Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1892-03-25
DARKEST AFRICA.
A STRANGE RACEI IN THAT MYs-
TERIOUs CONTINENT.
Huge Caverns Inhabited by Chou
lish Sort of People-Lves
Spent Underground-A
Strange Spectacle.

be met some native travellers, who said
to him.
"The most remarkable country IN
Africa is way down in Katanga. 1t IS
the place where copper comes from, aud
there are great caves in the hills, 50 high
that, if we were riding through them on
these camels we could not touch the roof
with our spears, and people live IN them.
| One of these caves is 400 yards wide,
and it took us from sunrise till noon to
march through it, aud we came out OF
the hill ON the other side"
1t was thirty years ago that Colonel
| Grant heard this remarkable story. 1t
is a curious confidence that during the
very week of his death, last month, there
came to Brussels the preliminary report
of Lieutenant Lc Marinel, announcing
that ne had visited the caves of Katanga
and seen the people who inhabit them
He approached these hills, which rise
about 5000 feet abovO the sea, from the
northwest. Another explorer, MIR.
Arnot, has visited them from the south,
and both sides Of these mountain ranges
are found to be dotted with the mouths
of caverns, the dark homes of some
thousands of people.
lie Marinel says these troglodytes are
known as the Bena. .KabamDo. Many of
their caves are not inhabited, but a'e
simply places of refuge The openings
arc so carefully hidden among the rocks
or in the underorush tea! it is hardly
possible to find them, but scores of in
habited caves are scattered, like rabbit
warrens, along the ianks Of the hills and
can be seen from distance. The people
have been thorn in the flesh of King
MsIri, one of the most powerful native
rulers in America. The troglodytes,
alone among his subjects, have for years
defcd his tax -gatherers. The Kings
army several times marched against them
in vain. When their hills were invaded
the people simply retreated into the
bowels of the earth. Interior passages
connect their caves, and they can come
to the light again far from the place
where they vanished into the blackness
of their underground homes. lie Mariuel
says, however, that MsrI has at last
thoroughly cowed his rebellious subjects.
They pay him tribute now, though there
is little for the tax-gathersrs to collect,
because the King left them hardly goat
when he conquered them.
The hills of Katanga, where these
cave-dwellers live, are among the loftiest
and coldest parts of tropical Africa.
Water sometimes freezes in the night.
lie Marinel says the Bena- Kabambo are
the most ferocious savages he ever met.
They are afraid the secret of their grot-
toes will be fathomed, aud the explorer
was not permitted TO enter them. Arnot
had the same experience on the south side
| Of the hills. lie fingered in the neigh
borhood for days, fed the multitude on
hippopotami and anteiopa and won their
friendship; but no bribe tempted them
| to admit him to their subterraneln re-
| treats. He was permitted only to peer
IL =. &. ~, ~ ~ .ti.' .i6 w.t. ~
the appearance of pumice stone. No one
yet knows how large they are. Arnot
says, however, that one OF the caves has
two mouths, the distance between the
openings being FIVE miles. Water flows
from many of the openings. Tnero is
little doubt that they arc natural caves
produced by erosion, and some of them,
perhaps, artifcially enlarged and con-
nected. Scattered all over this rugged
region live these natives, in the largest
caves used as the abode of man, herding
flocks in their retreats, tilling millet
fields in the valley below. They are al
ways alert to detect signs of danger,
when, as a rule, they vanish from view,
the earth swallowing them up beyond the
ken of their foes.
A little further west in Tunis, about
forty miles from the sea, French soldiers
discovered, two years ago, the largest
villages of cave-dwellers known in mod
ern times. They have since been visited
by several explorers, including Mr..
Hamy, the anthropologi:t. The people
are called the Matmatmas, and their two
villages, in parallel vallays, contain about
1000 people. You might enter one Of
these valleys and not know until yol
were right upon the caves that = human
beng lived there, part OF the populaoe
being off over the hills with their herds,
and the rest busted underground with
their pottery making and house duties.
The caves are excayatcd in the lime.
stone hills. Dwellings, stables, work,
shops, everything, is underground The
bare, limestone walls of these subter.
ranean rooms are marked with deep
scratches, made by the pick that
dug them out. Near the ceiling shelves
are excayated, on whicl provisions arc
stored. We desceEd 10 the entrance By
short ladder in an almost perpendicular
shaft upon whicA fronts the doorway.
the only source Of light and ventilation.
The people inter their 'ieal in shallow
trenches, almost on the surface. Il is
strange spectacle-thc dead occupying