Big People and Little People of Other Lands Part 9

One of the tribes in the Kongo Valley is called the Bangala tribe. The men are tall and strong and fierce. They are always fighting with other tribes. This makes the other tribes very much afraid of them.

The negroes of this tribe have a strange way of making friends with a white man. They will do him no harm if he is willing to be their "blood brother."

This is the way they make a white man their blood brother. The black man takes a limb of palm tree which has two branches. With one branch in his hand, he falls on the ground before the white man. The white man takes hold of the other branch. Then the black man splits the limb into two parts with his knife.

After this is done, an old man of the tribe comes to the white man and the black man. He puts the white man's arm over the black man's arm.

When their arms are together, he makes a small cut in each arm. He makes this cut to draw blood. Then the old man puts salt and the dust of banana leaves into the blood, and rubs both arms together. The black man and the white man are then blood brothers.

These people have also a strange way of taking care of their canoes.

When they are not using them, they keep them under water. They say that the canoes will last longer if kept under water.

THE AMAZON VALLEY.

Perhaps you have heard of the Amazon River. It is the largest river in the world. It is four thousand miles long, and more than fifty miles wide where it flows into the sea. This river is in Brazil. Brazil is far south of us.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Amazon Indians.]

There are great forests along the banks of this river. They run back from the river for hundreds of miles. They are the largest forests in the world.

A great many kinds of trees grow in these forests. Some of the trees are very high. Often the trees are covered with vines on which beautiful flowers grow.

Wax-palm trees, breadfruit trees, and rubber trees are found in these forests. Wax is taken from the leaves of the wax palm.

We make rubber from the rubber tree. A cut is made in the side of the tree with a knife. From this cut a white juice flows. This juice is like milk. It is caught in a cup. After a while the juice gets hard.

Then it is rubber.

A great many strange animals and birds are found in these forests.

There is the sloth, which lives in the trees. It has hooked claws for holding on to the branches. It hangs on to a branch with its back downward. When it goes to sleep, it rolls itself up like a ball. It moves very slowly, and that is why it is called the sloth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Sloth.]

These forests are full of monkeys and parrots. Perhaps you have seen a parrot. I dare say you have not seen more than two or three parrots at one time. But in these forests there are flocks of parrots. They fly from tree to tree, and are very wild.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Parrot.]

There are many kinds of them. Some are red, some are green, some are blue, and some are all these colors.

Monkeys chatter and parrots screech. What a noise they must sometimes make!

But besides the parrots and the monkeys, there are humming birds and b.u.t.terflies. You know that the humming bird is a very small bird, but humming birds are found in these forests no larger than a bee. The b.u.t.terflies are the most beautiful in the world.

The people who live in these forests are called Indians. They do not often let white men come among them. Their skin is copper color, like the Indians of our country. Their hair is black and straight. They are not as tall as our Indians, but their bodies are finely formed.

They have large, full chests. Their hands and feet are small and nicely shaped.

They keep themselves very clean. The men and women, the boys and girls, are all fond of bathing. The first thing they do in the morning is to take a bath in the nearest river.

Strange to say, some of them paint their faces and bodies. They take the juice of a tree which will stain a blue black. They pour this juice on their heads, and let it run in streams down their backs. They also put red and yellow in large round spots on their cheeks and foreheads.

The men braid their hair, and wear it long, down their backs. They part their hair and wear combs. But the women do not part their hair and do not wear combs. They pull the hair out of their eyebrows. They make holes in their ears. In these holes they wear, instead of rings, a little piece of gra.s.s with feathers fastened to it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Painted Amazon Indian.]

Their houses are made of logs of wood set in the ground as posts. They put other logs on top of these for a roof. Then they cover these logs with palm leaves. There are no windows, and they use mats for doors.

They sleep in hammocks. These they make of string. They make the string by twisting the leaves of a tree.

They have plenty of pans and pots, both large and small. These pans and pots they make of clay.

First, they soften the clay and knead it. Then they shape it into pots and pans. It is then dried in the sun. When the pots and pans are dry they are put in a hot fire. This makes them hard and strong.

The chief food of these Indians is a kind of flour made from the root of a plant. They also eat fish. A great many fish are found in the rivers. These they catch and eat. They also dry fish and then smoke them over a fire. The smoked fish keep good a long time.

These Indians sail on the rivers in canoes. But their canoes are heavy. They are not light, as the canoes of our Indians are. They are not made of birch bark.

These Indians make an entire canoe out of a single tree. The canoe is made thick so as not to be broken by knocking against snags and rocks.