The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-11-11
ONCE A POWERFUL NATION.
The Important Past Of the Now Pitiful and
TimOrous Mashouns.

The Important Past of the Now Pitiful and
Timorous Mashonns.
New York Sun.
Mr.. Theodore Bent has made some sur
prislng discoveries with regard to the in-
habitants of Mashonaland. Eight years
ago Mon.agu Kerr described these natives
as very timId people, living among the
rocks and crannies of the hills. where they
kept a constant outlook for the approach
of tho dreaded Matabeles. Their enemies
state of terror. Mr.. Bent says that
in spite of their timid nature. he believed
when he saw them last year that their race
had seen better days. as they retained
in smelling iron, their carvings and
musical instruments. They called them
selves the Makalanga, name which did
not signify much TO the explorer until he
returned TO civilization. when he began to
read the works OF early Portuguese trav-
elers.
In the book written three hundred years
ago by Dos Santos, who was far more
careful and accurate writer on Africa than
most of bis contemporaries, Mr.. Bent was
astonished to find this statement referring
to the region of Mashonaland:
''All these Kaffirs they call Mocarangas,
because oil talk the Mocaranga language.
The Monamatapa and all his vassals are
Mocarangas. o name which they have be-
cause they live In the land of the Mocaran-
-
all the Kafr languages have seen."
Here We have the eame name as Maka-
lsnga by substituting, as the Portuguese
always did. for Other conclusive testi-
two peoples has been discovered BIZ Mr..
Bent, and it may be regarded as estab-
lished that the timid Makalangas of to-day
are the descendants of the once Dowerful
organization known in the sixteenth cent
urv as the empire of Mon0mntapa. a pow
erfui Katfir organization like the Mata-
beles of to-day. which fell to
pieces on account of internal dis
sensIons, and finally became
prey to the Zulu hordes. The descriptions
which Dos Santos gives of the Makalangas
of Monomatapa correspond exactly with
the habits aud customs of the present in
habitantsL He tells of the annual sacrifice
to the spirits of their ancestors. the inter-
cessors for them between God and man, the
beer drinking. the iron smelling. the Ma
shonaland piano, tho weekly day of rest
during the blowing season. and other cus-
toms " hich identify them with the people
of to-day.
Mr.. Bent has also been able to avail him.
self of the writlngs of Arabian historians
who lived O thousand years ago, whose de-
scriptlons of the manners and customs of
tho people living In this region connect
them with the present race. Hence it
seems very clear that the country now
called Mashonaland has been lnhebited
for at least thousand years by the an-
cestors of the present barbsrous race, a
race which at one time had power and
some degree of civilization. due probably
10 it's intercourse with foreign traders but
it has again fallen into a condition of bar
bsrism.
During the blowing season every sixth
day is called Gods day, when the people
abstain from work. The day is invariably
devoted By the men to drinking beer and
lying idle on the rocks. The Mashona
piano consists of more thon twenty iron
notes fixed to scale ON square piece of
wood ana played on cslabash to bring
out the sound. The natives are u musical
race and easily pick up tunes to play on
this instrument.
The anthropologist evidently has an in.
wiling field for research in the study of the
MakalanGa. whose language is as yet little
known. The natives are very reserved
with regard to their customs and religious
observances.