The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell Part 8

[_Quizama._]

This kingdom [of Angola] hath many lords.h.i.+ps subject thereto, as far as the sea-coast as Cape Negro. Towards a lake called Aquelunda[219] lieth a country called Quizama, the inhabitants whereof being governed after the manner of a commonwealth, have showed themselves friendly to the Portugals, and helped them in their wars against Angola. The houses in Angola are made in fas.h.i.+on like a bee-hive.

[_Women and the Moon._]

The women at the first sight of the new moon, turn up their b.u.ms in despite, as offended with their menstruous courses, which they ascribe unto her.

[_Horses' Tails._][220]

The men sometimes, in a valorous resolution, will devote themselves unto some haughty attempt in the wars; and, taking leave of the king, will vow never to return until they bring him a horse-head, or some other thing, very dangerous in the enterprise, and will either do it or die.

Horse-tails are great jewels, and two slaves will be given for one tail, which commonly they bring from the River of Plate, where horses are exceedingly increased and grown wild. They will, by firing the gra.s.s round about, hem the horses about with a fiery circle, the fire still straightening and growing nearer till they have advantage enough to kill them. Thus have the European cattle, of horse and kine, so increased in the other world, as they spare not to kill the one for their hides, and the other for their tails.

CHAPTER IX, -- II.-OF CONGO.

[_A Crocodile Story._][221]

... Andrew Battell told me of a huge crocodile which was reported to have eaten a whole _Alibamba_, that is, a company of eight or nine slaves chained together, and at last paid for his greediness: the chain holding him slave, as before it had the negroes, and by his undigestible nature devouring the devourer; remaining in the belly of him after he was found, in testimony of this victory. He hath seen them watch and take their prey, haling a gennet, man, or other creature into the water.

A soldier thus drawn in by a crocodile, in shallower waters, with his knife wounded him in the belly, and slew him.

CHAPTER IX, -- III.-OF THEIR ... STRANGE TREES....

Having stated that they use in Congo to make "clothes of the _Enzanda_ tree,[222] of which some write the same things that are reported of the Indian fig-tree," that it sends forth a hairy substance from the branches, which no sooner touch the ground but they take root, and grow up in such sort, that one tree would multiply itself into a wood if nature set not some obstacle (a marginal note adds that "Andrew Battell saith that the tree which thus strangely multiplieth itself is called the _Manga_ tree"[223]). Purchas continues as follows:-

"But more admirable is that huge tree called _Alicunde_,[224] of which my friend Andrew Battell supposeth some are as big (besides their wonderful tallness) as twelve men can fathom. It spreads like a oak.

Some of them are hollow, and the liberal clouds into those natural casks disperse such plenty of water, that one time three or four thousand of them, in that hot region, continued four and twenty hours at one of these, which yielded them all drink of her watery store, and was not emptied. Their negroes climbed up with pegs[225] (for the tree is smooth and not therefore otherwise to be climbed, and so soft that it easily receiveth pegs of harder wood, driven into her yielding substance with a stone), and dipped the water, as it had been out of a well. He supposed that there is forty tuns of water in some one of them. It yielded them a good opportunity for honey, to which end the country people make a kind of chest, with one hole in the same, and hang it upon one of these trees, which they take down once a year, and with fire or smoke chasing or killing the bees, take thence a large quant.i.ty of honey.[226] Neither is it liberal alone to the hungry or thirsty appet.i.te, but very bountifully it clothes their backs, and the bark thereof, which, being taken from the younger _Alicundes_ [_nkondo_], and beaten, one fathom which they cut out from the tree will by this means extend itself into twenty, and presently is cloth fit for wearing, though not so fine as that which the _Inzanda_[227] tree yieldeth. [It serves them also for boats, one of which cut out in proportion of a scute[228] will hold hundreds of men."][229] In a further marginal note Purchas adds: "These boats, saith Andrew Battell, are made of another tree, for the _Alicunde_ is of too spongy a substance for that purpose."

CHAPTER X, -- I.-OF LOANGO.

[_Offerings._]

... Andrew Battell lived among them [the Bramas of Loango][230] for two years and a half. They are, saith he, heathens, and observe many superst.i.tions. They have their _Mokissos_ or images [_nkis.h.i.+_] to which they offer in proportion to their sorts and suits;[231] the fisher offereth fish when he sueth for his help in his fis.h.i.+ng; the countryman, wheat; the weaver, _Alibungos_,[232] [that is] pieces of cloth; others bring bottles of wine; all wanting that they would have, and bringing what they want, furnis.h.i.+ng their _Mokisso_ with those things whereof they complain themselves to be disfurnished.

[_Funeral Rites._]

Their ceremonies for the dead are divers. They bring goats and let them bleed at the _Mokisso's_ foot, which they after consume in a feasting memorial of the deceased party, which is continued four or five days together, and that four or five several times in the year, by all his friends and kindred. The days are known, and though they dwell twenty miles thence, yet they will resort to these memorial exequies, and, beginning in the night, will sing doleful and funeral songs till day, and then kill, as aforesaid, and make merry. The hope of this maketh such as have store of friends to contemn death; and the want of friends to bewail him makes a man conceive a more dreadful apprehension of death.[233]

[_Prohibitions-Taboo._]

Their conceit is so ravished with superst.i.tion that many die of none other death. _Kin_[234] is the name of unlawful and prohibited meat, which, according to each kindred's devotion, to some family is some kind of fish; to another a hen; to another, a buffe [beef]; and so of the rest: in which they observe their vowed abstinence so strictly that if any should (though all unawares) eat of his _Kin_, he would die of conceit, always presenting to his accusing conscience the breach of his vow, and the anger of _Mokisso_. He hath known divers thus to have died, and sometimes would, when some of them had eaten with him, make them believe that they had eaten of their _Kin_, till, having sported himself with their superst.i.tious agony, he would affirm the contrary.

They use to set in their fields and places where corn or fruits grow, a basket, with goat's horns, parrot's feathers, and other trash: this is the _Mokisso's_ Ensign, or token, that it is commended to his custody; and therefore, the people very much addicted to theft, dare not meddle, or take anything. Likewise, if a man, wearied with his burthen, lay it down in the highway, and knit a knot of gra.s.s, and lay thereon; or leave any other note (known to them) to testify that he hath left it there in the name of his idol, it is secured from the lime-fingers of any pa.s.senger. Conceit would kill the man that should transgress in this kind.[235]

In the _banza_ [_mbanza_], or chief city, the chief idol is named _Chekoke_.[236] Every day they have there a market, and the _Chekoke_ is brought forth by the _Ganga_, or priest, to keep good rule, and is set in the market-place to prevent stealing. Moreover, the king hath a Bell,[237] the strokes whereof sound such terror into the heart of the fearful thief that none dare keep any stolen goods after the sound of that bell. Our author inhabited in a little reed-house, after the Loango manner, and had hanging by the walls, in a cloth case, his piece, wherewith he used to shoot fowls for the king, which, more for the love of the cloth than the piece, was stolen. Upon complaint, this bell (in form like a cow-bell) was carried about and rung, with proclamation to make rest.i.tution; and he had his piece next morning set at his door. The like another, found in a bag of beans of a hundred pound weight, stolen from him, and recovered by the sound of this bell.

[_Poison Ordeal._][238]

They have a dreadful and deadly kind of trial in controversies, after this manner: there is a little tree, or shrub, with a small root (it is called _Imbunda_) about the bigness of one's thumb, half a foot long, like a white carrot. Now, when any listeth to accuse a man, or a family, or whole street, of the death of any of his friends, saying, that such a man bewitched him, the _Ganga_ a.s.sembleth the accused parties, and sc.r.a.pes that root, the sc.r.a.pings whereof he mixeth with water, which makes it as bitter as gall (he tasted of it); one root will serve for the trial of a hundred men. The _Ganga_ brews the same together in gourds, and with plantain stalks. .h.i.tteth everyone, after they have drunk, with certain words. Those that have received the drink walk by, till they can make urine, and then they are thereby free'd. Others abide till either urine frees them, or dizziness takes them, which the people no sooner perceive but they cry, _Undoke, Undoke_,[239] that is "naughty witch"; and he is no sooner fallen by his dizziness, but they knock him on the head, and dragging him away, hurl him over the cliff.

In every Liberty[240] they have such drinks, which they make in case of theft, and death of any person. Every week it falls out that some or other undergoes this trial, which consumeth mult.i.tudes of people.

[_Albinos._][241]

There be certain persons called _Dunda_ [_ndundu_], which are born by negro parents, and yet are, by some unknown cause, white. They are very rare, and when such happen to be born, they are brought to the king, and become great witches: they are his councillors, and advise him of lucky and unlucky days for execution of his enterprises. When the king goes any whither the _Dundas_ go with him, and beat the ground round about with certain exorcisms before the king sits down, and then sit down by him. They will take anything in the market, none daring to contradict them.

[_The Gumbiri Fetish._]

Kenga is the landing-place of Loanga. They have there an idol called _Gumbiri_, and a holy house called _Munsa Gumbiri_,[242] kept and inhabited by an old woman, where once a year is a solemn feast, which they celebrate with drums, dances, and palm-wines; and then, they say, he speaketh under the ground. The people call him _Mokisso Cola_,[243]

or a strong _Mokisso_, and say, that he comes to stay with _Chekoke_, the idol of the banza. That _Chekoke_ is a negro image, made sitting on a stool; a little house is then made him. They anoint him with _Toccola_ [_tacula_],[244] which is a red colour made of a certain wood, ground on a stone, and mixed with water, wherewith they daily paint themselves, from the waist upwards, esteeming it a great beauty; otherwise they account not themselves ready. It is for like purposes carried from hence to Angola.

[_Possessed of the Fetish._]

Sometimes it falls out that some man or boy is taken with some sudden enthusiasm, or ravishment, becoming mad, and making a whooping and great clamours.

They call them _Mokisso-Moquat_[245] that is, taken of the _Mokisso_.

They clothe them very handsomely, and whatever they bid in that fit (for it lasteth not very long), they execute as the _Mokisso's_ charge.

[_The Maramba Fetish._][246]

_Morumba_[247] is thirty leagues northwards from hence, in the Mani Loango's dominions, where he [Battell] lived nine months. There is a house, and in it a great basket, proportioned like to a hive, wherein is an image called _Morumba_, whose religion extendeth far. They are sworn to this religion at ten or twelve years old; but, for probation are first put in a house, where they have hard diet, and must be mute for nine or ten days, any provocation to speak notwithstanding. Then do they bring him before _Morumba_, and prescribe him his _Kin_ [kina], or perpetual abstinence from some certain meat. They make a cut in his shoulder like to a half moon, and sprinkle the blood at _Morumba's_ feet, and swear him to that religion. In the wound they put a certain white powder in token of his late admission; which, so long as it continueth, doth privilege him to take his meat and drink with whomsoever he pleaseth, none denying him the same, at free cost.

They also have their fatal trials before this image, where the accused party, kneeling down and clasping the hive, saith: "_Mene quesa cabamba Morumba_," signifying that he comes thither to make trial of his innocence;[248] and if he be guilty he falls down dead; being free he is free'd.

Andrew Battell saith he knew six or seven, in his being there, that made this trial.

CHAP. X, -- III.-OF THE GIACCHI, OR IAGGES.[249]

[_Origin of the Jagas._]

... Andrew Battel lived (by occasion of the Portugals treachery) with the Iagges a longer time than ever any Christian or white man had done, namely, sixteen months, and served them with their [his] musket in the wars; neither could Lopez (saith he) have true intelligence whence they came,[250] for the Christians at that time had but uncertain conjectures of them: neither after had the Portugals any conversing, but by way of commerce; but he, being betrayed, fled to them for his life, and after, by stealth, escaped from them: the only European that ever lived in their camp.

He saith they are called Iagges by the Portugals, by themselves Imbangolas*[251] (which name argues them to be of the Imbij and Galae before mentioned) and come from Sierra Liona;*[252] that they are exceeding devourers of man's flesh, for which they refuse beef and goats, whereof they take plenty. They have no settled habitation, but wander in an unsettled course.

[_Infanticide among the Jaga._]

They rise in harvest, and invading some country, there stay as long as they find the palms, or other sufficient means of maintenance, and then seek new adventure. For they neither plant nor sow, nor breed up cattle, and, which is more, strange, they nourish up none of their own children, although they have ten or twenty wives a man, of the properest and comeliest slaves they can take. But when they are in travail they dig a hole in the earth, which presently receiveth in that dark prison of death the new-born creature, not yet made happy with the light of life.