The heart of Africa, Vol. 1 (of 2)Schweinfurth, Georg August
Science
The heart of Africa, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Schweinfurth, Georg August
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Schweinfurth, Georg August, 1836-1925 -- Travel -- Africa, Central
The Bongo women limit their tattooing to the upper part of the arm.
Zigzag or parallel lines, or rows of dots, often brought into relief
by the production of proud flesh after the operation has been
accomplished, are the three forms which in different combinations
serve as marks of individual distinction. The men tattoo themselves
differently, and some of them abstain from the operation altogether.
At one time the lines run across the breast and stomach to one side of
the body; at another they are limited to the top of the arm, whilst it
is not at all unusual for the neck and shoulder-blades to be tattooed.
Besides the ornaments that I have mentioned, the toilet of a Bongo
lady is incomplete without the masses of iron and copper rings which
she is accustomed to wear on her wrists and arms, and more especially
on her ankles. These rings clank like fetters as she walks, and even
from a distance the two sexes can be distinguished by the character of
the sound that accompanies their movements. That human patience should
ever for the sake of fashion submit to a still greater martyrdom seems
almost incredible, though hereafter we shall have sufficient proof
when we delineate the habits of the Mittoo, the neighbours of the
Bongo, that such is really the case.
In Bongoland, as in all the northern parts of the territory that I
visited, copper of late years has attained a monetary value, and has
become an accustomed medium of exchange. Glass beads are annually
deteriorating in estimation, and have long ceased to be treasured up
and buried in the earth like jewels or precious stones, being now used
only to gratify female vanity. In former times, when the only
intercourse that the Bongo held with the Mohammedan world was by
occasional dealings with the Baggara Arabs, through the intervention
of the Dembo, a Shillook tribe connected with the Dyoor, cowrie-shells
were in great request, but these also have long since fallen out of
the category of objects of value. Gold and silver are very rarely used
as ornaments, even in the Mohammedan parts of the Eastern Soudan; it
is therefore hardly a matter of surprise that to the Bongo, whose soil
is singularly uniform in its geological productions, they should be
all but unknown. The Bongo, moreover, have but little value for brass,
differing greatly in this respect from their neighbours, the Dyoor.
[Sidenote: BONGO WEAPONS.]
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