Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 65, No. 399, January 1849Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 65, No. 399, January 1849
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
The upshot of this ill-conducted expedition was its arrival in the
kingdom of Bari, whose capital city, Pelenja, is situated in 4° N.
L., and which is inhabited by an exceedingly numerous nation of tall
and powerful build; the men six and a-half to seven French feet in
height--equal to seven and seven and a-half English feet--athletic,
well-proportioned, and, although black, with nothing of the usual
negro character in their features. The men go naked, with the
exception of sandals and ornaments; the woman wear leathern aprons.
They cultivate tobacco and different kinds of grain: from the
iron found in their mountains they manufacture weapons and other
implements, and barter them with other tribes. They breed cattle
and poultry, and are addicted to the chase. About fifteen hundred
of these blacks came down to the shore, armed to the teeth--a sight
that inspired the Turks with some uneasiness, although they had
several of their chiefs on board the flotilla, besides which, the
frank cordiality and good-humoured intelligent countenances of the
men of Bari forbade the idea of hostile aggression. "It had been
a fine opportunity for a painter or sculptor to delineate these
colossal figures, admirably proportioned, no fat, all muscle, and
magnificently limbed. None of them have beards, and it would seem
they use a cosmetic to extirpate them. Captain Selim, whose chin
was smooth-shaven, pleased them far better than the long-bearded
Soliman Kaschef; and when the latter showed them his breast,
covered with a fell of hair, they exhibited a sort of disgust,
as at something more appropriate to a beast than to a man." Like
most of the tribes on the banks of the White Nile, they extract
the four lower incisors, a custom for which Mr Werne is greatly
puzzled to account, and concerning which he hazards many ingenious
conjectures. Amongst the ape-like Keks and Dinkas, he fancied it to
originate in a desire to distinguish themselves from the beasts of
the field--to which they in so many respects assimilate; but he was
shaken in this opinion, on finding the practice to prevail amongst
the intelligent Bari, who need no such mark to establish their
difference from the brute creation. The Dinkas on board confirmed
his first hypothesis, saying that the teeth are taken out that they
may not resemble the jackass--which in many other respects they
certainly do. The Turks take it to be a rite equivalent to Mahomedan
circumcision, or to Christian baptism. The Arabs have a much more
extravagant supposition, which we refrain from stating, the more so
as Mr Werne discredits it. He suggests the possibility of its being
an act of incorporation in a great Ethiopian nation, divided into
many tribes. The operation is performed at the age of puberty; it is
unaccompanied by any particular ceremonies; and women as well as men
undergo it. Its motive still remains a matter of doubt to Mr Werne.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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