UNKNOWN

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3195, 24 September 1881, Page 4

UNKNOWN

during tho afternoon my negroes captured in the forest two Mucassequeres, whom they at onoo brought before me. I he poor savages wure trembling with fear, and £iiv(! themselves up for lost. '' hey knew a little o f the Ambuella dialect, and by means of an interpreter we were able to understand em. , )) o*. her. They imagined that sentence of death was about to be passed upon them, or that, at the least, the rest of their days were to be spent in slavery. I desired ray men to let them go, and return them their arm?, f then told them they were free, and mijfht ret;urn to their people, and I gave them also a few strings of beads for their wives. Their surprise knew no bounds, and they had much ado to believe ttat I was in earnest in what I said and did. Having ordered them something to eat, I inquired whether they would take me to see their camp. After a warm discussion between them —carried on in a language unknown to all the bystanders, and completely different in intonation to any tongue I had hitherto heard spoken in Africa, they said they were quite willing to conduct me to their tribe if I would trust myself to go alone. I accepted the offer, and immediately started with the two ill-favoured aborigines. Accustomed as I was to the forest, I had much ado to keep up with my agile guides, ■who more than once bad to wait for me to join them. An hour's fatiguing walk brought us to a patch of cleared ground, in the middle of which was tho encampment of the tribe. Its iumates were three other men, seven women, and five children. A few branches of trees, bent downwards, with others interlaced in front, constituted their only shelter. Of cooking appliances there was not a semblance. Their food consisted of roots and fragments of flesh roasted \ipon wooden spits. Salt is quite unknown to them. Both men and women barely cover their nakedness with small monkey-skins. Their arms are bows and arrows. I had come among them, but was perfectly at a loss how to act now I had done so, for we neither of iis could understand the other, I thought the best thing to do was to ingratiate the women, so gave them a few strings of beads I had brought with me for the purpose. They received them, however, without the slightest sign of pleasure at the gift. I was touched by tho abject misery of these poor people. I examined them closely, and was much struck by their excessive ugliness. The eyes were small, and out of the right line; the cheek bones very far apart, and high ; the nose flat to the face, and nostrils disproportionately wide. The hair was crisp and woolly, growing in separate pitches, ani thickest on the top of the head. A few strips of the skin of Borne animal, encircling their wrists and ankles, constituted their sole ornament, and these were perhaps worn rather as amulets than for the purpose of adornment. I managed to make my guides understand

that I wantod to return, when, without leave-taking, they preceded me, and just as night fell left mo it tho edge of the' wood, where I could hoar s.the voices and merry songs of the people of my camp. During my stay on tho Cuehibi, I managed to gather a few more scraps of information about these sti'ange aborigines. The Mucassequeres occupy, jointly with the Ambuellas, the territory lying between the Cubange and Cuando, the latter dwelling on tho rivers and the former in the forests; in describing tho two tribes, one may say that the latter are barbarians and the former downright savages. They hold but little communication with each other, but, on the other hand, they do not break out into hostilities. When pressed by hunger, the Mucassequeres will come over to the Ambuellas and procure food by the barter of ivory and wax. Each tribe would seem to be independent, and not recognise the common chief. If they do not fight with their neighbors, they nevertheless quarrel among themselves ; and the prisoner's taken in these conflicts are sold as slaves to the Ambuellas, who subsequently dispose of them to the Bihe caravans. The M may be styled the true savages of South tropical Africa. They construct no dwelling houses, or anything in the likeness of them. They are born under the shadow of a forest tree, and so they are content to die. They despise alike the rains which deluge the earth and the sun which burns ifc 5 and bear the rigour of the seasons with tho same stoicism a ■ the wild beasts. In some respects they wonld seem to bo even below the denizens of the jungle, for the lion and tiger have at least a cave or den in which they seek shelter, whilst the Mucassequeres have neither. As they never cultivate the ground implements of agriculture are entirely unknown; roots, honey, and the animals caught in the chase constitute their food, and each tribe devotes its entire time to hunting for roots, honey, and game. They rarely sleep to-day where they lay down yosterday. The arrow is their only weapon, but so dexterous, are they in its uso that an animal sighted is as good as bagged. Even the elephant not unfrequently falls a prey to these dexterous hunters, whose arrows find every vulnerable point in his otherwise impervious hide. — Maj or Serj a Pinto.