Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Africa, West -- Description and travel; Congo River -- Description and travel; Ethnology -- Africa, West
Merolla calls these men Musilongo or Sonhese. The word appears to
me opprobrious, as if each tribe termed itself Mushi-Congo (Congo
people), and its neighbours Musulungus: Barbot writes as a
Frenchman Moutsie, the Portuguese Muxi (Mushi). Mushi-Longo would
perhaps mean Loango-people; but my ear could not detect any
approach to "Loango" in "Musulungu." The first syllable, Mu, in
Fiote or Congoese, would be a contraction of Muntu (plural
Wántú). They inhabit the islands, own a part of the north bank,
and extend southwards to Ambriz: eastward they are bounded by the
Fiote or Congo-speaking peoples, to whom their tongue is
intelligible. They have no tattoo, but they pierce the nose
septum and extract the two central and upper incisors; the Muxi-
Congoes or Lower Congoese chip or file out a chevron in the near
sides of the same teeth-- an ornament possibly suggested by the
weight of the native pipe. The chipping and extracting seem to be
very arbitrary and liable to change: sometimes the upper, at
other times the lower teeth are operated upon. The fashionable
mutilation is frequently seen in Eastern Africa, and perhaps it
is nothing but a fashion. They are the "kallistoi" and "megistoi"
of the Congoese bodies, taller and darker, fiercer and braver
than their neighbours, nor will they cease to be river pirates
till the illicit trade dies.
After taking leave of Sr. Silva we resumed our way, the
thermometer (F.) showing at 1.45 P.M. 95° in the air when the sun
was obscured, and the mirage played the usual fantastic tricks.
The mangrove, which Tuckey's introduction prolongs to fifty miles
from the mouth, now disappears; in fact, it does not extend much
above Bullock Island, nineteen direct miles on the chart from
Shark Point and, as usual, it enables us to measure the extreme
limit where the salt-tide ascends. The palhabote went gallantly,
"The water round her bows
Dancing as round a drinking cup."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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