< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu
This page has been validated.
239
LITERARY NOTICES.
for two years and three months, I pursued over a distance of more than 2,000 miles. Neither camels nor asses, mules nor horses, teams of oxen nor palanquin-bearers, contributed their aid. The only animal available, by the help of which Central Africa could be opened to civilization, is exterminated by fire and sword: the elephant is destroyed mainly for the purpose of procuring for civilized nations an article wherewith to manufacture toys and ornaments, and Europeans still persevere in setting the savages a pernicious example in this respect."

After passing through the lands of the Dinka, Dyoor, Bongo, and Mittoo, and adding much to our knowledge of these people while studying the topography of the country and contributing important discoveries concerning its river system, besides his incessant botanical, entomological, and meteorological observations, he came upon the territory of the Niam-niam. On the 29th of January, 1870, he set out with four Nubian servants, and thirty Bongo bearers, under the protection of Mohammed Aboo Sammat, a magnanimous Nubian merchant, who, sword in hand, had vanquished various districts large enough to have formed small states in Europe. Of this man the author says:

"Not only throughout the period of eight months did he entertain me and my party in his settlements, seconding all my wishes, but when I desired to explore outlying parts, he lent me the protection of his armed force. Solely because I was supported by him did I succeed in pushing my way to Upper Shary, more than 800 miles from Khartoom, thus opening fresh districts to geographical knowledge and establishing the existence of some enigmatical people. Every thing that Mohammed did was suggested by his own freewill. The purest benevolence prompted him—the high virtue of hospitality in its noblest sense."

They were soon joined by a caravan consisting of 500 bearers and 120 soldiers, and these with women and slaves made a procession in single file of some 800 people. The incidents of their progress are of the deepest interest, but we have no space for their enumeration. From his account of the Niam-niam people we quote the following:

"The social position of the Niam-niam women differs materially from what is found among other heathen negroes in Africa.

"Whenever I met any women coming along a narrow pathway in the woods, or on the steppes, I noticed that they always made a wide circuit to avoid me, and returned into the path farther on; and many a time I saw them waiting at a distance with averted face, until I had passed by. This reserve may have originated from two opposite reasons: it may, on the one hand, have sprung from the more servile position of the Niam-niam women themselves; or, on the other, it may have been necessitated by the jealous temperament of their husbands. It is one of the fine traits of the Niam-niam men that they display an affection for their wives which is unparalleled among natives of so low a grade, and of "whom it might be expected that they would have been brutalized by their hunting and warlike pursuits. A husband will spare no sacrifice to redeem an imprisoned wife, and the Nubians, being acquainted with this, turn it to profitable account in the ivory-trade. They are quite aware that whoever possesses a female hostage can obtain almost any compensation from a Niam-niam."

Between the parallels of 3° and 4° north latitude, and 28° and 29° east longitude from Greenwich, in the very heart of Africa, is a territory of some 4,000 square miles, inhabited by the Monbuttoo. The country of the Niam-niam constitutes its northern and northwestern boundaries:

"This land," Schweinfurth says, "greets us as an Eden upon earth. Unnumbered groves of plantains bedeck the gently-heaving soil; oil-palms, incomparable in beauty, and other monarchs of the stately woods, rise up and spread their glory over the favored scene; along the streams there is a bright expanse of charming verdure, while a grateful shadow ever overhangs the domes of the idyllic huts. In the deeper valleys, trees grow to such a prodigious height, and exhibit such an enormous girth, that they could not be surpassed by any that could be found throughout the entire Nile-region of the north. Beneath the imposing shelter of these giants, other forms grow up, and, rising one above another, stand in mingled confusion."

From his account of the Monbuttoo, of whom he speaks "as exhibiting a development of indigenous culture entirely different to what can be witnessed all around," we quote the following:

"The two sexes conduct themselves
    This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.