constantly waging, insults are being
avenged. and injuries resented. The
approach of strangers is commonly too
likely to be that of enemies
All that strong and regular gov
eminent can ever do for the tribes of
Equatorial Africa-and it must be
strong and regular to be of any value
at all--is to give them peace and Sc
curity to follow simple industries with
which they are acquainted. Some arts
they may be taught, says Saturday
Evening Post, and in those which they
know their knowledge can be i'm
proved. so thai the comforts of life
may be made more abundahe for them.
But it will be difficult to raise the
negro OF the Nile regions up to
higher moral and intellectual level.
In childhood he is often more intelli-
gent than the European, and shows
delusive promise OF future develop
ment but as he grows the prospect
fades. and the fact becomes apparent
that at certain point very low in the
moral and intellectual scale, his growth
naturally stops.
Family affection is almost entirely
unknown, except that of the mother
for her offspring. He is quite incapa-
BILE of understanding our detestation
of slavery except as applied to his ow
individual case; and the first desire of
a freed slave is. as is we'll known, to
procure slave for himself. Domes-
tic slavery prevails everywhere, and
in tribal wars the reward of victory
consists of captives and cattle, the
former chiefly women and children;
but the lot of the captives thus reduced
to slavery-or rather subjected to
compulsory change of owners-is, as
a general rule no worse than it was
before. and in no way bears COMPARE
son with the fate of the unfortunate
beings who fall into the ruthless hands
of the slave-traders.
The Kytch tribe, on the right bank
of the White Nile furnish a curious il
lustration Of the inconprehensiDle in
constituencies of the character of the
negroes. These belong to the alluvial
or black type Of negro, conforming in
his color to the soil on which he lives,
and even corresponding in his postures
AS that of resting on one leg-to the
birds of the marshes, as we'll as in his
leisurely long stride over the rushes,
and his lean and lanky limbs and long
thin neck.
They have large herds of cattle, but
they will not sell one. nor will they
kill it for food, nor do they taste meat
except when an animal dies from sick
ness. Their misery is said to be be-
yond description. They will not work,
and consequently they frequently
starve, subsisting only on rats, lizards,
snakes and feld-mice, which they
spend hours ia digging out from their
burrows. Sometimes they cate h fish
by spearing; how often they succeed
in happening one may be judged from
their method, which is to throw the
spear haphazard into the reeds on the
chance OF fish happening to come in
the way OF it. 1t is little wonder that
they are tribe of skeletons, emaciated
to mere skin and bone.
The Latookas are fine race OF
men. with great numbers of cattle.
1t may be observed here that as
general rule, negroes two sources of
wealth are his cattle and his daugh-
ters. The custom of the country
gives the latter settled value in so
many head of cattle. A sutton has to
purchase his wife from her father, so
that If girl is worth ten cattle, "a man
with a family of six daughters may
regard himself as practically worth
sixty cattle in respect OF chem. The
custom has its good points about it
II the girl has no value in a suitor's
eyes for her beauty or amiability, she has
another value, which he must recog-
nize before he obtains her; and this
requiring young man to pay a sub
stantial price for his wife is a guaran-
tee-or rather was perhaps originally
meant TO be one-of his industry al ID
competence, qualifying him for the
possession OF a wife.
A Shillock village looks from dis
lance like an immense bed OF mush-
rooms. The Kinka huts are drawn up
to point on the apex of the roof. and
are generally large and spacious. The
Dyook roof is simple pyramid of
straw; the Bongo is conical, ard so on.
AS regards ornaments, these are chief
ly rings OF iron or copper worn on the
arms, legs, necks; sometimes woman
wears half hundred-weight of metal
going about her daily labor. The
mutilations practiced on their bodies
by both sexes are very numerous.
Tattooing is frequent; the abstraction
OF the low incisor teeth almost univer-
sail and the ladies sedulously enhance
their beauty by inserting pieces of
stone or metal through their lips,
noses, and ears. producing results
most abhorrent to the civilized eye.
In the matter of dress, abundance Of
cow-dung. ashes, earth, and grease,
well rubbed into the skin, produces
the most desirable results. Hair
dressing is a fine art among these saw
ages, but it is form of vanity gener-
ally confined to the male sex. Every
tribe has a Distinguishing fashion of
doing up the hair. To perfect the