Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-04-08
DARKEST AFRICA.
A STRANGE RACE IN THAT MYS-
TERIOUS CONTINENT.
Huge Caverns Inhabited by n Chou
lish Sort of People-Lives
Spent Underground-A
Strange Spectacle.

ne met some udtlNe tIhNcleIs, WHO hdlu
to him
"The most remarkable country in
Africa is way down in Katanga. 1t is
the place where copper comes from, and
there are great caves in the hills, so 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,
aud 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 lie 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, Mr..
Arnot, has visited them from the south,
and both sides of these mountain ranges
arc found to be dotted with the mouths
of caverns, the dark homes of some
thousands of people.
LIE Marinel says these troglodytcs are
known as the Bena- -Kabamb>. Many of
their caves are not inhabited, but a"e
simply places of refuge. The openings
are so carefully hidden among the rocks
or in the underbrush that it is hardly
possible to find them; but scores OF iu-
habited caves are scattered, like rabbit
warrens, along the hanks of the hills and
can be seen from distance. The people
have been thorn in the flesh OF King
Mslri, one Of the most powerful native
rulers in America. The troglodytes,
alone among his subjects, have for years
defied his tax x-gatherers. The Kings
army several times marched against them
in vain. When their hills were invaded
the people simply retrcated 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 Marinel
SAYS, however, that Msirl 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 a goat
when he conquered them.
The hills of Katanga, where these
cave-dwellers live, are among the loftiest
and coolest parts of tropical Africa.
Water sometimes freezes in the night.
lie Marinel says the Beua- Kabambo are
the most ferocious savages he ever met.
They are afraid the secret of their grot-
toes will be fathomed, and the explorer
was not permitted to enter them. Arnot
had the same experience on the south side
of the hills. He fingered in the neigh
borhood for days, fed the multitude on
hippopotami and antelope and won their
friendship; but no bribe tempted them
to admit him to their subterranean re-
treats. He was permitted only to peer
in at tie openings where the walls had
the appearance of pumice stone. No one
yet knows how large they are. Arnot
says, however, that one of the caves las
two mouths, the distance between the
openings being five miles. Water flows
from many of the openings. There is
little doubt that they are natural caves
produced by erosion, and some of them,
perhaps, arti6cially enlarged and con-
nected. Scattered all over this rugged
region live these natives, in the largest
caves used as the abode OF man, herding
Hocks 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..
Hsmy, the anthropologist. The people
are called the Matmatu:as, and their two
villages, in parallel valleys, contain about
1000 people. You might enter one of
these valleys and not know until you
were right upon the caves that human
beng lived there, part OF the populace
being of over tie hills with their herds,
and the rest busted underground with
their pottery making and house duties.
The caves are excayated IN the lime
stone hills. Dwellings, stables. work
shops, every thing, is underground. The
bare, limestone walls OF these subter.
ranean rooms are marked with deep |
scratches, made by the pick-axes that
dug them out. Near the ceiling shelves |
are excavated, on which provisions are
stored. We descend to the entrance by |
short ladder in an almost perpendicular
shaft upon which fronts the doorway,
The ouly source OF light aud ventilation.
The people inter their dead in shallow
trenches, almost ou the surface. It is
strange spectacle-thc dead occupying |