Stanley's Adventures in the Wilds of Africa: A Graphic Account of the Several Expeditions of Henry M. Stanley into the Heart of the Dark ContinentHeadley, Joel Tyler
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Stanley's Adventures in the Wilds of Africa: A Graphic Account of the Several Expeditions of Henry M. Stanley into the Heart of the Dark Continent
Headley, Joel Tyler
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton), 1841-1904
"The Wahumba, so far as I have seen them, are a fine and well-formed
race. The men are positively handsome, tall, with small heads, the
posterior parts of which project considerably. One will look in vain for
a thick lip or flat nose amongst them; on the contrary, the mouth is
exceedingly well cut, delicately small; the nose is that of the Greeks,
and so universal was the peculiar feature, that I at once named them the
Greeks of Africa. Their lower limbs have not the heaviness of the Wagogo
and other tribes, but are long and shapely, clean as those of an
antelope. Their necks are long and slender, on which their small heads
are poised most gracefully. Athletes from their youth, shepherd bred,
and intermarrying among themselves, thus keeping the race pure, any of
them would form a fit subject for a sculptor who would wish to
immortalize in marble an Antrinus, a Hylas, a Daphnis, or an Apollo. The
women are as beautiful as the men are handsome. They have clear ebon
skins, not coal black, but of an inky hue. Their ornaments consist of
spiral rings of brass pendent from the ears, brass ring collars about
the neck, and a spiral cincture of brass wire about their loins, for the
purpose of retaining their calf and goat skins, which are folded about
their bodies, and depending from the shoulder, shade one-half of the
bosom, and fall to the knees.
"The Wahehe may be styled the Romans of Africa.
"Resuming our march, after a halt of an hour, in four hours more we
arrived at Mukondoku proper.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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