The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell Part 19

[71] _Tavale._ Mr. Dennet suggests that _tavale_ corresponds to the _libala_ of Loango, a word derived from the Portuguese _taboa_ (table), for the instrument of this name consists of a board supported by two sticks of wood, and kept in its place by wooden pegs driven into the ground. The player beats this board with his two index fingers. A. R.

Neves, _Mem. da Epedico a Ca.s.sange_, p. 110, calls _tabalha_ a drum, which is beaten to make known the death of a Jaga Ca.s.sange.

[72] Mbala or Embala merely means town or village. Lad. Magyar (_Reisen in Sud-Afrika_, p. 383) has a district Kibala, abounding in iron, the chief town of which is Kambuita on the river Longa. Walckenaer's suggestion (_Histoire des Voyages_, vol. xiii, p. 30) that Bambala and Bembe are identical is quite unacceptable.

[73] The baobab is indifferently called by Battell _alicunde_, _licondo_, _elicondi_, _olicandi_, or _alicunde_, all of which are corruptions of _nkondo_, by which name the tree is known in Congo. The Portuguese know this characteristic tree of the coast-land and the interior as _imbondeiro_ (from _mbondo_ in Kimbundu). Its inner bark yields a fibre known as _licomte_, is made into coa.r.s.e cloth, and is also exported to Europe to be converted into paper. The wood is very light. The pulp of the fruit is refres.h.i.+ng, and was formerly esteemed as a remedy against fever and dysentery. The seeds are eaten. The sh.e.l.l (_macua_) is used to hold water (hence the popular name of Calabash tree). Ficalho distinguishes three species, viz., _Adansonia digitata_, Linn., the fruit of which is longish; _A. subglobosa_, bearing a bell-shaped fruit; _A. lageniformis_, yielding a fruit shaped like a cuc.u.mber (see Monteiro, _Angola_, vol. i, p. 78; Ficalho, _Plantas uteis_, p. 100).

[74] The cedar of the Portuguese is _Tamarix articulata_, Vahl., and resembles a cypress (Ficalho, _Plantas uteis da Africa_, 1884, p. 94).

[75] Kizangu, in Kimbundu, means fetish. Burton (_Two Trips to Gorilla Land_, vol. ii, p. 120), saw a like image, also called Quesango, in a village above Boma.

[76] The so-called fetishes (from _feitico_, a Portuguese word meaning sorcery) are not idols, but charms and amulets, generally known as _nkissi_, _nkis.h.i.+_, or _mukis.h.i.+_. There are _nkissi_ peculiar to a district, village, or family; charms and amulets to s.h.i.+eld the wearer or possessor against all the evils flesh is heir to, and others enabling the priest or _nganga_ to discover crime or the cause of disease. The idea underlying the belief in the efficacy of these charms was very prevalent among our own ancestors, and the images, rosaries, crosses, relics, and other articles introduced by the Roman missionaries are looked upon by the natives as equivalent to their own _nkissi_. Even at the present day, images of S. Francis and of other saints may be seen in the collection of Royal Fetishes at S. Salvador, and a cross called _santu_ (Santa Cruz) "is the common fetish which confers skill in hunting" (Bentley, _Pioneering on the Congo_, vol. i, pp. 35, 36, 39).

The images, according to Bentley, seen among the natives are not idols but receptacles of "charms" or medicine. As to a belief in witchcraft (_ndoki_, witch; _Kindoki_, witchcraft), it is not even now quite extinct among Christian people, boasting of their civilisation, for a reputed wizard was drowned at Hedingham in Ess.e.x in 1863, and a witch burnt in Mexico as recently as 1873. Matthew Hopkins, the famous witch-finder, cannot claim a higher rank than an African _nganga_, although his procedure was not quite the same. Nor can I see any difference between a fetish and the miraculous "bambino" manufactured in the sixteenth century, and kept in the church of S. Maria Aracli, which a priest takes to the bedside of sick or dying persons, who are asked to kiss it to be cured, and whose guardians are at all times ready to receive the offerings of the faithful (see d.i.c.kens, _Pictures from Italy_).

[77] Marginal note by Purchas:-"Of these Giagas read also Pigafetta's _Book of Congo_, translated into English by M. Hartwell, and my _Pilgrimage_, l. 7. But none could so well know them as this author, who lived so long with them."

[78] The river Longa [Lungu] enters the sea in lat. 10 20' S.

[79] A soba Calungo is shown on the most recent maps as residing north of the river Longa.

[80] Perhaps we ought to read _Tunda_, the bush, the East. Lad. Magyar (_Reisen_, p. 378) has a chief Tunda in the country of the Sellas, and Falkenstein (_Loango Expedition_, p. 73) heard of a district Tunda, inland from Novo Redondo.

[81] The Gonsa or Gunza (Ngunza) of Battell is undoubtedly the Coanza. A river Ngunza enters the sea at Novo Redondo.

[82] _s.h.i.+la_, nasty; _mbanza_, towns.

[83] According to Duarte Lopez (_Pigafetta_, p. 55), the feathers of peac.o.c.ks and of ostriches are used as a standard in battle. Hence, peac.o.c.ks are reared within a fence and reserved for the king.

[84] _Njilo_ (in Kimbundu), bird; _mukis.h.i.+_, a charm.

[85] See note, p. 51.

[86] Cambambe (_Ka_, diminutive; _mbambi_, gazelle), a village on the north bank of the Coanza, below the falls formed by the river in forcing its way through the Serra de Prata. Silver, however, has never been found there (at least not in appreciable quant.i.ties), nor anywhere else in Angola or Congo. Still we are told (Paiva Manso, p. 50) that the King of Congo, in 1530, sent the wife of King Manuel two silver bracelets which he had received from one of his chiefs in Matamba, and that among the presents forwarded by Ngola Nbande, the King of Ndongo, to Paulo Dias in 1576, there were several silver bracelets, which the Regent of Portugal, Cardinal Henrique, had converted into a chalice, which he presented to the church at Belem (_Catalogo dos Governadores de Angola_). According to Capello and Ivens (_Benguella_, vol. ii, pp. 58, 233), silver ore is plentiful in Matamba, although they never saw any _in loco_.

[87] Battell's Casama is the wide province of Kisama (Quicama), to the south of the Coanza.

[88] This Casoch (a misprint for Cafoch) is the Caf.u.xe (Cafuche) of the Portuguese, who defeated Balthasar de Almeida on April 22, 1594. On August 10, 1603, the Portuguese, led by Manuel Cerveira Pereira, retrieved this disaster.

[89] The name Calandola is by no means rare. A Calandula Muanji resided in 1884, eight miles to the north-east of Malanje (Carvalho, _Viagens_, vol. i, p. 443); another resided, formerly, near Ambaca (_ib._, p. 230); and a third on the Lucala, south of Duque de Braganca, was visited by Capello and Ivens (_Benguella_, vol. ii, p. 45). A Jaga Calandula accompanied Joo Soares de Almeida on his disastrous expedition to Sonyo (_Cat. dos Gov._, p. 390). Either of these may have been a descendant of Battell's Calandula.

[90] Human victims are still sacrificed by the diviner when consulting departed spirits (see A. R. Neves, _Memoria_, p. 119).

[91] Cavazzi (_Historica Descrizione de tre Regni Congo, etc._, Bologna, 1687, p. 207) gives a plan of a Jaga camp, or Kilombo. It is formed of a square stockade, having in its centre the quarters of the Commander-in-chief, within a triple hedge of thorns. Between the stockade, which has only a single gate, and the inner enclosure are the quarters of the six princ.i.p.al officers, including the Golambolo (_ngolo_, strength, _mbula_, a blow), or Lieutenant-General, the Tendala, or Commander of the Rear-guard, and the Mani Lumbo (_lumbu_, a stockade), or Engineer-in-chief.

[92] _Tavales_ (see note, p. 21).

[93] Bahia das Vaccas, old name for Benguella Bay. There seems to be no native name for gold; yet Dr. Francisco Jose Maria de Lacerda, when with the abortive expedition of 1797, which was charged with the exploration of the Kunene, met a negress whose head-dress was composed of golden laminae, said to have been washed in that river (Burton, _Lacerda's Journey to Cazembe_, London, 1873, p. 23). Ladislaus Magyar (_Reisen_, p. 176), says that about 1833 a Brazilian miner washed gold in the mountains of Hambo. Quite recently, in 1900, the Mossamedes Company granted a lease of the Kasinga goldfields to an English company.

[94] The Imbondos are clearly the Nbundu of Angola, who draw the palm wine from the top, whilst the Jagas cut down the tree.

[95] Purchas adds, in a marginal note: "Fruges consumere nati."

[96] "Flesh" in the sense of encourage.

[97] Calando should be Calandola (see note on p. 28).

[98] Mbamba, a whelk or trumpet-sh.e.l.l (Cordeiro da Matta, _Dicc.

Kimbundu_).

[99] Mr. Dennet suggests _msose_, a turritella, popularly known as screw-sh.e.l.l.

[100] No ostriches are met with in Angola, and as to beads made of ostrich eggs, I can give no explanation.

[101] Monteiro was told that the Sobas and their wives among the Musele only use human fat to anoint their bodies (vol. ii, p. 157).

[102] The practice of wearing such nose ornaments exists to the present day in Lunda, among the Bangala and other tribes (Capello and Ivens, _Benguela_, vol. i, p. 265; Carvalho, _Expedico Portugueza ao Muatianvua_, Lingua de Lunda, p. 367; _Ethnographia_, p. 349).

[103] Marginal note by Purchas: "They use this ceremony in Florida."

[104] Civet-cats are numerous in this part of Africa.

[105] I am inclined to believe, from what we learn from Cavazzi and other missionaries, that only those children were killed which were born within the _Kilombo_. On the other hand, at the Court of the ferocious queen Jinga, we are told by Captain Fuller, a Dutchman, that, on two days in 1648, 113 new-born infants born _outside_ the camp were killed (Dapper, _Africa_, p. 545).

[106] _Ngunza_, according to Cordeira da Matta, means all-powerful; according to Bentley a herald, who speaks on behalf of a chief.

[107] See note, p. 19.

[108] Human sacrifices among the Jaga are even now of frequent occurrence. They are made at the installation of a Jaga, one year after his election (when the sacrifice and its accompanying banquet are intended to conciliate the spirit of Kinguri, the founder of the Dynasty), at his death, on the outbreak of war, etc. The ceremony witnessed by Battell was an act of divination. The soothsayer summons the spirit of Kinguri, who is supposed to foretell the results of any enterprise about to be undertaken. In 1567, the Jaga Ngonga Kahanga, of Shela, having been advised by his soothsayers that he would suffer defeat in a war he was about to enter upon against the Portuguese, declined the arbitration of the sword, and submitted voluntarily. The body of the victim is cooked with the flesh of a cow, a goat, a yellow dog, a c.o.c.k and a pigeon, and this mess is devoured (ceremoniously) by the Jaga and his _makotas_ (councillors).

[109] The handle of this switch contains a potent medicine, which protects the owner against death.

[110] Casengula, called Kissengula, p. 86, was perhaps a trombash, for _sangula_ means to kill at a long range (Bentley).

[111] The Jagas are still buried sitting, and wives are sacrificed (Capello and Ivens, _From Benguella to the Territory of the Iacca_, vol.

i, p. 330). In Ngois, likewise, the dead are occasionally buried in a sitting posture (Bastian, vol. i, p. 82). For a full account of a funeral, see Dennett's _Folklore_, p. 11.

[112] These feasts are intended to secure the goodwill of the deceased, so that he may not injure the living. Human beings are occasionally sacrificed, in addition to goats and fowls.

[113] Joo Rodrigues Coutinho received his appointment as Governor at Madrid, on January 30, 1601 (see Appendix).

[114] Ndemba, in Quissama, a territory famous for its salt mines, the chief of which was the Caculo Caquimone Casonga (Cadornega, 1702). In 1783, when P. M. Pinheiro de Lacerda invaded Quissama, a Caculo Caquimone still held the mines of Ndemba. _Kakulu_, the elder of twins, a t.i.tle.

[115] Outaba seems to be a misprint for _libata_ (village). Tombo is on the north bank of the Coanza, almost due south of Loanda.

[116] Songa, on the Coanza, below Muchima, a village in the territory of the Caculo Caquimone Casonga.

[117] Machimba I believe to be Muchima or Muxima, whilst (according to Cadornega) a chief Cavao occupied a district above Lake Quizua and below Ma.s.sangano.

[118] According to the _Catalogo dos Governadores_, p. 356, the Governor died in Quissama. He was succeeded by his captain-major, Manuel Cerveira Pereira, and it was he who, on August 10, 1603, defeated Caf.u.xe, in the b.l.o.o.d.y battle to which reference is made in the text. Battell's Angoykayongo is undoubtedly identical with the _Agoacaiongo_ of an anonymous account of the _Establimentos e Resgates Portuguezes_ (1607), published by L. Cordeira. He was a Christian chief; and a captain-major, with a detachment of cavalry, was stationed at his village to keep Quissama in order.