The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell Part 22

[205] The three kinds of palm are, the wine-palm (_Raphia_); the oil-palm (_Elaeis_); and the date-palm (_Phnix_).

[206] _Lubambu_ (in Kimbundu); _luvambu_ (in Congoese) means a chain.

Dr. Lacerda says that a _Libambo_ was made of sufficient length to hold twelve slaves (_The Lands of Cazembe_, ed. by Burton, London; 1873, p.

18).

[207] For his _Relations_, see Purchas, lib. VI. ch. viii.

[208] Domingos d'Abreu de Brito, in a memoir addressed in 1592 to King Philip, states that 52,000 slaves were exported from Angola to Brazil and the Spanish Indies between 1575 and 1591, and 20,131 during the last four years of this period (Paiva Manso, _Hist. do Congo_, p. 140).

Cadornega, quoted by the same author, estimates the number of slaves annually exported between 1580 and 1680 at eight or ten thousand (_ib._, p. 287).

[209] _Recte_, _Engenho_, a mill, and in Brazil more especially a sugar mill.

[210] Turner says, in his _Relations_, p. 1243, that John de Paiis (_sic_) owned ten thousand slaves and eighteen sugar mills.

[211] Manuel Cerveira Pereira was Governor 1603-7 (see p. 37).

[212] Carvalho (_Ethnographia_, pp. 248, 258) describes trophies of these as also trophies of war, built up of the skulls of enemies killed in battle. Bastian (_Loango Expedition_, vol. i, p. 54) saw a fossil tusk, which was looked upon as a fetish, around which were piled up the horns of oxen, and the teeth and skulls of hippopotami.

[213] Libations are a common practice. Dr. Bastian (_Loango Expedition_, vol. i. p. 70) observed libations of rum being poured on the royal graves at Loangiri; Capello and Ivens (_Benguella_, vol. i, p. 26) say that the Bandombe, before they drink spirits, pour a portion on the ground, as a libation to _Nzambi_; whilst in Congo (according to Bentley), the blood of a beast killed in the chase is poured on the grave of a good hunter, to ensure success in the future. Instances of this practice could easily be multiplied. Compare note, p. 51.

[214] _Wa_, an interjection, O! _Kizangu_ is a fetish image (see note, p. 24). _Kuleketa_, to prove, to try (Cordeiro da Matta's _Diccionario_).

[215] On this ordeal, as practised in Angola, see note, p. 61.

[216] _Nganga a mukis.h.i.+._

[217] See note, p. 34.

[218] See note, p. 55.

[219] Battell is named in the margin as authority for this paragraph, but it is not likely that he would have mentioned a lake Aquelunda, which we now know does not exist. It rather seems that Purchas got this bit of information out of Pigafetta. The Quizama here referred must not be confounded with the country of the same name, to the south of the Coanza. It was the district of the Quiluangi quia Sama (or quia Samba, according to Lopez de Lima, p. 60), the ancestor of a chief of the same name now living near the Portuguese fort of Duque de Braganca. The "commonwealth" is an evident reference to the country of the Dembos (_ndembu_, plural _jindembu_, ruler, chief), who recognise no superior chief or king.

[220] It need scarcely be stated that the horse was first introduced into Angola by the Portuguese. The tails seen by the early Portuguese, and sometimes described as horse-tails, were in truth the tails of the Zebra.

[221] See another version of the same story, p. 69.

[222] The _nsanda_ is the banyan, or wild fig-tree (_ficus umbelata_, Vahl).

[223] Battell has been misunderstood by Purchas, for the _manga_ tree is the Mangrove (_Rhyzophora mangle_) called _Mangue_ in Kimbundu, which rejoices in advent.i.tious roots, as also does the _nsanda_.

[224] See p. 24, for note on the _Nkondo_ or _Baobab_.

[225] For an account of this mode of climbing a tree, see Pechuel-Losche, _Loango Expedition_, vol. iii, p. 179.

[226] On honey, see note, p. 68.

[227] _Nsanda_, the banyan-tree.

[228] Schuit, a boat, in Dutch.

[229] This sentence is introduced on the authority of Duarte Lopez (Pigafetta, p. 22). The other tree referred to by Battell is the _mfuma_, or cotton-tree (see Tuckey, _Narrative_, p. 225). Dr.

Falkenstein, however, affirms that the soft wood of the _baobab_ is that usually employed for making canoes ("dug-outs").

[230] Battell, I have no doubt, never employed the word "Bramas"

(Bramanes in Portuguese, Brahmans). D. Lopez (Pigafetta) must be held responsible for the statement that the inhabitants of Loango were originally known as Bramas. Surely this cannot be (as supposed by Degrandpre) because of the red and yellow stripes with which the women in Loango paint their foreheads in honour of a certain fetish, and the similarity of these with the marks of the votaries of Siva in India.

[231] Dr. Bastian (_Loango Expedition_, vol. i, pp. 158, 202, 232) mentions offerings of this kind. Thus the skull of an animal killed in the chase is placed before the fetish.

[232] _Mbongo_, cloth (Bentley's _Dictionary_).

[233] See note, p. 35.

[234] Restrictions upon the use of certain articles of food are imposed by the doctor (_nganga_), even before the child is born (_mpangu_), and upon the sick (_konko_). The things forbidden to be eaten are called _nlongo_, and it is believed that a disregard of this taboo entails most disastrous consequences (Bentley, _Dictionary_, pp. 353, 389). In Loango things forbidden are called _s.h.i.+n_, or _thina_ (Dennett, _Folk-Lore_, p.

138).

[235] Any place guarded by a "charm," such as a sh.e.l.l, a bit of cloth, or the like, is respected by the natives as being protected by the _nkis.h.i.+_ (Dennett, _Folk-Lore_, pp. 6, 18).

[236] See note, p. 48.

[237] This bell is called _s.h.i.+-Ngongo_, and the Maloango alone is allowed to order it to be struck. Thus, when a messenger is sent round the town, striking this _s.h.i.+-Ngongo_, the people know that it is the voice of Maloango which speaketh. It is thus quite likely that a thief, under these circ.u.mstances, should be frightened into restoring stolen property. (From a letter by Mr. Dennett.) See also note, p. 20.

[238] See p. 59.

[239] _Ndoke_, or _ndoki_, witchcraft, sorcerer.

[240] A misprint for _Libata_, village.

[241] See p. 48.

[242] _Munsa_, should be _inzo_ or _nzo_, a house (see also note, p.

49).

[243] _Nkis.h.i.+ ngolo_, a strong _nkis.h.i.+_.

[244] Marginal note by Purchas: "This seemeth to be Red Sanders. A.

Battell saith it is logwood." Purchas is right! _Tacula_ is Red Sanders (_Pterocarpus tinctorius_).

[245] _Nkwa_, the possessor of a thing or quality; _akwa_, possessed of.

[246] Compare p. 56, where we are told that a fetish called _Maramba_ (_Morumba_), stood in the town of the Mani Yumba.

[247] Evidently a misprint for Mayumba.

[248] Another version of this address will be found on p. 56.

[249] Marginal note with reference to the existence of amazons (Pigafetta, p. 124): "Andr. Battell, which travelled near to these parts [where Amazons are supposed to exist] denieth this report of Lopez as untrue." The Amazons of Lopez lived in Monomotapa, on the Zambezi.

[250] We may presume that Purchas told his friend what was reported by Lopez (Pigafetta, vol. ii, chs. 5, 9) and others about the origin of the Jagas. Battell, upon this, not only rejects the conjecture of Lopez, but also disclaims having any knowledge of their origin himself. Elsewhere, however, Purchas makes his author responsible for the a.s.sertion that they came from Sierra Leone (see note, p. 19).