Stanley in Africa: The Wonderful Discoveries and Thrilling Adventures of the Great African Explorer, and Other Travelers, Pioneers and MissionariesBoyd, James P. (James Penny)
History
Stanley in Africa: The Wonderful Discoveries and Thrilling Adventures of the Great African Explorer, and Other Travelers, Pioneers and Missionaries
Boyd, James P. (James Penny)
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton), 1841-1904
Thirteen miles from Latome is Tarrangolle, the largest Latooka village,
where Moy, the chief, resides. Here Ibrahim stopped to collect his
ivory and slaves. Crowds came out of the village to meet us, but their
chief attraction was Mrs. Baker and the camels. These Latookas are,
doubtless, the finest made savages in all Africa. They are tall, muscular
and beautifully proportioned. They have high foreheads, large eyes,
high cheek bones, small mouths, and full, but not thick lips. Their
countenances are pleasing, their manners civil. They are frank but
warlike, merry yet always ready for a fight. Tarrangolle has 3000 houses,
surrounded by palisades; and each house is fortified by a stockade. The
houses are very tall and bell shaped. They are entered by a low door
not over two feet high. The interior is clean but unlighted by windows.
Their cattle are kept in kraals and are very carefully tended. Their
dead, who are killed in war, are allowed to lie on the field as food for
vultures. Those who die at home are lightly buried for a time. Then they
are exhumed, the flesh stripped off, and the bones put into an earthen
jar, which is deposited in the common pile or mound outside of the
village. Every village has its burial pile, which is a huge collection of
jars. They wear no clothes, but bestow great attention on their hair.
Their weapons are the lance, an iron-head mace, a long bladed knife,
and an ugly iron bracelet armed with knife blades four inches long. The
women are not as finely shaped as the men. They are large, heavy limbed
creatures, used to drudgery.
Chief Moy visits us and looks for the first time on a white person. The
Colonel makes presents of beads, bracelets, and a necklace of pearls
for Bokke, the chief’s favorite wife. “What a row there will be in the
family when my other wives see Bokke’s present,” says the wily old chief.
The Colonel takes the hint and gives him three pounds of beads to be
divided between his wives. Next day, Bokke comes to the Colonel’s hut,
all covered with beads, tatooed on her cheeks, and with a piece of ivory
hanging in her lower lip. She is not bad looking, and her daughter is as
comely a savage as you ever saw.
Horrid word comes that a party of Turkish traders have been massacred in
a Latooka village which they had tried to destroy and to make slaves of
the inhabitants. All is now excitement. Ibrahim’s party and our own are
in imminent danger. But Moy intercedes for his white guests and appeases
the angry natives. Though rich in cattle, our party cannot get a pound
of beef from these Latookas. But ducks and geese are plenty in a stream
close by, and we are allowed to kill all we want.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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