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 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 3 1924 092 511 728 
 
^ Cornell University 
 S Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924092511728 
 
THE NEGRO RACES 
 
•The. 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK • BOSTON - CHICAGO 
 ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 
 
 LONDON • BOMBAY ■ CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 
 
 TORONTO 
 
THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 A Sociological Study 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 THE NEGRITOS, comprising The Pygmies, Bushmen 
 and Hottentots of Central and South Africa 
 
 THE NIGRITIANS, comprising thejolofs, Mandingos, 
 Hausas, Ashantis, Dahomans, etc., of the Sudan ; 
 aud the Tibbus of the Sahara Desert : and 
 
 THE FELLATAHS of Central Sudan 
 
 By JEROME DOWD 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
 1907 
 
Yf!/ifJOj.t- 
 
 ^.'2.\^^°l^ 
 
 Copyright, 1907, 
 By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 l^ac 
 
 ■^•s*? 
 
 ^i./ 
 
 <?<6 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The author submits to the public this volume as one of 
 a series which he proposes to publish consisting of a socio- 
 logical study of mankind from the standpoint of race. Up 
 to the present time sociologists, in tracing the evolution of 
 society, have constructed theories based upon data selected 
 promiscuously from opposite quarters of the earth and from 
 many different races. This method would suffice if the 
 races of men had lived in the same environment and had 
 undergone the same stages of development. But it will 
 not suffice if the races have appeared upon the earth in suc- 
 cession and not simultaneously. If they have inhabited 
 different zones and have been subject to different physical 
 surroundings, it does not stand to reason that they could de- 
 velop the same institutions and pass through identical stages 
 of evolution. The author's first object, therefore, is to es- 
 tablish the fact that each race has its distinctive institutions 
 and special evolution corresponding to the locality in which 
 it lives or has lived. The second object is to discover the 
 factors and laws which explain the mental and moral char- 
 acteristics and particular institutions of each general racial 
 division, to the end that the principles and laws discovered 
 may be applied to whatever is abnormal or retrogressive. 
 
 If the first few volumes of the series should seem to lay 
 stress upon the physical environment, it is because that 
 factor is always predominant in the early stage of develop- 
 ment, and only diminishes gradually as man strengthens his 
 intellect and adds to his knowledge. The environment first 
 controls man, after which man controls the environment, and 
 in any system of sociology, a consideration of the physical 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 forces acting upon man must precede a correct understand- 
 ing of the later moral and psychological forces. In the 
 opinion of Ratzel, a sociology from this point of view is 
 very much needed. He says in his " Anthropogeographie," * 
 that most sociological systems and doctrines consider man 
 as independent of the earth, and that in modem sociology 
 the ground plays such a small r61e that the works that deal 
 seriously with it are exceptions. 
 
 The inability of modern civilizations to solve their per- 
 plexing and threatening political, industrial, familial and other 
 social problems is due to a lack of application to those 
 problems of the scientific methods which have wrought such 
 marvels of progress in the domain of chemistry, physics, 
 biology and medicine. When men turn away from em- 
 piricism in the study of social problems and begin to under- 
 stand that the phenomena of the social world are the prod- 
 uct of forces operating according to ascertainable laws, 
 although of a kind different from those of the physical 
 world, there will be strides forward in the social life as notable 
 and full of blessings to the human race as the progress which 
 has been made in any other domain. The world is not 
 without great moral teachers who stir up and sharpen the 
 conscience of the people but it needs a knowledge of the 
 causes and effects of human activities and institutions, as re- 
 vealed by science, to enable the moral forces to expend 
 themselves in other than a blind and anarchic opposition. 
 " In order to know how social actions operate as causes and 
 produce effect," says Small, " it is necessary to have descrip- 
 tion and explanation of the social process, and of the struc- 
 tures and functions involved : for it is with reference to these 
 that our moral judgments assume knowledge of cause and 
 effect." ' 
 
 The author does not wish to be understood as attempt- 
 
 1 Vol. I, p. 66. 
 
 ' " The Significance of Sociology for Ethics," Chicago, 1902, p. 8. 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 ing to write a history of the human races. That would be 
 a task too ambitious for any one man to think of. But, since 
 the sociologist accepts the facts and special laws established 
 by the historian, ethnologist, anthropologist and other scien- 
 tists, it is not impossible for him to embrace in his investiga- 
 tions, as Spencer has done, a wide range of phenomena. 
 The work of bringing together the general principles de- 
 rived by specialists in their respective fields, is an important 
 one and, while seeming at first glance to be rather too com- 
 prehensive and wide in scope, is, in fact, very limited and defi- 
 nite and constitutes in itself a scientific specialty which re- 
 quires an equipment, a grouping of data and a manner of 
 treatment unlike what is demanded of any other specialist. 
 
 Sociology differs from many other sciences in one im- 
 portant particular. It is a science whose general conclusions 
 are to be practically and directly applied by the citizens who 
 vote and otherwise determine the destiny of States, whereas 
 in most other sciences the general ideas are to be applied 
 only by special industrial or professional classes of men. 
 For example, it is not necessary for the medical specialist 
 to address himself to the public, but only to practitioners, 
 because a sensible man, instead of attempting to treat his 
 own case, calls in a physician and submits to his discipline. 
 On the contrary, in reference to social or political questions, 
 every man, wise or foolish, is his own physician and bases 
 his action upon his own judgment. Sociology therefore 
 should avoid the use of technical terminology which may 
 not be comprehended by the average man of intelligence, 
 and should be treated in a style that is calculated to bring 
 the general principles of the science into as wide an ac- 
 quaintance as possible. 
 
 The writer has begun his study with the Negro Races 
 simply because they represent the most primitive life and 
 not at all on account of any special interest in the so-called 
 Negro question or any desire to solve it upon preconceived 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 notions. However, it has seemed strange to the writer that 
 the people of the United States, who have a large Negro 
 population, should have attempted to deal with it, through 
 all of these years, without having a knowledge of the 
 sociological conditions of kindred populations in Africa. In 
 view of the need of a more accurate and comprehensive 
 understanding of the Negro in Africa as a basis for dealing 
 with him in America, the writer has gone more into the de- 
 tails in his first and second volumes than he would other- 
 wise have done. 
 
 The first volume seeks to portray and interpret the life 
 of the Negritos, Nigritians and Fellatahs from the earliest 
 times to the present, to show the conditions which existed or 
 still exist, as an outcome of native surroundings, and to note 
 the changes which have taken place in consequence of out- 
 side influences. 
 
 The second volume (already written) deals with Slavery 
 and the Slave Trade in Africa and the Modern African Labor 
 Problem ; and attempts to show the general effects of slav- 
 ery and the slave trade upon the industrial, social and moral 
 status of the natives. 
 
 The third volume will deal with the Galla type of 
 Negroes of East Africa, the Bantus of Equatorial and 
 Southern Africa and the Negroes of America. Other vol- 
 umes will deal with the American Indians, the Mongolians, 
 Japanese, Chinese, Semites and Aryans. 
 
 Among those to whom the author is especially indebted 
 for help in the initial volume of this proposed series, are 
 Prof. W. I. Thomas, from whose lectures in the field of the 
 natural races, the author has received much inspiration and 
 many valuable suggestions ; Prof. J. Franklin Jameson, from 
 whose lectures upon Slavery in America and from whose 
 general methods, the author has derived valuable and indis- 
 pensable help ; Prof. Albion W. Small and Prof. Fred- 
 erick Starr, from whose lectures on Sociology and Anthro- 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 pology, the author has derived also valuable and indispen- 
 sable help. 
 
 Among those to whom the author is indebted for help 
 of a different but not less valuable and not less appreciated 
 kind are, Dr. John F. Crowell, Dr. John C. Kilgo, Dr. Richard 
 T. Ely, Prof. Paul S. Reinsch, Rev. Plato Durham, Mr. R. L. 
 Durham, Prof. Edwin Mims, Mr. J. P. Caldwell and 
 Mr. James H. Southgate. 
 
 Whatever merits may be found in the first volume of 
 this work are to be attributed mostly to the fortunate cir- 
 cumstance which brought the author in contact with the 
 above named benefactors. 
 
 Charlotte, N. C, May /, igffj. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The ethnologists use the word Negro as a general term 
 to include all races having a more or less black skin and 
 woolly hair. In Africa there are five subdivisions of the 
 Negro type. 
 
 First, the Negritos, including the dwarf races of the equa- 
 torial regions, the Bushmen of the Kalahari desert and the 
 Hottentots of the southern steppe.' (Deniker used the term 
 Negrito for the black people of the Malay peninsula, 
 Andaman Islands, Philippines, etc., and the term Negrilloes 
 for the Pygmies of Africa, p. 455.) Quatrefages thinks that 
 the Pygmies, Bushmen and Hottentots are of the same race 
 and constitute the aboriginal Negro type; that they 
 developed in Southern Asia between the highlands and the 
 sea, migrated eastward and once occupied a great portion 
 of Oceania, and finally came into Africa by crossing the 
 Strait of Babel Mandeb and the Gulf of Aden.^ Within the 
 historic period they have been undergoing gradual exter- 
 mination by the larger and later developed types of the 
 Negro race, and are now the mere remnant of a people that 
 at one time was dominant in India, Oceania and Africa. 
 
 Second, the Nigritians, including all of the natives with 
 dark skin and woolly hair occupying the territory of the 
 Sudan,' i. e., a broad area reaching across the continent from 
 east to west between the desert of Sahara and a line which 
 extends from the Gulf of Guinea to the foothills of Abyssinia. 
 
 Third, the Fellatahs, a race supposed to have sprung 
 
 ' Keane, " Man ; Past and Present," p. 17. 
 » "The Pygmies," pp. 186, 187. 
 
 ' An Arab expression " Belid es Soudin " — Land of the Blacks. 
 
 xi 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 from crossings of the Berbers of the desert with the Nigri- 
 tians of the Sudan. 
 
 Fourth, the Bantus, including a vast population of some- 
 what lighter color and less negroid features than the natives 
 of the Sudan, occupying almost all of West Africa below the 
 Sudan ; or more exactly speaking below the Rio del Rey 
 River, a part of the equatorial region and a great part of 
 South and East Africa. 
 
 Fifth, the Gallas, including all of the lighter colored 
 people of East Africa from the Galla country to the Zambesi 
 River. 
 
 This volume has to do only with the first three types of 
 which fuller information as to their locality and physical 
 characteristics will be found in the text. 
 
" The iMrd looketh from heaven : he beholdeth 
 all the sons of men. From the place of his habi- 
 tation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the 
 earth. He fashioneth their hearts alike: he 
 considereth all their works" 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 THE NEGRITOS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 The Pvgmies 
 
 Pygmies in Ancient Literature — Modern Discovery of Pygmies — Their 
 Country — Description of the People — Hunting Life — Animals of the 
 Forest—Small Groups of People Live in Villages. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 The Pygmies (^Continued) 9 
 
 Implements and Weapons — Methods of Hunting and Trapping — Fishing 
 — Food — Dvirellings — Industrial Arts — Trade — Transportation — Di- 
 vision of Labor — No Slave Class — Lack of Foresight. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 The Pygmies (^Continued) 14 
 
 Family Life — Political Life — Esthetic Life — Religion — Mental and 
 Moral Character — Influence of Civilization Upon the Pygmies. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 The Bushmen 22 
 
 Description of the Desert — Climate — Vegetable Life — Animal Life — 
 Description of the People — Habitations — Utensils. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 The Bushmen ( Continued) ----... 28 
 
 Method of Travel — Weapons and Implements — Vegetable Food — Meth- 
 ods of Hunting — Preparing and Eating Animal Food — Methods of 
 Obtaining Water — Industrial Arts and Trade — Why the Bushmen are 
 Confined to the Desert. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Bushmen (^Continued) 35 
 
 Family Life — Treatment of Children — Children Abandon Parents — 
 Feebleness of Parental Influence — The Dead Rarely Buried — Political 
 Life — Cattle Raiding. 
 
 XV 
 
xvi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Bushmen (Ci!»«/'/««*</) - 4^ 
 
 /Esthetic Life — Decorations — Dancing — Music — Instruments — Painting 
 and Drawing— Animal Legends— Reasons for Superiority of Bushmen 
 Art — Religion — Mental and Moral Temperament — Effect of Contact 
 with the White Man. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 The Hottentots - 49 
 
 Description of the Country — Namaqua Land — Animal Life — Description 
 of the People — Cattle Breeding and Hunting — Dwellings — Utensils — 
 Transportation — Industrial Arts — Trade — Slavery. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 The Hottentots (^Continued) 54 
 
 Family Life — Inheritance in the Male Line — Political Life — /Esthetic 
 Life — Religion — Mental and Moral Temperament — Future of the 
 Hottentots. 
 
 PART II 
 THE NIGRITIANS AND FELLATAHS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 General Description of the Country 65 
 
 Limits of the Sudan — Elevations — The Rivers — Vegetation — Rain&U 
 — Tornadoes — Temperature. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 General Description of the Country {Continued') - - 72 
 Unhealthfulness of the Climate — Animal Life — Insects. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 The Races of the Sudan 78 
 
 The Different Types — The Fellatahs — Jolofs — Mandingos — Krumen — 
 Ashantis — Dahomans — Yorubas — Songhays — Kanuris — Hausas — Nile 
 Populations — Origin of the Different Types. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Economic Life in the Banana Zone 90 
 
 General Character of the Zone — Chief Means of Subsistence — Little 
 Attention to Hunting — Domestic Animals — Fishing — The Food Prob- 
 lem Easy — But Scarcity of Meat Leads to Cannibalism Industrial 
 
 Arts — Trade — Markets — Money — Transportation — Division of Labor 
 — Slavery — Capital and Transmission of Property. 
 
CONTENTS xvii 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Ecx>NOMic Life in the Millet Zone 102 
 
 Character of the Zone — Millet the Chief Means of Subsistence — Other 
 Food Products — Corn — Rice — Fruit — Cotton — Cotton Culture — Wild 
 and Domestic Animals — The Straggle for Existence Harder Than in 
 the Banana Zone — The Improvident Borrow from the Provident — 
 Industrial Arts — Tools and Implements — Trade — Markets and Money 
 — ^Transportation — Division of Labor — Slavery — Inheritance of 
 Property. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Economic Life IN THE Cattle Zone 116 
 
 Character of the Zone — Cattle the Chief Resource — Hunting — Agri- 
 culture — Industrial Arts — Implements — Trade — Markets — Transpor- 
 tation — Division of Labor — Slavery — Necessity for Thrift and Economy. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Economic Life in the Camel Zone 126 
 
 Character of the Zone — Camels Thrive upon Scant Vegetation — Milk the 
 Chief Food — Hard Struggle for Existence — Caravan Trade — No Need 
 for Slaves — Backwardness in the Industrial Arts — General Consider- 
 ations Respecting the Four Zones. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Family Life in the Banana Zone 133 
 
 Methods of Obtaining Wives — Polygamy — Ideas About Chastity — Family 
 Dwellings — The Women Support the Family — Relations Between 
 Husbands and Wives — Relations Between Parents and Children — 
 Children Take the Name of the Mother — Mourning Customs as In- 
 dicative of Affection — Inheritance. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Family Life in the Millet Zone . - - - - 147 
 
 Wives Purchased — Polygamy — Women More Chaste Than in the 
 Banana Zone — Family Dwellings Better — Men Help to Support the 
 Family — Family Affection — Matriarchate and Inheritance in the 
 Female Line. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Family Life in the Cattle Zone 154 
 
 Women Bought by Means of Cattle —Provided with a Dowry — High 
 Price of Women Leads to Illicit Unions — Chastity Varies in the 
 Different Localities — Mohammedan Polygamy — Intermarriage of 
 Nigritians and Fellatahs — Family Dwellings — Men help to Support 
 the Family — Women Enjoy Considerable Liberty — Family Affection — 
 Inheritance, 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Family Life in the Camel Zone 161 
 
 Few Men Able to Support More Than One Wife — Women Independent 
 — General Considerations — Transition from the Matriarchate to the 
 Patriarchate. 
 
xviii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Political Life in the Banana Zone - . - - 164 
 
 The Ancient and Modern Kingdoms — Integrating Factors of the Differ- 
 ent Kingdoms: («) Influence of Natural Resources, ((5) Invasion of 
 Foreign Peoples, (c) Motives and Facility for Defense, (a?) Motives for 
 Aggression — Aggressive Powrer of Dahomi : (a) Influence of Natural 
 Boundaries as a Factor of Expansion, (i) Size of the Population, 
 (c) Economic Resources, (a?) Ability to Cooperate, (,?) Military Strength, 
 (/") Resistance of Border States — Aggressive Power of Ashanti : 
 (a) Influence of Natural Boundaries, as a Factor of Expansion, (i) Size 
 of the Population, (c) Economic Resources, (</) Ability to Cooperate, 
 (e) Military Strength, (/) Resistance of Border States — Aggressive 
 Power of the Smaller Kingdoms. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Political Life in the Banana Zone {Continued') - - - 175 
 Political Organization of Dahomi — Differentiating Factors — ^The Form 
 of the Government : {a) Facility for Communication as a Factor, (i) Dis- 
 tribution of Wealth, (c) Character and Intelligence of the People, 
 ((/) Extent of Warfare — System of Government: (a) Legislation, 
 {d) Council and Executive Officers, (f) Laws, Offenses, Trials and 
 Penalties, {d) Revenue — Elements of Stability : (a) Intelligence and 
 Character of the Rulers and People, (^) Common Ties; Economic, 
 Religious, etc., {c) Status of the Family, {d) Order of Succession. 
 
 CHAPTER XrV 
 
 Political Life in THE Banana Zone (CV7«ft««^(f) - - - 185 
 
 Political Organization of Ashanti ; Form of Government ; Summary of the 
 
 Factors Involved — System of Government : (a) Legislation, (i) 
 
 Council and Executive Officers, {c) Laws, Penalties, etc., {d) Revenue 
 
 — Elements of Stability ; Summary of the Factors Involved. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 Political Life in the Banana Zone ( Continued) - - - ig^ 
 
 Political Organization of the Smaller Kingdoms : (a) Forms of Govern- 
 ment, (i) Governmental Systems, (c) Secret Societies, ((/)-Succession 
 in the Female Line not Favorable to Stability, (<•) Common Language 
 Not a Strong Basis of Unity. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Political Life in the Millet Zone ig6 
 
 Integrating Factors: (a) Influence of Natural Resources, (i) Invasions 
 From Outside, (c) Necessity and Facility for Defense, (a) Motives for 
 Aggression — Aggressive Power of the States Generally : (a) Influence 
 of Natural Boundaries, (b) Size of the Population, {c) Economic Re- 
 sources, (d) Ability to Cooperate, {t) Military Strength — Comparative 
 Aggressive Power of the Several States : (a) The Hausas, (i) 
 Mandingos, {c) Yorubas — The Different Forms of Government : 
 (a) Facility for Communication as a factor, {b) Distribution of Wealth 
 and Character of the People, (c) Extent of Warfare — Comparison of 
 the Different Forms of Government. 
 
CONTENTS xix 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 Political Life in the Millet Zone (^Continued) - - - 207 
 Systems of Administration : (a) Legislation in the Several States, (S) Ex- 
 ecutive Officers, (c) Laws and Judicial Proceedings, {d) Revenue — 
 Elements of Stability in the States Generally : (a) Intelligence and 
 Character of the People and of the Ruling Class, (b) Common Ties, 
 (f) Family Status, (</) Order of Succession. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Political Life in the Cattle Zone 216 
 
 Integrating Factors : (a) Influence of Natural Resources, {b) Invasions, 
 (c) Necessity and Facility for Defense, {d) Motives for Aggression- 
 Aggressive Power of the States Generally : (a) Influence of Natural 
 Boundaries, {b) Size of Population and Economic Resources, (c) 
 Ability to CoSperate, (d) Military Strength, (<) Resistance of Border 
 States— Comparative Aggressive Power : (a) The Fellatahs : History 
 of Their Invasion and Conquests, {b) The Kanuris, (0 Other 
 Peoples. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 Political Life in THE Cattle Zone (Ci!»«/;««*(/) - - - 225 
 Forms of Government in General: (a) Influence of the Natural Con- 
 ditions, {b) Character of the People, (c) Amount of Warfare — Com- 
 parison of the Forms of Government — Systems of Government: 
 (a) Legislation in the States Generally, (b) Executive Offices, (c) 
 Laws and Judicial Proceedings, {d) Revenue — Elements of Stability 
 in the States Generally : (a) Intelligence and Character of the Peo- 
 ple, (b) Common Ties, (c) Status of the Family and Succession of 
 Power — Estimate of the Fellatah Power. 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 Political Life in the Camel Zone - - - - - 234 
 
 Integrating Factors and Aggressive Power — Form and Character of the 
 Government — General Considerations. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 Customs, Ceremonies and the Spectacular in the Banana 
 
 Zone 239 
 
 General Purpose of Customs, Ceremonies, etc., — Taboos on Food, etc. 
 — Yam Customs — Familial Customs — Ceremonies and Customs to De- 
 note Class Distinctions — Regal Spectacular — Palatial Spectacular — 
 Spectacular in Dress — Ceremonies Arising from Sycophancy — Re- 
 ligious Ceremonies — Ceremonies of Civility Among Equals. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 Customs, Ceremonies and the Spectacular in the Millet, 
 
 Cattle and Camel Zones 250 
 
 Millet Zone— Cattle Zone — Camel Zone— General Considerations. 
 
XX CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 Religious Life in the Banana Zone 257 
 
 Definition of Religion — Fundamental Conceptions — All Phenomena 
 Animated by Spirits — Idea of Double Personality — The Body Soul 
 and the Dream Soul — The Kra goes to Dead Land but may Return 
 as a New Born Infant — Notion of Double Personality among Civilized 
 People. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 Religious Life in the Banana Zone {Continued) - - - 266 
 Spirits Take Part in Economic Activities — Spirits Meddle in Love and 
 Family Affairs — Spirit Activities in Political Affairs — Spirits Take Part 
 in Judicial Proceedings — In Diplomatic Affairs — Spirits of the Dead 
 Call for Food and Sacrifices — Spirits as Military Strategists — Spirits 
 Cause Disease and Death — Deaths Caused by Bush Souls — Scope and 
 Methods of the Witch Doctor— Medical Schools — The Work of the 
 Witch Doctor Does not End With the Death of his Patient— Belief in 
 Signs, Omens, etc. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 Religious Life IN the Banana Zone (C<7«/'/««^rf) - - - 286 
 Origin of Gods and Priests — Different Kinds of Gods — General or Nature 
 Gods — Animal Deities — Sacrifices — Idols and Temples — The Priests 
 and their Practices — Ideas of Another World. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 Religious Life in the Millet Zone - . - - . 296 
 Spirit Beliefs — Spirits in the Economic Life — In the Family Life — In 
 
 Political Affairs — Festivals, Feasts, etc Spirits Cause Disease and 
 
 Death — Duties and Responsibilities of the Witch Doctor and the Rain 
 Doctor — Reincarnation — Signs, Omens and Divination. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 Religious Life in the Millet Zone ( Continued ) - - - 305 
 General and Nature Gods — Animal Deities — Household Gods— Sacri- 
 fices — Idols — Priests — Notion of the After Life — More Rational Ideas 
 
 than in the Banana Zone — Influence of the Mohammedan Religion 
 
 Origin of Mythology. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 Religious Life in the Cattle Zone 312 
 
 Moliammedanism the Predominant Faith — Fetichism among the Uncon- 
 verted—The Witch Doctors— Few General Gods— Reverence for 
 Serpents— Few Sacrifices, Idols or Heathen Priests. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 Religious Life in the Camel Zone 318 
 
 Beliefs of the Tibbus — General Considerations — Relation of Religion 
 to Morality — ReUgion and Morality Inseparable — Morality Cannot 
 
CONTENTS xxi 
 
 Develop From Mere Abstract Considerations — The Brutal and Licen- 
 tious Element in Religious Rites not the Outcome of Religion but of 
 Man's Ignorance and the Survival of His Animal Nature After the 
 Dawn of Religion. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 Esthetic Life in the Banana Zone 326 
 
 Ix)ve of Beauty and Appreciation of Art Universal — Mutilations and 
 Tattooing — Body Painting — Hair Dressing — Ornamental Clothing, 
 Jewelry, etc. — Dancing — The Drama — Music — Painting, Drawing 
 and Sculpture — Love of Nature. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 .^Esthetic Life in the Millet Zone 337 
 
 Mutilations of Skin, Lips and Teeth — Body Painting and Hair Dress- 
 ing — Jewelry and Clothing — Dancing — Drama — Music — Painting and 
 Sculpture — Architecture — Folk I.ore. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 ^Esthetic Life in ihe Cattle Zone 345 
 
 Mutilations — Body Painting — Jewelry — Hair Dressing — Clothing — 
 Dancing and Drama — Music, Painting and Sculpture. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 ^Esthetic Life in the Camel Zone 350 
 
 Tattooing, Dress, etc. — General Considerations — Genesis of ^Esthetics — 
 Relation of Beauty to Art — Definition of Art — Contribution of Art to 
 Progress — Art Among the Negroes is Rudimentary — Lack of Ap- 
 preciation of Nature and Lack of Sense of the Sublime. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 Psychological Characteristics in the Banana Zone - - 356 
 Relation of the Size of the Brain to Its Activity — Perceptive Power — Con- 
 ceptive Power — Power of Attention — Connection Between Mental 
 and Physical Energy — Memory — Imagination is Reminiscent — Unde- 
 veloped Constructive Imagination — Connection Between the Imagina- 
 tion and Morals — Imitation and Lack of Invention — Deficient Reason- 
 ing Power — The Peculiarity of the Reasoning of the Civilized Man — 
 How Reason Begins — Connection Between the Development of Rea- 
 son and Morals — Lack of Foresight — Lack of Wit — Keen Sense of 
 Humor. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 Psychological Characteristics in the Banana Zone (^Con- 
 tinued') 379 
 
 Feelings Relatively Few, Insensitive and Simple — Feelings Overwhelm 
 Reason and Will — Lack of Inhibition — Temper Rollicking and 
 Unstable — Sexual Impulses and Family Affection— Fellow Feeling — 
 Relish for Human Suffering — Cruelty to Animals — Altruism the Result 
 of Constructive Activities. 
 
xxii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 Psychological Characteristics in the Banana Zone {Con- 
 tinued) - 392 
 
 Propensity for Lying and Deception — Propensity for Stealing — Vanity 
 — Lack of Courage— Lack of Revenge — Lack of Self-respect — Lack 
 of Idealism. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 Psychological Characteristics in the Millet Zone - - 401 
 Better Developed Brain and More Intelligence than in the Banana Zone — 
 Greater Power of Conception — More Mental and Physical Energy — 
 More Foresight — Feelings Master the Mind — Family Affections — Fel- 
 low Feeling — Some Feeling for Animals — Courage and Revenge — 
 Lying and Stealing. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 Psychological Characteristics in the Cattle Zone - - 408 
 Brain Development — Power of Conception — Mental Energy — Fore- 
 sight — Feelings not so Supreme as in the Other Zones — Familial 
 Affection More Marked — Pilfering Habit — Courage and Revenge 
 — Mental and Moral Superiority due to More Favorable Conditions — 
 Peculiarities of the Pastoral Nomads. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 Psychological Characteristics in the Camel Zone and Gen- 
 eral Considerations Respecting All Zones - - 414 
 Traits of the Tibbus — General Considerations — Gradual Ascent of the 
 Mind — Mental and Moral Character Varies in the Different Zones — 
 Influence of Environment and Race Mixture — Relation of Economic 
 Progress to Moral Progress — Effect Upon the Negro of European 
 Civilization — Influence of the Slave Traders — Influenceof Missionaries : 
 Individual Examples of Uplift — Impotence of Leaders Developed 
 Artificially by a Race of a Different Stage of Culture — They are not 
 in Sympathy With Their Own Race — They Leave the Masses Un- 
 touched — Effective Leaders Must Arise Spontaneously — Mistake of 
 Missionaries in Attacking First the Psychological Life of the People 
 With Resulting Moral Degeneracy — Literary Education not Given 
 in its Proper Order of Time — Religious Teachers Lay too Much 
 Emphasis Upon Creeds and Ceremonials — And Destroy Native Faith 
 and Belief — And Ignore Social Laws — Error of Teaching False Social 
 and Political Doctrines and Inspiring False Hopes — Mistakes in 
 Colonial Policies : (a) Ruthless Destruction of Native Institution, (*) 
 The African Cannot be Advanced Along the Lines of European Cul- 
 ture, (c) Both Sociological and Anatomical Obstacles, (d) Testimony 
 of Sir Samuel Baker Respecting the Influence of Contact With 
 Civilization, U) Testimony of Miss ICingsley — Testimony of Dr. Ratzel 
 — Unfavorable Results May be Due to Temporary Reaction Except 
 as to the Negroes of the Banana Zone. 
 
CONTENTS xxiii 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Solution of the Negro Problem in the Sudan - - - 445 
 
 Political Stability the First Essential — Economic Renovation — Educa- 
 tional Needs — Changes Should be Gradual and Accomplished Through 
 Native Leaders — Suggestions to Missionaries — Need of Racial Pride 
 and Solidarity — Elimination of Political and Racial Conflict by Native 
 Representation in Legislation — A Final Word. 
 
 List OF THE Principal Books Referred TO IN THE Text - - 457 
 
 Brief Account of the Discovery of Africa With Biogiaphical Sketches 
 of the Principal Explorers Mentioned in This Book - - . - ^g^ 
 
 Index 481 
 
PART I 
 
 The Negritos 
 
CHAPTER I 
 THE PYGMIES 
 
 Pygmies in Ancient Literature. — References to pygmy 
 peoples are found in the literature of the Greeks, Romans and 
 Egyptians. Homer, in the third chant of the Iliad, speaks 
 of storks that fly over the ocean and bear carnage and death 
 to the men called pygmies. He knew that the storks psissed 
 each year from Europe to Africa and it is presumed that he 
 thought of these little men as inhabiting some part of the 
 dark continent. Aristotle, in his History of Animals, refers 
 to pygmies as dwelling somewhere near the sources of the 
 Nile.' Pliny mentions them as not only inhabiting Africa, 
 but also Thrace, Asia Minor and India.^ Pomponius Mela, a 
 contemporary of Pliny, also speaks of pygmies as living 
 somewhere in Africa, but is very vague as to the precise 
 locality.* Egyptian records refer to pygmies as far back as 
 the Sixth Dynasty. " Like the dwarfs in mediaeval times," 
 says Keane, " they were in high request at the courts of the 
 Pharaohs, who sent expeditions to fetch these Danga (Tank) 
 from the Island of the Double, that is, the fabulous region of 
 Shade Land beyond Punt, where they dwelt. The first of 
 whom there is authentic record was brought from this 
 region, apparently the White Nile, to King Assa, 3300 B. C. 
 by his officer Baurtet. Some seventy years later Heru Khuf , 
 another officer, was sent by Pepi II to bring back a pygmy alive 
 and in good health from the land of great trees away to the 
 south." * 
 
 Modem Discovery of Pygmies. — These references to 
 pygmies were regarded as mere fictions by modern ethnolo- 
 
 ' Quatrefages, " Pygmies," p. 2. " Ibid., p. 4. 
 
 • Ibid., p. II. *" Man : Past and Present," p. 117. 
 
4 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 gists and historians down to the middle of the nineteenth 
 century. Gibbon thought that they were altogether fabu- 
 lous." Some Portuguese explorers, as early as the sixteenth 
 century, reported the existence of pygmies on the West Coast 
 near the Loango River.^ Describing some Pygmies seen at 
 the court of the king of Lovango, Ogilby's book on Africa, 
 written in 1670 says : 
 
 "Before the King's Cloth sit some Dwarfs, with their 
 backs towards him. Pigmies indeed in Stature, but with 
 Heads of a prodigious bigness ; for the more exact deform- 
 ing whereof, they wear the Skin of some Beast tied round 
 about them. The Blacks say there is a Wilderness, where 
 reside none but Men of such a Stature who shoot the Gigan- 
 tick Creatures the Elephants." ^ In 1625 Andrew Battel, an 
 English sailorwho hadbeenmadeaprisonerby thePortuguese, 
 and had remained for eighteen years in the Congo region, re- 
 ported having seen a pygmy nation, called Matimbas, who 
 were about the height of a boy of twelve years.* This report 
 attracted only attention enough to be discredited. How- 
 ever, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the exist- 
 ence of real pygmies in this region was abundantly demon- 
 strated by the discoveries of Schweinfurth, Stanley, Du 
 Chaillu and numerous other explorers. Schweinfurth con- 
 firmed the statements of Homer, Aristotle and Pliny that 
 pygmies lived near the head-waters of the Nile." He dis- 
 covered in the Monbuttu country, whose waters flow into the 
 Nile, the dwarf race of Akkas.* It is now known that pygmy 
 populations exist over a wide area in the equatorial forest 
 region. They live in widely isolated groups all over the 
 Welle, Semliki, Congo and Ogowai woodlands.^ 
 
 Their Country — The home of the Pygmies is in the rela- 
 
 1 His " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," Vol. 2, p. 575, N. Y., 1859. 
 '■" Stuhlmann, p. 437. ^ P. 508. <Quatrefages, p. 164. 
 
 " Stuhlmann, p. 437. * Schweinfurth, Vol. 2, p. 127. 
 
 ' Keane, " Man : Past and Present," p. I2i. 
 
THE PYGMIES 5 
 
 tively low equatorial regions of Central Africa, where the al- 
 most incessant rains produce a luxuriant vegetation. The 
 trees are thickly studded and the undergrowth is almost im- 
 penetrable. The wealth of vines and moss that envelop 
 and interlace the branches of the trees, sometimes gives the 
 open spaces beneath the appearance of interminable 
 labyrinths and tunnels. This natural canopy of interwoven 
 foliage almost obscures the sunlight. Lloyd states that in 
 some places at midday he could not read a newspaper nor 
 take a photograph even with time-exposure.' 
 
 Description of the People.— The Pygmies average about 
 four and one-half feet in height,^ and have rather long and 
 heavy bodies in proportion to their limbs.' They have a 
 conspicuous projection of the buttocks, steatopygy,^ but this 
 peculiarity is cconfined mostly to the women and is 
 not so common as among their kinsmen, the Bush- 
 men and Hottentots." Their heads are not so long and 
 narrow (dolichocephalic) as those of the taller and more 
 typical Negroes of West Africa (Deniker says that their 
 heads are sub-dolichocephalic or mesocephalic, p. 456), but 
 are rounded and somewhat four-cornered with a high and 
 almost vertical forehead.' Their hands are small and elegantly 
 formed, and have beautiful nails. Their feet are also small and 
 well formed, but turned inward or parallel to each other.^ 
 Their jaws are very prognathus, i. e., projecting.' Their 
 skin is described as coffee brown and light yellow with 
 brown shading, or chocolate,' but is somewhat lighter than 
 that of the West African Negro. According to some au- 
 
 • " Journey Across the Pygmy Forest," National Gtographic Magazine, 
 Vol. 10, p. 28. 
 
 'Stuhlmann, p. 442; Wissmann, p. 130; Da Chaillu, "Equatorial Africa and 
 Country of the Dwarfs," p. 446 ; Geil, p. 208. 
 
 'Stuhlmann, p. 441. * Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 303. 
 
 ' Stuhlmann, p. 444. ° Ibid., p. 444. ' Ibid., p. 444. 
 
 » Schweinfurth, Vol. 2, p. 29 ; Stuhlmann, p. 443. 
 
 > Deniker, p. 445 ; Stuhlmann, p. 441. 
 
 , ■.•<^ -f . 
 
6 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 thorities their light skin is the result of living in the shade of 
 the forest.' They have large ears, and large intelligent dark 
 brown eyes.^ Their hair is scant and woolly, and, accord- 
 ing to Schweinfurth, is the color of " waste tow from old cord- 
 age." Their lips are reddish and very little swollen, but stick 
 out, giving the mouth a snout-like formation.* Their bodies 
 are covered with a thick fine, pale down.* They impressed 
 Wissmann as much like the Bushmen of the Kalahari desert* 
 While they do not answer the demands of the missing link, 
 they have a general expression and appearance which re- 
 mind one of the anthropoid apes. Stanley was struck with 
 their simian appearance and characterized them as " mon- 
 key-eyed." ° Lloyd, who journeyed through the Pygmy 
 forest, said that they lived much in trees and that their eyes 
 were " constantly shifting as in the case of monkeys." ^ In 
 their dancing, Geil said that they " made grimaces which at 
 times suggested the facial expressions of apes, orang-outangs 
 and monkeys." ' Du Chaillu remarked that " their eyes had 
 an untamable wildness in them that struck me as remarka- 
 ble." ^ In the movement of their bodies and limbs they are 
 quick but awkward. Their gait is described by Schwein- 
 furth as waddling and lurching." " It is in the highest de- 
 gree probable," says Stuhlmann, " that we have in the Pyg- 
 mies an original race, which in prehistoric times inhabited 
 the tropical districts of Africa and South Asia, before the 
 present races had penetrated those regions." " 
 
 Hunting Life : Animals of the Forest. — The Pygmies are a 
 typical hunting people. In the forest region proper agfri- 
 culture is impossible. The great amount of rainfall causes 
 
 ■Ratzel, " Anthropogeographie," Vol. i, p. 479. 
 
 ' Stuhlmann, p. 445 ; Wissmann, p. 129. ' Stuhlmann, p. 440-445. 
 
 ^Deniker, p. 456; Stuhlmann, p. 440. 'P. 129. 
 
 » <■ In Darkest Africa," Vol. I, p. 374. 
 
 ' National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 10, p. 29. 8 p. 207. 
 
 » Journal of American Geographical and Statistical Society, Vol. 2, p. 109. 
 
 10 Vol. 2, p. 29. 11 p. 472. 
 
THE PYGMIES 7 
 
 a rapid growth of weeds that would choke to death any cul- 
 tivated plant. The pastoral life is also impossible, partly 
 because of the superabundance of rank natural vegetation 
 which prevents the growth of grass, and partly because of 
 the existence of the tse-tse fly whose poisonous bite is fatal 
 alike to cattle and horses. Fishing is only a supplementary 
 resource, the streams not being sufficiently prolific to enable 
 the people to live alone by fishing. In the more elevated 
 and open places in the equatorial region, there are great 
 quantities of banana and plantain trees, but alas, these fa- 
 vored places are occupied by the larger and more powerful 
 Negro races, who do not allow the little people to invade 
 their territory. Hence, the Pygmies are condemned to live 
 as prisoners in the forest and to obtain their subsistence 
 chiefly by hunting. The larger animals such as the elephant, 
 buffalo and antelope, cannot easily penetrate this dense for- 
 est, and are found in large numbers only in the more open 
 and elevated parts of the country. Small game, however, 
 is abundant, such as the gazelle, monkey, baboon, leopard, 
 wild boar, rat, etc. A variety of birds are found along the 
 water courses, the chief of which is the guinea fowl, a bird 
 much relied on by the natives and explorers. 
 
 Small Groups of People Live in Villages. — It is said that 
 the Pygmies " never go out of the forest." ' They live in 
 small groups and are constantly on the move to keep up 
 with the game. They nowhere have permanent settlements.^ 
 Guy Burrows, who lived among them, says that they are 
 " seldom to be found in the same spot for any length of 
 time." ' Owing to the limited supply of game, the people 
 are obliged to scatter, and their temporary villages are made 
 up of a small number of huts. Stanley counted as many as 
 
 ' Lloyd, National Geographic Magazine, Vol. lo, p. 28. 
 ' Stuhlmann, p. 448. 
 
 '"Native Tribes of the \i'p^x'^eX!x" Journal of the Anthropological Insti- 
 tute, Vol. 28, p. 35. 
 
8 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 ninety-two huts in one village, but the usual number is much 
 less. In some places the number per village is about thirty/ 
 and in others not more than twelve.^ In some localities they 
 do not even form villages, but live scattered in individual 
 huts in the forest and over the hills.^ The villages are usually 
 built at the end of a long clearing.* 
 
 ' " Native Tribes of the Upper Welle," Journal of the Anthropological Insti- 
 tute, Vol. 28, p. 28. 
 
 * Du Chaillu, Journal of American Geographical and Statistical Society, Vol. 2, 
 p. 106. 
 
 'Casati, Vol. I, p. 157. 
 
 * Stanley, " In Darkest Africa," Vol. I, p. 278. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 THE PYGMIES (Continued) 
 
 Implements and Weapons The implements and weap- 
 ons of the people are the bow and arrow, spear, and a shield 
 made of plaited bark. Sometimes knives and axes are pur- 
 chased from their neighbors. The arrows are made of bam- 
 boo and poisoned with aconite. 
 
 Methods of Hunting and Trapping. — In attacking the game 
 the little men are bold and skilful. They can shoot four 
 arrows in succession before the first strikes the ground. 
 When they chance to come upon an elephant they shoot it 
 in the eye to blind it and then gather around it with their 
 spears and pierce it to death. After killing an elephant or 
 other big animal they encamp upon the spot until the vic- 
 tim's flesh is entirely consumed.' They are expert trappers. 
 They sink pits and " cover them with sticks and earth." 
 They " build a shed-like structure, the roof being suspended 
 by a vine, and they spread nuts and ripe plantains under- 
 neath to tempt the chimpanzees, baboons and other simians." 
 They set "bow-traps for rats and civits which snap and 
 strangle their prey." ^ " A long string of Pygmies," relates 
 Geil, " arrange themselves across a section of the woods, and 
 each sets a loop-trap between himself and the next Pygmy. 
 The antelopes are then chased in that direction and snared 
 in the wood fibre." * Du Chaillu says that " the woods near 
 the villages are so full of traps and pitfalls that it is danger- 
 ous for any but trained woodsmen to wander about in them," 
 and that they capture in these traps and pits many monkeys, 
 leopards, antelopes and wild boars.* 
 
 • Casati, Vol. i, p. 159 ; Stuhlraann, p. 455. 
 
 ' Stanli y, " In Darkest Africa," Vol. 2, p. loi. » P. 182. 
 
 • Journal of American Geographical Statistical Society, Vol. 2, p. 1 10. 
 
 9 
 
lo THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Fishing.— For fishing they sometimes make "nets lOO 
 yards long of grass and bark fibres." ^ Without hook they 
 tie meat to a string and " land heavy fish." 
 
 Food.— The food of these people, besides the big game 
 and fish, consists of swine, monkeys, caterpillars, maggots,^ 
 "snakes, ants and mice."^ Those observed by Schwein- 
 furth in the Monbuttu country kept some domesticated fowls,* 
 and Stanley says that some have domesticated dogs and 
 goats.^ Their vegetable diet consists of bananas, plantains, 
 mushrooms and numerous roots and berries. " Bananas are 
 their chief delight," says Burrows. " A Pigmy, I have no 
 hesitation in saying, eats as a rule twice as much as will suf- 
 fice a full-grown man. He will take a stalk containing about 
 sixty bananas, seat himself and eat them all at a meal — ^be- 
 sides other food. Then he will lie and groan throughout the 
 night, until morning comes, when he is ready to repeat the 
 operation." * Geil, however, denies that Pygmies eat sixty 
 bananas at one sitting.' They usually cook their meat, and 
 for this purpose keep a smouldering fire in some old tree. 
 As they have no knowledge of making fire by friction, they 
 carry the fire about with them from camp to camp.* When 
 they cook an animal, they eat not only the flesh, but the 
 bowels, and even the bones, after the latter have been re- 
 heated and pounded.' If they catch a good quantity of 
 game, they gorge themselves and stick out in front as if 
 ready to burst." They are fond of smoking tobacco, although 
 this is a rare article with them, and in order to get the full 
 benefit of the limited supply, they inhale deeply each draught 
 and hold it in their lungs as long as possible, — a practice 
 
 1 Dr. Henry Schlichter, " The Pygmy Tribes of Africa, " Scottish Geographical 
 Magazine, Vol. 8, p. 296. 2 Stuhlmann, p. 455. 
 
 « John Gillespie, " The Pygmies of Africa, " Missionary Review of the World, 
 Vol. 10, n. s., p. 574; Wissmann, p. 132. * Vol. 2, p. 127. 
 
 » " In Darkest Africa," Vol. 2, p. 1 10. « P. 193. 7 p. 240. 
 
 8 Stuhlmann, p. 452. » Stuhlmann, p. 456; Farini, p, 215. 
 
 '" Farini, p. 215. 
 
THE PYGMIES ii 
 
 which produces violent coughing.' The Eskimo, by the 
 way, smokes in the same manner. 
 
 Dwellings. — The Pygmies live generally in small oval- 
 shaped huts, made of stems, leaves and dirt, raised only 
 about four feet from the ground, and arranged in a circle 
 with the hut of the chief in the centre. The huts are easily 
 made, an hour being quite sufficient to build one.^ They 
 resemble large mushrooms, and are so unobtrusive that they 
 easily elude the eye of the stranger. The furniture consists 
 of a bed or kind of mattress of sticks, supported upon stilts. 
 Some families have no huts, but live without shelter on the 
 side of a stream or in the thickets of the forest.^ The Pyg- 
 mies that live near the Kalahari desert usually ward off the 
 wild beasts by a line of fire, near which on cold nights they 
 often sleep in a sitting posture with their chins resting upon 
 their knees. In this unbalanced position they sometimes 
 nod and fall upon the embers.^ 
 
 Industrial Arts. — The art of manufacturing among the 
 Pygmies is limited to making their simple hunting and fish- 
 ing outfit and a few articles of clothing. They know nothing 
 of pottery, but some of them seem to know how to make 
 bark cloth and also fibre baskets, which they carry by means 
 of straps reaching around over the tops of their heads.' 
 As they make no iron or stone implements, they are still liv- 
 ing in the Age of Wood.* 
 
 Trade. — ^Trade is carried on to a very limited extent. 
 They exchange their surplus game, fish, ivory, feathers, 
 honey, poison, etc., for bananas, plantains (a large kind of 
 banana) arrow-points, knives, axes, cooking utensils, and 
 water jars of their neighbors. ' 
 
 ' Stuhlmann, p. 450. 
 
 • Da Chaillu, yournal of American Geographical and Statistical Society , Vol. 2 
 p. 106. «Casati, Vol. I, p. 158. « Farini, p. 215. 
 
 • Stuhlmann, p. 439. • Ibid., p. 453. 
 'Stanley," In Darkest Africa," Vol. 2, p. 103; Du Chaillu, Journal of Amer- 
 ican Geographical and Statistical Soc,. Vol. 2, p. 1 10. 
 
12 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Transportation. — The Pygmies have no means of trans- 
 portation except by foot. Their highways consist of narrow 
 paths which wind through the forest and are usually so over- 
 grown with weeds and brush as to be almost indiscernible. 
 
 Division of Labor.— The simplicity of the forest life does 
 not permit of much division of labor. The women accom- 
 pany the men in both hunting and fighting, cook, gather 
 fuel and act as pack mule or freight car. However, the 
 burden of transportation is light, since the worldly posses- 
 sions of the people comprise only a few weapons and trinkets. 
 When ready for a change of camp, it is only necessary to 
 gather up the babies and whistle for the dogs. The entire 
 household and kitchen furniture of a Pygmy family could 
 have been lost in Lady Wouter Van Twiner's skirt pocket. 
 
 No Slave Class. — The Pygmies have no slaves for the 
 reason that the conditions of the hunting life render the 
 maintenance of slaves impossible. In the desperate daily 
 battle for existence, it is necessary that every man exert his 
 faculties to their utmost extent, and wherever this is the case, 
 slave labor is not possible because other motives than com- 
 pulsion are necessary to induce man to put forth his utmost 
 effort. Each man can produce barely enough for himself 
 and family, and hence if slaves existed, they could not main- 
 tain themselves and at the same time produce a surplus for 
 their master. But if slaves were ever so profitable, it would 
 be impossible to keep them in subjection. " The hunting 
 slave," says Nieboer, " will be much more inclined to run away 
 than a soil-tilling slave : for the latter, during his flight, has 
 to live in a make-shift way on the spontaneous products of 
 nature, whereas, the former continues hunting as he has 
 always done, his flight has not the character of flight." ^ If 
 an agricultural slave runs away, he can live only by join- 
 ing another community where he is liable to be returned to 
 
 > P. 191. 
 
THE PYGMIES 13 
 
 his master or reenslaved ; but if a hunting slave runs away, 
 he can support himself as well as any other hunter, and so 
 he has no need to call upon any one for help and no one has 
 a motive for reenslaving him. In the next place, it is to be 
 observed that slaves cannot be used in the place of the 
 labor of the women, because all of the men are needed in 
 hunting and fighting. Finally the great man among hunting 
 people is not one who has acquired great wealth or has 
 noble blood in his veins, but one who has strength, courage, 
 and can overcome the great beast and slay the enemy in 
 battle. Success in this line brings honor and glory, and wins 
 the choicest women. To admit slaves to hunt and fight 
 (and that is the only occupation open to them) is at once to 
 place them on a level with the freemen ; and public opinion 
 could not consider as slaves those who engaged in the noble 
 occupation of hunting and fighting. Hence slavery among 
 a hunting people is impossible and absurd. ^ 
 
 Lack of Foresight.— The Pygmies have no need of store- 
 houses or granaries. There is no winter season to provide 
 against, and each day's labor suffices for each day's need. 
 They have no bank accounts and they experience no miser- 
 able nights over the problem of accumulating and holding 
 property. They receive nothing from their ancestors and 
 bequeath nothing to posterity. 
 
 ■ Nieboer, p. 191. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE PYGMIES (Continued) 
 
 Family Life.— The family life of the Pygmies is very 
 simple. Marriages are mostly monogamous.^ They take 
 place early, and generally according to the inclination of the 
 parties concerned, but in some cases by purchase.^ If any 
 marriage ceremony takes place it has not yet been described 
 by any explorer. Owing to the wide distribution of the 
 population and the difficulties of communication, there is 
 much inter-marrying of blood-relations. It is not uncommon 
 for marriages to take place between brothers and sisters.* 
 It is unusual to find as many as three children in one family.* 
 Each family lives independently of the other and cooks and 
 eats separately.' There does not seem to be much affection 
 between members of a family. Geil says, " The mother is 
 fond of her children to the age of three years but after they 
 leave the breast it is finished." ^ The playthings of the 
 young Pygmies are bows and arrows and the bones of 
 monkeys, antelopes and elephants.^ " A striking instance of 
 this disregard for home and its memories," says Burrows, 
 " was afforded when I had occasion to revisit the birthplace of 
 my Pigmy boy as I returned through the Mabode country. 
 He was with me at the time but as we approached the village 
 they (his people) were still on the same encampment ground 
 or very near it — he showed not the least pleasure at the sight 
 of the place. It might have been his first visit to the district 
 
 • Geil, p. 184. ' Ibid., p. 225. 
 
 ' Du Chaillu, Journal of American Geographical and Statistical Society, Vol. 2, 
 p. 109; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 304; Preville, p. 213. 
 
 * Geil, p. 184. ' Casati, Vol. i, p. 158. 
 " P. 225. ■■ Geil, p. 212. 
 
 14 
 
THE PYGMIES 15 
 
 to judge by the absence of any display of emotion, or out- 
 ward sign that the setdement had once been the scene of his 
 daily life. However, as he had served me very well, apart 
 from the natural laziness of his kind, I thought I might do him 
 a good turn by offering him freedom to return to his people. 
 
 " To my surprise he besought me to tell him what wrong 
 he had done to be discharged like this. I explained that so 
 far from having done wrong, he had pleased me so well that 
 if he liked he might go back to his own people. He looked 
 at me for a moment in bewilderment : then he threw up his 
 head with a proud gesture and walked away, thus intimat- 
 ing that he had not a very high opinion of the manner in 
 which I proposed to reward faithful service." ' 
 
 The Pygmies bury their dead near the hut where they died 
 and sing and weep over them for three days, but without 
 dancing, and then go away and build a new camp.^ 
 
 Political Life The people have no definite political or- 
 ganization. The groups are small, since, on account of the 
 scarcity of food, it is in the nature of all original forest districts 
 to be thinly populated.* Furthermore, it is necessary for the 
 people to scatter so as to be unobserved and free from attack 
 from outside. As a rule feeble people protect themselves by 
 scattering and strong people by uniting. Each g^oup has a 
 sort of chief who is leader in war and hunting.^ Sometimes 
 public matters are discussed in council. Schlichter refers to 
 certain tribes as discussing the " interests of the community 
 in long palavers." ' Politically, the Pygmies are organized 
 bands for pillage. They make frequent raids upon neigh- 
 boring tribes, carrying off com, bananas, sweet-potatoes, 
 manioc, etc." They are excellent fighters, greatly prized as 
 
 ' p. 190. »Geil, p. 215. 
 
 •Ratzel, " Anthropogeographie," Vol. i, p. 476. 
 
 * Casati, Vol. I, p. 158. 
 
 » Scottish Geographic Magazine, Vol. 8, p. 298. 
 
 • Casati, Vol. I, p. 159. 
 
i6 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 allies and greatly feared as enemies. Wherever they live in 
 proximity to the taller Negroes, a sort of alliance or inter- 
 national entente prevails whereby the Pygmies hunt and fight 
 for their neighbors in exchange for the privilege of free access 
 to the banana groves.* The villages of the people are not 
 fortified for the reason that the forest itself is a sufficient 
 barrier. They are accessible only by means of narrow paths 
 in each of which is a house where in times of danger some 
 one stands guard.^ Here and there in the paths leading to 
 the village are traps having sharp poisoned points to catch 
 the feet of the unwary stranger.^ The Pygmies are very 
 shy, ever on the alert, and upon the slightest signal of dan- 
 ger they gather up their effects and scamper for the jungle. 
 But for the difficulties of penetrating the forest, these people 
 would long since have been exterminated. Dense forests 
 even more than mountains hinder invasion, as the history of 
 the settlement of North America fully illustrates.* It would 
 be a remarkable fact if, having been the first people to enter 
 Africa, the Pygmies should be the last to survive. 
 
 Esthetic Life. — The aesthetic life of the people is remark- 
 ably undeveloped. Their dress is rather scant whether 
 viewed in the light of clothing or ornament. The men wear 
 only a strip of cloth about their loins, and the women a 
 bunch of leaves. None of the Pygmies seen by Stuhlmann 
 wore articles of ornament," but Stanley saw a dwarf queen, 
 however, who wore iron rings in her ears, iron armlets above 
 her elbows and an iron band curled around her neck. 
 Dancing is much in favor and consists of an individualistic 
 jumping and swinging of arms and legs, and is " conducted 
 without any sweeter sound than the rhythmical tapping of a 
 bow with an arrow." ^ Schweinfurth, seeing a Pygmy dance, 
 
 1 Stanley, " In Darkest Africa," Vol. 2, p. 103; PrevUle, p. 212. 
 
 » Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 103. 3 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 374. 
 
 * Ratzel, " Anthropogeographie," Vol. I, p. 127. 
 
 °P-442- « Burrows, p. 183. 
 
THE PYGMIES 17 
 
 said that his agility " was perfectly marvelous." ' Sir Henry 
 James describes a peculiar dance witnessed by him in which 
 the performers remain seated and " dance with their arms 
 and legs and backs and stomachs in the drollest fashion." ^ 
 The Pygmies are fond of music. It is said that some of 
 them have a " good idea of singing and form themselves 
 into little companies of minstrels." ^ In the Une of drawing, 
 painting and sculpture they seem to have no capacity what- 
 ever. 
 
 Religion.— As to the religion of the Pygmies littie can be 
 said. Burrows asserts that " no religion, as far as I was able 
 to discover has ever been in use among them : they do not 
 know the totem and have no fetich rites. They simply live 
 in the present and for the present What has happened is 
 speedily forgotten and they do not seek to divine the future 
 by occult means." According to Du Chaillu, they do not 
 wear charms and have no idols.* Casati goes so far as to 
 say that the Pygmies have no sorcery and no superstitions, 
 — a statement which is clearly an error, due to lack of infor- 
 mation, since no savage people have ever been discovered 
 who were not steeped in superstitions of one kind or another. 
 Rev. John Gillespie, writing from the forest region, says that 
 some of the Pygmies have a vague notion of a God, and ad- 
 dress to it prayers in moments of sadness or terror. He 
 quotes this example : " Yea, if thou dost really exist, why 
 dost thou let us be slain ? We ask thee not for food or 
 clothing, for we only live on snakes, ants and mice. Thou 
 hast made us, why dost thou let us be trodden down ? " ' It 
 is more than probable that this notion of a God and prayer 
 was derived from contact with Europeans. The kind of 
 
 ' Vol. 2, p. 129. ' Georgraphical Journal, Vol. 17, p. 40. 
 
 » Ibid., Vol. 17, p. 40. 
 ' yournal of American Geographical and Statistical Society, Vol. 2, p. 109. 
 '"The Pygmies of Africa," Missionary Review of the World, Vol. 10, n. s., p. 
 574- ..^ 
 
i8 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 religion which one would expect to find among a people so 
 low in the scale of culture, is fetichism ; that is, the belief that 
 all phenomena are governed by indwelling spirits, and when 
 the facts are known this kind of religion will, no doubt, be 
 found to prevail. Geil, the latest explorer of the Pygmy 
 forest, says that the people believe in charms and that a chief 
 once said to him, " When we bury a man the body of that 
 man will become a big serpent, and that serpent will come 
 and see us. It will come near to us and coil up but will not 
 bite us." ' However, owing to their more strenuous life, the 
 Pygmies are probably much less superstitious than the Ne- 
 groes generally. When people have to put forth great effort 
 to live and are accustomed to overcoming nature, their minds 
 are less inflamed by terror, and their imaginations do not 
 weave so many strange fictions. 
 
 Mental and Moral Character. — ^The Pygmies are bright, 
 quick-witted, and, no doubt, very learned in all that pertains 
 to the animal and plant life of the forest. They reckon their 
 ages by so many moons.^ They have few abstract ideas. 
 For example, they have no term to express the idea of 
 words? One would suppose that they would be somewhat 
 stolid and morose, since it is in the nature of forest people 
 generally to have a gloomy cast of mind,'' but, according to 
 Geil, they are quite cheerful. He says, " Pigmy land is the 
 Land of Laughter." ° However, they are probably not quite 
 so gay and light-hearted as the Negroes of West Africa. 
 They are proud and independent * but extremely suspicious, 
 shy, cunning, and addicted to lying and stealing.^ They 
 are very fond of animals, and do not hesitate to associate 
 with them on terms of equality. Stuhlmann informs us that 
 he once saw a Pygmy and a dog eating out of the same 
 dish.* The Pygmies are unmerciful to their enemies, but 
 
 ' P- 215- " Geil, p. 214. a Ibid., p. 215. 
 
 * Ratzel, " Anthropogeographie," Vol. 1, p. 479. s p. 2«»_ 
 
 6 Geil, p. 247. ' Stuhlmann, pp. 447-8. s iii4_^ p. ^y^ 
 
THE PYGMIES 19 
 
 loyal to their friends, and devoted to those who show them a 
 kindness. A striking instance of Pygmy fidelity is related 
 by Farini in his book " Eight months in the Kalahari." 
 One day when he was reconnoitring with two members of 
 his caravan, his attention was suddenly called to a strange 
 looking object approaching at a distance of about r,5oo 
 metres, and now and then being hidden from view by the 
 tall grass. Upon its approaching nearer it appeared to be 
 a small boy who was making signs of friendship. Farini, 
 full of wonder at this lone wanderer of the desert, beckoned 
 him to approach. The little fellow hastened his steps, and 
 a closer view revealed the fact that, instead of being a boy, 
 he was an old and wrinkled man — but a Pygmy. How 
 could a forest Pygmy find his way here into the midst of the 
 Kalahari desert? But wait. As the little man could not 
 make his language intelligible to Farini, he made signs by 
 tossing his head like a man in agony and touching at the 
 same time Farini's hand. This sign language was translated 
 to mean that a white man was somewhere sick in the desert 
 and needed succor. The Pygmy made appealing gestures 
 for the men to follow him in haste, and as they mounted 
 their horses to do so, he was frantic with delight, and 
 bounded off leading the way and keeping well in advance of 
 the horses. After traveling a considerable distance, not 
 without apprehensions of being the victims of some savage 
 plot, the party halted near a thicket, dismounted, and were 
 led by the Pygmy into the midst of some prickly bushes. 
 What was their astonishment to behold lying upon the 
 ground a terribly emaciated and blood-clotted white man I 
 
 It seems that a German trader who had exchanged some 
 powder, knives, beads, etc., for two hundred head of cattle 
 from a pastoral people of the west side of the desert, and 
 who was making his way southward towards the coast, was 
 obliged to flee into the desert on account of hostilities be- 
 tween the Damaras and Hottentots. Unfortunately, he had 
 
20 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 in his employment about ten Hottentots who proved to be 
 traitors. They led him to a desolate spot in the desert and, 
 at an unsuspected moment, looted his camp, made way with 
 the cattle, and inflicted a wound upon him which left him ly- 
 ing insensible upon the ground. However, one member of 
 his caravan remained true to him. It was a Pygmy, known 
 as Korap, who had been following the German trader for two 
 years. He had been captured by a band of Ovampoes and 
 carried away from his country near Lake Ngami. His cap- 
 tors had treated him like a dog, and when the German came 
 along and saw his miserable plight, he took pity upon him 
 and purchased him. 
 
 Well, Korap had made an improvised hospital for his 
 wounded master in the thicket, which at least protected him 
 from the wild beasts. For days the little slave nursed his 
 delirious and fever stricken master, and only saved him 
 from starvation by procuring some wild melons, roots, 
 larvae of insects and a small burrowing animal about the 
 size of a rat. Perhaps it should be anentioned in conclusion 
 that this Pygmy who thus saved his master's life was pur- 
 chased with one bandanna handkerchief and twenty-five 
 cents' worth of beads.^ 
 
 The Pygmies never had a white missionary among them 
 until lately and they have been so little in contact with the 
 whites that it is impossible as yet to speak of the influence 
 of the whites upon them. An administrative ofiEicer of Cen- 
 tral Africa said to the adventurer Geil, " We have no plans 
 about the Pigmies and I have thought of nothing for them. 
 They are very good hunters, but that is all. There is noth- 
 ing to do for the Pigmies." '^ Geil seems to fear the effects 
 of civilization upon them. " I am convinced," he says, " that, 
 whether Pigmy or Giant, Negro or Bantu, Nubian, Azandas 
 or Mambutti, to wash a black is to lose one's soap ; to attempt 
 
 1 Farini, pp. 142, 148, 151, 152. i p. 224, 
 
THE PYGMIES 21 
 
 to make a white man of him is to waste time. He should 
 not have, with Christianity, our expensive civilization forced 
 upon him." ' But whatever might be the effect of civiliza- 
 tion upon the Pygmy, it will be a long time before it reaches 
 him. 
 
 • p. 227. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 THE BUSHMEN 
 
 Description of the Desert. — The bushmen inhabit the 
 Kalahari desert and its borders. This desert extends from 
 the Orange River in the south to Lake Ngami in the north, 
 and from about twenty-four degrees east longitude to the 
 slopes of the west coast. The amount of rainfall in Africa 
 diminishes as one proceeds southward from the equator. 
 The desert is a kind of elevated basin surrounded at a con- 
 siderable distance by a part of that mountainous ridge which 
 almost completely encircles the African coast, and which 
 drains the clouds of their moisture before they reach the in- 
 terior. Hence so little rain falls in the Kalahari region as to 
 give it the character of a real desert. It contains no running 
 water. 
 
 Climate.— The climate is dry, and daily alternates be- 
 tween hot and cold. In the middle of the day the tempera- 
 ture often rises above ioo° F. and at night descends almost 
 to the freezing point. The rocks crumble under the influence 
 of the burning rays of the sun and are reduced to a fine 
 powder or sand, which is heaped up in ridges by the first 
 gust of wind capable of scooping up a hollow in the surface. 
 Gradually the ridge advances like the waves of the sea with 
 its steepest side leeward, while the sand flying from its crest 
 seems so like the ocean spray that the similarity is almost 
 complete,^ and the movement of a wagon crossing the dunes 
 looks like a ship riding the waves of the sea.^ The feet of 
 the traveler or the wheels of a vehicle sink deep into the 
 sand, making a journey through the desert tedious and 
 painful to both man and beast. The mirage sometimes 
 
 1 Baines, p. J. sFarini, p. 147. 
 
THE BUSHMEN 23 
 
 gives the illusion of beautiful green fields, lakes, rivers, 
 glistening pools, and groves of trees reflecting their rich 
 foliage in the water. The likeness to nature is sometimes so 
 vivid and distinct that cattle and dogs run off to the deceitful 
 pools.* The moisture of the country is not sufficient any- 
 where for agriculture, and thousands of square miles are too 
 stony for pasturage. ^ 
 
 Vegetable Life. — Nevertheless, the desert is by no means 
 destitute of vegetable life. While thousands of acres are 
 absolutely bare ' where there is nothing but sand, and no- 
 where a living creature visible except perhaps an ostrich 
 which can live without drinking,* where the traveler passes 
 over dune after dune and ravine after ravine in almost inter- 
 minable succession, — there are other districts where the bar- 
 renness is relieved by oases of trees and grass.' The desert, 
 says Livingstone, has " a great variety of creeping plants : 
 besides there are large patches of bushes and even trees. It 
 is remarkably fiat, but interspersed in different parts by the 
 beds of ancient rivers." . . . The dry river beds " con- 
 tain much alluvial soil : and as that is baked hard by the 
 burning sun, rain water stands in pools in some of them for 
 several months in the year. The quantity of grass which 
 grows in this remarkable region is astonishing even to those 
 who are familiar with India. It usually rises in tufts with 
 bare spaces between, or the intervals are occupied by creep- 
 ing plants which having their roots buried far beneath the 
 soil, feel little the effects of the scorching sun. The number 
 of these which have tuberous roots is very great, and their 
 structure is intended to supply nutriment and moisture." 
 . . . Here, indeed, it may be truly said that many 
 a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its fra- 
 grance upon the desert air, but unfortunately some of these 
 blooming species are very poisonous, especially a kind 
 
 ' Livingstone, p. 78. ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 258. 
 
 » Farini, p. 88. * Ibid., p. 104. ' Ibid., pp. 104, 107, 108. 
 
24 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 of lily, which antelopes sometimes nibble by mistake, and in a 
 few minutes become frantic with pain and die in convulsions.^ 
 Animal Life.— The amount of animal life in the desert is 
 no less surprising. Prodigious herds of antelopes, which 
 require little or no water, roam over the plains. Great droves 
 of zebras are seen grazing among the patches of grass of 
 moving along in their migrations between the ridges of sand. 
 A number of rhinoceroses dwell in the neighborhood of the 
 pools, roaming over a wide territory during the day and at 
 sunset seeking repose and shelter under some friendly mimosa 
 or projecting rock. Sometimes one of them when seen at a 
 distance is in fact mistaken for a rock.^ There is a species 
 of rhinoceros in this desert which scarcely ever drinks water, 
 but lives on roots and melons.* Lions lurk in ambush near 
 the feeding grounds of the antelopes and zebras, and often 
 prowl about the camps of the travelers and the huts of the 
 natives. Jackals or wild dogs hunt in packs and strike ter- 
 ror among numerous species of quadrupeds. They even 
 bay and whip tigers.* Sometimes, however, when they are 
 busy over their booty, the hyena makes them an unexpected 
 social call. They growl and ask the visitor to wait a bit ; 
 the bones are not quite ready ; please be seated until we 
 finish them. But the hyena wishes to eat at the first table, 
 and comes forward without ceremony. Thereupon the jack- 
 als declare that they are opposed to social equality anyway, 
 and not wishing to dine with a citizen of such odious reputa- 
 tion, withdraw into the bushes where they watch the intruder 
 in silent contempt. Pretty soon, several lions, catching a 
 whiff of the banquet table, approach with cautious steps, and 
 deploy near the booty to prevent its escape. Finding, how- 
 ever, the meal already prepared, they dismiss the host and 
 sit down and enjoy themselves. When they have had 
 enough, the jackals return to clear the table by gnawing the 
 fragments that the kings of the desert have been kind enough 
 
 » Farini, p. 153. ' Baines, p. 308. » Ibid., p. 153. < Ibid., p. 168. 
 
THE BUSHMEN 25 
 
 to leave.' Other animals of the desert are the elephant, 
 giraffe, gazelle, leopard, antelope, baboon and monkey.^ 
 The chief bird is the ostrich, but many other species frequent 
 the pools and brush, such as ducks, geese, cranes, flamingoes, 
 etc. It is said that cranes sometimes fly overhead in such 
 great flocks as to obscure the sunlight.* Vultures abound, 
 and are first at the feast when man or beast perishes in this 
 desolate region.* Flamingoes may be seen standing four 
 feet high along the banks of a pool with their white plumage 
 and scarlet wings, resembling very much a column of infantry 
 with red j ackets and white caps and trousers.' The desert fauna 
 includes numerous snakes, frogs, rodents, and a superabund- 
 ance of insects such as flies, gnats, and a minute species of bee 
 which gets in man's eyes, nose, ears, and under his shirt.* 
 
 Description of the People. — The Bushmen average about 
 four feet and nine inches in height, the men being only 
 slightly taller than the women.' They have a broad, low 
 forehead, which, instead of receding, bulges out ; long, nar- 
 row head, broad, prominent cheek bones and prognathus 
 jaws.' The sutures of their skulls close comparatively early.' 
 The profiles are somewhat concave, their eyes small, bright 
 and often a little oblique." Their mouths, like those of the 
 Pygmies, are snouty." They are steatopygous, but the ab- 
 sence of flesh in other parts of the body causes their skin to 
 wrinkle as in old age. They have little body hair and only 
 rudimentary beard and mustache.'^ The men often have an 
 extraordinary development of the pectoral glands, and 
 Fritsch says that cases are known where, upon the death of 
 a mother, the father has suckled the surviving child." The 
 
 ' Farini, pp. 257, 408. » Ibid., p. 404. » Ibid., p. 106. 
 
 • Ibid., p. 257. « Baines, p. 5. « Decle, p. 56. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 266; Fritsch, p. 397. 
 8 Fritsch, p. 410; Recluse, Vol. 4, p. no; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," 
 Vol. 2, p. 287. » Fritsch, p. 4x4- 
 
 •» Ibid., p. 410; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 267. 
 » Fritsch, p. 410. » Ibid., p. 403. " P. 407- 
 
26 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 varied physical activities of the Bushmen give them great 
 suppleness and a certain natural grace and elegance of car- 
 riage.^ The extreme mobility of their lumbar region enables 
 them to curl up in a very small knot. Their skin is some- 
 what lighter than that of the Pygmies, and is described as 
 yellow or " fawn yellow." ^ Fritsch thinks that the Bushmen 
 belong to the aboriginal inhabitants of Africa.* The neigh- 
 bors of the Bushmen, on the east of the desert, are the Kaf- 
 firs, Bechuanas and other branches of the Bantu race ; and 
 on the west, the Damaras, Namaquas, Ovampos and other 
 branches of the Koi-Koin. South of the desert are the 
 Hottentots. The Bushmen wear leather aprons about their 
 loins, and leather straps around their legs as protection 
 against the thorns.* They sometimes carry animal skins on 
 their shoulders and sleep in them at night.^ On cold nights 
 they sit around a fire, turning first one side and then the 
 other until " overdone on both sides." ® 
 
 Habitations. — The Bushmen homes are sometimes huts 
 of sticks and grass, sometimes nests in the bushes, and 
 sometimes rock-caves ; sometimes only holes dug in the sand 
 with the excavated earth thrown up to windward ; and again 
 only shelters made by fixing a few sticks in the ground and 
 covering them with mats, plaited by the women, or pieces of 
 hides.' " In a bushy country," says Moffat, " they will form 
 a hollow in a central position and bring the branches to- 
 gether over the head. Here the man, his wife and probably 
 a child or two, lie huddled in a heap, on a little grass, in a 
 hollow spot, not larger than an ostrich's nest. Where 
 brushes are scarce, they form a hollow under the edge of a 
 rock, covering it partly with reeds or grass, and they are 
 
 ' Fritsch, p. 401. 
 
 'Deniker, p. 455; Reclus, Vol. 4, p. no; Ratzel, "History of Mankind," 
 Vol. 2, pp. 266, 267. s P. 466. 4 Grosse, p. loi. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 269. « MacKenzie, p. 138. 
 
 '' Ratzel, "History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 271 ; Wood, p. 274. 
 
THE BUSHMEN 27 
 
 often to be found in the fissures and caves of the moun- 
 tains." * Here and there are thickets which form natural 
 forts in which the natives may hide in perfect security from 
 the wild beasts.^ 
 
 Utensils The utensils consist of egg-shells and gourds 
 
 for storing water, mortars for grinding, spoons made from 
 calabashes cut in two,* and an antelope horn, worn around 
 the neck, which serves as a pocket for tobacco and ointment. 
 
 ' P. 56. ' Farini, p. 147. ' Decle, p, 52. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE BUSHMEN (Continued) 
 
 Method of Travel. — When a family migrates " the man 
 takes his spear and suspends his bow and quiver on his 
 shoulder, while the woman, frequently in addition to the 
 burden of a helpless infant, carries a mat, an earthen pot, a 
 number of ostrich egg-shells and a few ragged skins 
 bundled on her head and shoulder." ' Having no boats they 
 cross the large streams by floating upon logs.^ Before the 
 arrival of the European in South Africa neither the Bush- 
 men nor Hottentots knew anything of navigation, and used 
 water only to quench their thirst.^ 
 
 Weapons and Implements. — The weapons and imple- 
 ments of the Bushmen are the bow and arrow, club, a dig- 
 ging stick for roots and rodents, a knob-kerry or throw- 
 stick for small animals and birds, and sometimes a spear five 
 or six feet long.* The bow is generally tsJler than its owner. 
 The bow string is made of the twisted sinews of animals, 
 and the arrow-points are made of the shin-bone of the ante- 
 lope or leg-bone of the ostrich, and are poisoned with various 
 vegetable and animal substances.* When concocting their 
 secret poison they assemble around a pot throwing into it 
 bits of venom, and dancing, gesticulating and singing like 
 the witches in Macbeth. In this dance they imitate so per- 
 fectly the capers of wild beasts when poisoned that the 
 onlooker can recognize each animal represented.* 
 
 Vegetable Food. — The Bushmen live entirely by hunting 
 and gathering from the scant vegetation of the desert. 
 
 •Moffat, p. 53. ' Faiini, p. 106. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " Anthropogeographie," Vol. I, p. 327. * Baines, p. 363. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 270. « Faiini, p. 287. 
 
 28 
 
THE BUSHMEN 29 
 
 Among the tuberous roots already mentioned, is one called 
 leroshua, which is a very important article of the people's 
 bill-of-fare. "We see," says Livingstone, "a small plant 
 with linear leaves and a stalk not thicker than a crow's 
 quill : on digging down a foot or eighteen inches, we come 
 to a tuber, often as large as the head of a young child : when 
 the rind is removed, we find it to be a mass of cellular tissue 
 filled with fluid much like that in a young turnip. Owing 
 to the depth beneath the soil at which it is found, it is 
 generally deliciously cool and refreshing. . . . But the 
 most surprising plant of the desert is the keme, the water- 
 melon. In years when more than the usual quantity of 
 rain falls, vast tracts of the country are literally covered 
 with these melons. . . . Then animals of every sort and 
 name, including man, rejoice in the rich supply. The ele- 
 phant, true lord of the forest, revels in this fruit and so do 
 the different species of rhinoceros. . . . The various 
 kinds of antelope feed on them with equal avidity, and the 
 lions, hyenas, jackals and mice all seem to know and appre- 
 ciate the common blessing." * " The Bushmen," says Farini, 
 " live almost exclusively from the oleaginous seed of the 
 soma (melon) and in the seasons of plenty, fatten like hogs 
 in the pasture. Why give themselves trouble to run after 
 antelopes when it is only necessary to stoop down and 
 gather the seeds of the melon ? " ^ This melon, by the way, 
 remains upon the ground an entire year without rotting.^ 
 The Bushmen eat numerous roots, and drink a kind of 
 liquor made from berries fermented in water.* 
 
 Methods of Hunting. — But the vegetable resources of the 
 desert are too poor in some districts and seasons to supply a 
 sufficient amount of nourishment, and the people are 
 obliged to have recourse to the animal world. They must 
 wage war with the wild beasts and either conquer them or 
 
 ' V. 54. ' p. 130. ' Hid., p. 136. '' Baines, p. 94. 
 
30 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 be conquered by them. It is a royal battle and the victory 
 is almost as often on the one side as the other. In this con- 
 test it is rare that the Bushmen have the help of the dog/ 
 whose share of the booty is too often needed by his master. 
 Hence the dog finds his best companions among his wild 
 congeners of the desert. It is not every day that the natives 
 encounter the big animals such as the elephant and buffalo, 
 but when they do, it is their custom to shoot them with 
 poisoned arrows and follow them until they succumb from 
 exhaustion. The Bushmen display extraordinary boldness 
 and do not hesitate to attack the most formidable of beasts. 
 The lion even falls a victim to their superior cunning and 
 courage. They sometimes kill this king of the desert in the 
 following manner. After watching him make a full meal of 
 some prey, "two Bushmen hunters creep up to the spot 
 where the animal is reposing, according to his custom, and 
 approach so silently that not a cracked stick announces the 
 presence of the enemy. One of them takes off his kaross 
 (a skin cloak) and holds it with both hands, while the other 
 prepares his weapons. When all is ready, a poisoned arrow 
 is sent into the lion's body, and, simultaneously with the 
 twang of the bow-string, the kaross is flung over the animal's 
 head so as to bewilder him when he is so unceremoniously 
 aroused, and to give the bold hunters time to conceal them- 
 selves. The lion shakes off the blinding cloak and bounds 
 off in terror which soon gives way to pain and in a short 
 time the animal dies in convulsive agonies." " In pursuing 
 the game the Bushmen rival the dog. " They follow a track 
 at a rapid pace over ground rather thickly covered with 
 vegetation, hardly seeming to give it any attention, and only 
 when it makes a sudden turn, do they betray by gesture the 
 close observation which they give to the most inconspicuous 
 objects." ' They seem to have a cat's sense of direction, and 
 
 ■ Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 271. 
 
 9 Wood, p, 287. 3 Fritsch, p. 425. 
 
THE BUSHMEN 31 
 
 never have any trouble in going in a straight line to any 
 place or finding their way home. Theal says that " even a 
 child of nine or ten years of age, removed from its parents 
 to a distance of over a hundred miles and without oppor- 
 tunity of observing the features of the country traversed, 
 could months later return unerringly." ' One of the favorite 
 methods of capturing ostriches is for the Bushman to conceal 
 himself in one of their nests, and when the birds return after 
 sundown, to shoot one or more of them with his arrows. It 
 is to be remembered that several birds deposit their eggs in 
 the same nest.^ According to another method, the Bushman 
 places the upper part of his body in the skin of an ostrich, 
 chalks his legs white, and saunters among the birds, artfully 
 imitating their movements and manner of feeding. When 
 near enough, he draws his bow, lets fiy his arrows and 
 brings down four or five birds.* He plucks out the feathers 
 carefully and preserves them in hollow reeds until he has a 
 chance to exchange them for tobacco or other article.^ The 
 Bushman catches many animals in pits and traps, and 
 imitates the cry of birds in order to get within bow-shot of 
 them. 
 
 Preparing and Eating Animal Food. — The animal diet of 
 the Bushmen includes numerous rodentia and small species 
 of the feline race," also locusts mixed with honey which the 
 Boers call Bushman pudding. Usually the Bushmen cook 
 their meat by placing it in a hole under the fire and cover- 
 ing it with ashes." Farini says, " I have seen two Bushmen 
 at sunset kill an antelope, and not rise from the feast until 
 next day at noon when nothing remained but the bones."^ 
 Often after eating the meat from a carcass they reheat the 
 bones, crush them and suck out the marrow ;' and sometimes 
 they eat skin, head and entrails." On one occasion some 
 
 I p. 17. » Wood, p. 276. 3 Jiiid,^ p. 278. 
 
 ■• /bid., p. 278. » Livingstone, p. 53. ^ Baines, p. 362. 
 
 ' P. 104. » Wood, p. 268. ' Farini, p. 87. 
 
32 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Bushmen were seen eating a python and also a small gazelle 
 which the reptile had swallowed.* Quite a delicacy among 
 the Bushmen are the larvae of ants which the Boers call 
 Bushman rice.^ The Bushmen do not hesitate to eat lice or 
 an embryo bird which they may find in an ostrich egg. 
 Sometimes in the midst of the desert when there is no sign 
 of water anywhere, they are charmed by the croaking of 
 frogs. The question arises, how came these amphibians in 
 the desert and how can they live there ? It seems that frogs 
 can live wherever there is moisture enough for any kind of 
 vegetation. During seasons of rain they revel in the desert 
 pools, and when the water dries up, they make holes at the 
 roots of certain bushes and there ensconce themselves dur- 
 ing the months of drought. As they seldom emerge, a 
 large variety of spider builds a web across the hole, and 
 thus the frogs are furnished with a window and screen gratis. 
 " No one," says Livingstone, " but a Bushman would think 
 of searching beneath a spider's web for a frog."* The Bush- 
 'man method of cleaning a frog is to apply his lips to its 
 antipodes and blow out the intestines through its mouth.* 
 Some of these desert frogs are enormous and when cooked 
 look like chickens.^ Sometimes when the Bushman is in 
 distress the honey bird comes to his rescue. It whisdes 
 until it has attracted his attention and then flutters from 
 branch to branch waiting for its two legged partner 
 to advance, and in this way leads him to the hive, which is 
 usually in the trunk of a dead tree.^ The Bushman eats 
 the honey, wax and larvae.' 
 
 Methods of Obtaining Water. — The Bushmen suffer from 
 thirst no less than from hunger. In following the game over 
 miles of country they often go without water for several days. 
 If they come to the dried bed of a river or pond, they take 
 
 1 Decle, p. 52. « Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2 , p. 271. 
 
 ' P- 49- ■• Baines, p. 239. 5 Livingstone, p. 48. 
 
 6 Decle, p. 57. 1 Farini, p. 293. 
 
THE BUSHMEN 33 
 
 a long reed and tie around one end of it a quantity of grass. 
 This they push as deep as they can into the muddy soil, and 
 allow the water to penetrate this primitive filter. They then 
 draw it up with the mouth and discharge it into an egg 
 shell.^ Another method of obtaining water is to dig a sort 
 of well and wait for the water to ooze in from the sides. 
 When the mud settles the natives dip it up or lie down and 
 lap it with their tongues.^ In some places the only supply 
 of water is obtained from the dew which forms upon plants, 
 and which the women suck through quills and preserve in 
 egg shells.' 
 
 Industrial Arts and Trade The manufacturing art 
 
 among the Bushmen seems to be limited to weapon making 
 and the converting of the giraffe's hide into sandals, whips, 
 etc.* They carry on an irregular trade with the Kaffirs in 
 skins, feathers, etc. 
 
 Why the Bushmen are Confined to the Desert.— No 
 doubt the reader has already asked himself the question, 
 why do not the Bushmen abandon the desert, and take up 
 their abode in the pastoral region of the south, or in the 
 agricultural region of the east where nature is more full- 
 handed ? Alas, these regions are occupied by more power- 
 tribes who will not permit the Bushmen to come among 
 them except as slaves, and who pursue and kill the 
 desert people as though they were wild beasts. And even 
 if the Bushmen were permitted to reside outside of the 
 desert, it is doubtful if they would wish to do so. Demolins 
 asserts that there is no instance in history where hunting 
 people have voluntarily transformed themselves into pastoral 
 people. The hunting life, with all of its hardships, is per- 
 haps the most fascinating of occupations, and no race will- 
 ingly gives it up. This intense passion for hunting survives 
 as an instinct in all civilized races and is shown among chil- 
 
 > Wood, p. 278. ' Livingstone, p. 63. 
 
 ' Farini, p. 303. * /iiii.,p. 172. 
 
34 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 dren in their fondness for capturing and killing birds and in 
 many of their games such as hide and seek, base, tat, etc.; 
 and it is shown among adults in their hunting recreations, 
 and even also in their love of games of chance, stock gam- 
 bling and scientific research, in each of which employments 
 there are certain joys, sensations of surprise, of overtaking, 
 of combat and victory for which the hunting life has created 
 a craving.^ Moreover, the occupation of hunting develops 
 certain instincts and temperaments which are almost im- 
 possible to outgrow. For example, the propensity to destroy 
 life which is so strong in the Bushmen that when they steal 
 their neighbor's cattle they immediately kill them. Mission- 
 aries have repeatedly tried the experiment of supplying 
 cattle to Bushmen families with the hope of weaning them 
 from their wild life, but in vain. Their instinct is to destroy 
 and not to foster. In a similar manner the effort of the 
 United States Government to transform the Indians from a 
 hunting to a pastoral people has been a signal failure. The 
 hunting life may have its hardships and privations, but it 
 also has its glory, its fascinating and intoxicating excite- 
 ments, its feeling of independence, its grand victories and 
 exaltations of joy, and the Bushmen love it. 
 
 1 Thomas, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 6, p. 750, " The Gaming In- 
 stinct." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE BUSHMEN {Continued) 
 
 Family Life.— Contrary to the general rule in Africa, the 
 Bushmen do not purchase their wives. This is because 
 wealth does not exist among them and would be an encum- 
 brance. The capital of a Bushman is his skill and daring, 
 and these are the qualities that win the belles of the desert. 
 When a Bushman desires a wife, he must give proof of his 
 expertness in shooting and hunting. If the girl consents he 
 sends some presents to her parents, and the marriage is 
 celebrated by a carouse.' Polygamy, though permitted, is 
 exceptional, as the scarcity of provisions does not enable a 
 man to support more than one wife or set of children. 
 Marriages do not take place between parents and children or 
 brothers and sisters as among the Pygmies.'' The popula- 
 tion is divided into small scattered groups, and the girls 
 marry at the age of puberty and join the groups of their 
 husbands. There are no reasons whatever for delaying 
 marriages. All of the worldly goods necessary for establish- 
 ing a home can be acquired in a few hours. All that the boy 
 needs is a bow and arrow and knob-kerry, and all that the 
 girl needs is an antelope horn for carrying her face-powder 
 and an egg-shell for carrying water. The Bushmen are not 
 so much absorbed in material possessions as the Kafifirs, and 
 hence have a place in their hearts for their wives and chil- 
 dren. The women generally are not valued, as among the 
 Kaffirs, like heads of cattle, but are relatively respected, and 
 are the companions of the men rather than their beasts of 
 burden.' 
 
 ' RaUel, " History of M.inkind," Vol. 2, p. 275. 
 » Fritsch, p, 445. ' Ibid., p. 444. 
 
 35 
 
36 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Treatment of Children.— As a rule children receive little 
 attention from their mothers except during a short period of 
 infancy. When a few days old they eat meat, roots and 
 what not, and grow up largely without cleaning, watching 
 or tending.^ At the age of a few months they crawl upon 
 the sand, and when a year old they run about freely, and 
 even before this time, they learn to search for water-bulbs 
 which lie hidden under the sand and to scrape them up with 
 a short stick.^ " In general," says Moffat, " children cease 
 to be the object of a mother's care as soon as they are able 
 to crawl about in the field. . . . Bushmen will kill their 
 children without remorse on various occasions, as when they 
 are ill-shaped, when in want of food, when the father of the 
 child has forsaken its mother or when obliged to flee from 
 the farmers (Boers) or others ; in which case they will 
 strangle them, smother them, cast them away in the desert 
 or bury them alive." ' If a mother dies her infant child is 
 buried alive with her.* Decle mentions the case of a Bush- 
 man who offered to sell his boy for a cup of grain, and, 
 thinking the bargain concluded, got up to go away without 
 a word of adieu." 
 
 Children Abandon Parents. — As the Bushmen parents be- 
 stow little thought upon their children, it naturally follows that 
 the children bestow little thought upon their parents. Ow- 
 ing to the early age of marriages, parents and children soon 
 part company. They live together only for a short time, and 
 when once separated, seldom if ever see each other after- 
 wards. Hence when the old people are feeble and unable to 
 endure the fatigues of the chase, they have no one to help 
 them and are left by the wayside in the desert to die 
 naturally or be devoured by a hyena or lion. In mitiga- 
 tion of this practice it must be said that it is impossible for 
 the natives to live without rapid and long migrations, and 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 275. « Wood, p. 272. 
 
 • P. 58- * Jl'i'i-^ P- 57- ' P. 58. 
 
THE BUSHMEN 37 
 
 that old people are not able to keep the pace. It is there- 
 fore necessity rather than indifference which causes the aged 
 to be abandoned. 
 
 Feebleness of Parental Influence. — No race can make 
 much progress unless the parents and children live a long 
 time together so that the mutual sacrifices may kindle affec- 
 tion, and so that the moral precepts and wisdom of rhe 
 parents may be handed down to the offspring. Yea, the in- 
 fluence of grandparents is necessary. But the children of 
 the desert have neither the influence of the parent nor of the 
 grandparent. In this respect there is a sharp contrast be- 
 tween the savage and civilized child. To illustrate, an old 
 woman in New Jersey, as reported in the New York Times, 
 sold her gray hair at $25 per ounce in order that her 
 granddaughter might complete her education. The wig 
 dealer who cut the hair said, " She wrote to us telling of the 
 length of her hair, and of the price she had been told it 
 would bring. As it happened at the time, we had two 
 orders for real white hair, and had searched in vain for the 
 proper length and quality. 
 
 " I wrote that I would come to see her on the following 
 day. In the meantime, as I learned later, she sent for her 
 physician. She told him of her purpose. Of course he tried 
 to dissuade her, and finding that useless, consented to tell 
 the girl that her grandmother's hair must be cut off, as it 
 was too great a burden for her to bear in her enfeebled con- 
 dition. 
 
 " There were tears, entreaties and protests on the part 
 of the young girl, but the old grandmother managed to per- 
 suade her that it must be. I came the next day. The 
 doctor was there — a stem-faced, middle-aged man, who 
 scowled at me. I was really very uncomfortable. The girl, 
 who could not witness the cutting of her grandmother's 
 ' crowning glory,' had gone away to weep alone. The old 
 woman was sitting up in her bed running her fingers 
 
38 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 through the beautiful white waves of her hair that streamed 
 off to the carpet. 
 
 " I had never seen such a head of hair. My business 
 heart jumped with greed, and then, as she looked up at me 
 with her angel's face and her great big pitiful eyes the greed 
 was gone and I started crying. It was very unprofessional. 
 ' Sit down, madame,' said she in the gentlest sort of voice, 
 and then she told me why she was willing to sacrifice it. 
 
 " ' You see the doctor will tell you that I cannot live long, 
 a month or so perhaps, and I would carry this hair to the 
 grave. I'd much rather provide for the little girl.' " 
 
 While the Bushmen have practically no grandchildren, in 
 how many instances among civilized people are grandchildren 
 the joy and solace of old age ! The human race makes a 
 great step forward when children come to know and rever- 
 ence their grandparents, and it makes a great step backward 
 when children cease to know them, or when the period of 
 contact between children and parents is voluntarily cut short. 
 It means a reversion to savagery whether it is the result of 
 illegitimacy, State care of children, transient marriages or 
 divorces. The Bushmen exemplify the theory advanced by 
 Drummond and also by Fiske that individual development is 
 in proportion to the prolongation of infancy. Here the 
 period of infancy is reduced to a minimum and the status of 
 the adult is correspondingly low. 
 
 Dead Rarely Buried.— The Bushmen rarely bury their 
 dead, but the women sometimes express their grief over the 
 loss of a child or husband by amputating a joint of their lit- 
 tle finger.^ 
 
 Political Life. — Politically the Bushmen form very small, 
 loose groups, since the conditions of life forbid any solid or- 
 ganization. Sometimes one of their number is called cap- 
 tain, but this is only nominal.'' Where any leadership at all 
 
 ' Fritsch, p. 406 ; Letourneau, " Sociology," p. 224. » Fritsch, p. 444. 
 
THE BUSHMEN 39 
 
 exists, it depends upon physical strength and not upon rank, 
 age or wisdom. Hence it falls to youth rather than to men 
 ripe in years and experience. The supremacy which the 
 hunting life gives to youth helps to perpetuate the condition 
 of savagery. The leader of the hunt or raid has no idea of 
 internal government. Each member of the group who may 
 be injured by another takes his revenge as suits his impulse. 
 Grosse says that the " Bushmen live in complete anarchy," ^ 
 and according to Livingstone, the only public functionaries 
 of a Bushmen village are some beetles that act in the ca- 
 pacity of sanitary commissioners.'' 
 
 Cattle Raiding. — The political problem is not one of pro- 
 tecting one Bushmen tribe from another, for they are gener- 
 ally too far apart to occasion friction, and besides they have 
 nothing to steal from each other. The problem is one of 
 organized pillage of the pastoral and agricultural tribes on 
 the fringes of the desert, and organized resistance to those 
 tribes. It is customary for bands of Bushmen to make long 
 journeys across the desert to the regions of cattle, followed 
 by women, who carry a supply of water in ostrich egg-shells, 
 which they deposit in the ground at intervals along the 
 route for the men and cattle to drink on the return. The 
 tactics of the Bushmen consist of surprising the Hottentot 
 shepherds, killing them cruelly and making way with the 
 herd.* If pursued and overtaken, they shoot all of the cat- 
 tle with poisoned arrows. Thus their enemies gain nothing 
 by pursuit of them. If for the sake of revenge the pastoral 
 people invade the desert, they are forced soon to turn back 
 for lack of water, while the Bushmen subsist upon the sup- 
 ply which they have hid in the ground, and in the meantime, 
 they scatter in bands of two or three, hide behind ridges, 
 rocks and bushes, and send their deadly arrows into their 
 opponents. The Bushmen poison any pools of water 
 
 ' p. 112, ' P. 44- ' Fritsch, p. 420. 
 
40 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 that may exist along the route of retreat. Should the 
 cattle be carried off safely into the desert, the Bushmen 
 at once slaughter them and gorge themselves with the 
 flesh. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE BUSHMEN {Continued) 
 
 Esthetic Life. — However, the desert people are not quite 
 so near the animal nature as one would imagfine from their 
 hard struggle for existence.^ They are probably not more 
 sordid and materialistic in their interests and feelings than 
 some of our civilized people of whom all that can be said is 
 that they have " a hand to grasp and a purse to hold." 
 The Bushmen have very strong aesthetic impulses and de- 
 vote much time to beautifying their bodies, to dancing, 
 drawing and story telling. 
 
 Decorations. — Generally they smear their bodies all over 
 with a coating of grease and colored clay or ochre, and 
 sprinkle their hair with a kind of red powder.' The men do 
 up their hair in cues to which are attached rabbits' tails, 
 feathers, metallic buttons and other shining objects. As 
 Grosse says, they carry the " hair dressing art to as high a 
 development as is possible with a soil so unproductive of 
 hair." * They sometimes wear a head band made of hide 
 and ornamented with ostrich egg-shells, feathers, or the 
 head of a crow.' In the way of clothing the men wear a 
 small triangular leather apron, while the women wear the 
 same kind of garment cut into strips and ornamented with 
 beads and egg-shells.* Stow saw some women who painted 
 their eyebrows black and their cheeks red. They wore 
 bracelets, anklets and necklaces ornamented with jackals' 
 teeth. Attached to their girdles were receptacles made of 
 horn for carrying their paint, and also tortoise shells contain- 
 ing aromatic berries mixed with fat to charm the other sex.' 
 
 • Grosse, p. 59. • P. 87. ' Ibid., p. 90. « Ibid., p. 94. 
 
 • " Interview with a Tribe of Bushmen," Journal Anthropolo^cal Institute, 
 Vol. 3, p. 245. 
 
 41 
 
42 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 In some localities the Bushmen tattoo straight lines upon 
 their arms, shoulders and cheeks.* 
 
 Dancing. — Dancing among the desert people takes place 
 almost every night inside or outside of their huts. If the hut 
 is large enough the spectators circle the inside while a bright 
 fire blazes near the entrance. The roof is generally so low 
 that the artist has to bend over and support his hands upon 
 sticks. He places a rattle on each ankle and dances until 
 out of breath, when he is relieved by another. On moon- 
 light nights the dance is an open air function. The people 
 form a circle and jump and swing their limbs until tired out 
 and covered with perspiration, when they often fall to the 
 ground completely exhausted with blood oozing from their 
 nostrils.^ 
 
 Music. — The Bushmen, as all other Negroes, are much 
 given to singing. They express their vague pent up feelings 
 by humming or chanting improvised phrases in a tone cor- 
 responding to their mood. The first songs here, as every- 
 where, were mere monotonous and melancholy repetitions 
 of a few words, the melancholy element of the song being 
 due to the fact that the life of the savage is so largely made 
 up of privations and sensations of terror that in his moments 
 of reverie, his mind is filled with painful longings and rem- 
 iniscences. The Bushmen music is thus described by a 
 European : " We had gradually become so accustomed to 
 the monotonous sound of the Bushmen music that our sleep 
 was never disturbed by it, but it rather put us to sleep. 
 When heard in the distance it is not at all unpleasant, but 
 mournful and soothing. Although the music does not com- 
 prise more than six tones, which besides do not belong to 
 our scale, but form intervals quite foreign to it, yet the 
 method of vocalization of these tones, the unusual rhythm and 
 the strangeness — I might say — the wildness of the melody, 
 give it a very peculiar charm.* " 
 
 > Grosse, p. 79. « Ibid., p. 216. s juj^^ p_ jgy. 
 
THE BUSHMEN 43 
 
 Instruments.— As for musical instruments, the Bushmen 
 have first of all the drum, which is commonly supposed to 
 be the most primitive of all instruments. Instrumental 
 music, in its beginning, was nothing but a monotonous beat- 
 ing of time to accompany the dance, and its first element was 
 therefore rhythm. The drum of the Bushman is made by 
 stretching a hide over an earthen or wooden pot, and it is 
 beat with his fingers.' Another instrument is a harp, which 
 is made by attaching a gourd resonator to one end of a 
 huntsman's bow. This rude harp seems to support the 
 theory of Tylor, Drummond and others that the bow, which 
 the savage twanged by the camp-fire, was the first stringed 
 instrument, the ancestor of the piano and all other instru- 
 ments having strings. The Bushmen have another instru- 
 ment called the gora, which is made by placing a flat quill 
 in the end of a bow between the string and the rib. It is 
 blown like an harmonicum and sounds like a flute.^ Still 
 another instrument is a three-stringed guitar. 
 
 Painting and Drawing. — The Bushmen paint and draw 
 "astonishingly well." Upon the rocks of the desert and 
 the walls of their caves are thousands of paintings and 
 drawings representing such animals as the elephant, eland, 
 buffalo, antelope, ostrich, hyena, ape, dog, cow, horse, etc. 
 The figures show correct memory for form, a steady hand 
 and great skill, and the native artists can copy any number 
 of the figures with unvarying accuracy.' On a certain cave- 
 rock, is one very notable painting, portraying a great event 
 in the life of the people, i. e., a tribe of Bushmen fleeing with 
 stolen cattle and a tribe, perhaps of Hottentots, pursuing. 
 It is not only true to life in subject matter but also in tech- 
 nique.* 
 
 The Bushmen have no sculpture and do not even orna- 
 ment their diggfing stick.' Perhaps their mental develop- 
 
 •Grosse, p. 289. ' Hid., p. 291. 
 
 •Fritsch, pp. 425, 426 * Grosse, p_. 181. ' Jdid., pp. 115, 187. 
 
44 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 ment does not enable them to appreciate beauty in land- 
 scape or sky, but they are nevertheless very fond of flowers 
 and their homes " are resplendent at times with the richest 
 and most variegated floral displays." ^ 
 
 Animal Legends. — The Bushmen astonish all travelers 
 with their wealth of animal legends, folk-lore and myths.^ 
 No Africans, says Ratzel, have a more copious store of beast 
 legends.^ The lion, hyena, ostrich and locust are the in- 
 spiration of numerous stories that the people relate with 
 much gesture and mimicry. The heavenly bodies are also 
 interwoven with some of their stories. For instance, they re- 
 late in explanation of the stars that " a maiden of a former 
 people from whom the Bushmen sprang, wanted to make 
 light by which men could find their way home. She there- 
 fore threw glowing ashes in the air and the sparks became 
 stars." * 
 
 Reasons for Superiority of Bushmen Art. — The superi- 
 ority of the Bushmen over the Pygmies in art development 
 is due to two influences, first, contact with the superior races 
 that passed southward along the eastern chain of mountains, 
 and second, the more temperate climate which stimulates the 
 mind and favors reflection. At intervals of leisure the scenes 
 of the past arise in their minds and they attempt to visualize 
 them by painting or drawing them on a rock ; or on winter 
 evenings they sit around the camp-fire making music with 
 their harp or gora, and rehearsing in their fancy the events 
 of the day, the past week or year. It is a great step for- 
 ward when man emerges from the burning rays of the 
 sun and humid atmosphere of the tropics, and begins to 
 warm his body by artificial heat. What has done more to 
 lift man out of his animal nature and to awaken his aesthetic 
 and poetic spirit than the cracking, roaring, glowing and 
 warmth of the camp-fire ? In the kaleidoscopic play of the 
 
 • Grosse, p. 156. 2 Reclus, Vol. 4, p. 112. 
 
 *" History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 274. « Grosse, p. 254. 
 
THE BUSHMEN 45 
 
 blaze the half dreaming savage, doubtless, sees images of 
 elephants, snakes, devils, and also kindly spirits, and per- 
 haps a sweetheart or departed friend. The flame of the 
 camp-fire is the incipient drama, novel, poem and picture 
 gallery, furnishing reminiscences of the past and prophecies 
 of the future. Indeed, it is of profound significance that 
 Moses saw God in a burning bush and that David mused 
 while the fire was burning. And may it not be that the open 
 fire will have to come back into our modern life before we 
 can have another great age of art and literature ? 
 
 Religion. — The religion of the Bushmen is clearly fetich, 
 although some tribes seem to have caught a smattering of 
 the polytheistic religion of the Hottentots. The lightning, 
 wind, sun and stars and in fact all moving objects are be- 
 lieved to be personalities or spirits. When the Bushmen 
 first saw a wagon they thought it was alive and offered to 
 give it some grass.' All calamities as famine, disease and 
 death are attributed to the work of evil spirits. In case of 
 very serious illness several medical men or sorcerers are 
 called to the bedside of the patient, and the line of treat- 
 ment usually consists of frantic dancing and shouting and 
 magic extraction of the evil spirit. " Sometimes after shak- 
 ing and otherwise roughly handling, blowing upon or ap- 
 plying the mouth to, some particular part of the body, the 
 sorcerers gravely turn around and exhibit a quantity of 
 goat's hair, a few bird's feathers, a piece of thong or a num- 
 ber of straws, saying that they had extracted them from the 
 head, stomach, legs or the arms of the patient." " After this 
 operation the patient feels better. 
 
 The belief is general that after death, the spirit in man 
 continues to live. As bearing upon this point, a native 
 proverb says, " Death is but a slumber." * Life in the other 
 world is supposed to be the same as in this, and perhaps it 
 
 'Spencer, " Principles of Sociology," Vol. i, p. 143. 
 ' Kay, p. 406. ' Quatrefages, p. 202. 
 
46 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 is on account of this belief that the natives place a spear by 
 the side of the dead man that he may hunt and defend him- 
 self.' The Bushmen venerate a species of caterpillar, and 
 when they go hunting, beg it to guide their arrows.^ They 
 also show special reverence for a species of antelope — the 
 blesbok. Some tribes believe in a sort of heaven where a 
 great chief lives who is believed to be "master of all things." 
 He makes to live and die and is prayed to in times of famine 
 and before going to war.* They also believe in a bad deity 
 or devil who is up to all kinds of mischief. 
 
 The Bushmen have no idols or priests. They reckon 
 with their deities directly by means of charms made of wood, 
 roots and so forth, which they wear around their necks.* 
 Upon the whole the Bushmen are much less superstitious 
 or rather their superstitions are less fantastic than those of 
 the Negroes generally.' 
 
 Mental and Moral Temperament.— It is generally con- 
 ceded that the Bushmen have very acute senses, great 
 knowledge of nature, love of independence, ability to suffer 
 privations and great courage. A dozen Bushmen are more 
 redoubtable than a hundred Kaffirs.* Fritsch says that in 
 keenness of senses, cunning and skill, they surpass all other 
 South African races.' When hunting they show great 
 patience, and know no hunger or thirst as long as they see 
 a prospect of booty.' But they have almost no foresight' or 
 power of self-control. To every demand of passion or ap- 
 petite they yield obedience and never give a thought to the 
 consequences."" Like many civilized people, they have 
 wonderful knowledge but no ability to discipline their appe- 
 tites and passions. They resemble children who live only 
 for the present. They are much inclined to theft and rob- 
 bery, for the reason that, having no property of their own, 
 
 ' Quatrefages, p. 201. ' Idid., p. 202. » fiid., p. 201. 
 
 « Hid., p. 203. 5 j/,ij_^ p, 202. 8 Fritsch, p. 421. 
 
 1 Ibid., p. 423. 8 /2,-fl(;, p. 424. » Farini, p. 303. >» Fritsch, p. 419. 
 
THE BUSHMEN 47 
 
 they have never had a chance to learn how to respect that of 
 others.' However, they are not at all treacherous or hostile 
 to those who show themselves friendly, as the long list of 
 European explorers who have gone unharmed among them 
 abundantly proves.^ In Bushmen families there is almost no 
 transmission of knowledge to posterity because of the fact 
 that the early separation of children from parents breaks the 
 link between one generation and another. Each individual 
 accumulates his little stock of knowledge by personal ex- 
 perience and when he dies it is buried with him or vanishes 
 in the desert air. 
 
 Effect of Contact With the "White Man.— The Bushmen 
 have not been benefited by their acquaintance with the 
 white man. The Dutchmen have shot them down as vermin. 
 " Barrow relates that when on the frontier a Boer being 
 asked in the Secretary's office, if the savages were numer- 
 ous or troublesome on the road, replied that he had only 
 shot four, with as much composure and indifference as if he 
 had been speaking of four partridges." Between 1786 and 
 1795 the Dutch killed 2,480 Bushmen.* Many Bushmen have 
 been captured and enslaved, some have been preached to 
 by missionaries and some have mixed their blood with the 
 white race. Since the extension of the British protectorate 
 north to the Zambesi, the system of servitude of Bushmen 
 to the Bechuana tribe has been abolished and some of the 
 Bushmen are adapting themselves to settled habits of life. 
 " Instead of dwelling amid rocks, following the quarry and 
 shooting cattle with poisoned arrows," says Keane, " they 
 seek employment as farm hands and herds, are put in charge 
 of flocks by their former Bechuana masters and even have 
 flocks of their own in the very heart of the Kalahari Desert, 
 where they know better than any others where to dig for 
 water."* But each year as a result of European interference 
 
 ' Fritsch, p. 419. ' Ibid., p. 422. 
 
 " MacKenzie, p. 510. ■• Keane, "The Boer States," p. 79. 
 
48 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 they have dwindled in numbers, receded farther into the 
 desert and shown an aversion to civilized institutions. Mac- 
 Kenzie remarks that, "The white man destroys their heredi- 
 tary food and suddenly renders their traditional mode of life 
 impossible. The wild beasts perish before the gun and the 
 country is cut up into farm lots and sites for towns. The 
 Bushmen become, as it were, strangers in their own country. 
 They look for the game and find only sheep and cattle. 
 They look for the roots and berries ; they find that the old 
 familiar spots have been turned over by the plow and they 
 see, instead, the corn of the white man waving in the sum- 
 mer breeze. But as they have always lived on what they 
 can find in the open country they will do so still. They 
 seize sheep and cattle and fleeing into the wilderness 
 slaughter and make merry.'" "Those of mixed blood," 
 says Theal, " could not exist in the presence of a high civili- 
 zation, but dwindled away rapidly and have now nearly died 
 out altogether. It would seem that for them (the pure Bush- 
 men ?) progress was possible in no other way than by exceed- 
 ingly slow development and blending their blood in succes- 
 sive stages with races always a little more advanced."^ 
 . . " Their low intelligence, idleness and proclivity to 
 drink will lead within a few years to their absolute extermi- 
 nation." * 
 
 1 Keane, "The Boer States," p. 511. 'P. 19. 
 
 » P. 509 ; Farini also prophesies their early extinction, p. 104. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 THE HOTTENTOTS 
 
 Description of the Country. — ^The Hottentots once occu- 
 pied almost all of the region east and south of the Kalahari 
 Desert, including Cape Colony. Keane says that, " The 
 former range of the Hottentots from Nama and Dama lands 
 to the eastern seaboard below the Limpopo is established by 
 the still surviving Hottentot names of mountains and rivers 
 in the territories from which they were afterwards driven by 
 the Bantu invaders from the north."^ But since the arrival of 
 the white man in South Africa they have been gradually 
 driven north and west, and their present home is north of 
 the Orange River and west of the desert, — a country coin- 
 cident with Great Namaqua Land. 
 
 In South Africa the coast rises rather abruptly from the 
 ocean, and is bordered by an almost continuous chain of 
 mountains, varying in height from 1,600 to 10,000 feet. In 
 the interior between these mountain ranges is an elevated 
 undulating plateau, ranging from 3,000 to 6,000 feet in 
 height.^ On account of the distance from the equator the 
 amount of the rainfall would be very small and the desert 
 conditions become much intensified, but for the narrowness of 
 the Continent at the south which permits the clouds from 
 the surrounding oceans to penetrate the interior before los- 
 ing all of their moisture. Nevertheless, the wall of mountains 
 that encloses the interior uplands robs the clouds of much of 
 their water, and as one advances northward the rainfall di- 
 minishes until it finally almost ceases at the Kalahari Desert. 
 
 « " The Boer States," p. 82. ^Reclus, Vol. 4, pp. 81, 85. 
 
 49 
 
50 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 The precipitation is not sufi&cient to support a large forest 
 growth except on the southern slopes of the highlands which 
 skirt the seaboard. The interior plateau receives just enough 
 rain to give life to grass, small bushes and stunted trees. 
 In some places the country is level and open, having wide 
 areas of beautiful pasture fields, but as one nears the Orange 
 River or crosses it, the vegetation becomes more scant, and 
 a vast region opens up, dotted here apd there only with 
 patches of grass and scrub, and which is known as the 
 Great Karroo, — a Hottentot word meaning arid land. To- 
 wards the north are numerous depressions where the rain 
 water lodges, evaporates and leaves upon the ground a 
 saline efflorescence.^ Many rivers rising in the Great 
 Karroo never reach the ocean.^ Even the tributaries of the 
 Orange River often dry up except in the little, scattered res- 
 ervoirs along their beds.' There is no very marked rainy 
 or dry season. " Showers occur everywhere even on the in- 
 land plateaux throughout the whole year, although usually 
 distributed with a certain regularity from month to month.* 
 . . . Gradually as we advance from the coast to the in- 
 terior, the climate acquires a more continental and extreme 
 character, becoming not only colder in winter which might 
 be explained by the greater altitude of the land, but also 
 much warmer in summer." ° 
 
 Animal Life. — This region is, or was, rich in animal life. 
 It is the home of the elephant, hippopotamus, buffalo, ante- 
 lope, zebra, giraffe, elk, wild ass, lion, hyena, jackal, leopard, 
 wild dog, monkey, and numerous birds including the os- 
 trich. It has a variety of snakes including the cobra, garter 
 and puff-adder.® Owing to the encroachments of the white 
 man many of the larger animals have retreated northward. 
 
 Description of the People. — ^The Hottentots are a short 
 race having many points of resemblance to the Pygmies and 
 
 ' Reclus, Vol. 4, p. 84. » Ibid., p. 91. > Ibid., p. 89. ♦ Ibid., p. 98. 
 ' Ibid., p. 97. <>Ibid., pp. 106, 107 ; Moffat, p. 1 19. 
 
THE HOTTENTOTS 51 
 
 Bushmen. Their language is akin to that of the Bushmen, 
 being characterized by a series of clicks which sound like a 
 white man's cluck to a horse. The Hottentot's head is long 
 and depressed, his forehead narrow and his jaws prog- 
 nathus. The calves of his legs and his forearms are lean, 
 and his pelvis is narrow. He has very pronounced stea- 
 topygy which is found also to some extent among the Bush- 
 men and Pygmies. His skin is a brownish yellow, dry and 
 wrinkled. His hair is coarse and tightly felted. The odor 
 from his skin is not very strong.' 
 
 The dress of both sexes consists of a koross or cloak 
 made of the skin of a sheep, jackal or wildcat. On rainy 
 days it is worn with the wool outside. The men wear 
 leather sandals for long marches, and leather pouches sus- 
 pended from their necks for carrying their pipes, charms 
 and ornaments. They have a sweat-wiper or combination 
 handkerchief and fly-brush, made of a fox-tail tied to the end 
 of a stick.^ The men go bareheaded while the women, at 
 least in some districts, wear pointed caps. 
 
 Cattle Breeding and Hunting. — The Hottentots are chiefly 
 a pastoral people. They keep great herds of cattle and con- 
 siderable quantities of sheep and goats. Their food is prin- 
 cipally milk and butter. They seldom slaughter their cattle 
 but eat all that die of old age or disease.* The men spend 
 much time in hunting, and any surplus meat that they ob- 
 tain is dried and powdered, so as to be available for war ex- 
 peditions or for the next hunt.* A man who kills a danger- 
 ous beast is much honored. The people assemble in public 
 to celebrate his triumphal return from the combat. His 
 body is sprinkled with the ashes from a pipe that has been 
 smoked in common and then the fetich man performs the 
 ceremony of washing his body with a copious stream of 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, pp. 283, 284 ; Fritsch, pp. 272, 278. 
 
 '•■ Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, pp. 285, 286. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 289. < Rcclus, Vol. 4, p. 1 14. 
 
52 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 cow-liquid. After this he is feasted and permitted to wear 
 on his head as a badge of honor the bladder of the animal 
 he has slain.^ 
 
 Dwellings The houses of the people are mere shelters 
 
 or tents each consisting of a frame of staves which is covered 
 with mats and hides. Rocks are used for ballast. The 
 tents are arranged in a circle with a space in the centre for 
 the herd.^ This style of tent is admirably suited to a peo- 
 ple who have to make frequent changes of camp in quest of 
 fresh pastures, and the circular arrangement is an excellent 
 device for protecting their herds from the attacks of wild 
 beasts or hostile neighbors. 
 
 Utensils. — The utensils of the Hottentots are clay pots, 
 some spoons carved out of wood or bone, a few iron knives, 
 and some calabashes. 
 
 Transportation.— When the Hottentots find it necessary 
 to move, the "mattings, and the framework of the tent 
 which consists of semicircular boughs, are packed on oxen. 
 Their household utensils such as calabashes, milk pails and 
 pots, are suspended to the boughs and in the midst of all 
 this confusion is often seated the good dame of the house, 
 surrounded by her promising offspring." ^ 
 
 Industrial Arts. — In the industrial arts the Hottentots are 
 ahead of the Pygmies or Bushmen. They make more 
 articles of clothing, and more utensils and weapons. They 
 use a sheepskin bellows, and manufacture numerous fabrics 
 of iron and copper. They plait cards, weave mats, and 
 dress skins and furs. Their weapons comprise an assegai 
 or javelin, bow and arrow, throw-stick, club, and 
 knife. 
 
 Trade. — Trade is little developed owing to the self- 
 sustaining nature of the pastoral life, and the insular position 
 of the country which separates it from the rest of the world 
 
 » Featherman, p. 507. 2 Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 289. 
 
 ' Ardersson, p. 253. 
 
THE HOTTENTOTS 53 
 
 by seacoasts and mountains. However, they trade some- 
 what in cattle, hides and ivory with their neighbors.' Cat- 
 tle is their money and standard of value. 
 
 Slavery Slavery as an institution does not exist, al- 
 though a few captives are sometimes used as shepherds or 
 gardeners. The labors of the pastoral life are light, and, if 
 work other than that done by the pastoral group were 
 needed at times, it would be cheaper to hire laborers tem- 
 porarily than to maintain them throughout the year. On 
 the other hand, if any number of individuals should be with- 
 out capital, i. e., cattle, they would be obliged to work for 
 wages. But as all Hottentots belong to patriarchal groups 
 having plenty of land and cattle, all of the necessary work 
 can be done by the members of the groups, and there is 
 therefore no need for a wage-class or slave class. Among 
 strictly pastoral people slavery is never profitable and can 
 exist only to a very limited extent.^ 
 
 ' Kelbe, p. 368. 
 
 > Nieboer, p. 256 ; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 289. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE HOTTENTOTS {Continued) 
 
 Family Life. — Marriage is an affair for the parents, and 
 is arranged by purchase in terms of so many head of cattie. 
 The practice of selling daughters begins all over the world 
 as soon as capital comes to be necessary to existence. 
 This is because children become expensive to raise, and at 
 the marriageable age have a high economic value for their 
 parents. Girls are nubile when twelve years old and are 
 often bargained for at the age of six or seven years. Inter- 
 marriage of blood kin is not permitted as near as first 
 cousins.' Polygamy is common, and men who accumulate 
 large herds of cattle always have several wives. Husbands 
 and wives eat apart from each other.^ The new-born infant 
 is welcomed into the world by having its body anointed 
 with grease and smeared over with cow dung. Deformed 
 or sickly children or twins are sometimes exposed to wild 
 beasts. A peculiar fact is that the girls take the name of 
 their father and the boys that of their mother. A married 
 woman has considerable authority in the family. Quatre- 
 fages says that she "reigns supreme mistress. She con- 
 trols and owns everything, and the husband cannot without 
 her permission take a bit of meat or a drop of milk." ^ If 
 her husband comes back empty handed from the chase she 
 sometimes " unties her only article of clothing, her apron of 
 modesty, and with it slaps him on the face." * This spirit of 
 independence among women is due to their economic im- 
 
 ' Ratzel " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 291 ; Letourneau, " Sociology," 
 p. 337. 2 Kelbe, p. 325. 3" Pygmies," p. 196. 
 
 « Letourneau, " Sociology," p. 445. 
 
 54 
 
THE HOTTENTOTS 55 
 
 portance. While the men spend their days hunting or 
 idling in the shade, the women attend to the cattle, sheep 
 and goats, and supply the means of subsistence without 
 which the men could not live. Neither as defenders of the 
 group nor as producers are the men of great importance. 
 The lion's share of the work falls to the women ; ' they 
 are the real supporters of the population,' and consequently 
 occupy a relatively elevated position. Among the Iroquois 
 Indians of America and the Tuaregs of the Sahara Desert, 
 the women also have great authority and independence, and 
 for the same reason, to wit, that they are more important 
 relatively than men in maintaining the population. The 
 position of women everywhere seems to correspond closely 
 to their economic status. 
 
 Parents and children live longer together among the 
 Hottentots than among the Bushmen. It is very common 
 for married sons to continue to live in the group with their 
 parents, and for grandparents to live with and care for 
 their grandchildren.'' Some of the Hottentot women make 
 a practice of amputating a joint of one of their little fingers,* 
 probably as an expression of grief over the death of a child 
 or husband. The family life is upon a somewhat higher 
 plane among the Hottentots than among the Bushmen or 
 Pygmies. The father is the head of the family, and descent 
 is traced in the male line. Traditions and precepts are 
 therefore better transmitted from generation to generation. 
 In some places, however, on the edges of the desert, the 
 Hottentots sink to the level of the Bushmen, and old people 
 are sometimes " abandoned by their children with a meal of 
 victuals and a cruise of water to perish in the desert." " 
 An old woman met in the desert by Moffat said to him 
 " Yes, my own children, three sons and two daughters, they 
 are gone," pointing with the finger, " to yonder blue moun- 
 
 ' Fritsch, p. 325. ' Featherman, p. 513. 'Moffat, p. 134. 
 
 * Fritsch, p. 332. ' Moffat, p. 133. 
 
56 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 tain and have left me to die. ... I am old, you see, 
 and I am no longer able to serve them. When they kill 
 the game, I am too feeble to help in carrying home the 
 flesh. I am not able to gather wood and make fire, and I 
 cannot carry their children on my back as I used to."^ 
 Fritsch says that old people are sometimes put on pack 
 oxen, provided with a store of provisions and led into the 
 wilderness to perish.^ 
 
 Inheritance in the Male Line. — Property descends to the 
 eldest son,' but this practice does not constitute a patriarchal 
 regime such as exists generally in the pastoral regions of 
 Asia. The inheriting son does not obligate himself to sup- 
 port the other members of the family. His brothers usually 
 hire themselves for wages until they can buy cattle and 
 start for themselves. The cattle all graze in the same 
 pasture but each man or woman in the family has his or 
 her individual holdings. Sometimes a father gives to his 
 younger non-inheriting children a few oxen or sheep when 
 they marry.* Sometimes the wife inherits the property if 
 the heir is not of age.® 
 
 Political Life.— The Hottentots are divided into kraals 
 of loo to 200 people, situated two or three days' march 
 apart. Each kraal has a chief. There is no cooperation of 
 groups, and hence no chief or king having jurisdiction over 
 any considerable territory. The ofifice of chief is sometimes 
 temporary and again hereditary. Occasionally women be- 
 come chiefs or kings when the heir to the chieftainship is 
 under age. There is no political or social hierarchy or 
 aristocracy. All men are freemen, and weighty matters are 
 settled in a council composed of old men.° The Hottentots 
 are not warlike, although kraals are often at war with each 
 other, and have to defend themselves against the at- 
 
 ' P. 134- ' P- 334- ' Fritsch, p. 335 ; Kelbe, p. 381. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 357 ; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 291. 
 
 ' Quatrefages, p. 195. « Fritsch, p. 321 ; Reclus, Vol. 4, p. 115. 
 
THE HOTTENTOTS 57 
 
 tacks of the Bushmen, Kaffirs and other unfriendly 
 neighbors. 
 
 Esthetic Life. — In aesthetic development the Hottentots 
 are perhaps ahead of the Bushmen except in drawing and 
 painting. They, like the Bushmen, tattoo their cheeks,* 
 smear their bodies with grease and paint their faces.^ They 
 wear more clothing than the Bushmen, and make it more 
 ornamental. Their cloaks are embellished around the neck 
 and shoulders with a profusion of embroidery and fur trim- 
 mings.' They wear copper earrings, and leg-rings made 
 of strips of sheepskin. 
 
 Almost every night they have some kind of festival which 
 is celebrated by dancing * and which lasts until daylight." 
 The mimic element, however, does not enter into their 
 dances, and they have no war-dances as among their neigh- 
 bors, the Bantus.* Their musical instruments consist of 
 the drum, gora, reed-fiute, etc' In the matter of ghost and 
 animal stories, the Hottentots represent a decided advance 
 over the Bushmen in that their stories have a moral at- 
 tached to them as in the case of ^sop's fables.' 
 
 Religion. — The religion of the Hottentots is a well de- 
 veloped polytheism with a considerable admixture of 
 fetichism. Some of their gods are good and some bad. 
 Their chief benevolent god is Tsui-Goa described as hav- 
 ing been " a great chief from whom were descended all the 
 Khoi Khoi tribes.' He is the author of all good and to him 
 the people offer prayers. The second important benevolent 
 god is Heitsi-eibib who is a sort of grandfather of the whole 
 people. A story explaining his origin is to the effect that a 
 virgin once sucked the juice of a certain grass stalk and in 
 consequence she bore a son who grew rapidly to manhood. 
 This boy, the people believed, had been bom several times 
 
 'Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 286. >Andersson, p. 259. 
 
 •Reclus, Vol. 4, p. 114. * Fritsch, p. 326. » Featherman, p. 511. 
 
 • Fritsch, p. 328. ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 286. 
 
 ' liu/., p. 394. ' Quatrefages, p. 305. 
 
58 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 before, and consequently was recognized this time as their 
 grandfather who had returned to his children/ Another 
 god of high rank is Toosib, a sort of Neptune, god of 
 waters. Before drinking at certain rivers, one must throw 
 in some little offering and make a prayer.^ The Hottentots 
 have great veneration for the moon whose appearance is 
 celebrated by dancing. They call it their great captain and 
 offer it sacrifices of milk and animals.* The Pleiades re- 
 ceive homage as the stars of rain, and their annual return 
 announces the opening of the rainy season.* The supreme 
 bad deity is Gaunab who has many satellites that go 
 abroad on missions of evil. All criminals, and all slaves 
 who have been killed by their masters, and all enemies slain 
 in battle are given to wild beasts, and when devoured, be- 
 come ministering spirits of this evil deity.* Among other 
 powerful deities is one who governs storm-clouds and an- 
 other who manipulates the thunder.® Less important deities, 
 spirits and ghosts are countless. Nearly all deceased peo- 
 ple continue to live as genii. " Those persons who were 
 always distinguished by wisdom and by virtues and who 
 have been regularly buried, are for the Hottentots so many 
 good genii. ... In each family the ancestors are con- 
 sidered almost as household gods.' Thp spirits of bad peo- 
 ple become agents of the wicked Guanab. They wander 
 about on dark nights, enter kraals and terrify the in- 
 habitants.* The average individual is not able to cope with 
 these numerous deities and spirits, and hence there arise 
 professionally trained men who make a specialty of 
 conjuring with them. These professional men are vari- 
 ously characterized as witch-doctors, necromancers, ex- 
 orcists, rain-doctors, and magic-men. A witch-doctor is 
 
 1 Quatrefages, p. 213. > Ibid., p. 220. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 217 ; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 293. 
 < Quatrefages, p. 221. ' Ibid., p. 228. « Ibid., p. 223. 
 
 I Ibid., p. 228. 8 Fritsch, p. 338. 
 
THE HOTTENTOTS 59 
 
 called upon in all cases of sickness caused by evil 
 spirits. Sometimes he cuts a hole in the body of the patient 
 near the seat of the disease and pretends to extract a snake, 
 lizard, frog or other varmint which some mischievous spirit 
 has put there.' If the patient is very ill, the doctor will 
 diagnose the case by skinning a live sheep. If the skinned 
 sheep then runs away the patient will recover, but if it 
 stands still, the patient will die.^ The Hottentots, in com- 
 mon with their kinsmen the Bushmen, have no temples or 
 idols.' Each kraal has its priest who is elected and holds a 
 minor rank. He is more of a master of ceremonies than a 
 religious leader.^ Sacrifices are offered on various occasions 
 under his direction." 
 
 Mental and Moral Temperament.— In mental and moral 
 character the Hottentots represent a decided advance over 
 the Pygmies and Bushmen. They have developed a com- 
 plete decimal system of counting which was favored, as a 
 matter of course, by the necessity of keeping account of 
 their cattle.* It is not at all surprising that mathematical 
 science should have first developed among pastoral people, 
 since counting is so essential to the pastoral life. It is said 
 that the Hottentots know every cow by sight, and can often 
 locate a thief who has stolen a cow by the markings of her 
 offspring.' The pastoral life would be impossible without 
 some foresight, and the Hottentots are not altogether want- 
 ing in this faculty. The better knit family and longer period 
 of association between parents and children facilitate the 
 transmission of accumulated capital and wisdom. As nature 
 is not so hostile in its manifestations the people are not so 
 much terrified by it, and hence their gods are not altogether 
 evil and vindictive as are those among the natives of the 
 equatorial regions where nature is violent and life constantly 
 
 ■ Andersson, p. 255. ' Ratzel, Vol. 2, p. 291. ' Quatrefages, p. 230. 
 
 < Ibid., p. 231. 5 Fritsch, p. 341. ' Quatrefages, p. 197. 
 
 ' Baines, p. 237. 
 
6o THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 beset with dangers. The Hottentots say that their great 
 god has done them nothing but good and is therefore not 
 feared.^ The contending of good and evil gods corresponds 
 to man's incipient moral development, and the struggle 
 between good and evil in his heart. As the benevolent 
 gods come to be more and more venerated, it indicates a 
 growing preponderance among the people of the gentler 
 and more humane feelings. The incipient ethical nature of 
 the people is further shown in the morals attached to their 
 animal stories. The Hottentots are docile, mild, cheerful 
 and "remarkable for their unselfish liberality, and their 
 fervent attachment to their friends and kindred with whom 
 they would share the last morsel, though starvation should 
 stare them in the face." ^ They do not bear lasting hatred 
 towards their worst torturers.' Yet they are not lacking in 
 spirit, and as enlisted soldiers under the British in South 
 Africa, have shown themselves formidable in the wars 
 against the Kaffirs.* The word Hottentot has been thought- 
 lessly used by the white people of Europe as a synonym for 
 the lowest type of savage, whereas, the fact is, that it should 
 stand for a people who rank much above the average of the 
 Negro races. Perhaps the contempt in which the Hotten- 
 tots have been held is due to the fact that along with their 
 virtues they exhibit many of the vices that distinguish the 
 Negro races generally, such as indolence, lying, stealing 
 and incontinence of the passions. Andersson says, "They 
 may be seen basking in the sun for days together in listless 
 inactivity, frequently almost perishing from thirst or hunger, 
 when with very little exertion, they may have it in their 
 power to satisfy the cravings of nature." ' Nevertheless, 
 they are more active than the Bantus of the adjacent country.* 
 The Hottentots, says Baines, make raids and steal whole- 
 sale and retail, think nothing of lying and get drunk on 
 
 'Ratzel, Vol. 2, p. 293. ' Featherman, p. 501. 'Fritsch, p. 307. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 305, » P. 239. 6 Fritsch, p. 303. 
 
THE HOTTENTOTS 6i 
 
 native berry wine or any other beverage that may be at 
 hand.' Fritsch states that if they are not restrained from 
 lying, stealing and sensuality through fear of punishment, 
 they will not be restrained by conscience.^ They are in- 
 telligent and quick to learn European customs, but their 
 very virtues operate to their undoing because of the bad 
 habits which their facility to learn introduces. Their love 
 for liquor and other luxuries disorganizes their life and 
 tempts them to part with their land piece by piece to the 
 white man.^ Before their tribal life was disorganized by the 
 white man those who inherited no property would volunteer 
 to work for wages and accumulate a herd of cattle, but 
 after their native institutions were overthrown, they seemed 
 disinclined to serve as wage earners to the white man and 
 would not work in sufificient numbers or with sufificient con- 
 tinuity to meet the demands. They are thus gradually be- 
 ing driven from their native territory and gradually nearing 
 the end of their career. Keane states that " the Hottentot 
 race has been caught between the upper and nether mill- 
 stones of the Bantu peoples for many ages continually 
 pressing southward, and the white man for over two cen- 
 turies coming up from the sea. The result is that their 
 original domain has been very nearly absorbed, and the 
 race itself is nearly expunged except in the extreme west, 
 Namaqualand, and in the Upper Orange, Vaal and Modder 
 valleys, where the Koranas still hang together in small tribal 
 groups, speaking a somewhat corrupt form of the old language 
 and keeping up many of the national usages. . . , 
 
 " But all these groups of the Upper Orange basin are 
 doomed to speedy extinction. They are already too de- 
 graded and indolent to resist the demoralizing effects of 
 contact with the Boers, by whom they are primed with bad 
 whiskey ; and although many flock to the stations of the 
 missionaries, the chief attraction is tobacco, — church and 
 
 ' Pp. 41, 65, 96. ' p. 307. ' Fritsch, pp. 305, 307. 
 
62 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 school being abandoned when the supply stops." ^ The same 
 gloomy outlook for the Hottentots is expressed by Bryce 
 who says that " Along the south bank of the Orange River 
 and to the north of it, in Great Namaqualand, small tribes 
 substantially identical with the Hottentots, still wander over 
 the arid wilderness. But in the settled part of the colony 
 the Hottentot of whom we used to hear so much and . . . 
 at one time feared so much has vanished more completely 
 than has the Red Indian from the Atlantic States of America. 
 And the extinction or absorption of the few remaining 
 nomads will probably follow at no distant date.^ 
 
 ' " The Boer States," p. S4. 2 P. 64, 
 
PART II 
 
 The Nigritians and Fellatahs 
 
CHAPTER I 
 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY 
 
 Limits of the Sudan.— The territory of the Nigritians em- 
 braces almost the entire Sudan, extending from the Atlantic 
 on the west to the foot of the Abyssinian highlands in the 
 east. The northern limit of the Sudan forms an irregular 
 line, beginning at the mouth of the Senegal on the west and 
 extending across Lake Chad to about the parallel of Khar- 
 tum on the east.* Some scattered groups of Nigritians live 
 in the desert as far north as Tibesti. The southern limit of 
 the Sudan begins with the line of the Guinea Coast on the 
 west, and extends eastward, following a somewhat straight 
 line to the Galla country.^ The Fellatahs are scattered 
 among the Nigritians in Central Sudan. 
 
 Elevations. — This entire region is relatively low com- 
 pared to other portions of Africa.* From the Mauritanian 
 highlands in the northwest to the Abyssinian highlands in 
 the northeast, the mean altitude is from 1,500 to 2,000 feet, 
 while the southern plateau, apart from the Congo depres- 
 sion, varies from 2,000 to 5,000 feet. The ascent from the 
 Sudan northwards to the Sahara is slight, while marked to- 
 wards the equator, as for example, from the Benue basin 
 to the Adamawa plateau and from the Bahr el Jebel to the 
 Nile-Congo divide.* Lake Chad is only 850 feet above sea 
 level, while Lake Ngami is at an elevation of 2,700 feet, and 
 Lake Victoria 3,800 feet. The Sudan is a vast relatively 
 low plain nowhere above 2,000 feet except in a few moun- 
 tainous districts in the east and west. The difference in 
 
 • Stanford, Vol. i, p. 244. ' Deniker, p. 444. 
 
 •Stanford, Vol. i, p. 244. * Ibid., p. 276. 
 
 6S 
 
66 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 elevation between Khartum and Timbuctu is only 390 feet* 
 There are no real mountain ranges in the whole Sudan. 
 The most conspicuous elevations are the Futa Jallon up- 
 lands of Sierra Leone reaching an altitude of 4,000 feet or 
 more,^ the Nauri Mountains north of the Gold Coast, whence 
 descend the Red and White branches of the Volta River, 
 and east of the Niger in the Bauchi district, an alpine sys- 
 tem of domes and needles rising to heights of from 4,000 to 
 7,000 feet.^ 
 
 The Rivers. — A glance at the course of the great rivers 
 will indicate clearly the general contour of the country. 
 From the Futa Jallon Mountains, rivers radiate in all direc- 
 tions like the spokes in a wheel. Those descending from 
 the west side find a rapid and direct exit to the sea, while 
 those descending from the north make great circuits to the 
 east and west. The Niger forms a great bend of 2,600 
 miles, skirting the desert on the north and emptpng into 
 the Gulf of Guinea only 700 miles from its starting point. 
 A great portion of the country on either side towards the 
 Sahara is a broad plain with very slight incline. Here 
 the stream becomes sluggish forming an inland delta and 
 ramifying into numerous channels and backwaters.* In 
 the northern bend it has no tributaries except from the des- 
 ert side and very few at all from Timbuctu to the Benue. 
 After receiving the waters of the Benue it spreads to a 
 great width resembling a lake encircled by hills.* Sixty 
 miles from the sea it splits into twelve branches with rami- 
 fying channels and lagoons. Allen and Thomson describe 
 it as a vista of water threading itself through interminable 
 green groves.* 
 
 The Senegal starting also in Futa Jallon makes a great 
 circuit in the opposite direction. As it approaches the At- 
 lantic it expands into an inland sea twelve to fourteen miles 
 
 • Stanford, Vol. i, p. 277. 2 Ibid., p. 279. ' Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 123. 
 
 < Stanford, Vol. i, p. 291. ' Ibid., p. 293. « Vol. 2, p. 125. 
 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY 67 
 
 wide and six hundred miles long with a labyrinth of islands 
 and interpenetrating lakes.' It empties into a vast lagoon, 
 its passage to the sea being impeded by a strip of sand fif- 
 teen miles long and twenty feet high.^ 
 
 The other rivers of the west are of the same general 
 character. . They pass through low lands as they approach 
 the coast and spread into rnany channels and backwaters. 
 Their mouths are usually not visible from the sea on ac- 
 count of the sand-bars. It may be of interest to mention 
 here that the system of lagoons along the coast, together 
 with the inland bays with their densely wooded shores, of- 
 fered, during the days of the slave-trade, thousands of secret 
 retreats for the slave-ships and enabled the traffic to be con- 
 tinued in defiance of the British and American cruisers, 
 long after its legal prohibition.* On the Gold Coast, how- 
 ever, between the Volta and Comoe Rivers, there are no la- 
 goons. Escarpments abut directly upon the sea forming a 
 shore line marked by steep cliffs.* The river valleys as a 
 rule reach far into the interior. The Senegal, for instance, 
 is navigable for 600 miles, the Gambia 300 miles and the 
 Volta 200 miles.' At a distance of a hundred miles from 
 the sea, the Casamanzahas a width of one and a half miles." 
 The Geba is like a great arm of the sea for a distance of 
 sixty miles inland and is ten miles wide at its mouth.^ The 
 tide of the Rio Grande is felt sixty miles inland, the lower 
 part of the river forming multitudes of channels, winding 
 around a number of marshy alluvial islands.' In the rainy 
 season many of the rivers spread into vast lakes. The 
 Volta in some places rises forty-six feet.' The Liberian 
 rivers, however, on account of the elevation of the inland, 
 move more rapidly and do not develop estuaries." 
 The g^eat river of Central Sudan is the Benue, which 
 
 • Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 133. " Stanford, Vol. i, p. 284. ^ Reclus, V0I.3, p. 356. 
 
 * Stanford, Vol. I, p. 282. » /iu/., p. 288. « Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 179. 
 ' TiiW., p. 182. 1 /iui., p. 184. » /iiJ., p. 23S. '» Stanford, Vol. i, p. 287. 
 
68 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 rises not far from Lake Chad, flows placidly in a south- 
 westerly direction for 850 miles and joins its waters to the 
 Niger. After receiving several tributaries from the Adamawa 
 highlands, its volume of water exceeds that of the Niger at 
 the point of confluence. Its headwaters are only 900 feet 
 from sea-level and the fall is therefore scarcely more than 
 one foot per mile.^ As a rule all of the rivers of the west 
 ooze lazily into the Atlantic, winding among innumerable 
 meshes of spongy islands. In the neighborhood of the 
 upper Niger and Lake Chad, the streams flow plentifully in 
 the wet season and stop completely in the dry season.^ 
 After crossing the Shari which empties into Lake Chad, and 
 a vast terra incognita, the last important river is the Nile 
 with its innumerable tributaries. 
 
 Vegetation. — The amount of vegetable life in Africa 
 varies generally according to distance from the equator. 
 The equatorial region is a dense forest resulting from the 
 copious rains, while towards the north and south the amount 
 of rain diminishes and finally ceases almost altogether, 
 giving rise to wide stretches of desert. Only differences of 
 elevation and proximity to the sea modify this general law. 
 At the northern portion of the Sudan the landscape passes 
 into desert. Here are only scant tufts of grass. Mungo 
 Park speaks of the country north of the Senegal and near 
 the village of Benown as a dreary expanse of sand with a 
 few stunted and prickly bushes, in the shade of which the 
 cattle munch the withered grass, while camels and goats 
 pick off the scant foliage. This strip of land extending 
 across the continent and including Nubia, Kordofan, Senaar 
 and Darfur, is a region of drought, locusts and famine.^ 
 Further south the grass becomes taller and in Senegambia 
 almost reaches the height of a giraffe's head. The boabab, 
 acacia and other trees begin to relieve the barrenness of the 
 
 ' Stanford, Vol. i, p. 294. 
 
 2 Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 273. s z,},,/., p. 241. 
 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY 69 
 
 landscape.' The weird-like bombax also soon makes its 
 appearance, and in its large recesses, travelers often take 
 refuge, and the natives there also meet to hold their palavers.' 
 Advancing further southward the water courses begin to be 
 lined with trees thickening into forest, and near the coast 
 the whole country, except in Yorubaland, becomes a dense 
 tropical forest. In some places the density of the forest not 
 only obscures the sun, but so excludes the air that, while 
 the tops of the trees may rustle in the breeze, the traveler 
 beneath has to gasp for breath.* The tropical vegetation, 
 however, is not so marked west of the Gold Coast. 
 
 Mangroves fringe all of the rivers as far as the limits of 
 tide water. Beyond this point the banks of the rivers be- 
 come clear of vegetation and the traveler can begin to see 
 from his boat the general contour of the country. 
 
 Rainfall.— The mouth of the Senegal marks the limit of 
 heavy periodic rains. There the rainy season lasts from 
 June to October.^ Throughout the Sudan the rainy season 
 begins in the spring and becomes lengthened as one ap- 
 proaches the equator.' On the Guinea Coast rain falls from 
 200 to 250 days in the year." The heaviest rainfall is in 
 Sierra Leone where sometimes the water fall is eight inches 
 in twenty-four hours, and the total per year is 134 inches.' 
 In the midst of storms the lightning often plays havoc with 
 men and beasts.* The explorer Allen saw a man and woman 
 at Freetown standing in the door of their hut praying and 
 singing and beating drums to ward off the terrible electric 
 
 •Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 274. * Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 135. 
 
 'Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 240. * Ibid., p. 134. 
 
 » Reclus says that the Gambia Coast is very wet from July to September, Vol. 3, 
 p. 174. Hawkins that in the Ibo country the rainy season is from June to September, 
 p. 134 ; Denham says that in Bornu there is much rain from March to June, p. 240 ; 
 Rohlfs says that the rainy time in the interior is from June to Septamber, Vol. 2, 
 p. 88. 
 
 ' Staudinger, p. 496. ' Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 202. 
 
 ' " Denham's Narrative", p. 240. 
 
70 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 fire when a flash struck them a fatal blow and burnt up their 
 dwelling.^ On account of the heavy rains and high water 
 many cities and towns, both near the coast and in the 
 interior, are partly submerged, or surrounded by swamps 
 during a part of the year. For example, there are marshes 
 and stagnant pools on the north side of Sokoto.'' Allen and 
 Thomson saw many villages along the Niger inundated and 
 deserted.^ The city of Egga is surrounded by a swamp in 
 the rainy season,* and at Kano, the capital of Hausa, 
 different parts of the city are separated by stagnant pools.® 
 
 Tornadoes. — The change of seasons is ushered in by 
 fierce tornadoes from the north.* Sometimes even in the 
 dry season fierce tornadoes sweep the coast from Cape 
 Palmas to the Cameroons. Inky clouds descend from in- 
 land which cover the land with appalling darkness. The 
 lightning hisses and spits blue flame, the rain comes with 
 a deafening roar, trees and branches fly through the air and 
 a deluge of rain covers the land.^ In case of sudden storm 
 the natives often jump into a river until it passes over.^ In 
 the months of December and January a wind storm known 
 as the harmattan frequently blows from the north. It is the 
 breath of the desert and comes in the form of a dry hot dust, 
 through which the sun appears a dull red.' Its effect is less 
 violent towards the south. In Yoruba it lasts only a few 
 hours at intervals of three or four weeks.^" It is terribly 
 suffocating and sometimes extinguishes fire and kills wild 
 beasts." Du Chaillu once protected himself from its burn- 
 ing effects by crawling into a large grain-jar. 
 
 'Allen and Thoms9n, Vol. i, p. 82. 
 * Clapperton, " Journey to Kouka and Sackatoo," p. 85. 
 'Vol. 2, p. 88. i Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 102. 
 
 ' Clapperton, •' Journey to Kouka and Sackatoo," p. 30. 
 ' Staudinger, p. 9 ; Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 134. 
 
 ■" Stanford, Vol. I, p. 290. s Adanson, p. 99. 
 
 ' Park, p. 125 ; Hawkins says that the harmattan descends upon Ibo in Febru- 
 ary, p. 121. "Bowen, p. 230. " Hawkins, p. 121. 
 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY 71 
 
 Temperature.— Thanks to the sea breezes the tempera- 
 ture along the coasts is not high. About the Senegal it 
 does not reach above 90° in summer and in winter falls 
 to 68°.* Farther east and south, the temperature rises higher 
 but seldom above 97°.* In the interior the winters are 
 colder and the summers hotter. In Bornu in June the mer- 
 cury goes up to 107°, and in December falls to 75°.* In a 
 few open and elevated districts the weather in winter is 
 sometimes only a few degrees above freezing. * 
 
 > Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 134. ' Bowen, p. 228. 
 
 •" Denham's Narrative," p. 240. «Binger Vol. i, p. 199. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE 
 COUNTRY {Continued) 
 
 Unhealthfulness of the Climate. — Except in a few 
 favored localities the climate of the Sudan is fatal to the 
 European. The high temperature and the humid air, un- 
 relieved by change of seasons, are exceedingly enervating, 
 and nowhere near the coast can one refresh himself with a 
 cool draught of water.^ At the close of the rainy season, 
 the miasmatic exhalations from the stagnant waters, left 
 everywhere by the subsidence of the rivers, poison the 
 atmosphere and render it injurious and often fatal to both 
 man and beast. Three years' residence in Liberia is said 
 to be the limit for the white man,'' and Sierra Leone has long 
 been known as the " white man's grave." The mortality of 
 the English officers at Sierra Leone is often one-half per an- 
 num, and one-third of the entire population sometimes die 
 in a single year.' Staudinger says that eight per cent, or 
 ten per cent, of the whites die annually at Lagos.* During 
 the era of the slave-trade European and American vessels 
 visiting the coast often lost one-half or more of their crews 
 from fever. In delirium the patients frequently jumped 
 overboard,' and cases are known where the entire crews of 
 ships have perished.® Of thirty-four soldiers and four car- 
 penters who started with Mungo Park's expedition from the 
 Gambia to the Niger, all died but seven before reaching the 
 latter river ' and only five were alive at Sansanding.* The 
 
 1 Bowen, p. 70. ' Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 217. ' Ibid., p. 203. 
 
 * P. 14. ' Duncan, Vol. 2, p. 363. « Spilsbury, p. 14. 
 
 ' Park, p. 302. 8 Ibid., p. 211. 
 
 7a 
 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY 73 
 
 natives themselves languish and die from the effects of the 
 germ-laden air/ and even also dogs.^ White residents of 
 the country are in the habit of returning to Europe every 
 few years to recuperate. However, there are some quite 
 healthy districts especially in the interior among the hills of 
 the Slave Coast.' In the course of time the white man will 
 no doubt be able to adapt himself to the African climate as 
 the Negro has done, and even better than the Negro has 
 done, by reason of his superior knowledge of sanitation and 
 more temperate living. 
 
 Animal Life. — The animal life of the Sudan comprises 
 the elephant, buffalo, giraffe, hippopotamus, lion, tiger, wolf, 
 ox, sheep, goat, deer, ass, camel, hyena, jackal, panther, 
 wild-cat, lynx, leopard, rhinoceros, wild-boar, hare, squirrel, 
 hog, monkey, antelope, etc. The natives claim that there 
 are two species of crocodile, one which man eats, and one 
 which eats man. The number of wild animals available for 
 food is not very great in the neighborhood of the coast, on 
 account of the swampy nature of the country and the dense 
 forests, and the early introduction of the shot-gun which 
 has depleted the region of such animals as it originally 
 contained. Elephants were formally very abundant along 
 the inland seaboard, and in the sixteenth century more ivory 
 came from the Gambia region than from any other part of 
 Africa.^ At present the elephants exist in considerable 
 numbers only in the far interior. In the dry season they 
 move towards the rivers especially the Senegal and Benue, 
 and in the wet season migrate more to the uplands. They 
 are no longer familiar objects in the Sudanese landscape. 
 Along the coast tigers sometimes prowl about the villages 
 at night and steal the fish which the natives have left out- 
 side their huts.' Leopards sometimes spring from over- 
 hanging branches of trees and seize men by the throat,^ and 
 
 ' Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 89. ' Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 202. ' Ibid., p. 260. 
 
 < Ibid., p. 174. ' Adanson, p. zi i. ' Robinson, p. 91. 
 
74 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 lions lurk about the camps of travelers and sometimes at- 
 tack the men and troops of a caravan.^ However, the great 
 beasts of prey are mostly in the neighborhood of the desert.^ 
 The rhinoceros and buffalo are in the upland woods and the 
 panther in all of the gorges.^ Mungo Park relates that 
 traveling along the tributaries of the Senegal his sleep was 
 disturbed every night by the continual blowing and snort- 
 ing of the hippopotamus/ Sharks are plentiful in the coast 
 rivers and bays, and when a man accidentally falls overboard 
 from a ship, he is quickly seized by a shark which darts 
 away leaving its track stained with its victim's blood. 
 Crocodiles sport in all of the rivers, and occasionally make 
 a meal of some stray child or of an arm or leg of any one 
 who may venture to cross the streams, or bathe in them. 
 Once when Isaaco, a Negro who accompanied Mungo Park 
 in one of his expeditions as an interpreter, was driving some 
 asses across a certain river, he was seized on the left thigh 
 by a crocodile. With remarkable presence of mind he felt 
 under the water and thrust his fingers so sharply into the 
 crocodile's eyes that it immediately withdrew from him. 
 But in a moment it returned and seized him on the right 
 thigh. Again Isaaco thrust his fingers into its eyes and 
 with such violence this time as to cause the beast not only 
 to relinquish its grasp but to go away, not, however, with- 
 out leaving its victim badly lascerated.° Camels are found 
 in the desert and horses and asses in the grassy plains of its 
 border. It may be well to mention here that camels, horses, 
 sheep, goats and hogs did not exist in Africa originally but 
 were introduced from the East.* 
 
 Birds exist in great variety, including the stork, cardinal, 
 parrokeet, eagle, vulture, pigeon, partridge, duck, goose, 
 etc. Vultures are superabundant. They are fond of perch- 
 
 iPark, p. i88. = Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 274. 
 
 'Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 327. 4 Vol. p. 188. 
 
 ' Park, p. 192. * Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, pp. 151, 243. 
 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY 75 
 
 ing upon the roofs of houses, and at times act in a rollicking 
 manner, says Miss Kingsley, as if drunk the previous even- 
 ing.^ Sometimes they pounce amidst the natives and 
 snatch meat from their fingers ^ or steal something from a 
 basket carried on a native's head.' 
 
 Snakes are plentiful in number and immense in size. 
 The boa, a hundred feet long, is sometimes seen with half 
 of its body encircling a tree and the other half folded 
 around a lion, leopard, bear or human being.* Schwein- 
 furth who traveled in East Sudan complained that his rest 
 was often disturbed by the rustling of snakes in the straw- 
 roofs of the huts,' and Richard Lander who traveled in West 
 Sudan awoke one morning to find that his bed-fellow was a 
 scorpion that he had rolled upon in his sleep and killed.* 
 
 Insects. — Along the lowlands and almost everywhere, 
 insects such as flies, gnats and mosquitoes swarm in great 
 numbers. Miss Kingsley remarks that the atmosphere of 
 West Africa consists of ninety per cent, solid matter in the 
 nature of mosquitoes. The natives in some places keep off 
 the insects by a thick smoke, produced by fires constantly 
 lighted, composed of cattle dung, leaves and rotten wood, 
 kept in a state of moisture ; ' in other places they protect 
 themselves by sleeping upon elevated platforms with a 
 smoking fire beneath.' Bees are numerous and often vicious. 
 One day when navigating the Senegal, Adanson was so 
 fiercely attacked by them that he was forced to abandon his 
 vessel.' In another locality they once attacked Mungo 
 Park's caravan and completely put it to rout. Several of 
 his pack-animals were stung to death and many of his men 
 were thoroughly punctuated about their faces and hands.'" 
 Earth's caravan also once suffered defeat in a contest with 
 
 ' Kingsley, " Travels in West Africa," p. 19. 2 Lander, Vol. i, p. 117. 
 
 'Ellis, "Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 214. <Spilsbury, p. 20. 
 
 » Vol. I, p. 158. » Vol. I, p. 88. ' Hawkins, p. 56. 
 
 'Adanson, p. 251. »P. 149. '"P. 178. 
 
76 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 these little pests.' Locusts descend in clouds from no one 
 knows where and leave nothing but fragments of the grow- 
 ing crops. Butterflies of the most variegated and fantastic 
 patterns flit here and there, some with wings of shining 
 green edged and sprinkled with gold and some with wings, 
 like the garters of Dame Martin, "sky-blue and fringed 
 with silver." At night illuminating flies, like shining stars, 
 relieve the blackness of forest and swamp.^ Ants almost 
 take the country. Along the coast and in the interior, the 
 traveler sees thousands of pyramidal ant-hills fifteen to 
 twenty feet high, which have become as hard as stone, and 
 stand out against the horizon like miniature Gothic cathe- 
 drals. At the commencement of the winter season, the 
 dwellers of these cathedrals are transformed into creatures 
 with wings, when they come out of their edifices from all 
 sides and take up their abode in the huts of the Negroes.* 
 In the interior are some species of traveling ants which have 
 pincers that fasten themselves in the flesh like fish-hooks, 
 and which bite so desperately that the native finds it diffi- 
 cult to keep pace in scratching. In migrating they march 
 in regular file, two inches wide, and sometimes several 
 miles long. Some of the largest of their number march on 
 the flanks of the column and act as lieutenants to maintain 
 discipline. When the army gets hungry it deploys en masse 
 into a forest or field, attacking and devouring everything in 
 its path with a furious desperation. In quick time a mouse, 
 dog, or gazelle is invaded, killed and devoured, leaving 
 nothing but the bare carcass. Several times when adven- 
 turer Du Chaillu was attacked by these ants he was obliged 
 to precipitate himself outside of his hut.* Indeed, insects of 
 every kind are so annoying that sometimes the king of a 
 great nation, even in the midst of a levee or discussion of 
 matters of state, is obliged to give himself resounding slaps 
 
 ■Vol. 2, p. 407. ! Adanson, p. 166. 
 
 » Binger, Vol. i, p. 199. 4 Bouche p. 50. 
 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY 77 
 
 upon his chest, legs and shoulders.' Large beetles, says 
 Miss Kingsley, come a long distance to see you and end 
 the journey by striking you in the face. Instead of using 
 fly-brushes, nets and screens, the natives in some localities 
 have trained and domesticated lizards which live in the 
 houses and make war upon the ants, gnats and other species 
 that torment.^ Missionary Freeman while in Ashanti found 
 it necessary to comb the ants from his hair,* and after the 
 cockroaches had combined to drive him out of his hut, the 
 rats ate up the strings of his hammock. 
 
 The whole Sudan is full of animal excitement. There is 
 never a dull hour for man or beast. All is conflict, noise 
 and motion. Even at night there is no repose or solitude. 
 The hippopotamus and crocodile grunt and splash in the 
 water, the elephant crashes through the branches on his 
 way to the streams, the lion growls over his midnight 
 luncheon, the tiger makes the circumambience hideous with 
 his broken panting aspiration, the jackal howls and the 
 woods ring with the sound of night-birds and insects.* 
 
 ' Bouche, p. 49. '' Jbid., p. 47. » P. 161. < Lander, Vol. I, p. 96. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE RACES OF THE SUDAN 
 
 The Different Types. — The races of the Sudan comprise 
 three distinguishable types. The first and most primitive 
 type possesses the classic features of the Negro, that is, 
 very dark skin, long narrow head, woolly hair, flat nose, 
 thick lips, receding forehead and prognathus chin. This 
 type, designated as Nigritian, varies more or less according 
 to locality and degree of mixture with other populations.^ 
 The second type, scattered among the Nigritians as rulers 
 and dominators, is a mixture of the Nigritian with the 
 Berber, and perhaps to some extent with the Arab, and is 
 variously designated as Fellatah, Fulbe, Fellani, etc., and 
 has its theatre of action to the west of Lake Chad. The 
 third type is the Arab, distributed mostly east of Lake 
 Chad, but scattered also here and there in the west, and 
 occupying a position among the eastern Nigritians similar 
 to that of the Fellatah in the west and centre. 
 
 As compared to other parts of the world, the races of 
 Africa are very dissimilar. The reason for this is that the 
 Africans in many localities occupy secluded positions which 
 favor deviations from the general type. The northern half 
 of the earth, by reason of its large land masses, is conti- 
 nental and affords easy intercommunication and blending of 
 races, while the southern half, by reason of its smaller land 
 masses, is insular and peninsular and therefore favors a 
 great diversity of types.^ In Africa distance and climatic 
 differences also have a tendency to isolate people,^ and 
 bring about and preserve their physical peculiarities. 
 
 ' Deniker, p. 443. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " Anthropogeographie," Vol. i, pp. 365, 369. 5 /m p_ ^g|_ 
 
 78 
 
THE RACES OF THE SUDAN 79 
 
 The whole population of the Sudan is estimated at 
 8o,0(X),ooo and comprises so many different tribes and king- 
 doms that it would be impossible to discuss all of them 
 within the limits of this volume. It is necessary, therefore, 
 to select for treatment a few representative groups. 
 
 The Fellatahs. — The most important people in Western 
 and Central Sudan are the Fellatahs who predominate de- 
 cidedly in the great area of grass, and are found scattered 
 also among the agricultural districts farther south. Al- 
 though usually classed with the Negro races, they have such 
 a strong mixture of Caucasian blood in them that they are 
 rather a mulatto race than a natural variation of the Negro 
 type. Staudinger says that they differ so much from the 
 blacks that they scarcely deserve to be classed with them.* 
 The Fellatahs are probably a branch of the Berbers, and 
 therefore belong to the great Hamitic division of the Human 
 family, which is commonly supposed to have existed in 
 Africa many centuries before the entrance of the Semitic 
 race. 
 
 The Fellatahs vary in color from a light brown or al- 
 most white, to a dark brown approximating the complexion 
 of the Negro. In physiognomy and features many of them 
 have a strong Semitic cast,^ while others resemble the pure 
 Negro, except that their hair is not always frizzy but long 
 and bushy like that of the mulatto.^ In many instances 
 their hair has a sandy tint.* They are upon the average of 
 medium stature, slender and well formed, having moderately 
 good features, and in the case of women, often very beauti- 
 ful faces.' They have a graceful and independent carriage. 
 Their foreheads are high and well formed," and their jaws 
 scarcely prognathus.' They have large round eyes, oval 
 face, prominent nose, sometimes aquiline, and tolerably full 
 
 ' p. 541. ' Lorin, p. 29S ; Binger, Vol. i, p. 382. 
 
 ' Bowen, p. 200 ; Staudinger, p. 543. * Bawen, p. 277. 
 
 'Staudinger, p. 543. • /Hi., p. 543. ' /iiJ., p. 542. 
 
8o THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 but in some cases thin lips, fine pearly teeth and delicate, 
 graceful limbs and small hands and feet.' Their eyes are 
 usually black but not infrequently bluish.^ Canot says " I 
 do not think the forms of these Fellatah girls, with their 
 complexions of freshest bronze, are excelled in symmetry by 
 the women of any other country." None of them, he says, 
 has the hanging breast, flat nose and thick lips of the 
 Negro.^ 
 
 Jolofs, Mandingos, Krumen, etc.— Among the Nigritians 
 proper may be mentioned first the Jolofs of the lower Sene- 
 gal River. They are tall and robust, but have undeveloped 
 lower extremities. Their legs are slim in the calves, their 
 feet flat, and their big toes at a deviating angle from the 
 smaller ones. They have the face and features of the aver- 
 age Negro, except that occasionally individuals have straight 
 noses and thin lips.* Their congeners are the Leybus and 
 Serers of the Lower Gambia.* 
 
 Next in order are the Mandingos with their numerous 
 branches of Malinkops, Soninkes, Bambaras, etc., of the 
 Upper Niger and Upper Senegal Rivers, and extending 
 along the coast from St. Louis to Monrovia.® The Man- 
 dingos are tall and slender and have the general Negro 
 physiognomy and features, being especially characterized 
 by prominent cheek bones, short chin, large flat nose, woolly 
 hair and somewhat lighter skin than the Jolofs. Their 
 countenance is rather hard and severe.' The Bambaras are 
 somewhat mixed with the Berbers. Some of them have 
 aquiline noses, and oblique eyes like the Chinese.^ 
 
 Coming eastward along the coast are next the Krumen, 
 
 1 Staudinger, p. 543; Featherman, p. 362. 
 
 iiBinger, Vol. I, p. 392; Bowen, p. 277. »P. 17S. 
 
 * Featherman, p. 348; Du Chaillu, p. 188; Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 141. 
 ' Deniker, p. 450. 
 
 « Keane, " Man : Past and Present," p. 45 ; Deniker, p. 448. 
 ' " Une Mission au Senegal," p. 84 ; Featherman, p. 294. 
 
 * Waitz, Vol. 2, p. 34. 
 
THE RACES OF THE SUDAN 8i 
 
 including their kinsmen the Bassas of Liberia and Grebos 
 east of Cape Palmas.' The Krumen are the strongest peo- 
 ple physically on the seaboard. They are tall, stout, broad- 
 chested, bull-necked, and have a complexion varying from 
 black to yellow. Their countenance is open and frank and 
 their bearing self-possessed.^ According to traditions they 
 came from the interior.* 
 
 Ashantis, Dahomans.Yorubas, etc. — Still farther eastward 
 are the Tshi speaking peoples of the kingdoms of Ashanti 
 and Fanti of the Gold Coast,* who are tall, well-proportioned 
 and have less negroid features and lighter complexions 
 than the Mandingos or Jolofs." Ellis says they are " a far 
 handsomer people than any other Negro race with which I 
 am acquainted." " They are perhaps mixed with the Arab 
 and Berber blood as a result of incursions of the people from 
 the north.' The Fantis are more negroid than the Ashan- 
 tis.» 
 
 Then the Ewe speaking peoples of the kingdom of 
 Dahomi, and the Mahi people to the north of Dahomi.' 
 They are generally tall, well-proportioned and have fairer 
 complexions and more regular features than the average 
 Negro. The ruling classes comprise some remarkably fine 
 men of a Moorish cast, though darker than the common- 
 ality.'" It is not uncommon to find individuals among this 
 group of people with a reddish tint of hair." 
 
 Then the Yoruba speaking peoples of the Slave Coast, 
 including the inhabitants of the Egba kingdom and of the 
 
 ' Deniker, pp. 450, 451. 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 283; Allen and Thomson, Vol. I, p. 124; Reclus, Vol. 3, 
 p. 220. 
 
 ' Waitz, Vol. 2, p. 51. ■• Deniker, p. 451. 
 
 » Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 241 ; Featheiman, p. 282. 
 
 » " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 236. ' Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 241. 
 
 "Allen and Thomson, Vol. 2, p. 183; Spilsbuiy, p. 155. 
 
 ' Deniker, p. 452. 
 
 '" Duncan, Vol. I, p. 239; Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 260; Foa, p. 100. 
 
 " Foa, p. loi ; Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 260. 
 
82 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Benin kingdom, and numerous related populations, such as 
 the Calabars east of the Niger ; the Idzo of the Delta, di- 
 vided into the Brass and other peoples ; the Igbera, be- 
 tween the lower and middle Niger and on the Benue River, 
 and their neighbors the Igara on the left bank of the Niger 
 and lower Benue ; the Ibo of the Delta ; the Ilorin in the in- 
 terior west of the Niger ; and finally the Efik on the coast 
 extending to the Rio del Rey River which is the dividing 
 line on the west coast between the Nigritians of the Sudan 
 and the Bantus of middle and southern Africa.^ The 
 Yorubas present the ordinary Negro type except that they, 
 like the Ashantis and Dahomans, have less pronounced 
 features and somewhat lighter colored skin than the average 
 of the black race. Their figures are comparatively graceful 
 and symmetrical.^ The Ibos have a yellow or brownish 
 black complexion, sometimes almost white. It has been pre- 
 sumed that at some time they have undergone a slight Berber 
 or Fellatah impregnation.* The other divisions of this group 
 have a strong Yoruba likeness. 
 
 Songhay, Kanuris, Hausas and Nile Populations. — Be- 
 tween the Niger and the basin of the Upper Volta are first 
 the Songhays who occupy the bend of the Niger below 
 Timbuctu. They are mixed with the Fellatah and Tuareg 
 branches of the Berber race, and have a deep brown or 
 blackish color and long ringlety hair.* Other groups are 
 the Tomboes on the right bank of the Niger ; the Mossis, 
 about the headwaters of the Volta ; the Gurmas, east of the 
 Mossis ; the Gurungas, in the upper basin of the Red Volta ; 
 and further south the Dogombas, and the Conjas, and the 
 Borgus east of the Conjas and near the Niger.* All of these 
 peoples are mixed more or less with the Fellatahs, Songhays, 
 
 1 Keane, " Man : Past and Present," p. 55 ; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," 
 Vol. 3, p. 139. 
 
 ' Campbell, p. 65 ; Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 262 ; Clapperton, " Second Expedi- 
 tion," p. 89. ' Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. 240; Bowen, p. 94. 
 
 * Keane, " Man : Past and Present," p. 61, » Deniker, p. 447. 
 
THE RACES OF THE SUDAN 83 
 
 or Hausas.' East of the Niger are the Baghirmis who dwell 
 along the Shari River south of Lake Chad ; the Kanuris 
 of Bornu and of the northern part of Adamawa ; the Hausas 
 between the Benue River, the Bornu kingdom and the mid- 
 dle course of the Niger, extending into Bornu and Adamawa 
 on the east and into the Mossi country on the west ; and 
 lastly the Mosgus between Lake Chad and Adamawa.^ The 
 people of this latter group are much mixed. The Kanuris 
 embrace a large and distinct population of Arabs, a con- 
 siderable admixture of Fellatahs and a substratum of typical 
 Negroes with "devilish black" skins,' projecting cheek 
 bones, flat noses and thick lips/ The Hausas are made up 
 of Arabs and Fellatahs, intermixed with a preponderating 
 Negro substratum," and upon the whole having a decidedly 
 darker complexion than the Negroes of the coast.^ 
 
 Passing eastward over a number of unimportant tribes 
 we come to the Mabas of Waday,' the Darfurians, Kordo- 
 fans and then the inhabitants of the Nile and its tributaries. 
 Among these latter are the Nubas, Bagarras, Nuers, Shillooks, 
 Baris, Bongos, Dinkas, Mittus, Madis, Shulis, Luris, etc.* 
 These people are generally well made, but are rather tall 
 and slender. They have somewhat regular features with 
 complexions varying from dark brown to perfect black," ex- 
 cept in the case of the Bongos who are light in color " and 
 have the steatopygy peculiar to the Negritos," and accord- 
 ing to Quatrefages belong to the Negrito aborigines. 
 
 Finally must be mentioned the Tibbus of the Sahara, 
 the most northerly of the Negro populations, who, though 
 living outside of the Sudan proper, are a distinct Negro 
 race. They have the ordinary Negro features, except that 
 
 « Keane, " Man : Past and Present," p. 59. ' Keane, " Ethnology," p. 277. 
 • Denham, p. 229. ♦Featherman, p. 270. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 390. • Allen and Thomson, Vol. 2, p. 106 ; Deniker, 446. 
 
 ■■ Keane, " Man : Past and Present," p. 71. ' Deniker, p. 445. 
 
 "Featherman, pp. 28, 62. •» Schweinfurth, Vol. i, p. 261. 
 
 " Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 317. 
 
84 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 their hair is longer and less woolly, their noses more fre- 
 quently acquiline, and their skins more often of light color.^ 
 They are linguistically related to the Kanuris, and Rohlfs 
 thinks they are the same people as the Garamantes men- 
 tioned by Herodotus. 
 
 Origin of the Different Types.— As to the proportions of 
 the human organism, it seems that the people of the millet 
 and lower cattle zones, with their relatively long prognathus 
 heads, long and slender arms and legs, narrow pelvis and 
 wall-sided straightness of waist, represent the lowest types. 
 The chief explanation of these peculiar proportions is that 
 of the Negro's nearness of kinship to his simian ancestors. 
 As the races of men rise in culture their change of habits 
 and activities brings about a change in their physiognomy. 
 Increase of brain activity enlarges the frontal region of the 
 brain and gives the skull a less receding form.^ Giddings 
 thinks that the improvement which evolution has produced 
 in the proportions of the human body and the change from 
 the prognathus to the more pleasing orthognathus form of 
 the face have been due to the prolongation of the period of 
 infancy.' The older children become before commencing 
 to use their arms and legs, and the later they begin to chew 
 foods requiring strength of jaw, the less the limbs and jaws 
 will develop in proportion to the other parts of the body. 
 The deficiency in the form -of the arms and legs is attributed 
 by Spencer to the limited amount and variety of their activi- 
 ties.* The stature of the Negro is related to his general 
 vitality and power of resisting the force of gravity and the 
 physiological cost of living.^ His narrow pelvis is possibly 
 connected with the smallness of the heads of infants at birth.^ 
 The straight waist and often protruding stomach are sup- 
 posed to be the result of eating coarse, bulky and innutritions 
 
 1 Rohlfs, Vol. I, pp. 254, 255. 2 Haeckel, Vol. 2, pp. 226, 227. 
 
 8" Principles of Sociology," p. 229. •" Spencer, Vol. i, pp. 49, 52. 
 
 6 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 45. 6 Deniker, p. 85. 
 
THE RACES OF THE SUDAN 85 
 
 food.' The long flat foot of the Negro has been explained 
 by the fact that he goes barefooted and carries heavy loads 
 on his head, — the pressure from above causing the entire 
 under surface of the foot to rest evenly upon the ground. 
 Schweinfurth has attempted to show in a very picturesque 
 fashion, how the physical type of the Nile Negroes is modi- 
 fied by their peculiar environment and habits. He says that 
 as they live in a swampy land, they tend to resemble some- 
 what the flamingoes of the same country. They have flat 
 and projecting heels, and like the birds of the swamp " they 
 are accustomed for an hour at a time to stand motionless 
 on one leg, supporting the other above the knee. (In humid 
 localities the feet of the horse also become flattened.^) Their 
 leisurely long stride over the rushes, is only to be compared 
 to that of a stork. Lean and lank limbs, a long thin neck, 
 on which rests a small narrow head, give a finishing touch 
 to the resemblance." ^ Demolins advances the idea that 
 there is a close connection between the physical beauty of a 
 people and the kind of work which they do. For instance, 
 he attributes the beauty and harmonious proportions of the 
 ancient Greeks to the fact that the Pelasgians, who con- 
 stituted the fundamental Greek element, lived an easy life 
 in the Mingrelian valley where the chief labor was that of 
 gathering the fruits of nature. He also attributes the beauty 
 of the people of the island of Tahiti to the same fact, to wit, 
 that they live mostly upon the natural fruits of their country.'' 
 Applying these considerations to Africa we should expect to 
 find the most agreeable types of men in the banana zone 
 where the people have no deforming occupations, but live 
 upon the spontaneous products of nature. Contrary to this, 
 however, we find there the ugliest types ; and we must con- 
 clude, therefore, that in this zone the hereditary influences 
 
 ' Spencer, Vol. i,p. 51. ' Demolins, p. 13. 'Vol. i, p. 120. 
 
 * Comment la route crOe le type social: Paris, " Firman-Didot et Cie," pp. 301, 
 302. 
 
86 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 overcome the favorable influences of the economic life. All 
 that can be said of Demolins' argument is that the character 
 of the labor of a people is one of several important factors 
 that determine their physical grace and proportions. The 
 excellence of the Fellatah physique is probably due largely 
 to their pastoral life, which next to living upon the spon- 
 taneous products of nature, is the easiest existence and the 
 freest from deforming kinds of labor. 
 
 As to the face features, it seems probable that the large 
 and open nostrils of the Negro have some connection with 
 the relative lack of oxygen in the equatorial air and the 
 effort of nature to enlarge the draught. According to At- 
 kins the flatness of the Negro's nose is due to the continual 
 pressure of the infant's face against its mother's back while 
 being carried in a sling during the nursing period.' The 
 dark hair and dark eyes of the Negro are due to the same 
 cause as the darkness of his skin. The pigmentation of the 
 skin that covers the head and other parts of the body is of 
 the same substance as that of the retina, and the action of 
 the sun upon the skin has a tendency to color the pigment 
 uniformly all over the body, so that among the lower races 
 of men the color of the skin, hair and eyes is uniform. 
 Among the higher races of men, on account of the operation 
 of the law of progress from the homogeneous to the hetero- 
 geneous — from the simple to the complex, the skin, hair and 
 eyes often exhibit colors in contrast. Taking a general 
 view of the Sudan populations, it seems that the darker 
 colored Nigritians live in the millet zone and the lighter 
 types in the banana zone.^ The difference in color is due to 
 the influences of climate. Near the coast the dense forest 
 and greater number of cloudy days, protect the complexion 
 from the sun and give it a lighter tint, while the open 
 country of the north and the predominance of clear days, 
 cause the pigmentation of the skin to thicken and darken, 
 
 ' P- «8o. ^Ogilby, pp. 347, 373. 
 
THE RACES OF THE SUDAN 87 
 
 thus giving the complexion a deeper and more glossy black. 
 Even Nigritians who go from the coast to the interior only 
 for a few months take on a darker hue.' The lighter color 
 of the Arabs and Fellatahs of the interior is due to acquired 
 characteristics which they brought with them from their 
 native countries. The Nigritians that have the most negroid 
 features seem to be in the millet zone and about Lake Chad,^ 
 and it is therefore reasonably to be inferred that the most 
 aboriginal Nigritian type survives in this interior middle 
 region, where it has for the longest time remained free from 
 contact with the higher types of invading peoples from the 
 north and southeast. 
 
 The expression of the human face is influenced partly by 
 the aspects of nature, and partly by the degree of external 
 social conflict and of internal play of passions, such as love, 
 benevolence or avarice, sensuality, anger, fear and hatred. 
 A country which has a rich natural vegetation tends to 
 stimulate in the inhabitants a certain vivacity of temper, 
 which, if not counteracted by bad political or other condi- 
 tions, shows itself in the countenance. The reason for this, 
 as pointed out by Schopenhauer,* is that whatever in nature 
 tends to overcome the law of gravity, or inertia, is sug- 
 gestive of life ; whereas, whatever seems overcome by 
 gravity, i. e., whatever is stationary or bare is suggestive of 
 death. " The inorganic world so far as it does not consist 
 of mere water, produces a very sad, nay, an oppressive 
 effect upon the feelings, whenever it is presented to us quite 
 by itself. Examples of what I mean are afforded by dis- 
 tricts which offer to the eye nothing but a mass of bare 
 crags ; that long valley of rocks, for instance, without a 
 trace of vegetation, near Toulon, on the way to Marseilles. 
 The same effect is produced on a large scale, and in a much 
 more striking degree, by the African desert." These con- 
 
 ' Staudinger, pp. 496, 542. » Heinrich Barth, Vol. 2, pp. 163, 164. 
 
 *" Essays," New York, Saunders' translation, p. 285. 
 
88 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 siderations may help us to understand the rather vivacious 
 temper of the people of the banana zone and the rather 
 sombre temper of the people of the camel zone. But the 
 countenance of the people of the banana zone is, notwith- 
 standing its expression of vivacity, more repulsive than that 
 of any other people in Africa, which is perhaps best ac- 
 counted for by the general stupidity and social strife in that 
 region, the sacrifices, cannibalism and ascendency of bad 
 passions. 
 
 The intellectual development of a people has much to do 
 with their countenance and general appearance. " In re- 
 gard to the study of physiognomy," says Schopenhauer, 
 " intellectual capacity is much easier of discernment than 
 moral character. The former naturally takes a much more 
 outward direction, and expresses itself not only in the face 
 and the play of features, but also in the gait, down even to 
 the very slightest movement. One could perhaps dis- 
 criminate from behind between a blockhead, a fool and a 
 man of genius. The blockhead would be discerned by the 
 torpidity and sluggishness of his movements : folly sets its 
 mark upon every gesture, and so does intellect and a 
 studious nature. Hence that remark of La Bruyere that 
 there is nothing so slight, so simple or imperceptible but 
 that our way of doing it enters in and betrays us : a fool 
 neither comes nor goes, nor sits down nor gets up, nor 
 holds his tongue, nor moves about in the same way as an 
 intelligent man." ' But if intellectual capacity is more 
 easily discerned in the physiognomy of man, moral char- 
 acter stamps itself there more deeply and more indelibly. 
 Every wrongful or worthless act and every evil or foolish 
 thought write themselves in big letters upon a man's counte- 
 nance. The first glance at a face usually reveals its real 
 character, especially if the face is seen in repose. " For to 
 get a pure and fundamental conception of a man's physiog- 
 
 1 " Essays," New York, Saunders' translation, p. 256. 
 
THE RACES OF THE SUDAN 89 
 
 nomy," says Schopenhauer, "we must observe him when 
 he is alone and left to himself. Society of any kind and 
 conversation throw a reflection upon him which is not his 
 own, generally to his advantage ; he is thereby placed in a 
 state of action and reaction which sets him off. But alone 
 and left to himself, plunged in the depths of his own thoughts 
 and sensations, he is wholly himself, and a penetrating eye 
 for physiognomy can at one glance take a general view of 
 his entire character. . . . The study of physiognomy is 
 one of the chief means of a knowledge of mankind, because 
 the cast of a man's face is the only sphere in which his arts 
 of dissimulation are of no avail. . . ." ' 
 
 The question of the general physiognomy of a race or 
 nation of people, instead of being slighted as worthy only 
 of the attention of the curious, should command the atten- 
 tion of the most profound students. If the character of a 
 people is expressed in their art, so is it also expressed in 
 their faces. Any one who has seen the countenances of the 
 men and women on Clark Street, Chicago, or Whitechapel 
 Street, London, or " Boulevard des Italiens " of Paris, must 
 have felt a shock which awakened in him some apprehen- 
 sions for the future of the human race. A good face is bet- 
 ter than a thousand sermons, poems, anthems, paintings, 
 sculptures or philosophic discussions, for it is all of these 
 combined in their most powerful essence. 
 
 A thorough study of the conditions and influences that 
 modify the form and features of the human body would 
 yield interesting and valuable results, but the limits of this 
 book permit the subject only to be suggested. 
 
 " Essays," New York, Saunders' translation, p. 255. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 
 
 General Character of the Zone. — The Sudan naturally 
 divides itself according to the nature of its vegetable and 
 animal products into three zones. Proceeding north from 
 the equator the diminishing quantity of rain brings about 
 conditions causing a gradual change in the character and 
 distribution of the flora and fauna. Near the equator, on 
 account of the luxuriance of the vegetation, the cultivation 
 of the soil is possible only to a very limited extent. The 
 rapid development of grass and weeds soon chokes the 
 cultivated plants, if the swamps do not submerge them. In 
 this region, however, the superabundance of the banana and 
 plantain renders artificial cultivation of the soil hardly 
 necessary. In some localities, especially in the Niger Delta, 
 the banana trees are so thick as to prevent the proper de- 
 velopment of their fruit.^ This zone forms a narrow strip 
 along the lower border of the Sudan, its northern boundary 
 commencing on the west somewhere about the Akba or 
 Comoe River, at the western extremity of the Gold Coast* 
 extending across the Niger Delta * and the southern portion 
 of Adamawa * and thence running in a southeastern direc- 
 tion to Lake Albert Nyanza. In Central Africa this zone 
 extends far south into the equatorial regions. 
 
 Chief Means of Subsistence. — Throughout the banana 
 zone the fundamental means of subsistence is the same now 
 
 •Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. i88. 
 
 'Freeman, pp. i6, 31; Brackenbury, p. 329; Foa, p. 136; Binger, Vol. 2, 
 p. 231; Stanford, Vol. I, p. 322; Ellis, "Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 207; Feather- 
 man, p. 1 36. 
 
 ' Lander, Vol. 2, p. 246 ; Allen and Thompson, Vol. I, p. 402. 
 
 * Heinrich Barth, Vol. 2, p. 193. 
 
 90 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 91 
 
 as it was when the country was first visited by Europeans. 
 The people subsist mostly upon the spontaneous products 
 of nature, particularly the banana and plantain, fish and 
 game. In many places the banana and plantain groves ap- 
 pear to have been laid out and cultivated. Allen and 
 Thomson who explored the Niger in 1847 observed here 
 and there, in addition to the wealth of natural products, a 
 few patches of ground where the natives planted com, yams 
 and ground-nuts.' Agriculture, they said, was almost wholly 
 neglected at the seacoast for which indeed the swampy 
 nature of the land was a sufficient excuse.^ The palm tree 
 which abounds in this zone and in the lower Niger forms 
 great forests, is, next to the banana, the chief stafi of 
 life.^ It furnishes an oil which is used in lamps, and also as 
 a sauce for every meal. 
 
 Little Attention to Hunting. — It might be supposed, since 
 the people do not occupy themselves in cultivating the soil, 
 that they would devote much time to hunting. But they do 
 not, although in former times hunting was no doubt more 
 in favor. In the first place, the big game is not very 
 abundant, and in the second place, the humidity of the 
 climate is unfavorable to an occupation which requires 
 courage, energy and invention.* 
 
 Domestic Animals. — Domestic animals are very uncom- 
 mon. Except in elevated districts horses and cattle cannot 
 survive. Goats, though found almost everywhere are not 
 in sufficient number for regular food. They are used 
 mostly for sacrifices to the gods. In some villages may be 
 seen a few sheep, hogs, chickens, ducks and pigeons " but 
 animal food is everywhere pretty scarce and the craving for 
 it is such that some people fatten and eat dogs.° Among 
 
 ' Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. 251. 
 
 » Ibid., Vol. I, p. 397 ; Vol. 2, p. 256. 
 
 • Katzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 97, 
 
 « Hovelacque, p. 358. • Staudinger, p. 39. 
 
 « Katzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 140 ; Hovelacque, p. 289. 
 
92 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 the Ashantis monkey flesh boiled in palm oil is a bonne 
 bouche, and snails are also much relished.' 
 
 Fishing.— Along the coast and rivers the people have al- 
 ways given much attention to fishing. Writing in 1772 
 Benezit said that the fishermen would go out two leagues 
 at sea, each carrying in his canoe a sword, some bread and 
 water, and fire upon a flat stone to roast the catch.^ In 
 some localities the fishing was done mostly by slaves who 
 used nets made of the fibre of plantain leaves.* Fishing 
 is still carried on as in former times except that in many 
 districts European hooks and nets have been introduced. 
 
 The Food Problem Easy. — ^The reader will perceive that 
 in this favored zone the fruits of nature grow into the peo- 
 ple's mouths. Here no one can die of hunger,* although, 
 as a result of devastating wars the people sometimes suffer 
 from scarcity of provisions, or they sometimes suffer when 
 traveling as caravan porters through uninhabited districts. 
 If the people cultivate the soil and store up grain, it is 
 rather from the craving for diversified food than from 
 deficiency of spontaneous products, and if they suffer from 
 hunger it is because they are too lazy to reach out the hand 
 for what nature offers. 
 
 Happy are the people who have no food problem to 
 solve and no need to lie awake at night fearing lest some 
 failure of crops, some fall in stocks, some disaster at sea or 
 lull in trade, may deprive them of shelter, food and raiment ! 
 On the other hand, how miserable the people who have too 
 much foresight, cross bridges before reaching them, live in 
 perpetual dread of what might be, who think of nothing but 
 business, and do nothing but " sprawl over each other like 
 maggots for any rotten eatable thing they can get a bite of " 
 and to whom " the thought of the tomb is the skeleton at 
 every feast " I The greater part of the capital and energy 
 
 • Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 240. 8 p. 26. 
 
 "Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. 324; Wood, p. 674. < Foa, p. 188. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 93 
 
 of the civilized world is used in the production and distribu- 
 tion of something to eat, and more than half of each day's 
 production is consumed at breakfast, dinner and supper.' 
 If the farmers, manufacturers and transporters would cease 
 operations for a few weeks, all civilized people would die of 
 starvation. The question of food is at the bottom of almost 
 every war, state constitution, diplomatic trick or piece of 
 legislation. It has been the chief theme of all the world's 
 greatest orators and statesmen whose thundering eloquence 
 has ever been heard in behalf of cornbread, hogsheads of 
 molasses, salt-sacks and pork-barrels. Even poets, novel- 
 ists and painters have immortalized sowers and reapers, 
 tavern-keepers, millers and cooks. Lytton tells us 
 
 " We may live without poetry, music and art. 
 We may live without conscience and live without heart, 
 We may live without friends and we may live without books, 
 But civilized man cannot live without cooks." 
 
 However, to the natives of the banana zone cooks are not 
 essential. The food of the people is predominately vege- 
 table and hence there is not much opportunity for cooks to 
 distinguish themselves. 
 
 But Scarcity of Meat Leads to Cannibalism.— It is a strik- 
 ing fact to note in this connection that wherever among the 
 natural races, the chief diet is vegetable, the people seem to 
 have such a craving for meat that they take to eating each 
 other." Throughout the banana zone cannibalism was once 
 universal ' and is still practiced in many districts, especially 
 east of the Niger where some tribes do not hesitate to eat 
 any one they can waylay and steal.'' The traveler in the 
 Niger Delta and eastward beyond, sees human skeletons as 
 relics of Thyestean feasts hung up in the huts or suspended 
 
 » Gide, " Political Economy," Boston, 1892, p.37. 
 
 ' PreviUe, p. 223. ' Keane, " Man : Pas' and Present," p. 78. 
 
 'Ogilby, p. 482 ; Staudinger, p. 31 ; Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 165. 
 
94 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 from trees. An article in the Missionary Review of the 
 World as late as 1897 says, "Young boys are brought from 
 the dark interior, kept in pens, fattened upon bananas and 
 finally killed and eaten." ' According to Staudinger canni- 
 balism still exists in the Niger Delta.^ This practice, by the 
 way, does not support the argument of the advocates of 
 vegetarianism, that vegetable diet makes man humane, and 
 meat diet makes him brutal. The vegetarian Negroes of 
 Africa are the most brutal people in the world, while the Es- 
 kimos who eat only meat are the most gentle. Who has 
 ever so much as heard of an Eskimo military chief ? 
 
 To live in this zone requires a minimum of effort, few 
 tools or implements and no capital. It calls for no labor- 
 ious digging of the soil, no patient waiting for the harvest 
 and no large storehouse to keep off famine. 
 
 Industrial Arts Manufactured articles vary much ac- 
 cording to locality, and compared to the millet zone, are 
 limited in number and variety. In general the list includes 
 rough basket work, coarse pottery, mats and cloth made of 
 grass and dyed in rich shades of red, yellow and blue : cot- 
 ton cloth similarly dyed, water-jugs of woven reeds, spoons 
 of wood and ivory, knives, etc. The Ashantis know how to 
 make " cotton fabrics, turn and glaze earthenware, forge iron, 
 fabricate instruments and arms, embroider rugs and carpets, 
 and set gold and precious stones." ' During the activities 
 of the slave trade there was a noticeable decline in native 
 manufactures throughout Africa, especially along the coast 
 regions.* The natives gave up to a large extent their prim- 
 itive industries and depended upon the sale of slaves as a 
 means of supplying what they wanted in the line of manu- 
 factured goods. Park observed in his travels that the coast 
 people as a rule did not manufacture iron but depended 
 upon Europeans or traders from the interior for their hard- 
 
 > Vol. 10, N. S., p. 456. * p. 31. » Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 241. 
 
 * Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 290 ; Vol. 2, pp. 5 10-5 17. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 95 
 
 ware." However, the interior people perhaps have always 
 been ahead of the coast people in the art of manufacturing. 
 Trade. — In nature's dealings with man she is nowhere so 
 niggardly as not to offer some means of subsistence, and no- 
 where so generous as not to withhold something that man 
 craves, so as to tempt him to supply the deficiency by ex- 
 ploring unknown countries or by trading with his neighbors. 
 Man first attempts to obtain the goods of his neighbor by 
 theft and general exploitation, but the injurious reactions 
 from such methods lead him to offer something in exchange 
 for what he desires from another. The beginning of trade 
 is therefore a great step forward in the evolution of a race. 
 It is a substitute for theft, pillage, murder and other means 
 of acquiring by force what another has produced. Trade 
 tempts man to produce beyond the demands of home con- 
 sumption, while contact with foreign people ever whets the 
 appetite for new wants. In the banana zone trade has never 
 been very brisk although according to the earliest accounts 
 it was carried on everywhere to a certain extent. From the 
 beginning one of the chief articles of trade was gold which 
 the natives culled from the streams and preserved in quills ' 
 or melted into bars.* The women were the chief gold 
 washers. They scraped the oriferous ore from the streams, 
 placed it in calabashes filled with water, and by a rotary 
 motion of the hand, caused the water and sand to fly over 
 the rims of the vessels.* Other important articles of trade 
 were ivory and palm oil. These articles together with the 
 fish from the rivers and bays, and the products of the soil 
 such as bananas, plantains and yams were exchanged with 
 the interior people for goats, sheep, poultry and grain." 
 The king of the Brass people used to have eighteen canoes, 
 each carrying forty men, which he employed in traffic up 
 
 >P. 130. 'Wood, p. 623. » Hawkins, p. 103. « Wood, p. 623. 
 
 » Lander, Vol. 2, pp. 233, 256 ; Benezet, p. 26 ; Allen and Thomson, Vol. I^ 
 p. 401. 
 
96 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 and down the Niger/ While the slave trade was being 
 carried on by Europeans, the list of articles of exchange was 
 enlarged by the addition of rum, muskets, gun-powder and 
 a great variety of European fabrics and trinkets, which were 
 exchanged for slaves, gold, ivory, and palm oil. 
 
 At present the trade is carried on as in former times ex- 
 cept that the sale of slaves for export has stopped alto- 
 gether.^ Since 1878 many of the old gold diggings on the 
 Gold Coast have been reopened and several productive mines 
 are now being worked by English and French companies.^ 
 
 In recent years the chief exports to Europe have been 
 cocoa, ivory, palm kernels, palm oil, rubber and lumber.* 
 
 So far as water facilities are concerned, no country is 
 more favorably situated for trade than this banana zone, 
 and no country has a richer supply of natural products, yet 
 the people have shown very little enterprise in gathering 
 the fruits and transporting them to the interior markets. 
 
 Markets. — All important towns have regular market 
 days on which the people from the surrounding country 
 assemble to trade and talk. At Porto Novo markets are 
 held every eighth day, at Abomey every other day and at 
 Whydah every day.° Sometimes people come to market 
 from a distance of 300 miles. 
 
 Money. — The chief medium of exchange consists of 
 cowries, twenty thousand of which are equal to about $10 
 and weigh about fifty pounds. On the Gold Coast, how- 
 ever, the natives are now beginning to use British coins in- 
 stead of the cowries.* 
 
 1 Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. 171. ' Staudinger, pp. 13, 32, 39. 
 
 3 Stanford, Vol. i, p. 315. See advertisements in IVtst Africa Mail, October 
 
 13. '905- 
 
 ^The British Empire Year Book, 1903, pp. iiii, 1117-1104. The palm oil 
 in Europe is converted into soap and candles with glycerine as a by-product. IVtst 
 Africa Mail, September 29, 1906, p. 635. It is estimated that 50,000 elephants are 
 killed annually in Africa for their ivory. The African A^ni's, Vol. i, p. 237. 
 
 » Foa, p. 144. « West Africa Mail, October 6, 1905, p. 66l. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 97 
 
 Transportation. — The early writers report that the trans- 
 portation system consisted of porters, mostly women, who 
 carried goods to and from the markets. Not infrequently a 
 woman supported a baby on her back in addition to her 
 load of merchandise.' In thick forests the carriers bore 
 their loads in frames on their backs while with a knife in 
 hand they cut their way through the underbrush. Rich peo- 
 ple sometimes traveled in hammocks borne by their slaves. "^ 
 Dahoman princes now and then rode on horseback, but the 
 horse was regarded as a rare and strange beast and always 
 two slaves had to walk beside the rider to hold him on.* 
 The same methods of transportation exist at the present 
 time with the addition of a few railroads lately constructed 
 by Europeans. One of these roads runs from the Dahoman 
 Coast to the middle course of the Niger and another from 
 Lagos to Rabba on the Niger.* Of course, canoe naviga- 
 tion is common on all the bays and rivers, but the boats 
 made and used by the natives are generally of inferior 
 workmanship. 
 
 Division of Labor. — On account of the very limited 
 economic development in this zone there has never been 
 much division of labor. In some places blacksmithing, 
 pottery and fishing are carried on by special classes, but as 
 a rule the women do all of the work." And each of them is 
 a sort of Jack-of-all-trades, acting as cook, nurse, field- 
 hand, carpenter, mason, manufacturer and porter. So far 
 as the density of population is concerned, the people of this 
 zone should be able to develop a highly complex and 
 specialized economic system, but they have not the neces- 
 sary energy. The division of society into classes cannot 
 take place until occupations become specialized. Specializa- 
 tion is always the cause of the development of classes, be- 
 ginning first in the division into a slave class and a free 
 
 ' Beneiet, p. 30. » Duncan, Vol, i, p. 119. ' Duncan, \oI. i, p. 223. 
 « Reinsch, p. 261. ' Wood, p. 674. 
 
98 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 class, then into a capitalist class and a wage class, and then 
 the sub-division of the latter two classes into special cor- 
 porations and organizations. The formation of classes is a 
 necessary means of developing out of a slave state into a 
 higher political state.' 
 
 Slavery.— Slavery in this zone, as everywhere else in 
 the Sudan, has existed from time immemorial and owes its 
 origin to native economic and political conditions. As the 
 men do not work it is evident that they do not need helpers 
 or slaves. On the other hand as all of the work falls upon 
 the women, it is evident that if slave labor is used at all it 
 must be to help them. The demand for labor is partly 
 supplied by the addition of several wives to each house- 
 hold. Now, as each man has several wives it would seem 
 that whatever work is necessary for the support of a family 
 could be done by the combined labor of the wives, but not 
 so. The wives have a disposition to shirk their work, 
 especially when they are used as porters to carry goods to 
 and from the markets, and therefore it becomes necessary 
 to seek other laborers. But where is the supply to come 
 from ? Land being free and capital a superfluity, every 
 man can make an easy living and need not under any 
 circumstances ask another man to support him. Hence no 
 one will voluntarily work for another, and the only way that 
 laborers can be obtained is by coercion, i. e., by forcing them 
 to work as slaves. Here we find the explanation of slavery. 
 Primarily it arises from the indisposition of people to work 
 for themselves, and secondarily, from their inability to get 
 others to work for them except by force. Nieboer says with 
 truth "We think slavery and serfdom can only be accounted 
 for by a scarcity of labor. When labor is everywhere scarce, 
 a laborer who leaves his employer can everywhere find em- 
 ployment, whereas an employer cannot easily procure labor- 
 
 ' Post, " Ueber die Aufgaben einer AUgemeinen Rechtswissenschaft," pp. 
 37. 38- 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 99 
 
 ers : it is then the interest of the employer to prevent his 
 laborers from leaving him." ' Slaves were obtained by sale 
 of debtors and criminals and by kidnapping and raiding. 
 The manner in which the slave trade has been carried on is 
 discussed in the second volume. So far as the status of the 
 slave is concerned there has been no appreciable change 
 from that indicated by the earliest writers. The number of 
 slaves needed is small, and the yoke that they bear is light. 
 Not only is the labor of slaves light but it is less painful 
 than the labor of the serving class among civilized people. 
 Slaves can hunt, fish, dance and enjoy all of the excitements 
 common to freemen. They work only with irregularity and 
 the demands upon their attention are only intermittent. 
 Often slaves are left to do as they please provided they 
 lodge at home, feed themselves and give to their master a 
 fixed sum per week.^ This kind of slavery suits their mental 
 and moral status and is a preliminary training for more 
 regular activity. " Their lot," says Ellis, " is not in any way 
 comparable with that of an agricultural laborer in Eng- 
 land." ' They are considered members of the family, they 
 can acquire and inherit property, they can own slaves them- 
 selves and not infrequently purchase their freedom by buy- 
 ing other slaves to take their places.* Prior to the European 
 intervention, idle, vicious and mutinous slaves were punished 
 by flogging and imprisonment, but no slave-owner could 
 take the life of his slave, and it was seldom that a slave ran 
 away.° Writing in 1874, Brackenbury said that on the 
 Gold Coast " as a rule slaves would be unwilling to accept 
 their freedom." * Whenever they wished to quit their mas- 
 ter they could dedicate themselves to the service of some 
 god and from such refuge the master could not reclaim 
 
 ' P- 357- ' ^°^> P- 21 1. 3 1. Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 220. 
 
 * Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 219 ; Bouche, p. 162 ; Allen and Thomson, 
 Vol. 1, p. 251. 
 
 ' Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 220. " Brackenbury, p. 325. 
 
loo THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 them.' However, only a very small number of slaves could 
 avail themselves of this avenue of escape. 
 
 But the lot of the slaves was not quite so fortunate as 
 the above stated facts would make it appear. In the banana 
 zone slaves were ever in danger of becoming war-captives 
 and in many cases this meant that they were to be killed 
 and eaten. On account of the simplicity of the economic 
 life only a small number of the captives was needed for the 
 work of maintaining the population and from this fact very 
 serious consequences ensued. When there were many wars 
 and many captives, but no agriculture or other occupations 
 sufficient to give employment to the captives, what became 
 of them ? They were eaten ; and Preville believes that it was 
 precisely this lack of profitable utilization of captives that 
 originally led to cannibalism. Thousands of captive-slaves 
 were sacrificed to the gods and superstitious customs and 
 thousands of home-born slaves were immolated upon the 
 graves of their masters. It is evident that the slaves did not 
 contemplate these eventualities with any high degree of 
 satisfaction, since, according to Ellis, when a slave-master 
 was about to die his slaves often ran away to escape immo- 
 lation. 
 
 But notwithstanding the casualties attendant upon the 
 slave life, a consideration of all facts seems to justify the 
 conclusion that the lot of the slaves of this zone was a fortu- 
 nate and happy one as compared to that of slaves in many 
 more advanced societies. The more intense labor of the 
 slaves among civilized people and the consequent greater 
 restraints and exactions imposed by the master, cause 
 breaches of discipline which furnish provocations to ill- 
 treatment and overwork. The severity of the regime while 
 rendering the slave less free and less happy, brings about a 
 greater mortality than all of the sang^linary customs of the 
 banana zone. For example, throughout Egypt the slave 
 
 ' Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 220. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE loi 
 
 conditions are such that it is impossible for the Negroes to 
 maintain their numbers. It is quite the fashion to attribute 
 this high death-rate to the climate, but in the opinion of the 
 writer, it is due to the regime of confinement and monotony 
 and the absence of stimulating diversions. Waitz was right 
 in his contention that, as a rule, slaves are better treated 
 among savages than among civilized people, for the reason 
 first, that the savage master does not place so much value 
 upon time and labor and hence does not rush his slaves, 
 and second, that savage masters do not draw such tight 
 class distinctions.' 
 
 Domestic slavery was abolished in Nigeria (which includes 
 most of the territory of the Nigritians in the banana zone) 
 in 1901. It was not made illegal for natives to own slaves 
 but by the abolition of the legal status of slavery, every 
 slave who chooses to do so may assert his freedom. Few 
 slaves have as yet availed themselves of this open door and 
 perhaps it will be all the better if emancipation proceeds 
 slowly."* In many districts, out of hearing of the British 
 bugle, slavery will continue for many years to come. 
 
 Capital and Transmission of Property. — No capital to 
 speak of is necessary to existence in this zone and the 
 people have little incentive to accumulate anything. Nature, 
 instead of man, provides for posterity, and man therefore 
 develops little foresight. Such property eis exists is usually 
 transmitted in accordance with the principles of the matri- 
 archate as pointed out in the chapters on the family life. 
 
 I Vol. 2, pp. 281-3-4. 'Shaw, " Lady Lugard," p. 460. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 
 
 Character of the Zone. — North of the banana zone the 
 forest with its tropical aspect begins to give way to scattered 
 clumps of trees interspersed with open prairies. The longer 
 dry season permits the cultivation and ripening of a variety 
 of grains of which the chief is millet.* Millet and sorghum, 
 says Ratzel, play the same r61e in Central Africa as wheat in 
 Europe, corn in America, and rice in China.^ At about ii° 
 North the empire of the banana terminates and that of grain 
 commences.^ This millet zone forms a broad band stretch- 
 ing across the entire continent. Its northern line begins 
 about with the river Gambia, thence extending easterly in 
 an irregular line, skirting the lower edge of Lake Chad and 
 terminating in the grassy region of East Africa. The 
 southern boundary is coextensive with the northern boundary 
 of the banana zone. 
 
 Millet the Chief Means of Subsistence. — The earliest and 
 most recent writers give about the same description of the 
 products of the soil and the methods of cultivating in this 
 zone. On account of the rapid exhaustion of the soil, the 
 people find it necessary to let a part of their land lie fallow 
 each year,^ and always preparatory to planting the natives 
 set fire to the tall grass." " In the middle of the night," says 
 Mungo Park, " I could see the plains and mountains, as fat 
 as the eye could reach, variegated with lines of fire, and the 
 
 1 Heinrich Barth, Vol. 2, p. 558 ; Binger, Vol. I, p. 484 ; Preville, p. 247. 
 * " Anthropogeographie," Vol. i, p. 505. 
 
 5 Binger, Vol. 1, p. 125. * Preville, p. 252. 
 
 ' Clapperton, " Journey to Kouka and Sackatoo," p. 99 ; Binger, Vol. I, p. 242 ; 
 Campbell, p. 99; Staudinger, p. 10. 
 
 102 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 103 
 
 light reflected on the sky made the' heavens appear in a 
 blaze." Birds of prey follow in the wake of the flames, de- 
 vouring the snakes, lizards and small game which the heat 
 has killed/ When the crops are somewhat advanced slaves 
 are stationed about in the fields upon platforms or in trees 
 to scare away the devastating birds by rattling calabashes 
 or shouting at the top of their voices.^ 
 
 Other Food Products : Corn. Rice, Fruit.— In addition to 
 millet this zone produces Indian corn, rice, manioc, ground- 
 nuts, indigo, tobacco, yams, sorghum, etc' The oil-palm 
 disappears some distance inland from the coast and is re- 
 placed by the butter-tree, the nuts of which produce an 
 aromatic oil of about the consistency of butter. This tree- 
 butter is a staple article in many of the western districts.* 
 The fruits in this zone are scarce and hardly worth the 
 gathering." The kola-nut grows plentifully in the southern 
 districts of the west, and is used by the natives almost as 
 extensively as coflPee among the white people of Europe and 
 America." It is valued on account of its stimulating and 
 sustaining powers. The nut is ground into a fine powder 
 and carried about the person during long journeys when 
 often the only subsistence consists of a chew of this kola. 
 Thanks to it many travelers are able to stave off thirst and 
 hunger.' 
 
 Cotton. — Cotton has been extensively cultivated for 
 many years, especially in the basin of the Benue River, but 
 until recent years was used almost altogether for home con- 
 sumption.' The total value of the cotton now exported an- 
 
 ' Park, p. 126. 'Clapperton, "Second Expedition," p. 266. 
 
 ' Lasnet, et. al, pp. 92, 94; Bowen, p. 41 ; Clapperton, "Second Expedition," 
 p. 88; Binger, Vol. I, pp. 125, 229 ; Adanson, p. 166. 
 
 ■■ Bowen, p. 55. Accordingto Binger, the limit of the oil-palm is about 80 North, 
 Vol. I, p. 138. 
 
 » Bowen, p. 51. ' Binger, Vol. i, p. 309. 
 
 ''African News, Vol. 2, 1890, p. 466. 
 
 "Clapperton, "Second Expedition," p. 217 ; Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 327. 
 
I04 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 nually from the Sudan to England is about $500,000,^ A 
 letter from O. P. Austin, Chief of Bureau United States De- 
 partment of Commerce and Labor under date November 
 13, 1906, says: "In compliance with your inquiry under 
 date of November 6, regarding cotton exports from the 
 Sudan, I have to say that the only data which this Bureau 
 has on the subject of cotton in the Sudan are those of acre- 
 age and estimated yield. 
 
 " According to the official blue book on the Finances, 
 Administration and Condition of Egypt and the Sudan, 
 the acreage in cotton in 1904 was 15,267, while that in 1905 
 was 23,898. The estimated yield in 1904 is given as 115,- 
 678 kantars, or about 11,458,000 pounds, which would be 
 about 22,916 bales of 500 pounds each. No figures of pro- 
 duction are given for the year 1905. 
 
 " Neither the 1904 nor the 1905 report gives any data 
 regarding shipments. The 1904 report states, in a general 
 way, that " Cotton growing in the Sudan, for export pur- 
 poses cannot, as yet, be said to have passed out of the ex- 
 perimental stage." In Lagos Colony (interior and west of 
 the Niger) there are over 5,000 acres planted in cotton. 
 Ginning machines are employed and the crop produced is 
 sold on the Liverpool market.^ In 1905 there was com- 
 plaint in England of the bad color of the Lago cotton.* 
 The cotton of West Africa generally has a short fibre and a 
 large proportion of seed to fibre. The reason for these pe- 
 culiarities is that the natives do not grow the cotton from 
 seed each year, as is done in America, but treat the plant as 
 a perennial.* Better methods, however, are gradually being 
 introduced by the British Association for the encouragement 
 of cotton culture in Africa. The Germans are now attempt- 
 
 ' Geller, " West African Cotton Culture," Van Norden Magazine, July, 1906. 
 ^Reinsch, p. 291 ; African Wo^-ZflT, October 4, 1905, p. 491. 
 ' West Africa Mail, September 29, 1905, p. 637. 
 * West Africa Mail, October 27, 1905, p. 731. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 105 
 
 ing to develop cotton cultivation in Togo (west of Dahomi) 
 where American cotton experts are employed as teachers 
 and experiment directors. It has already been demonstrated, 
 says Reinsch, " that Togo cotton can be delivered in German 
 markets at a very handsome profit. In 1904 the harvest 
 amounted to 300 tons.* The value of the cotton exported 
 from Lagos in 1869 was jC7(>,957 '• in 1901 the value of it 
 was only ;^i54. The falling off of exports is explained by 
 the fall in the price. When the price was high the natives 
 were willing to sell to the Europeans, but when the price fell 
 they found it more profitable to spin and weave the cotton 
 into cloth.^ The lesson for the farmers of America to learn 
 from these facts is that so long as they produce a large crop 
 and sell it at a moderate price there is little probability of 
 losing their monopoly in cotton cultivation, but if the output 
 is restricted and the price advanced by artificial manipula- 
 tion there is the greatest danger that Africa may entirely 
 supplant America as a cotton producing country. 
 
 In some of the upland districts of this zone there are 
 large areas where crops will not mature because of deficient 
 rainfall. The streams dry up and for miles around no 
 human habitation can be seen.' 
 
 Wild and Domestic Animals. — Wild animals are more 
 abundant in this than in the banana zone, and the people 
 are more given to hunting. The Borgus, for example, are 
 great hunters.'' On the Mandingo plateau there are multi- 
 tudes of elephants, antelopes and buffaloes." All across the 
 continent as far as the Nile game is plentiful. The domes- 
 tic animals are oxen, sheep, asses, goats and pigs,* the 
 latter, according to Miss Kingsley, being a rich source of 
 practice to the local lawyer.'^ Horses do not prosper * and 
 
 ' Reinsch, p. 292. " Hazzledine, p. 178. ' Binger, Vol. i, p. 84 ; Vol. 2, p. 194. 
 <C!apperton, "Second Expedition," p. 130; Schweinfurth, Vol. i, p. 374. 
 ' Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 218. ' Bowen, p. 307. 
 
 "• Travels in West Africa," p. 20. » Staudinger, p. 527. 
 
io6 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 are scarce except along the northern border. The climate 
 is fatal to camels and, as Clapperton facetiously remarks, 
 when they are brought into the region it is necessary to kill 
 them to save their lives.' Chickens are found almost every- 
 where, even in districts so poor that people have to collect 
 termites as food for them.'' 
 
 The Struggle for Existence Harder Than in the Banana 
 Zone.— The problem of life in this zone is a serious one. 
 Man cannot live upon the bounty of nature. He must labor, 
 till the soil, sow, protect the growing crop and store up the 
 product. In the west large urns as tall as a man are used 
 for preserving the grain,^ and in the east, bins made of 
 wicker.^ Millet will keep in jars for three years,'* and a kind 
 of yam flour, made of sliced, dried and pounded yams, will 
 keep for six months.* In some places water is scarce and 
 the natives have to dig wells through solid rock. Those 
 who thus obtain water make it a profitable source of income." 
 Also in some localities trees are so scarce that slaves have 
 to be sent long distances to get wood for cooking purposes.* 
 
 The Improvident Borrow From the Provident. — ^The fore- 
 going facts show that life in this zone demands a definite 
 amount of energy, foresight and self-control, and that people 
 who are improvident pay the penalty, as elsewhere in the 
 world, by loss of comfort and standing. People who have 
 empty bins go hungry,' and many of them become beggars." 
 In their extremity they sometimes rob ant-holes to get the 
 little store of corn that these more industrious workers have 
 laid up." In seasons of famine, the people take to eating 
 
 > Clapperton, " Journey to Kouka and Sackatoo," p. 40. 
 'Binger, Vol. i, p. 268. s uid,. Vol. I, p. 79. 
 
 < Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 34. 
 
 » Clapperton, " Second Expedition," p. 267. » Ibid., p. 80. 
 
 ' Binger, Vol. I, p. 281 ; Vol. 2, p. 99. ^ Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 99. 
 
 » Waitz, Vol. 2, p. 82. w Staudinger, pp. 565, 566. 
 
 " Barth, Vol. 2, p. 524. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 107 
 
 monkeys, dogs, cats, rats,' locusts,^ lizards, etc. In some 
 places winged ants are collected, fried in cow-butter or tree- 
 butter and fed to children.* But the economic man, rara 
 avis, comes to the rescue. He lends seed to the improvi- 
 dent upon consideration that they labor for him for a given 
 period,* or in case of worse distress, he buys a boy or girl 
 from a father or mother paying therefor a supply of pro- 
 visions for a certain number of days." 
 
 Industrial Arts : Tools and Implements.— Fortunately 
 manufacturing comes in to supplement the rather precarious 
 agricultural resources. The smiths prepare charcoal, smelt 
 iron, make hoes, hatchets, axes, knives, scythes, nails and 
 other hardware.* Staudinger thinks that smithwork was 
 probably original with some of the West African peoples.' 
 The smiths are not a despised class in this zone as among 
 the people further north.' Leather workers dress hides, 
 dyeing them yellow and red, and making them into cloaks, 
 shoes, sandals,' shields, tobacco cases, water and oil ves- 
 sels, etc.'" In Nupeland the people have learned to melt, 
 form and color glass." In the Bautschi district the people 
 manufacture soap, and in other districts gunpowder.'^ In 
 almost all cities cotton is spun and woven into strips of cloth 
 three inches wide and sixty yards long, dyed in stripes of 
 gray, blue and red.'' The weaving of cotton was known in 
 the Sudan as early as the eleventh century," but whether in- 
 troduced by races from the north or developed independ- 
 endy by the Negroes is uncertain." There is extensive 
 
 ' Clapperton, " Second Expedition," p. 143. ' Adanson, p. 161. 
 
 'Binger, Vol. i, p. 199. * Preville, p. 256. <• Park, pp. 118, 138. 
 
 « Bowen, p. 308. ' P. 593. 
 
 « Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 156; Staudinger, p. 594; Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 292. 
 » Park, p. 130; Bowen, p. 308. '» Staudinger, p. 585. " Ibid., p. 597. 
 " Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 159 ; Waitz, Vol. 2, p. 97. 
 
 " " Denham's Narrative," p. 182; Allen and Thomson, Vol. 2, p. 100 ; Lander, 
 Vol. I, p. 269. 
 
 '« Heinrich Barth, Vol. 3, p. 365. '» Staudinger, p. 579. 
 
io8 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 manufacturing of wooden ware, such as dishes and baskets ' 
 and also many products of the potter's art.^* Tools, imple- 
 ments and utensils are divers and sundry, and great quan- 
 tities of them are exposed for sale at the public markets. 
 
 During the flourishing days of slave exportation to 
 America, the industrial arts declined as well as the cultiva- 
 tion of the soil. One of the effects of the contact with 
 European peoples and products was at first to cause the 
 natives to imitate the articles of foreign manufacture, such 
 as glass and gunpowder, and but for the slave trade and 
 other mistaken policies of the white man which disorganized 
 the whole economic life of the natives there is no telling 
 what strides would have been made in all lines of industry.* 
 Since the abolition of the external slave trade, the revival of 
 industrial activities among the people of the Sudan has been 
 hindered by the wars between the pastoral Fellatahs and 
 native blacks.* 
 
 Trade. — ^The people of this zone have a natural turn for 
 trade. It suits their restless nature, intense curiosity, love 
 of palaver, and it is liked as much for its own sake as for the 
 profit in it.° The Negro is never happier than when he is 
 in the midst of the hubbub of the market. The great trade 
 centre of this zone is Kano, the Manchester of the Sudan. 
 Its wares are famous throughout a great portion of Africa. 
 Its cotton and leather goods are sold in all important mar- 
 kets of the Hausa States, and are exported to the Gulf of 
 Guinea and to Timbuctu and districts in and beyond the 
 -desert* It supplies sandals for half of the Sudan and 
 Sahara.' The market place of this thriving city is crowded 
 with people from far and near. Great caravans come from 
 
 1 Staudinger, p. 586. 
 
 '^Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, pp. 301, 309, 310; Staudinger, p. 588. 
 
 ' Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 249. •> Ibi(l., Vol. 2, p. 250. 
 
 ' Ratrel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 375. 
 
 ' Lorin, p. 258 ; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, pp. 310-312. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, 319. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 109 
 
 the eastern, western and southern portions of the desert.' 
 The Moors bring articles across the desert to Kano and 
 compete with the European goods coming up by way of the 
 coast.* Each article for sale on the market has its special 
 booth, and bands of music parade the streets to attract cus- 
 tomers.^ The commodities of Kano, says Barth, are sent 
 " to the north as far as Murzuk, Ghat and even Tripoli : to 
 the west, not only to Timbuctu, but in some degree as far as 
 the shores of the Atlantic, the very inhabitants of Arguin 
 dressing in the cloth woven and dyed in Kano : to the east 
 all over Bornu, although there it comes in contact with the 
 native industry of the country : and to the south it main- 
 tains a rivalry with the native industry of Igbera and Igbo, 
 while towards the southeast it invades the whole of Adamawa 
 and is only limited by the nakedness of the pagan sanscu- 
 lottes who do not wear clothing." * Gold is an important 
 article of commerce," especially in the western districts, 
 where it is found along the streams, washed in calabashes, 
 stored in quills and exchanged for sundry foreign commodi- 
 ties. Much of it is given to the Moors for salt * which is 
 scarce in this zone and has to be imported from the desert 
 or from the coast. In recent years the gold of the country 
 has been mostly exploited by French and British companies. 
 The chief exports to Europe at present are gum-arabic, 
 ivory, rubber, kola nuts, groundnuts and ginger.^ 
 
 Markets and Money Each large city, as well as Kano, 
 
 has its regular market places and market days. Some of 
 the traders come in caravans of asses, horses and oxen, and 
 others come afoot carrying goods on their backs and heads.* 
 
 ' Clapperton, " Journey to Kouka and Sackatoo," p. 33. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 312. 
 
 ' Clapperton, " Journey to Kouka and Sackatoo," p. 40. 
 
 < Vol. I, p. 511. ' Binger, Vol. i, p. 415. 
 
 » Park, pp. 141, 142. 
 
 'British Empire Year Book, 1903, pp. 1087, 1095, 1121. 
 
 » Bowen, p. 307 ; Campbell, p. 59. 
 
no THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Women traders come in from the near by villages to pur- 
 chase supplies for the local markets and they sometimes 
 carry on their heads from sixty to one hundred pounds of 
 merchandise.' In certain cities there are regular market in- 
 spectors who examine the milk and meat. They see to it 
 that butchers remove all the bones from their meat before 
 offering it for sale.'' The money of exchange consists chiefly 
 of cowries of which about 4,500 equal in value one American 
 dollar or one French five franc piece.^ In the east iron bars 
 are used as the money with which the men often purchase 
 their wives.* Pieces of iron were once used as money also 
 in the west* 
 
 Transportation. — As means of transportation the people 
 have asses, horses and oxen * but the commonalty still to a 
 great extent carry loads on their backs and heads. Even 
 fine ladies sometimes hire themselves as porters assisted by 
 their slaves.' Considering the general navigability of the 
 rivers, canoe transportation is very little developed except 
 on the Niger and the Nile. Railroads, in late years, have 
 begun to penetrate this zone. The Sudanese railway con- 
 nects Kayes at the heed of the Senegal navigation with 
 Kulikora on the Niger. The commercial route from 
 Timbuctu to the sea thus lies up the Niger to Kulikora, 
 thence by rail to Kayes, thence down the Senegal River to 
 St. Louis, thence by the coast railway to Dakar. A rail- 
 road from Lagos and another from the Dahoman coast are 
 also heading for the interior.^ 
 
 Division of Labor. — Division of labor is much more 
 marked here than in the banana zone. Besides the division 
 into freemen and slaves, there are specialized potters, smiths, 
 
 'Clapperton, "Second Expedition," p. 177; Park, p. 208. 
 
 'Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 160. sstaudinger, p. 618. 
 
 * Schweinfurth, Vol. i, p. 27$. 'Park, p. 33; Ogilby, p. 356. 
 
 « Staudinger, p. 614. ■" Clapperton, " Second Expedition," p. 179. 
 
 *Reinsch, p. 261. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE iii 
 
 tanners, weavers, tailors, dyers and musicians. There are 
 also architects who build houses,' barbers who combine 
 dentistry with the tonsorial art and extract teeth with a pair 
 of iron tongs ^ and manicurists who with a wicked pair of 
 scissors trim finger and toe nails at the rate of four cowries 
 per individual.' Territorial division of labor, as defined by 
 Ely,* i. e., where different sections of a country are devoted 
 to special kinds of production, is well developed in this zone, 
 as the facts already stated in reference to trade indicate. 
 
 Slavery. — Slave labor is much in demand owing to the 
 extensive cultivation of the soil, manufacturing and trade, 
 and up to a few years ago the supply was kept up partly by 
 war-captives and partly by the purchase of freemen who 
 sold themselves or were sold by their parents. Instead of 
 killing and eating war-captives or offering them as sacrifices, 
 as was done in the banana zone, they were here, as is gen- 
 erally the case when man advances to the agricultural stage, 
 employed as field laborers. " There have been many dis- 
 cussions," says Ely, "as to whether slavery is right or 
 wrong. It is both. There is a time in human development 
 when slavery represents a step in human progress, the best 
 and longest that men are able then to take. Such a step is 
 always right. It is wrong when men have learned how to 
 do better." ° In the millet zone of Africa there have been 
 obvious advantages in slavery both to the slave and to the 
 master. The slave found in the master a means of saving 
 himself from the penalties of his lack of thrift and foresight, 
 and the master found in the slave a labor supply which 
 without coercion could not have been obtained. Owing to 
 the fact that land was plentiful and free, an insufficient num- 
 ber of people would voluntarily work for others, and the 
 supply could be kept up only by raiding and enslaving. 
 
 ' Staudinger, p. 599. » /iid., p. 605. ' Binger, Vol. i, p. 371. 
 
 «" Political Economy," New York, 1901, p. 158. 
 5 "Outlines of Economics," New York, 1893, P- '°- 
 
112 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 The coercive union of slave and master, enabled the coun- 
 try's resources to be developed, caused the production of 
 many commodities which would never have been voluntarily 
 produced, and trained both slave and master to some regular 
 habits of industry. Before the British intervention decree- 
 ing the illegality of slavery the proportion of slaves to free- 
 men in this zone varied in the different localities from one- 
 half to four-fifths, many private individuals having owned 
 more than a thousand.^ Slaves in the family were generally 
 considered as members of it and were seldom sold so long 
 as they were industrious and obedient. They were per- 
 mitted to marry and to acquire and inherit property, and 
 sometimes they could purchase their freedom.^ Among the 
 Mandingos a master could not kill a slave without a trial.^ In 
 case of ill-treatment, slaves could place themselves under the 
 protection of another master. Slaves born of kings or men 
 of rank were often appointed to high offices and sometimes 
 forced freemen to kneel at their feet.* In this zone the con- 
 ditions demanded more continuous and systematic labor and 
 consequently afforded less opportunity to pursue the pleas- 
 urable occupations of hunting, war and gallantry. In all 
 tropical countries the people always find it difficult to adjust 
 themselves to regular habits of industry. Their tempera- 
 ment causes them to take up occupations which appeal to 
 their love of change, chance and excitement, and require 
 only casual attention. They become restless and rebellious 
 when subjected to routine labor, since it is in the nature of 
 man that his instinctive habits are pleasurable and his ac- 
 quired habits irksome.' 
 
 But while the slave labor in this zone was more exact- 
 ing than in the one below, it was not enough repellent to 
 
 1 Barth, Vol. 2, p. 191 ; Hovelacque, p. 321 ; Waitz, Vol. 2, p. 211. 
 'Park, p. 139. 'Waitz, Vol. 2, p. 213. * Staudinger, pp. 570, 573. 
 
 » Thomas, " The Gaming Instinct," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 6, 
 p. 762. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 113 
 
 cause a general uprising. It was just sufficiently hard to 
 conform to the economic conditions and psychological pe- 
 culiarities of a majority of the people. Clapperton says 
 that an English servant could do in one hour a whole day's 
 work of an African slave.' In the millet zone slaves were 
 not so liable to become the victims of superstitious practices 
 but on other accounts their lot was hardly more fortunate 
 than that of the slaves in the banana zone. The millet 
 country was at times visited by famine and if the free peo- 
 ple then often had to sell themselves into bondage what 
 must have been the lot of the slave ? If they did not starve 
 to death they must indeed have subsisted upon a pitifully 
 scant allowance. Even in ordinary seasons they did not 
 seem to have been very bountifully nourished. In Borgu 
 slaves were fed only twice a day.^ At Wawa one meal was 
 at nine o'clock almost invariably consisting of a paste of the 
 flour of yams and millet, and a thicker kind approaching to 
 a pudding after sunset and this only in small quantities : 
 flesh, fowl or fish they might occasionally get but only by a 
 very rare chance.* Furthermore it frequently happened 
 that villages were attacked and destroyed, grain fields and 
 granaries plundered and the slaves killed, or captured to be 
 sold to strange masters and perhaps to be transported across 
 the desert. 
 
 Whatever may be said of the mild treatment of the 
 home-born slaves it is necessary to face the fact that the 
 proportion of home-born slaves was very small. Slaves in 
 this zone were constantly changing their masters and local- 
 ities. This fact came to the notice of Barth who said, " I 
 was surprised at observing so few home-born slaves in Ne- 
 gro-land . . . and I have come to the conclusion 
 that marriage among domestic slaves is very little encour- 
 aged by the natives. Indeed I think myself justified in sup- 
 
 ' " Second Expedition," p. 130. 
 'Clapperton, " Second expedition," p. 130. • Ibid., p. 130. 
 
114 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 posing that a slave is very rarely allowed to marry. This is 
 a very important circumstance in considering domestic slav- 
 ery in Central Africa ; for if their domestic slaves do not of 
 themselves maintain their numbers, then the deficiency aris- 
 ing from ordinary mortality must constantly be kept up by 
 a new supply, which can be obtained only by kidnapping 
 or more generally by predatory incursions and it is this ne- 
 cessity which makes even domestic slavery appear so bane- 
 ful and pernicious. The motive for making these observa- 
 tions in this place was the sight of a band of slaves whom 
 we met this morning led on in two files and fastened one to 
 the other by a strong rope round the neck." ^ Barth was 
 mistaken as to the restriction upon marriage, as Clapperton 
 and others state that slaves were permitted to marry and 
 set up independent households, but were required to give a 
 part of their earnings to their master.'' The rarity of home- 
 born slaves was therefore not due to the prohibition of mar- 
 riage but to the incessant raiding and kidnapping which 
 caused the slaves to be ever moving from one community 
 to another. 
 
 Upon the whole the writer inclines to the view that the 
 lot of the slaves in this zone was less fortunate and less fa- 
 vorable to happiness than that of the slaves in the banana 
 zone ; and it is not surprising, therefore, to learn that many 
 slaves became dissatisfied and ran away whenever oppor- 
 tunity offered and whenever they could take their owner's 
 goods or cattle to assist them in their journey.* The city 
 of Zirmee, says Clapperton, was a sort of refuge for runaway 
 slaves from all over Hausaland.* 
 
 Inheritance of Property.— Everywhere in the millet zone 
 property of every kind is more in evidence than in the ba- 
 nana zone and, as in the latter zone, it is generally transmit- 
 ted in the female line. 
 
 1 Vol. i,p 528. ' " Second Expedition." p. 181. 
 
 ^Clapperton, '■ Second Expedition," p. 186. * Ibid., p. 89. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 115 
 
 Everything considered, there is a marked advance in gen- 
 eral culture in this zone as compared to the one further south.' 
 Towards the coast the drop in the level of culture is precipi- 
 tous.^ The interior has the advantage in a larger population, 
 more settled life and more invigorating climate. 
 
 ■ Staudinger, p. 621 ; Waitz, Vol. 2, p. 79. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, pp. 102, 103. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 
 
 Character of the Zone. — North of the millet zone the 
 country begins to assume the aspect of an open prairie. 
 Trees become scarce and the predominant vegetation is 
 grass. Here cattle and horses may be seen in great num- 
 bers, especially the former, thousands of which exist in a 
 wild state. Sheep and goats also appear in abundance. 
 Camels do not thrive here on account of the insects.^ This 
 great steppe region of Africa once offered the same rich ter- 
 ritory for the wild as now for the tame animals, and was 
 therefore a great hunting ground. Steppe countries all 
 over the world have been the theatres of great hunters.'' 
 This zone extends all the way across the continent. The 
 line of its northern boundary is impossible of exact defini- 
 tion, but it runs across about with the parallel of Timbuctu. 
 
 Cattle the Chief Resource The predominant occupa- 
 tion in this zone is the pasturing of cattle, sheep and goats.' 
 In the eastern part of this zone the people are sedentary, for 
 example, the Shillooks, Dinkas, Baris and Nuers, while in 
 the west they are more or less nomadic, for example, the 
 Fellatahs, Jolofs, Kanuris, and Soninkes. The Fellatahs 
 have very extensive herds of catde which every day are 
 driven out to pasture and in the evening brought back to 
 be milked, being under the constant supervision of herds- 
 men in order to keep them from invading the plantations. 
 " An open shed," says Featherman, " is erected near each 
 village, with a stage in the centre about eight feet high and 
 
 ' Preville, p. 47. 2 Ratzel, •< Anthropogeographie," Vol. 1, p. 166. 
 
 "Ogilby, p. 319; Du Chaillu, " My Apingi Nation," p. 189; Ratzel, "History 
 of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 281 ; Schweinfurtli, Vol. I, pp. 86, 148; Lorin, p. 308. 
 
 116 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 117 
 
 from eight to ten feet in diameter, which is ascended by 
 means of a ladder. Here the catde are housed every night 
 and each animal is tied separately with a bark-fibre rope to 
 a strong stake driven into the ground. . . . The herds- 
 men mount the elevated platform well armed to defend the 
 herds from the nightly attacks of wild animals." ' The coun- 
 try is well stocked with sheep and goats, and many of the 
 wealthy people keep a number of horses. 
 
 The Dinkas live in farmsteads consisting of small 
 groups of huts scattered over the plains. The cattle of the 
 several districts are kept in a large park called murah which 
 rarely contains less than 2,000 beasts and sometimes as many 
 as 10,000. The proportion of cows to inhabitants is about 
 three to one.^ Each family builds three huts, one of which 
 is used as a hospital for sick cows.' Owing perhaps to the 
 coarse quality of the grass and the absence of salt the cows 
 give very little milk and seldom calve.* Goats are the chief 
 dependence for milk but are not often killed for meat." 
 
 Of the Latukas, Baker says, "The cattle are kept in 
 large kraals in various parts of the town and were most 
 carefully attended to by fires being lit every night to protect 
 them from flies ; and high platforms, in three tiers, were 
 erected in many places upon which sentinels watched both 
 day and night to give the alarm in case of danger. The 
 cattle are the wealth of the country and so rich are the La- 
 tukas in oxen that ten or twelve thousand head are housed 
 in every large town." * The Shillooks live in villages about 
 a mile apart and keep their cattle in enclosures made of 
 straw mats.' The Kanuris live in cities or villages and keep 
 in the neighboring pastures " immense herds of cattle, as 
 well as flocks of sheep and goats. Horses and asses receive 
 much attention in some localities." * The Jolofs, especially 
 
 ' p. 366. » Schweinfurth, Vol. i, p. 167. ' Ibid., Vol. i, p. 159. 
 
 < Ibid., Vol. I, p. 229. » Ibid., Vol. I, p. 160. • Vol. I, p. 207. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 63. ' Featherman, p. 274. 
 
ii8 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 those of the interior uplands, devote much of their attention 
 to raising cattle, sheep and goats, which find rich pastures in 
 the immense prairies thickly covered with grass. The herds 
 and flocks are placed under the care of slaves whose busi- 
 ness it is to guard them and to change the pastures accord- 
 ing to the seasons/ 
 
 Hunting. — The people of this zone, especially in the west, 
 are great hunters. They unite in parties of twenty or more 
 to pursue and kill elephants. They sell the tusks of these 
 monsters and dry and smoke the meat which supplies them 
 with a nourishing food for several months.^ 
 
 Agriculture. — But notwithstanding the immense number 
 of cattle and other animals, the milk and flesh do not sufifice 
 to feed the population. The cows give only a small quan- 
 tity of milk, and are not suitable for food unless especially 
 fattened for the purpose. Hence the people are obliged to 
 supplement the pastoral art by cultivating the soil, trading 
 and manufacturing.^ In some places agriculture receives as 
 much attention as cattle-breeding, while trade receives as 
 much attention as agriculture. In the low lands and well 
 watered places the cultivated products are, for example, 
 among the Fellatahs, rice maize, sorghum, several species 
 of millet, yams, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, watermelons, 
 onions, red-pepper and groundnuts ; also cotton, indigo 
 and tobacco.* Pretty much the same products are raised 
 throughout this zone, except rice which can be cultivated 
 only in the low lands.' Rohlfs supposes that the Fellatahs 
 learned to cultivate grain and vegetables from the native 
 blacks,^ but it is more probable that they brought a knowl- 
 edge of agriculture with them, since the Berbers from whom 
 they sprang, combine agriculture with the pastoral art in 
 their desert oases.' Wherever any of the Fellatahs show a 
 
 ' OgUby, p. 345 ; Featherman, p. 353. s Featherman, p. 367. 
 
 ' Preville, p. 48. « Featheiman, p. 366. » Ibid., pp. 30, 65, 274, 352. 
 « Vol. 2, p. 132. 1 Demolins, p. 225 ; Preville, pp. 3^-44. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 119 
 
 contempt for agriculture it is probably due to the influence 
 of the Arabs who notoriously abhor that kind of work, and 
 to the fact that agriculture is the chief occupation of the 
 despised negroes. 
 
 Industrial Arts : Implements. — From the time of the 
 earliest explorers in this region, manufacturing has been car- 
 ried on extensively in all of the large cities. Leo Africanus, 
 writing in the sixteenth century said of Timbuctu, " It is a 
 woonder to see what plentie of Merchandize is dayly brought 
 hither and how costly and sumptuous all things be. . . . 
 Here are many shops of artificers and merchants and espe- 
 cially of such as weave linnen and cloth." ' Speaking of the 
 kingdom of Guber he said, " Here are such shoes made as 
 the ancient Romans were woont to weare." ^ At the present 
 time the principal manufacturing centres are Kuka and 
 Sokoto. At the latter city the women spin the home-grown 
 cotton into yarn, by means of a short and elegantly orna- 
 mented spindle. The men do the weaving on a primitive 
 loom, and fabricate two kinds of cloth, one being extremely 
 coarse and reserved for home use, the other of a finer tex- 
 ture being made into tunics and exported. Goatskins are 
 tanned various colors and made into bags, cushions, boots, 
 shoes and saddles. From iron and other metals the smiths 
 make implements, tools and sundry ornaments.' The 
 Kanuris manufacture in their numerous cities, particularly 
 in that of Kuka, cloth, iron and copper fabrics, saddles, 
 leather bags, sandals, wooden and gourd-dishes, pots, plates, 
 gunpowder, etc.'' The manufacturers of Kuka usually have 
 their shops along the streets in front of their residences. 
 They are very busy in the morning and again in the after- 
 noon, but rest and sleep during the heat of the day.* The 
 
 ' Pp. 287-290. ' p. 290. ' Featherman, p. 385. 
 
 '"Denham's Narrative," p. 182; Featherman, p. 275 ; Ratzel, "History of 
 Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 37 ; Waitz, Vol. 2, p. 97. 
 
 » Rohlfs, Vol. I, p. 339. 
 
I20 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 implements of industry are about the same in this zone as in 
 the millet zone, except for a greater number of milk cans, 
 which among the Shillooks, are kept clean by daily washing 
 in cow-liquid.' Ratzel is of the opinion that iron manufac- 
 turing, cattle-breeding and many branches of agriculture 
 in this region were not developed independently by the 
 natives but were introduced by races from outside." In 
 quantity and quality of manufactured products the people 
 of this zone are considerably behind the inhabitants of the 
 millet zone. 
 
 Trade. — Trade is very extensively carried on especially 
 in animal products. Thousands of horses, cattle, sheep and 
 goats are sold into the regions of the south,' while iron, cot- 
 ton cloth, leather, ostrich feathers, ivory, dried fish and 
 grain are sold into the regions of the north. Formerly 
 slaves were the chief articles of export. The Tibbus, Tua- 
 regs and Moors cross the desert in great caravans bringing 
 salt from Bilma, and ostriches, horses and dates from the 
 oases ; and from Tripoli and Ghadama, raw silk, ottar-of- 
 roses, spices, glass beads, etc., and return with sundry grain 
 and other products of the Sudan.* The Shillooks sell to their 
 neighbors cattle, cotton, ivory, etc., and buy from them cut- 
 lery, cloth and salt.® The Jolofs supply the coast people 
 with milk, eggs and fowls and export to foreign countries 
 great quantities of grain, beans, melon-seed and dried fish.* 
 Sokoto of the Fellatah empire, Kuka of the Kanuri empire 
 and Timbuctu of the Songhay empire are the great trade 
 centres of this zone. At present the chief exports to Europe 
 are rubber, groundnuts and hides but in the future cattle 
 may also enter into the items of export, A writer in the 
 British Board of Trade Journal says that " the valley of the 
 
 1 Schweinfurth, Vol. i, p. 88. » « Antluopogeographie," Vol. i, pp. 3!-'6, 525. 
 
 '"Denham's Narrative," p. 241. 
 
 *Rohlfs, Vol. I, p. 348 ; Featherman, pp. 385, 386. 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 66. 6 Ibid., p. 354. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 121 
 
 Niger from Bamako to Sansanding is a capital grazing 
 country ; the animals breed rapidly and though the flocks 
 and herds have been ravaged by epidemics, it cannot be 
 doubted that in time the Sudan will become an exporter of 
 both sheep and oxen." ' Reinsch says, " It is not extravagant 
 to expect that West Africa may rival, if not excel, Argen- 
 tina in the export of cattle and meats to Europe." ^ 
 
 Markets. — To facilitate trade markets are held in all of 
 the large towns, where a lively business is done in cattle, 
 horses, grain, fish, vegetables, milk, butter, animal skins, and 
 a great variety of luxuries. Until lately slaves were for sale 
 at all of the markets.* People from a distance come afoot or 
 mounted on bullocks.* Near the Senegal they bring milk 
 to market in leather bags each holding about five gallons." 
 In the city of Kuka peasants go through the streets with 
 butter, milk, eggs and vegetables crying their wares like 
 the venders of Paris, London or New York. Many women, 
 says Rohlfs, become bald from bearing loads of merchan- 
 dise upon their heads." Beef is offered for sale at nearly all 
 of the markets.' The people use as money cowries, cattle 
 and foreign coins in gold and silver. 
 
 Transportation. — Transportation is effected by means of 
 horses, oxen, and asses, except among the Dinkas Shil- 
 looks and other people of the Nile regions who have no 
 horses and whose oxen are too lean and lank for beasts of 
 burden.* According to Ratzel, none of the Nigritians had 
 learned to ride any animal until the Hamitic pastoral Gallas 
 made their way across the continent.' In this zone trans- 
 portation by water is more common, and the boats are of a 
 better quality than those near the coast.^" 
 
 ' Reprinted in " Trade and Shipping of Africa," Ix)ndon, 1899, p. 85. 
 ' P. 290. ' Featherman, p. 275. * " Denham's Narrative," p. 41. 
 
 • Du Chaillu, " My Apingi Nation," p. 189. • Vol. I, p. 339. 
 
 ■• Rohlfs, Vol. I, p. 340. » Schweinfurth, Vol. i,,p. 165. 
 
 » " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 413. •» Waitz, Vol. 2, p. 105. 
 
122 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Division of Labor.— On account of the greater variety of 
 resources and activities, division of labor is highly devel- 
 oped. The specialized workers include fishermen, herds- 
 men, brokers, traders, porters, tanners, weavers, shopkeep- 
 ers and even barbers who perambulate the streets and 
 whistle to announce their coming/ 
 
 Slavery.— The combination of cattle-breeding, farming, 
 manufacturing and commerce brings about a considerable 
 demand for labor, and as few individuals offer to serve vol- 
 untarily, land being free and the opportunity to gain a live- 
 lihood being open to all, the supply can be obtained only by 
 forcing people into slavery. Among the Dinkas, however, 
 where all of the land is occupied, the individuals who have 
 no capital, — and there are many of this class owing to the 
 absence of the patriarchal system, — must offer themselves as 
 wage-earners.^ Nieboer correctly remarks that " Generally 
 speaking, slavery as an industrial system can only exist 
 where there is still free land." ^ However, the wholesale sub- 
 jugation of tribes, renders slavery proper unnecessary, ex- 
 cept for domestic work, and for craftmen in the cities, and 
 as members of the army. In former times as a result of 
 wars and raiding slaves were superabundant and constituted 
 an important part of the export trade. Now, the export 
 of slaves has ceased except for an occasional slave caravan 
 that crosses the desert. The treatment of slaves in this zone 
 is about the same as the treatment of those in the millet 
 zone. Those born in the family are seldom sold or abused, 
 and as a rule mothers are not separated from their children.^ 
 The Fellatahs use slaves as domestic and field laborers, 
 traders, and as soldiers and court officers. The great mass 
 of the subject class, however, stand to the Fellatahs in the 
 relation of serfs rather than of slaves. They live in villages 
 to themselves and cultivate the fields and raise cattle under 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 276. « Preville, p. 265. 
 
 'P- 348. * Waitz, Vol. 2, p. 213; Hovelacque, p. 19. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 123 
 
 the supervision of their lords. On certain days of the week, 
 Thursday and Friday, for instance in Foota Jallon, they can 
 work for their own benefit ; ' elsewhere they are permitted 
 to work for themselves one-half of each day. Prior to inter- 
 vention by the French and British it used to be the custom 
 when the season for field work was over to follow their lords 
 upon military or trading- expeditions.'' It has always been 
 quite common for slaves in this zone to purchase their free- 
 dom or earn it as a reward for valuable services to their 
 masters. 
 
 The burdensome and oppressive side of slavery has 
 consisted in the excessive tribute which has been exacted 
 from the agricultural slaves who lived in villages to them- 
 selves and occupied the position of serfs ; and also in the 
 more intense labor required of domestic servants and slave 
 artisans in the towns. 
 
 Servitude in this zone, therefore, has had peculiar results. 
 On the one hand its severity and oppressive exactions have 
 made it intolerable to such an extent that many slaves have 
 aspired to freedom. On the other hand the labor performed 
 has been of such diversity and of such stimulating char- 
 acter as not to disqualify the slaves for freedom. It has 
 never been so prolonged or monotonous as to deprive them 
 of those pleasurable excitations which are necessary to keep 
 them in an aspiring state of mind. They have often en- 
 gaged in war, hunting and trade, and have always had 
 plenty of time for dancing and other recreations. Labor 
 which exacts all of a man's time and has in it nothing that 
 appeals to his passion for change, surprise, combat and vic- 
 tory, is deadening to ambition and in the course of time 
 unfits him for freedom. On the other hand, labor which is 
 sufficiently exacting to accustom man to regularity of 
 habits, and at the same time is of a kind that appeals to 
 his gaming instinct, has a tendency to awaken ambition 
 
 • Featherman, p. 376. » Hid., p. 387, 
 
124 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 and to prepare him for freedom.' The slaves in this zone 
 have risen to freedom in great numbers, and therefore it may 
 be concluded that the institution of slavery has been well 
 adapted to the conditions and favorable to that gradual evo- 
 lution through which other races have found their way to 
 emancipation. The revolting feature of it has been the way 
 in which the slaves were obtained. The Fellatahs and 
 Kanuris of this zone used to go on slave hunting expedi- 
 tions into the agricultural regions of the south burning and 
 pillaging the villages and treating the inhabitants with great 
 cruelty. Speaking of a raid of some Kanuri horsemen in 
 the Musgu country, Barth says, "To our utmost horror, 
 not less than one hundred and seventy full grown men 
 were mercilessly slaughtered in cold blood, the greater part 
 of them being allowed to bleed to death, a leg having been 
 severed from the body." ^ These raiding expeditions are 
 still carried on to some extent in all of the regions not un- 
 der effective European control. 
 
 Necessity for Thrift and Economy. — To live in this zone 
 requires a combination of occupations, strict economy, and 
 a wise foresight, but the result is more regularity of labor, 
 and more ample and uniform production. The Dinkas are 
 perhaps the most economical people in the world. It is said 
 that they love their cattle more than their wives and chil- 
 dren. As they are not able to rob cattle from other people 
 but are often the victims of robbery, they can keep up their 
 supply of cattle only by zealous conservation.^ In their 
 country, "a cow is never slaughtered, but when sick is 
 segregated from the rest and carefully tended in a large hut 
 built for the purpose. Only those that die naturally or by 
 accident are used as food." * Each member of the family 
 
 1 The value of the gaming instinct as an incentive to activity is strongly presented 
 by Prof. W. I. Thomas in his article " The Gaming Instinct," American Journal 
 of Sociology, Vol. 6, p. 750. 
 
 » Vol. 2, p. 369. ' Preville, p. 263. < Schweinfurth, Vol. i, p. 164. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 125 
 
 has his or her particular cows or goats and at mealtime 
 drinks only the milk of his own animal.' The Dinkas even 
 use cattle for their money and standard of value.** The 
 other people of this zone are not so penurious, but are much 
 more thrifty and economical than the inhabitants of the mil- 
 let or banana zone. 
 
 » Preville, p. 263. ' Ibid., p. 262. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 
 
 Character of the Zone. — " Like the other parts of Africa," 
 says Reclus, " the Sahara has its highlands, its valleys and 
 running waters, although mainly consisting of vast uniform 
 plateaux, stony wastes and long ranges of dunes rolling 
 away beyond the horizon like the billows of a shoreless sea. 
 Here is the true wilderness, a region destitute of flowering 
 plants or shrubs, without birds or butterflies, and exposed 
 only to the blind forces of the heat and the winds." * . . . 
 " As soon as the softer rocks present an aperture through 
 which the outer air can penetrate, the work of disintegra- 
 tion has begun. Dolmites, gypsums and sandstones begin 
 to crumble and are slowly changed into sand or dust ; the 
 surface of the rock gradually corrodes, leaving here and 
 there the harder core which develops into pyramids or pil- 
 lars standing out in the midst of the sands." "^ The mean 
 elevation of the desert is i,ioo feet. The old rivers are 
 dried up and nothing remains but a few springs, and to ob- 
 tain water, wells must be sunk in likely spots selected by 
 the skilled eye of the nomad. The water is generally 
 brackish. The temperature varies from 146° in the shade in 
 daytime to six below freezing at night. The air is so dry 
 that the flesh of a dead animal never becomes putrid.^ 
 
 Well, across the desert, northeast from Lake Chad 
 about 500 miles, is Tibesti, the home of the Tibbus, men of 
 the rocks, the northernmost dwellers of the Negro race. 
 The country consists of a mass of rocky mountains about 
 300 miles long bounding the northern horizon. The 
 southern ranges rise to an elevation of 8,300 feet, while the 
 
 iVol. 2, p. 417. «Vol. 2, p. 418. » /iia:, p. 421. 
 
 126 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 127 
 
 northern ranges form a broad table-land rising to about the 
 height of 3,300 feet. The width of the mountain mass is 
 about sixty miles. In the northeast the mountains are split 
 into inaccessible rocks, which viewed from a distance give 
 the impression of fantastic castles, cathedrals and gigantic 
 men and beasts. 
 
 Camels Thrive Upon the Scant Vegetation. — Most of the 
 rocks are bare and the gravelly soil produces neither trees 
 nor shrubs. The whole country would be uninhabitable but 
 for a small amount of rain which falls chiefly in the month 
 of August and moistens the valleys. When water falls in 
 the uplands and begins to flow down the gorges, having 
 nothing to arrest its course, it gathers force and often 
 sweeps away everything in its path, including sheep, goats 
 and camels. Fortunately some of the precipitated water is 
 retained in the fissures and depressions of the valleys where 
 the people congregate and eke out an existence. A little 
 grass and a few scrubs spring up in the moist depressions 
 affording pastures for the animals and enabling the people 
 to cultivate patches of wheat, vegetables, the date palm, 
 etc. This is the land of the goat, ass and particularly the 
 camel, thousands of which live in the valleys, nibbling the 
 tough grass and the tougher shrubs. Denham observed 
 one tribe of Tibbus that had over 5,000 camels.' Horses 
 are also to be seen here but in relatively less number. Ac- 
 cording to Ratzel, the Sahara was not inhabited until the 
 camel and horse were brought from Asia.^ The wild ani- 
 mals of the region are the antelope, hyena, jackal, fox and 
 monkey. Vultures, ravens, pigeons and doves are very 
 prevalent and here and there may be seen a few ostriches. 
 
 Milk the Chief Food. — The Tibbus live principally upon 
 the milk of their goats. In the way of vegetable food they 
 have the date palm, and grain which they partly raise and 
 partly import. They rarely eat meat and never kill an 
 
 1 p. ag. ' '• History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 169. 
 
128 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 animal until it is old, diseased or wounded. Then the 
 whole carcass is consumed including skin and bones, the 
 latter being beaten into a powder. Nachtigal relates that 
 when he was traveling through Tibesti, some of the natives 
 on one occasion stole and ate a pair of his boots. 
 
 Hard Struggle for Existence.— The Tibbus have a severe 
 struggle for a living. To find means of support requires 
 energy, economy and intelligence. It is even a problem to 
 keep warm in winter, as the only fuel consists of the drop- 
 pings of the camel. The people often suffer from hunger 
 and thirst. When any of them happens to be lost in the 
 desert, it is his custom to travel only during the night and 
 to rest in the shade of some rock during the day. If he 
 chances to come upon the bone of some animal, he makes a 
 meal of it by pounding and mixing it with blood drawn 
 from his camel or other mount. As a last resort he lashes 
 himself to whatever animal he is riding and trusts to its 
 instinct to discover the nearest way home. 
 
 Caravan Trade. — The scant resources of the country 
 compel the Tibbus to rely largely upon commerce for sup- 
 plying their needs. As traders they are exceedingly shrewd 
 and intelligent, easily outdoing the Arabs. The chief article 
 of export is salt which they obtain from Bilma where it 
 forms upon the surface of the marsh as a result of evapora- 
 tion. They carry this article across the desert to Kuka on 
 Lake Chad, to Darfur and Waday,^ and return with grain, 
 cotton cloth, slaves, etc. At Darfur and Waday salt is so 
 valuable that it is used as the standard of value.^ Some of 
 the Tibbus, instead of trading on their own account, act as 
 guides to caravans or hire their camels to traders who un- 
 dertake expeditions. Tibesti is a great stopping place for 
 caravans crossing the desert from Murzuk to Kuka. 
 
 No Need for Slaves. — The Tibbus have no use for slaves 
 except as articles of commerce or as beasts of burden. 
 
 > Barth, Vol. 2, p. 150. » Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 266. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 129 
 
 However, as an economic mode of transportation, slave car- 
 riers cannot be excelled, because at the end of the journey 
 both the goods and the vehicles are liquidated and there is 
 no returning of empty cars or empty holds as in railway or 
 steamship transportation. 
 
 Backward in Industrial Arts.— In common with all pas- 
 toral people, the Tibbus are poorly developed in industrial 
 lines. This is partly due to the absence of materials, and 
 partly to the simplicity of their manner of life. They even 
 despise all mechanical work and show a contempt for their 
 rather skilled smiths,^ regarding them as magicians and 
 treating them as outcasts. No free woman will marry a 
 smith and no freeman will eat out of a plate with a smith or 
 sleep under his roof.^ 
 
 General Considerations Respecting the Four Zones. — 
 Looking back over the four zones under consideration, there 
 seems to be a general ascent in industrial conditions up to 
 the camel zone, where progress is arrested by deficiency of 
 natural resources and thinness of population. The amount 
 of skill, thrift and enterprise in some localities is quite re- 
 markable in view of the adverse conditions. The higher 
 industrial status of the millet and catde zones is due to the 
 greater dryness and consequently less enervating character 
 of the climate, more varied resources and superior intelli- 
 gence of the people resulting from the intermixture and 
 contact with the Berbers and Arabs. In the social, as in the 
 physical, world activity is intensified by the coming together 
 of unlike individuals or units.* The eminent German 
 ethnologist, Waitz, writing in 1859 when the passions of the 
 people were aroused over the slavery question, was led to 
 make the statement that " the majority of the American 
 people are considerably behind the Negro in both material 
 and intellectual attainments." * His fellow countryman 
 
 > Rohlfs, Vol. I, p. 259. 2 /iiJ., Vol. i, pp. 258, 259. 
 
 ' Giddings, " Principles of Sociology, p. 102. * Vol. 2, p. 78. 
 
I30 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Ratzel, with a clearer and more dispassionate mind says 
 truthfully that the remarkable thing about the Negro is his 
 high economic status and low moral status.' 
 
 Of course such eulogistic remarks in reference to the 
 Negro are based upon the type found in the millet and cattle 
 zones. In the banana zone the economic status of the 
 Negro has always been low and the effect of the European 
 intervention in that zone has been to exhaust the native 
 resources and to demoralize and destroy such native indus- 
 tries as originally existed. The population of this zone is 
 lacking in energy and it is with difficulty that the white 
 exploiters can find sufficient kborers to carry out their 
 projects. 
 
 The European policy of attempting to change the native 
 system of tribal ownership of land into individual owner- 
 ship is especially injurious in the banana zone where the 
 people live so largely upon the fruits of nature and where 
 the intensive method of agriculture is impossible except for 
 white men with capital and coerced labor. The general 
 result is that the individual holder " becomes the victim of 
 men shrewder than themselves, who entangle him in legal 
 obligations which sooner or later result in the loss of his 
 land." ^ Since land ownership is necessary to any sound 
 economic development or social stability, the European 
 policy of alienation undermines the foundation of the native 
 societies and renders their progress much more difficult 
 than it otherwise would be. 
 
 Another hurtful policy of the Europeans is that of mak- 
 ing the African colonies merely consumers of products 
 manufactured in Europe instead of seeking to introduce 
 manufacturing among the natives so that they may have 
 something with which to buy foreign products, when they 
 have been deprived of their land or find its natural resources 
 insufficient for subsistence or monopolized by the white 
 
 ' " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 254. J Reinsch, p. 316. 
 
ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 131 
 
 man.' The Yorubas used to consume yearly about 31,- 
 500,000 yards of cotton-cloth, of which ninety-five per cent 
 was of home manufacture, made of home grown cotton, dyed 
 with native dyes and woven of yarn spun by hand. Nearly 
 twenty-five per cent, of the population was employed in 
 preparing cotton for the native market.* The English are 
 now seeking to supplant this native industry. On the 
 coast regions native manufacturing has already notably de- 
 clined as a result of competition with European goods and 
 unless other kinds of industries are substituted the economic 
 status of the people is likely to go from bad to worse. In 
 both the French and British Sudan the lands are gradually 
 being monopolized by the white men and also the general 
 trade. Hence the natives, by degrees, are being driven out 
 of their traditional lines of activity and deprived of their 
 customary means of subsistence. As compensation for this 
 loss they may find a livelihood in gathering rubber and 
 other natural products from the lands preempted by the 
 white man or in hiring themselves out as wage-earners. In 
 the banana zone where the climate conditions will prevent 
 the white man from settling in any considerable numbers 
 for a long time to come, the natives will not find much oppor- 
 tunity to work as wage-earners, and the rubber and palm- 
 oil regions will gradually become exhausted. Therefore the 
 economic outlook for that zone is not at all bright. Even if 
 the demand for wage earners should become ever so great, 
 the natives would not volunteer to work because, thanks to 
 the bounty of nature, they can eke lOut some kind of exist- 
 ence upon the spontaneous products of nature. 
 
 In the millet and cattle zones, the white men are likely 
 to settle in large numbers and to offer to the natives oppor- 
 tunities to work as herdsmen, field laborers, domestic serv- 
 ants and so on. The natives being accustomed to systematic 
 work, and not being able to live upon the spontaneous 
 
 ' Reinscb, p. 307. * African I\'nvs, Vol. 3, 1891, p. 185. 
 
132 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 products of the country, will probably volunteer to work in 
 sufficient numbers to meet all the demands for laborers. The 
 economic outlook therefore in these zones {i. e., French 
 Sudan and British Northern Nigeria and Eastern Sudan) is 
 quite favorable for the natives as well as for the European 
 exploiters. 
 
 A study of the conditions of life in the several zones, 
 does not seem to support the idea advanced by Condorcet 
 in the eighteenth century that man has passed successively 
 through the hunting, pastoral and agricultural stages. The 
 facts rather suggest that man was first a vegetarian, living 
 upon the spontaneous products of nature, and that the dense 
 forest and steppe countries which always border the fruit 
 zones and abound in game, tempted man next to hunt: 
 that hunting led to the pastoral art, since following groups 
 of domesticated animals is the natural substitute for hunt- 
 ing them, and the natural transition to an industrial and 
 settled life ; and that agriculture came in later, followed by 
 manufacturing. 
 
 Before closing this chapter the attention of the reader 
 is called to a very important conclusion to which the facts 
 seem strongly to point. It is that primitive societies are in- 
 tensely individualistic and not at all communistic as is often 
 alleged,^ especially by socialists, for example Spargo in his 
 recent book, "Socialism," page 8i. Communistic institu- 
 tions are a later development and apparently belong only to 
 people having a pastoral organization, as among the natives 
 of the Asiatic Steppe, or a solid clan organization, as among 
 the Indians of North and Central America. In the Sudan 
 the pastoral Jolofs and Fellatahs sometimes form groups 
 and cultivate the fields in common and divide the crop in 
 common.^ 
 
 1 For instance by Paul Barth, p. 38a. » Featherman, p. 350. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 FAMILY LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 
 
 Methods of Obtaining Wives. — The family life of the 
 people throughout the entire Sudan has undergone no per- 
 ceptible change since the appearance of the first European 
 explorers, except in a few particulars to be noted on another 
 page. 
 
 In the banana zone there are two methods of obtaining 
 wives. One is by means of capture and the other by pur- 
 chase, or the giving of presents to the bride's parents. For 
 several reasons female merchandise does not command a 
 high price. In the first place women are superabundant. 
 They are said to be three times more numerous than men 
 among the Dahomans.' In the next place it costs very 
 little to raise girls, and their services are not very valuable 
 to their parents owing to the undeveloped character of agri- 
 culture and industry. The wife needs no dowry and the 
 husband no capital for establishing a home. Among the 
 Ibo people custom requires only that the groom give his 
 bride a few ornaments, and that her parents give him a bow 
 and arrow, a knife and some provisions.' In Dahomi it 
 used to be the custom for the men to purchase their wives 
 from the king, who was supposed to own everything in the 
 empire, including the women. He kept up his supply by 
 frequent raids upon neighboring villages.* In many cases 
 children are betrothed at five or six years of age,* and some- 
 times before they are bom. In either event the purchaser 
 pays to the girl's parents a part of the price in advance, and 
 the balance when the girl reaches the age of puberty. If a 
 
 ' Foa, p. 191. 'Hawkins, p. 109. 
 
 ' Ellis, ■• Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 199. * Duncan, Vol. i, p. 79. 
 
 133 
 
134 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 betrothed girl dies, the family must substitute another.' 
 Girls who reach the marriageable age without being be- 
 trothed, make their debut into society by painting their 
 faces and arms, decking themselves with jewels and finery, 
 and with a broom in their hands to drive away evil spirits, 
 exhibit themselves in the streets. They thus announce that 
 they are ready to receive bids.^ Marriage is a somewhat 
 commercial or animal affair in which there is little admixture 
 of romance. A suitor does not say, " I love this girl," but 
 " I want her." * Being a mere chattel the girl has no choice 
 in the selection of her husband. A female is always treated 
 as property ; first she is the property of her parents, then of 
 her husband (although in some cases a wife may own 
 property distinct from that of her husband's) and later of her 
 inheritor.* In some districts it is usual just before the mar- 
 riage for women to be immured in huts for the purpose of 
 undergoing a fattening process.' In a majority of cases 
 marriages are celebrated by feasting and dancing, but some- 
 times they occur without any kind of ceremony.^ Girls 
 marry as soon as they reach the age of puberty, become 
 mothers at the age of thirteen or fourteen, and grand- 
 mothers at the age of thirty-five.' 
 
 Polygamy. — Polygamy is well nigh universal, and the 
 conditions favoring it are first, the prevalence of war, caus- 
 ing a scarcity of men, and second, the incapacity of one 
 woman to provide for a household. Miss Kingsley thinks 
 that polygamy is due largely to the laziness of the Negro 
 women who require help in housekeeping. An Irish or 
 Englishwoman, she says, could do in a day what a whole 
 village of African women do in a week.* Wives do not at 
 all object to polygamy, but on the contrary, in order to 
 
 ' Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 201. • Brackenbury, p. 323. 
 
 ' Bouche, p. 145. <Bouche, p. 145 ; Featherman, p. 228. 
 
 5 Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. 238. « Forbes, Vol. i, p. 26. 
 
 ' Foa, p. 1 10. 8 " Travels in West Africa," p. 492. 
 
FAMILY LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 135 
 
 lighten their work, continually urge their husbands to take 
 other wives or purchase slave girls as concubines.' A third 
 reason for polygamy is that husbands live apart from their 
 wives during the period of pregnancy and nursing which 
 lasts two or three years.^ In the meantime the women 
 sometimes choose a substitute husband.^ Still another 
 reason, once pointed out by Montesquieu, is that of the 
 early fading of the women, resulting from their precocious 
 development and early marriage/ In consequence of the 
 addition, now and then, of other wives to the family, it not 
 infrequently happens that a father has several daughters 
 much older than some of his wives.' " The wives of the 
 common husband," says Foa, " do not show among them^ 
 selves that jealousy peculiar to monogamous people. They 
 live generally on good terms, and those who have no chil- 
 dren take care of the others' children as if they were their 
 own.* In Dahomi the men of the common people have not 
 more . than two or three wives each ; the priests have about 
 a dozen ; the chiefs of tribes have twenty or thirty, and the 
 king has four or five hundred.' 
 
 Ideas About Chastity. — Chastity among unmarried or un- 
 betrothed women is not at all valued or insisted upon. 
 Montesquieu in his time thought that the unchastity of 
 women in warm countries was due to the climate which 
 excited their passions, and for that reason all of the women 
 had to be kept secluded and under watch.* This theory, 
 however, is only true in part. The climate influences chas- 
 tity only in an indirect manner, by fostering a life of idleness 
 and suppressing the development of the faculties of mind 
 that preside over the feelings. The Eskimos are as licen- 
 tious as the Negroes or any other people, and largely for 
 
 ' Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 288. 
 
 « Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 206. 
 
 ' Hovelacque, p. 314. •■ Vol. I, p. 370. » Duncan, Vol. i, p. 79. 
 
 • P. 243. ' Foa, p. 191. ' Vol. I, p. 377. 
 
136 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 the same reason, to wit, that the conditions of life force 
 them to spend a great portion of their time in idleness and 
 do not develop the inhibiting faculties. Civilized people, by 
 developing their intellectual and moral nature can overcome 
 the influences of climate and other natural conditions that 
 militate against moral progress. But this is digressing. If 
 a girl in the banana zone is betrothed, she must remain a 
 virgin up to her marriage, and then give proof of her chas- 
 tity the day after marriage by exhibiting to the public her 
 soiled garments.' It would seem that the general practice 
 of early marriage would render unchastity before marriage 
 almost impossible, but owing to the fact that men do not 
 always wait for girls to arrive at the pubertal age there are 
 many cases of seduction. When a case of this kind hap- 
 pens the seducer is generally required to pay for the girl as 
 if he had married her, although no disgrace attaches to 
 either sex for the adultery. The universal understanding of 
 adultery among the people of this zone is that of an offense 
 with reference to married women only,^ and then it is con- 
 sidered an offense not against chastity but against property. 
 Joseph Hawkins says that the Ibo women are by no means 
 averse to gallantry,^ and that few remain virgin until they 
 marry.* The Assinians consider it a mark of hospitality to 
 provide an "epouse interimaire" for strangers.^ As a rule 
 neither single nor married women have the power of resist- 
 ing an importunity. Up to 1818 the amazons at the court 
 of Dahomi were composed mostly of wives detected in adul- 
 tery.^ In Benin, says Ogilby, a husband keeps away from 
 his wife a year and a half after a child-birth, "but she 
 knows well enough how to play her game in the meantime 
 with others.'" "Almost everywhere," says Hovelacque, 
 
 ' Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 156. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 204. 
 
 ° P. 104. 4 P. 109. 6 Hovelacque, p. 307. 
 
 ° Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 183. ■> P. 472. 
 
FAMILY LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 137 
 
 " the chastity of a daughter who is not married is of no 
 value." ' On the Gold Coast the rape of mere children is 
 not uncommon.^ The temples that the Negroes erect to 
 their gods are places of promiscuous sexual freedom. 
 " Priestesses," says Ellis, " are ordinarily most licentious 
 and custom allows them to gratify their passions with any 
 man who may chance to take their fancy. . . . Their 
 life is one continual round of debauchery and sensuality, 
 and when excited by the dance they frequently abandon 
 themselves to the wildest excesses." * During the Ashanti 
 Yam Custom " For days all laws are abrogated and the 
 greatest licentiousness is permitted." * In Ashanti the gods 
 are supposed to have repugnance for women during their 
 period of menstruation, and at this time women must leave 
 town and reside in small huts in the forest. " In such dis- 
 tricts it is said that women often take advantage of this 
 custom and pretending that the period is at hand, go off to 
 the bush and there enjoy the society of their admirers with- 
 out restraint." " " Modesty," says Ellis, " is a term untrans- 
 latable into Tshi and the notion would be regarded as 
 ridiculous." ' 
 
 In passing judgment upon the sexual morality of the 
 people of this zone the reader should bear in mind that in 
 a land of plenty where children are always supported by 
 their mothers, illegitimate offspring are as well cared for as 
 the legitimate, and therefore the consequences of free inter- 
 course are not the same as among civilized people, and it is 
 also to be remembered that the accommodating disposition 
 of Negro women is not at all due to mercenary consider- 
 ations, but results from mere amiability, natural impulse and 
 lack of diverting interests. Indeed, the Negroes believe that 
 their passions are inspired by the gods and ought to be 
 obeyed. Their motives are not immoral and their practice 
 
 ' p. 432. ' Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 94. » /iti^., p. 122. 
 
 * JiiJ., p. 263. ' Hid., p. 95. « Ibid., p. 286. 
 
138 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 therefore does not merit the epithets of " Hcentiousness " and 
 "sensuality" in the sense in which those terms apply to 
 civilized people. The violation of a woman and the adultery 
 with a married woman are considered immoral and are uni- 
 versally condemned. It is not fair to judge savage people 
 by civilized standards. 
 
 " Ye high, exalted, virtuous Dames 
 Ty'd up in godly laces ; 
 Before ye gie poor Frailty names 
 Suppose a change o' cases." 
 
 Before the French and British colonial laws interfered 
 to modify the native code the penalty for adultery varied from 
 death in the case of intrigue with the wives of the king, 
 which was not uncommon, to a flogging.^ The daughters 
 of kings or chiefs could live with or marry whom they 
 pleased and change their partners as often as their fancy 
 dictated.^ 
 
 Family Dwellings The houses in this zone are partly 
 
 rectangular and partiy round.' The large rectangular 
 houses of the banana zone have come into use on ac- 
 count of the density of population and the necessity of 
 living compacdy in readiness for defense against in- 
 vaders.* The hpuses built in this form have a solid 
 foundation of dried mud a yard high, upon which a light 
 frame work is built, covered with mats woven from the 
 leaf-stalks of palms.* The round styles are the more primi- 
 tive. They consist of a wall, made of mud and small stones, 
 which the sun bakes into the hardness of brick.* The roof 
 is thatched and in order to throw off the downpour of rain 
 it is conical in shape. The small conical shaped houses 
 
 1 Forbes, Vol. I, p. 138. » Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 187. 
 
 ' Hawkins, p. 73; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 113. 
 
 ■• Preville, p. 218. ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 113. 
 
 6 Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. 319. 
 
FAMILY LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 139 
 
 made necessary by the climate perhaps have something to 
 do with the practice of the husbands and wives in living and 
 eating apart, and therefore also have something to do with 
 polygamy and the general morality of the family. In 
 Europe according to Preville the size of households in dif- 
 ferent localities is connected with the size and shape of the 
 dwellings — the small dwellings, with conical roofs, being 
 peculiar to districts where the households are small.' The 
 threshold of the houses in some localities of the banana zone, 
 as in Bonny, is eighteen inches high to prevent the in- 
 trusion of miscellaneous animals.^ The houses have no 
 windows, but in some cases the roofs are adjusted so that 
 they can be raised.' In Bonny the houses have three 
 rooms, a kitchen, living-room and juju-room, i. e., a place 
 for the house gods, charms, etc.^ Most of the houses in this 
 zone, however, have only one room. In Dahomi each wife 
 has a separate house for herself, her children and slaves. 
 When a boy is big enough to walk he goes over to live in 
 the house occupied by his father." In dry weather people 
 often sleep on mats outside of their houses.* 
 
 The Women Support the Family. — The burden of sup- 
 porting the family devolves almost exclusively upon the 
 women. With two or three wives or slaves, a man can live 
 from year to year in tolerable ease and luxury. His women 
 bring food for him from the plantain groves, sometimes 
 bearing on their backs a hundred weight of fruit.' They 
 bring fire-wood from the forest and water from the nearest 
 streams.' In so far as the man is concerned, the only 
 burden of supporting a family consists in the original ex- 
 penses of the wedding.' A clear sense of the obligation to 
 support a wife does not arise anywhere until property begins 
 
 ' p. 220. ' Wood, p. 671. ' Itid., p. 630. 
 
 *IH(i., p. 671. ' Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 204. 
 
 • Duncan, Vol. I, p. 89. ' fH'^-, Vol. I, p. 88. 
 
 • Brackenbury, p. 324. ' Foa, p. 19I. 
 
I40 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 to be held as a unit by the father, as it is among pastoral 
 people, and to be transmitted without division in the male 
 line. 
 
 Relation Between Husbands and 'Wives. — ^The husbands 
 and wives are bound together by natural affection, but not 
 of that elevated kind characteristic of civilized people. The 
 husband's interest in his wife or wives is largely animal and 
 economic. " There is no romantic sentiment," says Ellis, 
 "and the relation between the sexes is ordinarily quite 
 passionless. This is, no doubt, partly due to polygamy and 
 the enslaved condition of women, but is, I believe, princi- 
 pally due to that early gratification of the sexual passion 
 which prevails amongst uncivilized peoples." ' The husband 
 does not often turn his hand to lighten the work of his wife 
 and "in recompense for her services she often receives 
 kicks." ^ The wife lives in a hut alone and when called by 
 her lord, crawls on her knees and prostrates herself at his 
 feet.' Among the Bassamese each wife lives four or five 
 days at a time with her husband.* The fact that the work 
 of supporting the population devolves upon the women 
 would seem to give them a position of exceptional independ- 
 ence, but it does not on account of the counteracting military 
 life of the men which everywhere favors despotism in both 
 the family and the State. 
 
 Divorce is at the will of the husband, and if the wife is 
 unchaste or unruly he can demand a repayment of the pur- 
 chase money from her parents. In any case of divorce the 
 children usually remain with the mother.' 
 
 Relation Between Parents and Children.— The affection 
 of mothers for their children is ordinarily very deep and 
 genuine, if not always lasting. Children are regarded as 
 blessings and their coming into the world is the occasion of 
 great rejoicing. In Ashanti, " three months after the birth 
 
 '" Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 285. » Foa, p. 187. s Bouche, p. 146. 
 * Featherman, p. 137. ' Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 187. 
 
FAMILY LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 141 
 
 of the child, its mother makes offerings to the tutelary deity 
 of the family, and then attired in her best clothes and covered 
 with gold ornaments, she pays visits to her friends and 
 neighbors, accompanied by a band of singing women who 
 sing songs of thanksgiving for her safe delivery. In such 
 songs gratitude is expressed, not only to the tutelary deity, 
 but also to all of the inhabitants of the town or village," for 
 she is glad that none of her neighbors has caused a suhman 
 to do her mischief. Hawkins says of the Ibo people that 
 parental love is among their most distinguished characteris- 
 tics.' But as among the lower animals, so among the lower 
 races of men, love of offspring is of short duration. Except 
 in rare cases the love of the Negro mother for her child does 
 not last more than a few years. If she cares for it beyond 
 that time, it is because of its usefulness to her. " The Da- 
 homan mother," says Foa, " is not attached to her child ; 
 the day that she loses it she regrets the loss of labor it was 
 in condition to do and the resource that death has taken 
 away ; — that is all." ^ Beyond the sucking period, a child re- 
 ceives little care or counsel. " If the child," says Foa, " has 
 an idea of good or bad, it is nature which has given it to 
 him. His good and bad instincts are developed at hazard : 
 his parents have been able to think up to a certain point of 
 his physical well-being, but they have left to his good sense 
 the task of forming his character.' . . . We have lived 
 several years in the midst of them and we have never seen 
 a mother embrace her child.* . . . We know that 
 the act of embracing with the lips is an invention of civili- 
 zation which is ignored by all primitive peoples, but ani- 
 mals themselves find means in a thousand ways of mani- 
 festing their tenderness for their little ones. In default of 
 the act, the Negroes should at least be able to speak to the 
 child and lavish the little flatteries that the civilized mother 
 employs to attract its attention and to habituate it to the 
 ip. 96. 'P. 190. »P. III. «p. 113. 
 
142 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 sound of her voice. There is nothing of this. She leaves 
 it to sleep or lie awake, — to play with whatever it finds. If 
 it learns to speak it will be by listening to the conversation 
 around it and hence it learns to speak very late. If it falls, 
 she picks it up, if it cries she rocks it in her arm to make it 
 hush. Children are cared for physically, that is, prevented 
 from rolling in a ditch, falling in the fire or tumbling in a 
 well, but no affection, no solicitude inspires the care of it.^ 
 . . . As soon as a child can walk, it receives no fur- 
 ther care. It is carried for a year, then left to run right and 
 left. If it has older brothers or sisters, it is most often left 
 to them. When it reaches the age of seven or eight years, 
 it is put to work, sometimes even before that time if it is ro- 
 bust and precocious. It accompanies the father or mother, 
 bears the burdens and is made useful in proportion to its 
 strength. From the tenth year the discipline becomes more 
 severe, lashes rain upon it if it commits a fault or fails to do 
 its part of the common work." ^ Many parents, says Dun- 
 can, " offered to sell me their sons and daughters as slaves." ^ 
 And, " The majority of Africans," he adds, " will sell their own 
 offspring for a good price with much less reluctance than an 
 Englishman would part with a favorite dog." * Neverthe- 
 less, there are exceptional cases where parents show for 
 their children a more lasting love. For example, Duncan 
 relates that on one occasion an old woman with her lep- 
 rous son came to him from a long distance to beg for some 
 medicine wherewith to cure her son's infirmity. She pros- 
 trated herself at his feet, covered herself with dirt, and with 
 arms outstretched and imploring sang to him an extempore 
 song of praise and prayer.^ In this zone a married woman is 
 seldom found who has more than three or four living children. 
 This is due partly to the unfavorable climate which causes 
 
 » p. 114. » p. 194. > Vol. 1, p. 79. « Vol. I, p. 262. 
 
 'Vol. 2, p. 216 This woman came from the interior of the country and was 
 probably a native of the millet zone. 
 
FAMILY LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 143 
 
 a high rate of mortality, partly to ignorance and neglect on 
 part of mothers, and partly to the fact that women fade early 
 and die early. 
 
 The affection of fathers for children is naturally weaker 
 than that of mothers, but not so lacking as one would im- 
 agine from the fact that the children are supposed to belong 
 only to the mother. Fathers as well as mothers give to 
 every infant born to them a cordial welcome. Ellis informs 
 us that " eight days after the birth, the father of the new 
 born child proceeds with some of his friends to the house 
 where the mother is, and they seat themselves in a circle in 
 front of the entrance. The child is then brought out and 
 handed to the father, who returns thanks to the tutelary 
 deity and gives it its second name, squirting at the same 
 time a little rum from his mouth into the child's face." * As 
 in the case of the mother, the affection of the father for his 
 child is short-lived, although in some cases, fathers have 
 shown marked attachment for their grown sons. As illus- 
 trating an exceptional case of this kind, it may be mentioned 
 that upon the re-meeting of the king of Grand Berebee and 
 his son they " threw themselves into each other's arms, wept, 
 laughed and danced for joy." ^ 
 
 Love of children for their parents is also short-lived. 
 " Children are devoted to their parents," saysFoa, " when they 
 are very young, but at seven or eight years they become in- 
 different, reserved and false." ' When the mother is old and 
 unfit for work, she eats only if her children are good enough 
 to think of her.'' The Aminas, says Featherman, abandon 
 their sick parents without aid or relief.* Reverence for old 
 age is not a conspicuous virtue in this zone, even among 
 the aristocratic classes, for Duncan says that the Dahoman 
 king required his aged mother to prostrate herself at his 
 
 ' " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 233. 
 
 ' Journal of an African Cruiser, p. 85. 
 
 ' P. 192. < Foa, p. 187. * P. 143. 
 
144 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 feet as an ordinary subject and to throw dirt over her old 
 gray hair.' Writing of Benin in the sixteenth century 
 Ogilby says that " by a particular custom which they term 
 Law, the king and his mother may not see one another as 
 long as they live." She is required to live in a palace out- 
 side of the city.^ 
 
 The slave trade, no doubt, had a tendency to loosen 
 family ties, since the high price of slaves was a special in- 
 ducement for parents to sell their children and the economic 
 distress brought about by the trade rendered it more neces- 
 sary that children should be sold. The continual raiding 
 and kidnapping made the home life much more unsettled 
 than it otherwise would have been, and this militated against 
 the strengthening of ties between members of a household. 
 
 Children Take the Name of the Mother Children al- 
 ways take the name of their mother, except among the 
 upper classes of Dahomi where, on account of the greater 
 certainty of parentage, kinship is traced in the male line.^ 
 Where the matriarchate prevails the father is not really a 
 member of the family. He lives, sleeps and eats apart from 
 his wives, and does not even claim as his own the children 
 that he begets. Sometimes he obtains ownership in several 
 of them by having them pawned to him by their mother.* 
 The practice of burying children alive with their mothers, 
 as is done among the Ashantis * and savage people gen- 
 erally, arose, in all probability, from the idea that children 
 were the exclusive property of the mother. 
 
 Mourning Customs as Indicative of Affection Some 
 
 indication of the affection between members of a family is 
 shown in the mourning customs. Among the Ewe people 
 it is the general practice for a widow to remain in her 
 house for forty days after the death of her husband.* Ac- 
 
 ' Vol. I, p. 253. ' p. 476. 3 Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 210. 
 
 * Uid., p. 221. 5 Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 234. 
 
 « Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 160. 
 
FAMILY LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 145 
 
 cording to Foa, the mourning for a husband lasts twelve 
 moons, but it consists only of the widow's putting aside 
 jewelry and ornaments and shaving her head. She can 
 marry when she likes. The husband is not obliged to go in 
 mourning for his wife, but if he wishes to testify to his 
 sorrow, he merely shaves his head. He can remarry the 
 next day.' Funeral ceremonies take the form of wailing, 
 ejaculations, dancing, singing, drinking, and laughing. At 
 funerals, says Ellis, the greater number of the mourners are 
 commonly in a state of intoxication.^ " If the Negro," says 
 Foa, " felt as we, this intense moral pain which the loss of a 
 dear one provokes, this compulsory abandonment of a person 
 with whom one has lived and spent his years, — if he were 
 but affected by a misfortune of this kind, — it would not be 
 possible to sing and laugh as he does. It is impossible to 
 admit that pain manifests itself by gaiety among the blacks. 
 That would be human nature reversed." * . . . " This 
 convulsion that is called laughing results from a tranquil 
 state of mind, from a physique without pain and from a 
 certain degree of felicity, as little as it may be. Gaiety is at 
 least indifference if it is not joy." * However, this very 
 natural opinion of Foa's may possibly be the result of a 
 partial misunderstanding of Negro psychology. The dis- 
 position of the Negro to make merry at a funeral, has its 
 origin, to all appearances, in a desire to drown his brief. It 
 is the reflex action of the shock seeking to find vent in some 
 kind of activity. At least, in many instances, the Negro 
 feels genuine and keen sorrow over the loss of friends and 
 relatives. In support of this view it is only necessary to re- 
 call the beautiful custom of holding annual festivals in com- 
 memoration of relatives who have died within the past two 
 or three years. This attention to the deceased may be partly 
 
 ' Foa, p. 197. 
 
 » " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 239. 
 
 n'. 189. «P. 190. 
 
146 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 inspired by a fear of their disembodied spirits, but it is also 
 inspired by some feelings of love and sorrow. Ellis thinks 
 that the sacrifices of human beings at funerals is due " to 
 an exaggerated regard for the dead " for " even years after 
 a man's death slaves and captives are sometimes sacrificed 
 to his memory." ' 
 
 Inheritance.— Wives inherit nothing from their husband 
 and children nothing from their father. The mother's 
 property alone goes to her children, while the property of 
 the father goes to his brother or sister. If the wife has no 
 children, her property does not even then go to her hus- 
 band, but to her brother or sister. The wife's property 
 which sometimes consists of slaves, is distinct from that of 
 her husband's.^ Children born to slaves of the husband 
 belong to him,' and they are bequeathed as any other prop. 
 erty. The lot of orphan children is usually a hard one. 
 When they happen to be inherited by a brother of a deceased 
 mother, says Foa, they " are abandoned to a complete 
 misery." ^ The lack of solidity of the family property is due 
 to the lack of solidity of the family.' Upon the whole it is 
 very obvious that the functions of the family are performed 
 abnormally and imperfectly in this zone. Three essential 
 functions of a normal family as emphasized by Small and 
 Vincent in their Introduction to the " Study of Society," are 
 almost entirely neglected, to wit, that of the mutual inter- 
 change of ideas, that of intellectual training and that of 
 socialization.* 
 
 '"Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 159. 
 
 2 Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 206. 
 
 ' Kingsley, " West African Studies," p. 402. 
 
 <P. 199. 
 
 ' Post, " Entwicklungs gescliiclue des Familienrechts," p. 266. 
 
 'Pp. 246-247. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 FAMILY LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 
 
 Wives Purchased. — The status of the family in the millet 
 zone, is in some respects and in some localities, as low as in 
 the banana zone, yet in the main it represents a decided ad- 
 vance. The women are relatively not so abundant, which 
 is due in part perhaps to the general absence of sacrifices in 
 which the men are the chief victims and to the less number 
 of wars in which the men are also the chief victims. The 
 relative scarcity of women also results from the fact that, in 
 order to get a wife, a man must pay a substantial price and 
 accumulate some property wherewith to live. He must 
 have a house, which is usually larger and more comfortable 
 than the average house of the banana zone, he must have 
 some grain-jars or bins, some domestic animals, some 
 articles of furniture, etc. Those who can afford it, often 
 have houses with several rooms, one for cooking and others 
 for lodgings for the wives and slaves.* The furniture con- 
 sists of beds, wooden hooks for hanging up clothes,^ stools, 
 sofas, etc' As to the prices paid for wives, it is said that in 
 the Bautchi district, men pay for a wife about 25,000 
 cowries,* while in Yoruba the price is sometimes $40 or 
 about 56,000 cowries. The sum, whatever it may be, is re- 
 garded by the parents as compensation to them for the loss 
 of the services of their daughter." The common price for a 
 wife among the Krumen is three cows and one sheep. In 
 the eastern part of this zone the purchase of wives is usually 
 made with iron plates or spades.* If the suitor is too poor 
 
 ' Staudinger, p. 602. ' /ittf., p. 6ot. » /5i(/., p. 588. 
 
 « Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 158. ' Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 182. 
 
 » Schweinfurth, Vol. i, p. 302. 
 
 147 
 
148 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 to pay the price at once he sometimes serves the parents of 
 the prospective bride for a period of one or two years. He 
 will carry loads to market, plant yams, hunt, fish, and so 
 forth. The greater sacrifice necessary to procure a wife in 
 this zone causes girls to marry a little later, although they 
 are sometimes purchased at a very tender age. They have 
 not much choice in the selection of their husbands, but still 
 have more than the girls of the banana zone.^ In some 
 localities they must get the consent of their grandmothers,^ 
 a fact which indicates a more stable family life and longer 
 period of contact between parents and children. Whenever 
 grandparents come to be influential in the life of a family, 
 it is significant of a great step forward. As in the banana 
 zone, marriages are usually celebrated by some kind of hub- 
 bub which is kept up most of the night. In Jacoba, the 
 ceremony is in the form of capture, the groom being re- 
 quired to carry away the bride by force.^ Marriages among 
 the Mohammedans require simply the presence of a few 
 witnesses and a prayer by the malam.* Freemen seldom 
 marry slave women.° 
 
 Polygamy. — Polygamy is not so pronounced in this as 
 in the lower zone. In the first place the balance of the sexes 
 is more even, and in the second place the purchase of several 
 wives entails an expenditure which not many men can 
 afford. One wife is the rule, and only the rich have two or 
 three.^ A poor man who cannot afford a young wife usually 
 takes a second-hand one, — that is, a widow.' So far as the 
 amount of work necessary to maintain a household is con- 
 cerned, there is a strong reason why both the men and women 
 should favor polygamy, in that the work which falls to the 
 lot of the average married woman is comparatively heavy. 
 She must, besides doing the field work, prepare the grain, 
 
 1 Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 40. 2 Lander, Vol. i, p. 329. 
 3 Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 149. I Staudinger, p. 564. « lUd., p. 558. 
 
 6 Ibid., p. 558. 1 Jbid., p. 559. 
 
FAMILY LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 149 
 
 beat, sift and pound it into flour and cook it. She must 
 make greeise and soap, card and spin cotton, and so on. 
 And to do all this she must rise before day.' However, the 
 increased work which the maintenance of a household en- 
 tails in this zone is largely done by slaves who are much 
 easier to procure and much cheaper than wives. 
 
 Women More Chaste Than in the Banana Zone. — Chas- 
 tity is generally more esteemed in this zone, although in 
 some localities it is as little valued as in the banana zone.'' 
 " Contrary to what happens in our civilized countries," says 
 Binger, " a girl who has a child is not disesteemed among 
 the Si^nre ; on the contrary, she more easily marries, since 
 one is sure that she is not barren." ^ Almost all of the girls 
 have a child before marriage, and whenever it happens that 
 a nubile girl dies without giving birth to a child she is often 
 denied a proper burial on account of the dread of touching a 
 woman who is barren.* Among the Yorubas, according to 
 Ellis, virginity is not valued per se, " but because it is proof 
 that the betrothed has not infringed the exclusive privileges 
 of the husband infuturo, and non-virginity in a bride is only 
 a valid ground for repudiation when the girl has been be- 
 trothed at a tender age, for unbetrothed girls can bestow 
 their favors upon whom they please." ° " Adultery can only 
 be committed with a married woman." ^ " The virtue of 
 chastity," says Clapperton, "I do not believe to exist at 
 Wawa." ' 
 
 Farther to the north in this zone there are indications 
 that chastity is held in higher estimation. Canot says that 
 chastity is more insisted upon among the Mandingos and 
 Soosoos than among the people of the Slave Coast.' Spils- 
 
 ' Binger, Vol. 2, pp. 43, 44. 
 
 ' Waitz, Vol. 2, p. 112; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 40. 
 
 ' Vol. I, p. 204. * Binger, Vol. i, p. 214. 
 
 » Ellis, " Voruba Speaking Peoples," p. 184. « Jiui., p. 186. 
 
 ^ " Second Expedition," p. 129. " P. 269. 
 
ISO THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 bury is so extravagant as to say that the natives of Sierra 
 Leone are " more modest as to their actions and behavior 
 than many of our European fantastical women of fashion." ' 
 Their dress is only a strip of cloth around the loins, " yet 
 with this simple covering they are far more modest than the 
 girls of Europe." ^ The Kakanda are described as having 
 innate modesty and gentleness. In the millet zone, it is 
 noticeable that there are not so many temples and amorous 
 deities to foster licentiousness as in the banana zone. The 
 women are more particular about covering their bodies, and 
 public exhibitions of indecency are not at all common. 
 
 Family Dwellings Better. — Significant of the higher 
 family life in this zone is the fact that the people have larger 
 and better houses and more furniture.^ The houses are 
 usually circular in form and constructed of red or gray mud 
 and finished overhead with a conical thatched roof. The 
 Madis sometimes crown a hut with the egg-shell of an 
 ostrich.* More durable houses are often made in the same 
 style of woven reeds. On the lower Niger rectangular 
 houses are quite common, having made their way in from 
 the coast.' In some places the houses are very large, having 
 ten or more rooms, of which one is about fifteen feet long 
 and eight feet wide, opening into an interior court where 
 domestic animals, especially goats, make themselves at 
 home. In other localities the houses have two stories, and 
 hinged windows and doors. Either from considerations of 
 sanitation or superstition, the floors of the houses, in many 
 places, are kept moist with a solution of cow-dung and 
 water.' The Mandingos have houses whose roofs project 
 over the walls and rest upon outer supports, thus making a 
 little gallery around the building to protect the inmates from 
 
 ' P. 22. ' P. 35. This statement was made in 1807. 
 
 » Earth, Vol. 2, p. 146. 
 ■• Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 34. b Ibid., V0I.3, p. 308. 
 
 * Lander, pp. 270, 271 ; Binger, Vol. i, pp. 361, 366; Park, p. 100. 
 
FAMILY LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 151 
 
 the heat and glare of the sun, — a style which was probably 
 borrowed from the Portuguese.' The furniture consists of 
 straw beds,^ mats, chairs, stools, skins, iron lamps, etc.^ 
 Some of the palaces and mosques of Hausaland are built of 
 stone, and have turrets and projecting windows in imita- 
 tion of the picturesque architecture of the Moors/ Many 
 villages have public rest houses where the people sit during 
 the heat of the day. 
 
 Men Help to Support the Family. — The burden of sup- 
 porting the family rests mostly upon the women, although 
 not to the same extent as in the banana zone. In the Man- 
 dingo country, each wife lives and cooks in a separate hut 
 and gives a part of her food to her husband." A Kruman, 
 although celebrated all over Africa for his enterprise, will 
 cease work after he has accumulated a sufficient number of 
 wives to support him for the remainder of his days." Lander 
 says that as a rule elderly men perform no manner of work, 
 but live at the expense of their children and grandchildren, 
 and lounge away their existence under the trees.' In Yoruba 
 the husbands and wives have separate houses and separate 
 property. Every woman is a free dealer who labors for her- 
 self, and has neither claim on her husband's property nor 
 share in his earnings for the support of herself and chil- 
 dren.' The women are the field workers and traders, and 
 all of the wives except the first are known as " trade-wives," 
 or " wives of commerce." ° Men not only contribute noth- 
 ing to the support of their wives but sometimes steal what 
 they have accumulated. Lander relates the case of a man 
 from Borgu who, after stealing 400 cowries from his wife. 
 
 • Adanson, p. 162; Clapperton, "Journey to Kouka and Sackatoo," p. 39. 
 » Binger, Vol. I, p. 281. ^ Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 183; Bowen, p. 299. 
 
 « Waitz, Vol. 2, p. 90 ; RaUel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 309. 
 ' Lasnet, p. 91. ' Bowen, p. 38 ; Journal of an African Cruiser, p. 17. 
 ■I Vol. I, p. 34J. '' Bowen, p. 305. 
 
 • Campbell, p. 60; Ellis, " Yoniba Speaking Peoples," p. 183. 
 
152 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 beat her severely because she railed against him for it.' In 
 Ilorin where the wives of the king do not labor for his sup- 
 port but are supported by him, they are not permitted to go 
 at large.^ 
 
 In districts farther from the coast, men generally show 
 more consideration for their wives, and in some communi- 
 ties never impose heavy work upon them. For example, 
 the Shulis and Madis are distinguished for their regard for 
 their wives who are generally exempt from field work, and 
 occupy themselves almost exclusively with affairs of the 
 household.^ In many districts the men perform a liberal 
 share of the work,* assisting the women in cultivating the 
 fields and in carrying loads. Binger observed in a western 
 district that, when parties were traveling with goods on their 
 heads, the men who reached a village first would return to 
 take the burdens from the women. He observed also that 
 the men instead of women go out to cut and gather wood." 
 In the rural settlements of Hausaland the husband and wife 
 live and eat in the same house,^ and the hard field work 
 falls mostly upon slaves and not upon married women.' 
 
 Family Affection — Any particular instances of real affec- 
 tion between husband and wife are hard to find, but it is 
 legitimate to infer from the less amount of work imposed 
 upon women and greater respect for them that they are 
 more genuinely loved. Although the rules of etiquette in 
 some localities do not permit the men to eat with their 
 wives,' the latter do not so often prostrate themselves in the 
 presence of their husbands. 
 
 Instances of the separation of wives from their hus- 
 bands on account of cruelty are not numerous, but some- 
 times, as for example among the Krumen, it happens that 
 
 • Vol. I, p. 377. 2 Campbell, p. 60. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 40 ; Reclus, Vol. 1, p. 99. 
 4Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 162. 'Vol. I, p. 557. 6 Staudinger, p. 561. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 562. 8 Clapperton, " Second Expedition," pp. 40, 181. 
 
FAMILY LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 153 
 
 wives run away when their husbands become old and 
 senile.' 
 
 The ties between parents and children are somewhat 
 stronger in this zone, owing to the greater sacrifices neces- 
 sary to support children, the longer period of contact be- 
 tween children and their parents, and the more stable and 
 sedentary life. Some evidence of motherly affection is 
 shown in the peculiar custom of the Egga women in wear- 
 ing upon their heads little wooden figures as symbols of 
 sorrow over their lost children. Whenever they eat they 
 offer a bit of their food to the lips of these dumb memorials. 
 This custom probably arose from the notion that, in case of 
 the death of a twin-child, the mother must wear an image 
 for its deceased spirit to dwell in so that it may not molest 
 the child that survives.'' Among the Madis, from time to 
 time, when all of the family are assembled, including the 
 grandchildren, the father commemorates the dead and in- 
 culcates family duties.' 
 
 Matriarchate and Inheritance in the Female Line. — 
 Usually in this zone children are named after the mother 
 and belong to her,* except in Yoruba where blood relation- 
 ship is traced on both sides," and where in case of the death 
 of a husband his property is divided among his sons, and 
 where if the wife dies her property is divided among her 
 daughters. If a father has no sons his property goes to his 
 brothers, and if no brothers then to his sisters.* Along with 
 the other property, the eldest son usually inherits the wives 
 of his deceased father,' and this is also the case among 
 some of the Mandingos.' Elsewhere, the first inheritors are 
 the nieces and nephews of the deceased.' 
 
 ^ Journal of an African Cruiser, p. 19, 
 
 ' Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 80. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 42. * Hid,, Vol. 2, p. 334. 
 
 » Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 176. « Hid., p. 177- 
 
 ' liid,, p. 185 ; Bowen, p. 305. » Lasnet, p. 91. ' Hovelacque, p. 317. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 FAMILY LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 
 
 Women Bought by Means of Cattle. — Family life in this 
 zone represents on all accounts a still higher stage of de- 
 velopment. Capital is more necessary to existence and man 
 must possess it to some extent before he can marry. He 
 must have cattle, sheep, goats, implements for agriculture, 
 and in some places, must build a house.^ Girls are not 
 superabundant in the matrimonial market for the reason 
 that they are very valuable to their parents in the produc- 
 tive activities connected with cattle raising, agriculture, trade 
 and manufacturing.^ Sometimes as much as a hundred 
 head of cattle are given for a girl of a good family.' 
 Among the Shillooks and Baris the price varies from ten to 
 fifty cows.* The Jolofs pay in addition to cattle, some gold, 
 silver, clothing or other valuables.' A Dinka wife costs 
 about twenty cows and one bull.* Among the Kanuris, the 
 parents do not always sell their children but in many 
 cases give them the liberty of accepting or rejecting any 
 young man that may court them. The suitor usually makes 
 his proposal in the presence of the girl and confesses his 
 love for her.' Here for the first time among the Nigritians 
 there is a manifestation of romantic love such as exists in 
 civilized societies. Here the suitor does not say " I want " 
 but " I love." 
 
 Provided With a Dowry.— Among the Senaarians the 
 girls are sold to the highest bidder, but a part of the pro- 
 ceeds becomes the bride's dowry.' The Fellatah women are 
 
 1 Featherman, p. 34. 2 Baker, Vol. i, p. 219. 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 34. * Ibid., pp. 66, 74. ^ Ibid., p. 357. 
 
 ePreville, p. 251. ' Featherman, p. 278. 8 /i>i</., p. 790. 
 
 154 
 
FAMILY LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 155 
 
 usually consulted and make their own selection in the matter 
 of marriage, instead of being sold by their parents for so 
 many head of cattle, so many iron spades or so many 
 cowries, and they are provided with a dowry of slaves and 
 cattle which remains their individual property in case of the 
 death of husband or divorce from him. The bridegroom 
 usually makes some presents of slaves and oxen to the 
 bride's parents or relatives, but the dowry furnished by the 
 bride's parents is often three times more valuable than the 
 presents of the groom. In case a poor man sues for the 
 hand of a girl, he is sometimes required to work a certain 
 period of time for her as Jacob did for Rachel.' 
 
 High Price of Women Leads to Illicit Unions. — As men 
 must have capital to obtain their wives, the age of marriage 
 is not so early as in the zones already discussed.^ Girls 
 seldom marry before the age of sixteen.' One of the conse- 
 quences of the high price of wives is that the men resort to 
 filibustering expeditions for the purpose of stealing the 
 women of their neighbors. Another consequence is that 
 men are tempted to enter into forbidden relations with 
 unmarried women, giving rise to many illegitimate children.* 
 Whenever continence of the passions begins to be practiced 
 by any race, there are always many individuals who are not 
 able to submit to its discipline, whereas, among a people 
 who have no capital there is generally no sexual restraint 
 
 Chastity Varies in the Different Localities. — Notwith- 
 standing the restraints imposed by economic considerations, 
 the ideas about chastity are very loose in some localities of 
 this zone." On the other hand, among the Dinkas sexual 
 morality is, in one respect at least, higher than among some 
 civilized people. It is their custom for the father of an 
 illegitimate child to pay to the mother four head of cattle, 
 
 • Featherman, p. 373. ' Ibid., p. 277 ; " Denham's Narrative," p. 243. 
 
 'Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 8. * Featherman, p. 34. 
 
 » Rohlfs, VoL I, p. 342 ; Featherman, pp. 733, 735, 791. 
 
156 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 thus providing subsistence for the child and at the same 
 time giving it legitimate status.' The practice among the 
 French of betraying women and leaving them moral and 
 financial wrecks, without any legal recourse, is not one of 
 the glories of their civilization, to say nothing of the fact 
 that their asylums and hospitals overflow with the outcast 
 and illegitimate brood of children. The poor Dinkas may 
 have no Jean Valjean but they have also no Fantine to part 
 with her hair and teeth to save her Cozette. Among the 
 Kanuris, although sexual morality is somewhat lax, " the 
 great majority of married women are faithful, and adultery 
 is by no means common." " In Darfur among the mountain 
 people no marriage is legal until the couple havt; lived 
 together two or three years. During this trial period the 
 couple reside in the home of the bride's parents.* The 
 Fellatah women, as a rule, are of rather easy virtue, although 
 much more chaste than the pure Negro women. Staud- 
 inger says that some of the Fellatah women are of the 
 strictest virtue,* 
 
 Mohammedan Polygamy, — Polygamy prevails to the 
 extent that men are able to buy wives, but four is the limit 
 among the adherents of Mohammedanism, and lack of cap- 
 ital often reduces the number to one. Only rich people and 
 princes have several wives." The wife of a Latuka chief asked 
 Baker how many wives he had and was astonished to hear 
 that he was satisfied with one. The idea amused her im- 
 mensely and she and her daughter laughed at it heartily." 
 In some cases the status of a polygamous family is in a cer- 
 tain sense monogamous, in that all rjf the wives but one are 
 considered as ccjncubintrs.' The women in some of the 
 Fellatah tribes are very spirited and independent, and rarely 
 permit a second spouse to enter their homes." 
 
 ' Feathcrman, p. 34. ' Ibid., p. 277. • Uid., ,,p, 735, 736. 
 
 * P- S*^- ' I^hlf", Vol. 2, p. 8. • Vol. I, p. 217. 
 
 ' Feathcrman, p. 357, <■■ i,ainct, p. 52. 
 
FAMILY LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 157 
 
 Intermarriage of Nigritians and Fellatahs. — ^The mixture 
 of Fellatahs with Nigritians has been brought about princi- 
 pally through the marriage of Fellatah men to Nigritian 
 women or through Nigritian concubines. The Fellatah 
 women are decidedly averse to marriage with black men 
 and also Fellatah men discountenance such unions.' Origi- 
 nally when they lived in the desert as a pure Berber race 
 their prejudice against intermarriage with the Negroes was 
 even much greater than it is now. The Berber women, 
 though living amongst Negro slaves in the desert oases, do 
 not marry with them nor permit their husbands to take 
 them as concubines. On this account the Berber race has 
 been kept much freer from the taint of black blood than the 
 Semitic race in Arabia^ 
 
 Family Dwellings.— The dwellings of the people of this 
 zone vary from the humble mud hut to homes of somewhat 
 palatial pretensions. " In the large towns," says Feather- 
 man, " the houses of the better class Fellatahs are built in 
 the moorish style of clay or of woodwork covered with a 
 coating of clay. The apartments which are partly sleeping 
 places and partly storerooms, are entered by an interior 
 gallery that runs around the building. Each dwelling is 
 surrounded by a high wall, which encloses numerous flat- 
 roofed houses and low huts. The miserable hovels of the 
 lower classes are simply composed of poles frequently pro- 
 vided with sorghum stalks in place of rafters, with the roof 
 and side-walls covered with matting made of millet stems."' 
 The mushroom-like huts of the Shillooks are made of reeds 
 plastered with clay and surmounted with a thatched conical 
 roof.^ The Kanuris have huts built in a variety of styles, 
 some of straw, some of clay or mud, and some of a frame- 
 work covered with mats, woven grass or reeds." The roofs 
 
 ' Allen and Thomson, Vol. 2, p. lo6; Hovelacque, p. 254. ^preville, p. 35. 
 
 ' P. 382. < Featherman, p. 63 ; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 34. 
 
 » Wood, p. 697 ; Featherman, p. 271. 
 
158 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 are usually conical as those of the Shillooks. In many 
 places during the summer time the outer walls of the huts 
 are enwreathed with the green foliage of melon and pump- 
 kin vines. In the large cities the houses are more substan- 
 tial, and spacious, each being divided into apartments en- 
 closed by a stuccoed mud-wall, and surmounted by a 
 tastefully arched roof which is thatched with straw. Some 
 of them have castellated windows projecting over the streets.' 
 The huts of the Jolofs are sometimes made of clay, and 
 again of a frame of sticks covered with woven reeds, sur- 
 mounted with a conical roof, thatched with straw or palm 
 branches. They are circular in form and resemble bee- 
 hives.^ The houses in this zone are not only better upon 
 the average than those of the millet zone but are kept 
 cleaner. The Kanuris, like civilized people, sweep the floors 
 of their houses every morning.^ 
 
 Men Help to Support the Family. — In this zone the men 
 for the most part support their families for it is they who 
 own the capital necessary to existence. They generally as- 
 sist in the field work, and in some tribes they alone attend 
 to the cattle.^ 
 
 Women Enjoy Considerable Liberty. — Women are gen- 
 erally better treated and have more rights than the women 
 of the lower zones. " The Fellatah women," says Feather- 
 man, "enjoy much greater liberty than their sisters of 
 other Mohammedan nations." ° Among the rich, each wife 
 is the owner of a piece of land and has her slaves to culti- 
 vate it. She gathers her own harvest and enjoys the pro- 
 duce stored up to relieve if necessary the wants of her hus- 
 band or lover.® Indeed, the status of the Fellatah women is 
 strikingly similar to that of the Berber or Tuareg women of 
 the desert. The Kanuri women, we are told, exact fidelity 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 271. » Du Chaillu, p. 187. » Rohlfs, Vol. i, p. 339. 
 < Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 334. ' P. 386. 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 372. 
 
FAMILY LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 159 
 
 from their husbands and have the right of divorce if their 
 husbands are unfaithful.' However, they are humble and 
 submissive and never approach their lord except on their 
 knees and never speak to any man except with veiled faces.^ 
 
 Family Affection. — The devotion shown among members 
 of the same family is much more marked here than in any 
 of the other zones. The Dinkas, it is said, " render all pos- 
 sible assistance to those to whom they are bound by ties of 
 kinship, nor do they ever abandon their children." * Relat- 
 ing an instance of the affection of a father for his son, 
 Schweinfurth said, that in 1871 a Dinka man " who had been 
 one of the bearers who had carried my stores from the 
 Meshera, was about to return to his own home in the territory 
 of Ghattas, but he had been attacked by the guinea-worm, 
 and his feet were so swollen that it was with the utmost 
 difficulty that he could proceed a step, and he was obliged 
 to remain behind alone. Everything was necessarily scarce 
 and dear, and he was glad to subsist upon a few handfuls 
 of durra and on what scraps we gave him from our meals : 
 in this way he dragged on, and with a little patience would 
 have been all right. However, he was not suffered to wait 
 long : his father appeared to fetch him. This old man had 
 brought neither cart nor donkey, but he set out and carried 
 away the great strapping fellow, who was six feet high, for 
 a distance of fifteen or sixteen leagues, on his shoulders. 
 The incident was regarded by the other natives as a mere 
 matter of course." * 
 
 Inheritance. — The laws of inheritance in this zone are 
 not everywhere the same. Among the Fellatahs the hus- 
 band and wife have their individual property which usually 
 descends to the nearest kin on their mother's side. The same 
 rule seems to hold among the Jolofs, with this difference that 
 when one brother inherits from another the surviving widows 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 278. ' Ibid., p. 277. ^ Ibid., p. 33. 
 
 * Vol. I, p. 170. 
 
i6o THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 and concubines are taken over with the other property.^ In 
 the Dinka societies property is divided among the hus- 
 band's surviving children, and if he have none, it goes to the 
 nearest male relative who also takes the widow. In case 
 the widow then bears children they receive the property of 
 her deceased husband when they are of age. If the deceased 
 father's children are minors, the nearest relative acts as ad- 
 ministrator. In any case the administrator or inheriting son 
 must support all of the females of the family.^ 
 
 1 Featherman, p. 358. ^ Ibid., p. 34. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 FAMILY LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 
 
 Few Men Able to Support More Than One Wife : Women 
 Independent.— Information in regard to the family life of the 
 Tibbus is very meagre, and it is impossible to say how far 
 it is above or below the standard of the other zones. Mar- 
 riages are contracted at an early age. Polygamy is excep- 
 tional, because, in the first place, few men are able to sup- 
 port more than one wife, and because, in the second place, 
 the women are too independent to tolerate plurality of 
 wives. In fact the women are the mistresses of the house- 
 holds and have a way of domineering over their husbands.' 
 They are distinguished for the domestic virtues of order, 
 cleanliness, good management and fidelity. Marriage is 
 preceded by an engagement which is held as binding as the 
 marriage itself. Upon the death of a husband, his wife is 
 united to his brother or nearest male relative.^ 
 
 The houses of the sedentary part of the population are 
 made of stone and clay, but the nomad part of the popula- 
 tion live in leather or mat tents. The slaves live in hastily 
 constructed huts of grass and brushwood.' 
 
 As a rule the Tuareg and other women of the desert 
 enjoy exceptional independence, especially in reference to 
 property, and we may infer the same for the Tibbu women. 
 
 General Considerations. — As far as the foregoing facts 
 throw any light upon the evolution of the family, they dis- 
 credit the theory of M'Lennan, Morgan, Gumplowicz, Barth 
 and others, of an evolution from promiscuity, through the 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 754. ^ Reclus, Vol. 3, pp. 424. 433. 
 
 " Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, pp. 266, 269. 
 
 161 
 
162 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 two stages of polyandry (one where the husbands of the 
 wife are unrelated and the other where they are brothers), 
 then through polygamy to the final stage of monogamy. 
 There is no evidence of a state of promiscuity and the facts 
 seem to indicate that polyandry and polygamy are due to 
 economic conditions peculiar to certain localities and are not 
 at all stages through which the whole human race has passed. 
 
 The transition from the matriarchate to the patriarchate 
 does not seem to have any connection with wife capture, as 
 Gumplowicz supposes,' since the matriarchate persists in all 
 of the zones of the Sudan, notwithstanding an incessant 
 stealing of women. The transition to the patriarchate, 
 however, wherever it has happened, appears to have been 
 effected through the influences of the pastoral life or of 
 ancestor worship. In the pastoral life the protection of the 
 cattle and pastures devolves upon the men, and it is natural 
 that they should consider the cattle as their exclusive prop- 
 erty. There is no need for members of the same family to 
 have separate holdings, or that the cattle be parceled out 
 upon the death of the father or patriarch, since there are 
 cattle enough and pastures enough for everybody without 
 separating the herds and scattering the related members of 
 a group. It is to be borne in mind, however, that among 
 sedentary pastoral people, as the Dinkas, where the land is 
 overflowing with population, the father has not big enough 
 pasture nor cattle enough to support a very large family, 
 and hence it is to his interest to encourage the division of 
 the family by dividing the property. Finally as neither 
 women nor children can exist without cattle, it is natural 
 that women should be considered by the men as their abso- 
 lute property, and that they should therefore take the name 
 of their father. 
 
 Ancestor worship furnishes a motive for preferring sons 
 to keep up the sacrifices at the ancestoral tomb.^ For 
 
 » Pp. 1 12, 1 13. 2 Spencer, Vol. i, p. 770. 
 
FAMILY LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 163 
 
 example in Dahomi where ancestor worship exists there is a 
 transition from the matriarchate to the patriarchate. 
 
 War as a motive for preferring sons and as a factor of 
 the transition to the patriarchate is of no discernible account 
 in Africa where perpetual intertribal warfare is carried on 
 among matriarchal groups. The patriarchate everywhere 
 seems to have originated among pastoral people or among 
 people who have pastoral traditions. 
 
 The passing away of the totem does not apparently 
 depend, as Barth thinks/ upon the change from the matriar- 
 chate to the patriarchate ; since the totem has fallen into 
 disuse in a great part of Africa where the matriarchate still 
 survives, while among some tribes, as the Pygmies, the use 
 of the totem seems to have been unknown, 
 
 1 Paul Barth, p. 380. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 
 
 The Ancient and Modern Kingdoms.— The early African 
 explorers reported the existence of several great kingdoms 
 which have continued to exist down to the present time, for 
 example, Bornu, Benin, Agades and Kano,^ while accounts 
 were given of other kingdoms which seem to have passed 
 away and whose localities were but vaguely defined, for ex- 
 ample, Ghana (probably located on the middle Niger,) Guinee 
 (somewhere between Sierra Leone and Cape Lopez), Melle 
 (on the Upper Niger), and Zenega or kingdom of the Jolofs 
 (somewhere between the Senegal and the Gambia).^ 
 
 "The history of Ghana and of the Empire of Melle 
 which superseded it," says Lady Lugard, "constitute the 
 two first chapters of the native history of Negroland. Melle, 
 which extended at one period of its history over the territory 
 of Ghana and also over the Bend of the Niger, gives way in 
 its turn to the extraordinarily interesting history of Songhay 
 — an empire which from the middle of the fifteenth to the end 
 of the sixteenth centuries extended over the entire Bend of 
 the Niger and even carried its dominion for a time to the 
 Atlantic on one side and to Lake Chad upon the other. 
 Contemporaneously with the rise of Melle and Songhay, the 
 Haussa States and Bornu rose to prosperity between the 
 Niger and Lake Chad, while the native States of Nupe, 
 Borgu, Mossi, and some others, appear to have maintained 
 an independent existence from a period of considerable an- 
 tiquity upon the Niger." ' Any attempt to describe the op>- 
 
 ' Ogilby, pp. 325, 326, 329, 472. 
 ^Ogilby, pp. 319-3Z'. 322. 345 ; Stanford, Vol. i, p. 259. » P. 82. 
 
 164 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 165 
 
 erations and general character of the earliest mentioned 
 kingdoms would be out of the question and the writer there- 
 fore will limit his discussion of the kingdoms to those which 
 are more familiarly known and which ran their course from 
 the fifteenth century to the time of their recent overthrow by 
 the Powers of Europe. In the banana zone the most impor- 
 tant kingdoms of the period were Ashanti, Fanti, Dahomi, 
 Benin, Ibo and Bonny. The Ashanti kingdom was shorn 
 of its power by the British in the war of 1873-4, 3-nd it, to- 
 gether with the kingdoms of Fanti, Benin, Ibo and Bonny, 
 are now under the British Protectorate and form a part of 
 the country known as Southern Nigeria.* The Dahomi 
 kingdom was overthrown by the French in 1893. 
 
 Integrating Factors of the Different Kingdoms, (a) In- 
 fluence of Nattiral Resources. — The density of population in 
 the several kingdoms depends primarily upon the natural 
 resources. The people have a tendency to congest in local- 
 ities wherever the vegetable and animal products supply an 
 abundance of food. In this zone the food resources are 
 most abundant along the water courses and in the somewhat 
 open region of the interior where the banana and plantain 
 trees have an opportunity to thrive. In the dense forest 
 regions the animals and plants available for food are scarce, 
 and therefore the groups are small and scattered. The 
 banana zone is upon the whole remarkably rich in resources 
 and everywhere supports an immense population. 
 
 (S) Invasion of Foreign Peoples. — Political organizations 
 arise primarily for defensive purposes. As there is always 
 a tendency for population to press in from all sides towards 
 the rich food centres, those in possession of the territory find 
 it necessary to cooperate to keep the intruders out. In the 
 case of the banana zone, on account of the wealth of its 
 fruits, the people were subject to frequent invasions from the 
 hordes of the millet zone to the north. While the thickness 
 
 > Stanford, Vol. i, pp. 249, 379. 
 
1 66 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 of the forest ofiered some obstacles to invasion, it was not 
 altogether sufificient.^ 
 
 {c) Motives and Facility for Defense. — Along the north- 
 ern borders of the banana zone, therefore, the people were 
 obliged to combine in largest numbers for defense, and there 
 the larger political groups came into being.^ The relative 
 thinness of the forest along this border of the zone made co- 
 operation easy. This was a region of intense and eternal 
 conflict. Instead of exploiting nature, men exploited each 
 other, and on that account all of the States were organized 
 upon a military basis. Along the southern border of this 
 zone there was not so much danger of invasion, for the 
 reason that the thickness of the forest acted as a natural 
 barrier. The conditions there did not call for defensive co- 
 operation on any large scale and hence no large political 
 groups were effected. Furthermore, if the people had been 
 ever so much subjected to invasion they could not have 
 easily cooperated on account of the innumerable rivers, lakes, 
 lagoons and impenetrable forests. Instead of cooperating 
 they generally remained hostile to each other. Lander 
 states that within the period of only three years as many as 
 1 60 governors of towns and villages between Etcho and the 
 coast had died or were killed. This indicates the extent of 
 local wars and intestine broils.^ It is not surprising, there- 
 fore, that Miss Kingsley should have remarked that the life 
 of the West African chief had about ninety-nine and nine- 
 tenths thorns in it.* 
 
 (a?) Motives for Aggression. — ^Whenever and wherever 
 a political organization is effected for defensive purposes 
 there are always motives at work tending to make it ag- 
 gressive. In the banana zone the motives for aggression 
 were numerous. First was the desire to steal each other's 
 property. The fact that many scattered populations prac- 
 
 > Preville. p. 218. j itij_^ p. 221. 
 
 a Vol. I, p. 160. 4 .. Travels in West Africa," p. 340. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 167 
 
 ticed agriculture, kept stores of provisions, and had among 
 their effects such articles as gold, ivory, etc., furnished a 
 powerful stimulus to man's acquisitive instinct.* Another 
 motive was the desire to obtain slaves, both for domestic 
 use and for sale to the agricultural peoples of the north, and 
 at one time to sell to the European and American slave- 
 traders. Still another motive was the desire to obtain 
 victims for the sacrifices to their gods and to their super- 
 stitious customs and rites. These motives were sufficient 
 to keep any group on the aggressive and to cause it to ex- 
 tend its area of conquest as far as possible. Both defensive 
 and aggressive motives caused continual war against the 
 invaders from the north, with the result that a strip of 
 country separating the banana and millet zones was kept 
 devastated and almost depopulated. As indicating the 
 destructive nature of this warfare it will sufifice to quote the 
 statement of Duncan, that, at the time of his visit in Dahomi, 
 the king of that empire had captured 126 towns lying to the 
 north in the Mahi country.^ 
 
 Among the smaller groups the same motives prevailed, 
 particularly the desire for slaves. The effect was to make 
 each group hostile to every other. Allen and Thomson 
 reported that along the Niger " every man's hand was raised 
 against his fellow and every one tried to enslave his neigh- 
 bor." ' 
 
 Aggressive Power of Dahomi — History of the Expansive 
 Movement. — The history of Dahomi before the sixteenth 
 century is unknown. When Europeans first visited the 
 Gold Coast, there was already in existence the extensive 
 Kingdom of Ardrah. " About the beginning of the seven- 
 teenth century the state became dismembered on the death 
 
 ' Hawkins, p. 92. 
 
 'Vol. I, p. 246. Ellis says that 126 was the number captured up to 1839, 
 " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 311. 
 •Vol. 1, p. 398. 
 
1 68 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 of a reigning sovereign and three separate kingdoms were 
 constituted under his three sons. One state was formed by 
 one brother around the old capital of Allad4 and retained 
 the name of Ardrah ; another brother migrated to the coast 
 and formed a state also called Ardrah, but now known un- 
 der the name of Porto Novo ; while the third brother traveled 
 northwards and after some vicissitudes established the 
 kingdom of Dahomi. The western Ardrah or Alladi, 
 appears to have been subsequently further subdivided by 
 the formation of the separate kingdom of Whydah to the 
 south. About 1724-28 Dahomi, having become a power- 
 ful state, invaded and conquered successively Alladi and 
 Whydah." This era of conquest continued up to the ac- 
 cession, in 1 8 18, of Gezo, "who reigned forty years and 
 raised the power of Dahomi to its highest pitch. He 
 boasted of having first organized the Amazons to which 
 force he attributed his success." ' 
 
 These facts strongly point to the conclusion that the in- 
 fluence of the slave trade was favorable to the development of 
 the kind of government which Dahomi represented, since 
 the era of expansion of the government was cotemporane- 
 ous with the era of expansion of the slave trade. 
 
 (a) Influence of Natural Boundaries as a Factor of 
 Expansion. — ^The aggressive power of a state depends upon 
 {a) the natural boundaries of the country, {p) the size of the 
 population, {c) the economic resources, (rf) the ability of the 
 people to cooperate, (<?) the strength and efficiency of the 
 military system, and (/) the power of resistance of border 
 states. All of these factors combined to make Dahomi 
 the most powerful state of this zone. While its expansion 
 to the east and west was impeded on account of the great 
 number of rivers running from north to south, there were 
 no obstacles to the north, and scarcely any in the south, ex- 
 cept near the coast where the numerous swamps and lagoons 
 
 '" Encyclopedia Britannica," Vol. 6, p. 766. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 169 
 
 gave a certain security to the population of that region,' and 
 permitted the empire to obtain a footing only at a few of the 
 seaboard towns. 
 
 ip) Size of the Population. — A fact highly favorable to 
 expansion was the density of the Dahoman population 
 which enabled the amassing of a large fighting force. At 
 one time the State could easily muster 50,000 men.* 
 
 {c) Economic Resources. — The inexhaustible supply of 
 food enabled the people to keep an army in the field for an 
 indefinite period, and the institution of slavery enabled all of 
 the freemen to devote themselves to fighting. The muni- 
 tions for the army were obtained by selling a part of the 
 war-captives. In fact, for a long time the Dahoman king- 
 dom was maintained almost altogether from the sale of 
 slaves taken in war. Ellis described the kingdom as an as- 
 sociation of banditti who captured slaves for trade and for 
 sacrifices to their superstitious customs.' While slave hunt- 
 ing already existed as a motive for aggression, the new de- 
 mand for slaves created by the arrival of the European and 
 American bidders, made the business enormously profitable. 
 It not only became a great source of revenue to the State, 
 but was the chief basis of the power of the king and of all 
 of his subordinates. The Dahomans had a regular season 
 for slave hunting. When the winter set in and their own 
 supply of provisions began to fall short, they laid aside all 
 business and took up the weapons still stained with the blood 
 of the last year's campaign. For three months the towns 
 would be almost abandoned.* But the abolition of the slave 
 trade precipitated the downfall of the great kingdom by cut- 
 ting off its revenue, without which a large army could not be 
 equipped. ' When it became necessary to support the State 
 
 • Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 196 ; Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 268 ; Duncan, 
 Vol. I, p. 166. 
 
 ' Forbes, Vol. i, p. 14. ' " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 197. 
 
 * Foa, p. 254. 
 
I70 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 by other means than the slave trade the citizens had to 
 work ten times harder " to give food to the monarch." ^ 
 
 {d) Ability to Cooperate.— The. forest in this region, 
 though pretty dense was sufficiently open to permit coopera- 
 tion over a wide area/ The people, however, had only 
 sufficient intelligence to cooperate for the purpose of plunder. 
 They had not the wisdom to organize and govern the con- 
 quered territory, but were satisfied to ravage, gather up the 
 booty and return home, leaving the invaded country in 
 hostile hands.* The aim was only to lay waste and kill, and 
 for this reason the expansion of the empire was generally 
 followed by a decrease of population.* Men fought only for 
 individual gain or for mere love of adventure. They felt no 
 conscious interest in the glory of the nation or the welfare 
 of the people ; and on account of this lack of national senti- 
 ment the Dahomans were never able to occupy even the 
 area which their natural boundaries seemed to indicate for 
 them. 
 
 {e) Military Strength. — The army consisted of several 
 divisions. First the Amazons or female soldiers numbering 
 about 3,ooo.° It was claimed that the women were better 
 suited for soldiers than the men because they were ac- 
 customed to enduring more hardships and were much 
 braver.^ The second division consisted of the palace guards 
 and men of the capital. This division together with the first 
 formed the standing army. The third division comprised 
 the entire male population.' 
 
 The weapons used were spears, knives and after the ad- 
 vent of the European, also muskets. All of the Amazons or 
 king's wives wore daggers.' Each local caboceer or chief 
 had an army of his own ' which answered the call of the 
 
 1 Foa, p. 208. « IHil., p. 57 ; Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," pp. 2-3. 
 
 ' Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 197. * Wood, p. 638. 
 
 « Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 187. • I6id., p. 184. 
 
 ' Ibid,, p. 183. 8 Duncan, Vol. i, p. 254. » Ibid., Vol. I, p. 283. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 171 
 
 king in time of war. The commander of the whole army 
 was appointed by the king and followed in the wake of the 
 march riding a horse when he happened to possess this rare 
 animal, while the subordinate officers rode in hammocks 
 carried by soldiers or slaves/ The army moved in 
 a helter-skelter fashion, the only tactics or strategy con- 
 sisting in an effort to surprise and surround the enemy. 
 The regular standing army received a supply of powder and 
 lead from the king and chiefs, but each soldier was required 
 to feed himself.* The king offered special rewards and 
 honors to soldiers who brought home the heads of captives, 
 while the only pay for the ordinary soldiers consisted of 
 cowries and other articles of value which the king threw upon 
 the ground for them to scramble for on days of public cele- 
 brations.^ The army was chiefly provisioned by plunder- 
 ing as it went. However, the wives of the soldiers fol- 
 lowed the army carrying calabashes of food and drink on 
 their heads and acting as a sort of commissariat. 
 
 (/) Resistance of Border States. — But whatever may 
 be the military equipment or other favorable conditions, the 
 expansion of a State is always dependent upon the power of 
 the border States to offer resistance. In the case of 
 Dahomi while the path of expansion to the west was politically 
 unopposed, that to the east was checked by the more 
 powerful Yorubas, who were never successfully attacked 
 until they had been overrun and disorganized between 18 10 
 and 1840 by the pressure of the Hausas invading from the 
 north.* A great element of strength to the Yoruba forces 
 was the use of cavalry, while a source of weakness to the 
 Dahomans was perhaps the too free use of criminals as 
 soldiers." 
 
 ' Duncan, Vol. i, p. 230. » Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 162. 
 
 • Forbes, Vol. i, pp. 21, 22. 
 
 * Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," pp. 219, 295, 309. 
 ' Duncan, Vol. i, p. 141. 
 
172 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Aggressive Power of Ashanti — History of the Expansive 
 Movement.— The Ashanti government has had a history 
 similar to that of Dahomi. According to traditions it de- 
 rived its origin " from bands of fugitives, who, two or three 
 centuries ago, were driven before the Moslem tribes migrat- 
 ing southward from countries on the Niger and Senegal. 
 Having cleared for themselves a region of impenetrable 
 forest, they defended themselves with a vigor which, becom- 
 ing a part of their national character, raised them to the 
 rank of a powerful and conquering nation. . . . Early 
 in the eighteenth century tlie Ashantis first came under 
 the notice of the Europeans, through the successful wars 
 with the Kingdoms bordering on the maritime territory. 
 Osai Tutu may be considered as the real founder of the 
 Ashanti power. He either built or greatly extended Coo- 
 massie, the capital; he subdued the neighboring state of 
 Denkera (1719) and the Mahometan countries of Gaman and 
 Banna and extended the empire by conquests both on the 
 east and west." * Thus it is apparent that the era of ex- 
 pansion of the Ashanti empire, as that also of Dahomi, was 
 cotemporaneous with the era of expansion of the slave 
 trade. 
 
 (a) Influence of Natural Boundai'ies as a Factor of 
 Expansion. — The Ashantis were somewhat less able to ex- 
 pand than the Dahomans. In the first place their territory 
 was more naturally defined by the seacoast and rivers. 
 The Gulf on the south, the Volta on the east, the Comoe 
 on the west, and the branches of both rivers on the north, 
 enclosed the Ashantis within a circle and indicated the 
 natural limits of their empire. 
 
 (V) Size of the Population. — The population was 
 smaller and more scattered by reason of the ramified water 
 courses, more irregular contour of the land and greater area 
 of forest. 
 
 »<< Encyclopsedia Britannica," Vol. 2, p. 6Si. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 173 
 
 {c) Economic Resources. — The economic resources 
 were quite equal to those of Dahomi except that the income 
 from the sale of slaves was never as large. The difficulties 
 of getting around and across the natural barriers had a 
 tendency to contract the national frontiers. However, at 
 the time of the slave trade with Europeans the impulse to 
 expansion caused the Ashantis to press out in all directions, 
 particularly towards the coast, butchering people by the 
 thousands and dragging them into slavery.' 
 
 {d^ Ability to Cooperate. — The Ashanti population 
 consisted of small groups living in scattered villages in the 
 forest, and hence the facilities for concentration of power 
 were not so untrammeled as in Dahomi. Each village had 
 its own military company ^ which tended to keep the blood 
 of the nation in the extremities. 
 
 {e) Military Strength. — The army was made up of 
 brave formidable warriors ^ and in time of war each chief 
 took the field in person with his own contingent* while the 
 commander of the aggregation followed in the rear ac- 
 companied by his guard, who urged forward the soldiers by 
 liberally using their swords and cutting down every man 
 that broke the ranks. Before starting on a campaign the 
 women performed a war dance in which only those took 
 part who had husbands in the army. The food of the 
 soldiers consisted principally of meal, which each man 
 carried in a bag, and which was made ready to eat by 
 simply mixing it with water. The King's interpreter ac- 
 companied the army and conducted all of the negotiations. 
 The common soldiers were armed with muskets, knives, 
 daggers, and bows and arrows." The army was enlivened 
 with musical bands and preceded by military banners." 
 
 (/") Resistance of Border States. — The most powerful 
 
 ' Brackenbury, p. 7. 'Ellis, "Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 273. 
 
 'Stanley, " Coomassie," p. 66. * Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 273. 
 • Wood, p. 626. ' Featherman, p. 188. 
 
174 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 neighbor of Ashanti was Dahomi, but the two kingdoms 
 were far enough apart to avoid serious conflicts. Neither 
 the one nor the other could permanently hold conquered 
 territory because of the inability to organize and govern it. 
 
 Aggressive Povwer of the Smaller States. — The small 
 kingdoms of Fanti, Benin and Ibo were never of much 
 consequence. The Fantis on the coast never had sufficient 
 population in their littie water bound empire to permit of 
 much expansion. They were less courageous and less 
 intelligent than the people of the interior and were unable 
 to resist the occasional encroachments of the Ashantis. 
 
 The Benin and Ibo kingdoms had their limitations to ex- 
 pansion set by the difficulties of cooperating and conducting 
 campaigns in the intricacies of the forests, swamps and 
 rivers. For the same reason multitudes of still smaller 
 kingdoms in the Delta region and elsewhere were confined 
 to narrow limits. The smaller kingdoms did not rely so 
 much upon police and soldiers for defensive purposes as 
 upon magic. For example, the Bonny people sometimes 
 planted a live woman in the ground just outside the town 
 limits, plastered her over with clay until she died, and there 
 left her as a fetich to ward off the attack of enemies.^ 
 
 ' Wood, p. 676. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE {Continued) 
 
 Political Organization of Dahomi — Differentiating Fac- 
 tors. — Any kingdom that comes into being and survives for 
 any length of time, will necessarily begin to elaborate and 
 specialize its industrial, social and political life. This is 
 what Spencer calls differentiation. It is first noticed in the 
 economic life by a separation of the people into the con- 
 querors and the conquered or noble and slave class. Under 
 the direction of the nobles the slaves are set to work at 
 various occupations, some to till the soil, some to trade and 
 some to manufacture. Thus there arises specialization of 
 occupations. As the kingdom grows in population and 
 wealth, there begins a differentiation of the political life. 
 The king chosen by the nobles organizes his rule, forms a 
 council and recognizes certain castes or classes on the basis 
 of their wealth and power. The inequality in the distribu- 
 tion of wealth brings about a corresponding inequality in 
 the distribution of power.' Those who have the wealth and 
 power seek by all possible means to maintain their prestige, 
 and there develops almost spontaneously a system of con- 
 trol adapted to keeping the lower classes in a condition of 
 subordination. 
 
 The Form of the Government. — The form of the govern- 
 ment, whether absolute, aristocratic, representative or more 
 or less democratic, depends upon the physical character of 
 the country, the extent of warfare, and the economic and 
 moral status of the people. 
 
 (a) Facility for Communication as a Factor. — In 
 Dahomi the absence of impenetrable forests or obstructing 
 water courses, favored the development of a political system 
 
 ' Ratzel, " Anthropogeographie," Vol. i, p. 73. 
 
176 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 that could easily communicate with its parts and become 
 centralized. 
 
 {b) Distribution of Wealth. — If wealth is somewhat 
 equally distributed, i. e., if all men are free and have more 
 or less property or a right to the use of the natural resources, 
 the tendency will be, other factors mentioned below not 
 overbearing, away from absolutism and towards democracy, 
 but on the other hand, if wealth is in the hands of a few, if 
 there is a large property class and a large slave or depend- 
 ent, class, the tendency will be towards the aristocratic or 
 oligarchic form of government, and if one man or a very 
 narrow circle of men own an exceptional share of the wealth 
 of the country, the tendency will be towards absolutism. In 
 Dahomi the wealth consisted mostly of slaves and proprie- 
 torship of territory, and it was concentrated in the hands of 
 a small number of men, the king and his chiefs being rela- 
 tively far above the commonalty in worldly possessions. 
 Hence, the conditions here favored absolutism. However, 
 the reader is asked to remember that while absolutism is 
 the opposite of democracy in so far as concentration of 
 power is concerned, it is not always unfavorable to the de- 
 velopment of a democratic spirit and tendency among the 
 people. A pure despotism often kindles democratic senti- 
 ment and hastens the transition to democratic institutions, 
 because the commonalty are at such an immeasurable dis- 
 tance below the monarch that the distinctions between man 
 and man fade into insignificance. If despotism had not this 
 effect in Dahomi it was because the climatic conditions failed 
 to awaken in the people those aspirations and jealousies 
 which are essential to democratic ideas and institutions. 
 
 {c) Character and Intelligence of the People. — If the 
 people are indolent, careless, deficient in spirit and initiative, 
 or if they are overcome with superstitious terrors, they will 
 incline to submit to the most tyrannical form of government. 
 In the case of Dahomi the country was naturally so produc- 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 177 
 
 tive that the people did not need to develop any enterprise, 
 energy or spirit, and they were therefore fit subjects for a 
 tyrant. Montesquieu once observed that very productive 
 soils were everywhere favorable to monarchy, and poor 
 soils to democracy. The barrenness of the Attic soil, he 
 said, established there a democracy, while the fertility of the 
 Lacedaemonian soil established there an aristocratic govern- 
 ment.' 
 
 {d) Extent of Warfare. — But no matter how many 
 other influences may favor democracy, if the life of the na- 
 tion demands constant warfare, the tendency towards des- 
 potism will be great enough sometimes to overbear all other 
 factors. In Dahomi the conditions already mentioned 
 brought about frequent collisions with the surrounding 
 populations and gave to the State a decided military stamp. 
 The necessity for defensive warfare compelled all subjects 
 to yield to a central military chief and this conduced to ab- 
 solutism. The chief, after having become once intrenched 
 in office, endeavored in all conceivable ways to extend his 
 authority. He not only loved power and the emoluments 
 thereof, but believed that the interests of the State required 
 concentration of power in his hands. All of the factors 
 bearing upon the result seemed to conspire to develop the 
 despotic form of government. Not only the military exigen- 
 cies, says Ellis, but the lack of energy of the people and 
 their great indolence made them easily submit to the despot- 
 ism of kings, chiefs and priests.^ The king, says Ratzel, 
 had almost absolute power ' and next in point of authority, 
 but very abject, were his councilmen who were obliged to 
 prostrate themselves and kiss the ground when they ap- 
 proached the royal presence.* 
 
 System of Government. («) Legislation. — Legislation 
 
 'Vol. I, p. 400. '" Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. lo. 
 
 '" History of Mankind,' Vol. 3, p. 141. 
 
 * Duncan, Vol. i, p. 221 ; Featherman, p. 209. 
 
178 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 was vested in the king who was influenced perhaps to some 
 extent by the local chiefs. 
 
 {b) Council and Executive Officers. — Among the central 
 administrative officers of the government was a chief ad- 
 viser, Megan, the only officer whose head the king could not 
 strike off at will. His duty was to execute the king's de- 
 crees, and he was popularly known as " The Man Killer." ^ 
 The next most important officer was Mehu, the master of 
 ceremonies. Numerous other functionaries of less impor- 
 tance made up the council. The local administrators 
 were the nobles or aristocratic class, composed of the cabo- 
 ceers or chiefs of the towns and cities. They were usually 
 the sons of the king's concubines, and owned large landed 
 estates for which they paid a considerable tribute to the 
 crown. They furnished soldiers for the army and enjoyed 
 the exclusive privilege of trading with Europeans, except in 
 gold, fire-arms and ammunition, which were monopolies of 
 the king.^ Each chief was king in his district and had his 
 own court. The sub-chiefs in the smaller towns also had 
 jurisdiction and authority in their respective bailiwicks. 
 Any citizen could appeal to the king if he disliked the de- 
 cision of the local chief.* Beneath this aristocratic class 
 stood the freemen and slaves, none of whom had anything 
 to do with the government, or any opportunity or incentive 
 to rise from their obscurity.* 
 
 The police system consisted of constables appointed by 
 the king, and spies also appointed by him and sent out into 
 all the districts of the empire.* Deformed men were prefer- 
 ably chosen for constables.* Sometimes palace women were 
 sent out to act in the double r61e of spies for the king and 
 wives to the local chiefs.' 
 
 > Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 163. « Featheman, p. 209. 
 
 » Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 161. ■» Foa, p. 1S6. 
 
 ' Duncan, Vol. 2, p. 35. e Hid., Vol. 2, p. 231. 
 
 ■" Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 176. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 179 
 
 {c) Laws, Offenses, Trials and Penalties. — The laws of 
 the country made no distinction between civil and criminal 
 offenses.* A wrong against property or against a person 
 was treated in the same way and by the same court.^ As 
 indicating the general character of the Dahoman laws, it 
 may be mentioned that a master was always held responsi- 
 ble for the debts or crimes of his slaves.' In some localities 
 an entire family was responsible for the debts or crimes of 
 its individual members ; * and in other localities a whole 
 community was held responsible for the acts of any of its 
 members. Any member of one community could sue and 
 seize for a debt any member of another community in which 
 his debtor lived.* Generally if a married woman got into 
 litigation she involved only the family in which she was 
 born, and not at all her husband or his blood kin.* In the 
 judicial evolution of societies it seems that communal respon- 
 sibility came first, family responsibility second, and individ- 
 ual responsibility last. 
 
 The trial of cases was conducted by the local chief or 
 one of the king's constables, and if the party concerned did 
 not like the verdict he could appeal to the king. 
 
 The penalty for homicide was either death or compen- 
 sation to the family of the deceased.'' In case of adultery 
 the man concerned was made to serve in the army as long 
 as he was able, and then was offered as a sacrifice at one of 
 the king's annual customs.' However, penalties were not 
 uniform. Any offense was likely to be punished by death, 
 mutilation, slavery, or imprisonment, while people of rank 
 or wealth could always pay indemnity. 
 
 The execution of the sentence was carried out by a con- 
 stable or officer of the local government. The death pen- 
 alty was usually inflicted by decapitation, but in aggravated 
 
 ' Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 223. ''/did., p. 219. 
 
 ' /did., p. 219. * /bid., p. 208. » Jiid., p. 209. • /bid., p. 216. 
 
 ' /bid,, p. 324. » Duncan, Vol. I, p. 141. 
 
2 
 
 i8o THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 cases was accomplished by impaling, burning, and dismem- 
 bering the body.* Duncan mentions that, in cases of mur- 
 der or adultery, the offender was sometimes inverted and a 
 red-hot iron run through his body from the rectum. 
 Throughout the kingdom, for minor offenses, the constables 
 inflicted chastisement with a dried bullock's tail.^ Ellis men- 
 tions the use of a whip of hippopotamus hide which drew 
 blood with every lash.* 
 
 The laws and judicial proceedings of Dahomi, under- 
 went, during the progress of the slave trade, very definite 
 changes. For example, criminal offenses, formerly punished 
 by a fine, whipping or banishment were changed into con- 
 demnation into slavery. Life and property became less se- 
 cure and people were seized and sold for the most trivial 
 offenses. However, a more detailed discussion of questions 
 of this kind is reserved for the second volume which deals 
 exclusively with slavery and the slave trade. 
 
 (d) Revenue. — The revenue of the state consisted of 
 war-booty, sale of slaves," fines, bribes, presents,^ and tolls. 
 Custom-houses, like the old English toll-gates, were es- 
 tablished at intervals along the chief trade routes,' where 
 taxes were collected in kind. Every trader was required to 
 have a pass and to give up a part of his merchandise. If 
 he happened to have a chicken in his possession, and it com- 
 mitted the offense of crowing in the presence of the custom 
 officer, it was immediately arrested and forfeited.' The 
 custom dues were sometimes bestowed by the king upon his 
 caboceers or court ministers as a reward for military services.' 
 The king used to levy duties on all gold, palm-oil, ivory and 
 slaves sent out of his domains. In the palmy days of the slave 
 
 ' Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 224. 2 Vol, 2, p. 153. 
 
 ' Duncan, Vol. 2, p. 231. 4 « E,ve Speaking Peoples," p. 223. 
 
 ' Brackenbury, p. 25. e Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 163. 
 
 1 Duncan, Vol. I, p. 283. s ii,i4_^ Vol. I, p. 258. 
 
 » Ibid., Vol. I, p. 283. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE i8i 
 
 trade some of the dealers paid the king as much as $2,500 
 per annum.' Also duties were levied on all imports, and on 
 all goods offered for sale on the markets.'' At Whydah a 
 constable used to go to the market daily and collect taxes 
 from each individual exposing goods for sale. Houses were 
 built for storing the revenue, which was shipped to the king 
 as ordered.^ A unique source of revenue consisted of send- 
 ing abroad the king's wives to entice men of wealth into the 
 crime of adultery, thus rendering the men liable to confisca- 
 tion of their property.^ The king also had professional 
 burglars whose business it was to break into and steal from 
 European factories, and if caught in the act they were always 
 acquitted."* 
 
 Elements of Stability, {a) Intelligence and Character of 
 the Rulers and People. — In moral character the ruling classes 
 were much below the commonalty, and hence were not very 
 inspiring examples. Their dignity prevented them from 
 working ° and their idleness predisposed them to dissipation. 
 Among the caboceers it was a mark of riches to be able to 
 get drunk once a day.' The ruling classes not only set a bad 
 example by their indolence and dissipation but discouraged 
 production by their merciless exactions. Speaking gen- 
 erally, it seems to be a fact that aristocracies in tropical 
 countries always have a tendency to sink below the moral 
 level of the commonalty, whereas those in temperate coun- 
 tries have a tendency to rise above the masses and to 
 lift them to a higher level, in spite of the often stubborn fight 
 of the aristocracies to keep the people down. The chief 
 reason of this phenomenon is that the hotter the climate the 
 more the ruling classes seek to shift all burdens upon the 
 shoulders of others, and the more they become mere 
 
 • Duncan, Vol. I, p. 123 ; Forbes, Vol. i,p. 11. 
 » Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 228. ' Duncan, Vol. i, p. 124. 
 
 • Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 172. » Ibid., p. 173. 
 
 ° Foa, p. 187. Duncan, Vol. 2, p. 65, 
 
i82 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 parasites, getting without giving, commanding without 
 bearing the brunt of battle and forgetting that the only dur- 
 able title to property and power is the ability to serve. 
 " Woe to the man who desires to be a parasite. He will 
 become vermin." The climatic difference explains, at least 
 in part, why the French aristocracy was idle and provoked 
 a revolution, and the English aristocracy by its leadership in 
 industrial lines averted a revolution. In temperate zones 
 the upper classes have a restlessness and energy of mind 
 and body that compel the majority of them to enter into in- 
 dustrial enterprises and ventures, into the professions, into 
 scientific researches, etc., and however cold and distant they 
 may act in reference to the common people, their efforts to 
 satisfy their own ambitions and to occupy a place among the 
 civilized people of the world inevitably lift by degrees the 
 commonalty to their level. The masses of mankind are 
 obliged to have leaders and are naturally inclined to love 
 and worship them. The exalted and joyous life attributed 
 to the aristocratic classes diffuses a contagious happiness 
 among all of the subjects or citizens, occupies in their minds 
 a sort of objective idealism and kindles the spirit of rever- 
 ence and hero worship. A good aristocracy is therefore one 
 of the greatest stimulations to progfress. Reverence for a 
 superior, even in a dog, is a noble quality. " Increase such 
 reverence in human beings," says Ruskin, "and you in- 
 crease daily their happiness, peace and dignity : take it away 
 and you make them wretched as well as vile." Alas for a 
 people who have no superior class to worship ! 
 
 (Jb) Common Ties, Economic, Religious, etc. — The 
 stability and internal order of a government depend upon a 
 variety of considerations such as the intelligence and char- 
 acter of the people, the number and strength of common 
 ties or interests ; upon the complexity of the economic 
 development and especially upon the status of the family. 
 The friction of social life tends to polish off differences and 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 183 
 
 to unite people by ties of common interest. The general 
 effect of a political organization is to bring about uniformity 
 in language, ideas, manners and customs.' The whole 
 socializing or unifying process is one of progress from a 
 simple to a complex consciousness of kind.^ In the matter 
 of common ties Dahomi had the advantage over all other 
 kingdoms of this zone. The people were to a great extent 
 of the same race, spoke kindred languages, had a common 
 economic life, and, most important of all, common religion. 
 Their religion was in a transition stage between fetichism 
 and polytheism. Along with local deities, not known out- 
 side of a small area, there were tribal and national gods 
 known all over the kingdom. This was a decided advantage 
 as an element of unity and stability. 
 
 {c) Status of the Family. — The people of Dahomi also 
 had an advantage over all other people of this zone, except 
 perhaps the people of Ibo and Benin, in the status of the 
 family, which was in a transition stage between the matri- 
 archate and the patriarchate. Among the ruling classes the 
 father and not the mother was the head of the family, and 
 power and property descended to the eldest son, whereas 
 generally elsewhere, descent was in the female line. The 
 succession from father to son is everywhere favorable to the 
 development of a ruling class by permitting the wisdom and 
 property, and also the physical superiority, of one genera- 
 tion to be handed down to another. 
 
 (rf) Order of Succession. — Indeed the most important 
 factor of social stability, especially in primitive societies, is 
 the order of succession to place and power. Although in 
 Dahomi, among the upper classes, the son succeeded the 
 father,* the system of primogeniture was not firmly estab- 
 lished. Owing to the existence of polygamy, the number 
 of sons was large, and they often married and scattered at 
 
 ' Giddings, •• Principles of Sociology," p. 1 1 1. * Ibid., p. 359. 
 
 » Ellis, "Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 164. 
 
i84 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 an early age. Some sons having died it was not easy to 
 ascertain which was the older, and the choice of an heir was 
 often arbitrary, and there was a contention among the 
 wives for their particular sons to receive the nomination. 
 The queen of Dahomi was so jealous of the right of her sons 
 to the succession that she did not permit the sons of the 
 other wives of the king to call themselves princes or even to 
 mention their origin. This indicates that there was con- 
 fusion in the order of succession.^ Further evidence that 
 the order of succession was always more or less uncertain is 
 shown in the fact that the two chief councilmen found it 
 necessary to make a selection from among the king's numer- 
 ous sons, the eldest, if that fact could be ascertained, being 
 considered the heir.^ The death of a king was usually kept 
 a secret, as the uncertainty of the succession always occa- 
 sioned an interregnum of lawlessness.^ 
 
 'Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 124. 
 " Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 163. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 127 ; Ellis, « Ewe Speaking Peo- 
 ples," p. 164. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE {Continued) 
 
 Political Organization of Ashanti — Form of the Govern- 
 ment — Summary of the Factors Involved The political or- 
 ganization of Ashanti was not very different from that of 
 Dahomi, and the writer will therefore limit himself to noting 
 some of the striking points of contrast. The government 
 was rather that of an aristocracy than a personal despotism, 
 and the chiefs of the districts, though feudatories of the king, 
 preserved a species of independence.' The natural condi- 
 tions were not so favorable to the concentration of power. 
 The groups of people being more scattered on account of 
 the very dense forest,' the military power was not so para- 
 mount, and the people being nearer the border of the millet 
 zone and giving more attention to the cultivation of the soil, 
 were more active and independent, and therefore less servile. 
 The power of the king extended very feebly to the extremi- 
 ties of the country. The form of the government was rather 
 feudal than absolute. The founder of the Ashanti State 
 concentrated his power at Kumassi, and rulership over the 
 conquered territory was delegated to local chiefs who were 
 bound to appear at the capital only on certain feast days. 
 " Later a great number of courtiers assumed at Ashanti the 
 position of representatives and administrators of the con- 
 quered districts, visiting them mostly to collect tribute." ' 
 The caboceers or local chiefs formed the nobility, who con- 
 stituted the public council, held all of the offices and exercised 
 the chief control of affairs of state. The power of the king, 
 
 'Ellis, "Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 275. 
 
 'Stanley," Coomassie," pp. 159, i6j. 
 
 • Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 127. 
 
 185 
 
i86 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 says Ellis, was curbed by a council called the Ashanti 
 Kotoko, i. e., Ashanti Porcupine, meaning that it could not 
 be molested without injury.^ Each caboceer was vested 
 with a stool, which was the symbol of authority, and de- 
 scended from father to son. Next to the nobility stood 
 the freemen or common people who followed various indus- 
 trial pursuits and were the followers and retainers of the 
 higher classes. And finally there was a slave class.^ Un- 
 limited power nowhere existed. " So free was Ashanti un- 
 der its first kings," says Ratzel, " that Dahomi, which was 
 already despotic, declined all close intercourse, lest its peo- 
 ple should have an opportunity of making acquaintance 
 with the liberty there existing." ^ The Ashanti people even 
 sometimes deposed their king.* In the small independent 
 groups, not forming a part of Ashanti proper, there seems 
 to have been less tendency towards centralization than in 
 the case of the similar groups in the Dahomi region. For 
 example, Binger says that at Bondouku there was no gen- 
 eral authority over the whole city, but that each quarter 
 was ruled by the most notable old man, who divided 
 power with the local priest." So far as the distribution of 
 wealth, the character of the people, and extent of warfare 
 were concerned, the conditions in Ashanti were not quite so 
 favorable to despotism as in Dahomi. 
 
 System of Government, {a) Legislation. — Legislation 
 was mostly in the hands of the council. 
 
 {b) Council and Executive Officers. — ^The administrative 
 officers included a commander in chief of the army, a public 
 executioner, , whose badge of office was a solid gold hatchet 
 worn upon his breast ; a secretary of the treasury ; and an 
 interpreter who conducted intercourse with strangers and 
 acted as prosecutor in criminal cases.^ A rigid system of 
 
 > Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 277. « Featherman, p. :84. 
 
 »" History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 127. < Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 128. 
 
 » Vol. 2, p. 162. 6 Featherman, p. 184. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 187 
 
 police existed at Kumassi. The city was walled in and no 
 one was permitted to leave it after sundown.' 
 
 {c) Laws, Penalties, etc. — One of the curious laws of 
 Ashanti was that whoever defrayed the expenses of a funeral 
 of any one was responsible for his debts, and on this account, 
 as one might suppose, the people very seldom buried a 
 stranger.^ In some localities a whole tribe was held respon- 
 sible for the crimes or obligations of any one member ' and 
 in other localities each family was held responsible for any 
 fault of its members. An accused person was first " put in 
 log," that is, his wrist was fastened to a log by means of an 
 iron fork until the day of trial, when he was brought before 
 the king or chief in open court and confronted with wit- 
 nesses. Each chief had his own local court, but in impor- 
 tant matters the king sat in court with all of his chiefs in the 
 open air and in the presence of the people. Any one could 
 appeal to the king,* In some cases the guilt or innocence 
 of the accused was decided by ordeal, that is, he was re- 
 quired to drink a decoction of odum-wood. If innocent, he 
 vomited and recovered and if guilty he died. For the more 
 serious offenses the guilty party was subjected to the less 
 doubtful penalties of decapitation, mutilation, etc.° In 
 many cases the civil authorities were ignored and the power 
 of some local divinity was invoked to avenge a theft or 
 other injury.* The nobility seldom suffered the death 
 penalty, but escaped from their crimes by paying fines.' It 
 was the custom for local chiefs to send to the king in 
 baskets the decapitated heads of all subjects executed. 
 The blood of a decapitated person was often drunk by the 
 executioners and sometimes they ate the victim's heart. 
 When in 1823 Sir Chas. M'Carthy was captured by the 
 
 ' Brackenbury, p. 339. ' Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 299. 
 
 » Ibid., p. 300. « Ibid., pp. 273, 275. 
 
 » Ibid., p. 275. 6 Ibid., p. 75. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 301. * Freeman, p. 53. 
 
i88 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Ashantis and beheaded, his heart was made a feast of by 
 the chiefs then present at the capital.* 
 
 (d) Revenue. — ^The king's revenue was derived from 
 several sources. First, from his own private estates which 
 were very vast ; and second, from the output of the gold 
 mines. All of the miners of the kingdom were required to 
 send to the king every gold nugget that was dug up, only 
 the dust being retained by the miners.^ Taxes were levied 
 on all elephant hunters, and during the era of the external 
 slave trade, taxes were also levied on the export of slaves.^ 
 
 Elements of Stability — Summary of the Factors In- 
 volved. — So far as the elements of stability were concerned 
 the Ashantis were somewhat weaker than the Dahomans. 
 While they possessed a certain unity of race, language and 
 economic life, their religion was fetich, that is, they had 
 only local deities and no general gods known to all of the 
 people. The family life was more disorganized and on a 
 lower level, the children belonging to the mother only, and 
 transmission of property and power proceeding in the female 
 line. 
 
 ' Freeman, p. 4. 2 Stanley, " Coomassie," p. 64 
 
 " Featherman, p. 185. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE (Continued) 
 
 Political Organization of the Smaller Kingdoms, (a) 
 Forms of the Government. — The smaller kingdoms of Benin, 
 I bo, Bonny and others were never able to develop a strong 
 centralized power, nor to specialize their administration, 
 on account of the forests and rivers that cut the popu- 
 lation into fragments and prevented cooperation. The 
 forms of governments were relatively simple, and never 
 so absolute as in the case of the larger kingdoms, since, 
 owing to the lack of standing armies, the edicts of the 
 Kings had nothing to give them force. Political con- 
 trol was therefore more conserved by the aristocracies and 
 slave holding classes.' For example, among the Calabars 
 the chiefs of the towns and villages exercised no real 
 authority as the heads of the communities over which 
 they presided. The nobles or aubongs were the governing 
 class and were virtually the rulers of the land. Poor 
 freemen were but little superior to slaves unless pro- 
 tected by some patron of the aristocratic order. Freemen 
 could be reduced to slavery by selling themselves either in 
 time of famine or other diflficult circumstance beyond their 
 control : they could be sold as delinquent debtors, as 
 prisoners of war, or as criminals. Every master of a 
 domestic establishment exercised unlimited control within 
 the limits of his household and made and enforced the law.' 
 
 (J)) Governmental System. — The witch doctor was gen- 
 erally relied upon to discover by his magic any one guilty 
 of theft, poisoning or other offense. "There can be no 
 doubt," says Miss Kingsley, " that the witch doctor's methods 
 
 ' Hovclacque, p. 327. ' Featherman, pp. 234, 235. 
 
 189 
 
I90 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 of finding out who has poisoned a person, are effective, and 
 that the knowledge of this detective power to a great extent 
 keeps down poisoning." ' 
 
 In reference to legal matters, it seems to be a fact, how- 
 ever strange, that the deeper one goes into the forest the 
 deeper, more entangled and more impenetrable become all 
 legal proceedings. For example, in the Niger Delta, where 
 children belong to the mother, unless she herself be a slave, 
 great law suits often arise over the possession of the off- 
 spring. " The children of slave wives are the only kind of 
 his own children that a free father has any ownership in," 
 and " complications come in from its being a common thing 
 for a freeman to marry a woman who is the property of 
 some other man. All of her children are the property of her 
 owner, not of her husband, and the owner can at any time 
 take those children and sell them . . . unless the father- 
 freeman redeems them, — that is to say, pays a certain cus- 
 tomary price to the mother's owner on the birth of each 
 child, the mother still remaining in her slave condition. 
 Palavers based on this law are distraction itself to white 
 magistrates and pretty hard work for the black chiefs, for 
 with them there is no statute of limitations." All of the 
 male as well as the female children of a slave woman 
 belong to her master " even unto the second and third gen- 
 eration and away into Eternity . . . with all of the 
 rights and obligations belonging thereto. A man may die 
 before he puts in his claim, in which case his property 
 passes into the hands of his heir, who may foreclose at once 
 upon entering upon his heritage, or may again let things 
 accumulate for his heir. However, sooner or later, the fore- 
 closure comes and there is trouble." ^ 
 
 Secret Societies. — In the absence of any interference on the 
 part of the chief or king, the subjects naturally take the law 
 
 '"West African Studies," p. i86. 
 
 " Kingsley, " West African Studies," p. 402. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 191 
 
 into their own hands, which in many of the small kingdoms, 
 is administered by means of secret societies.' In some lo- 
 calities in recent years the British authorities may have in- 
 terfered with the operations of these societies, but they were 
 in full bloom when Miss Kingsley was on the West Coast in 
 1896. " The natives of Calabar and of Brass and Opobo 
 and Bonny Rivers," says Miss Kingsley, " are divided into 
 what they term houses. These houses are bound together 
 by a common Long Ju Ju, and into groups by their secret 
 societies which have certain points of difference, but in the 
 main enforce the same set of laws." Each house is presided 
 over by a king, and beneath him are four classes. First, 
 the king's relatives ; second, freemen under the protection of 
 a House ; third, trade boys who have fallen into slavery, and 
 fourth, slaves born so and those who have forfeited their 
 freedom and those bought from other tribes.^ Among 
 savages, the condition especially favorable to a government 
 by secret societies is that of a town or community in a State 
 where the central authority is very weak, or where among 
 independent kingdoms only an embryonic government has 
 developed.^ The societies in this zone probably originated 
 in connection with the ceremonies attending the initiation of 
 boys and girls into manhood and womanhood. The fetich- 
 men who conduct the ceremonies naturally have great 
 power in the community, and where there is much crime to 
 be ferreted out they feel the need of some organization to 
 share responsibility in dealing with it. The people centre 
 around the fetichmen who seek the people's backing and 
 the result is an evolution into a secret order. These socie- 
 ties are scattered over a g^reat area of West Africa, but are 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 131. 
 
 ' Kingsley, " West African Studies,'' pp. 398, 399. 
 
 ' Among civili«d States, secret societies arise from the tyranny of the govern- 
 ment, from oppression, from lack of freedom of speech or from criminal and revolu- 
 tionary tendencies of the population. On this point the reader may consult Giddinga' 
 " Principles of Sociology," p. 181. 
 
192 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 principally operative on the Guinea Coast and in the region 
 of the Lower Niger. At Porto Novo the society preserves 
 order in the community by sending out at night a fantastic- 
 ally dressed ofi&cer who seizes any one found in the streets 
 after nine o'clock. The credulous suppose him to be a 
 demon from the sea,' An officer similar to this is found in 
 the societies of Bonny. He is known as Mumbo Jumbo, a 
 sort of superhuman being, who emerges from the forest at 
 night, dressed in a red bark suit and wearing a mask made 
 of a gourd with holes bored in it for eyes. This monster 
 moves amidst the crowd and all of a sudden touches some 
 woman with his rod, who is immediately seized by the mob, 
 disrobed, tied to a stake and terribly beaten. The offense 
 for which she is thus chastised is usually that of quarreling 
 with her husband.^ In the Niger region the men belong to 
 one society and the women to another. It is rare that both 
 sexes are members of the same organization.* Young free 
 children are admitted at the age of eight or ten years. A 
 boy, if he belongs to a tribe that tattoos, is properly marked 
 and then handed over to instructors who initiate him into 
 the secrets and formulas. For the space of one year he lives 
 in the forest with other boys under the control of several 
 eminent professors. He goes naked except for a coating 
 of clay which he smears over his body.* The girl is put 
 through a similar process of instruction and initiation. She 
 is removed from her home, but is sometimes kept in a hut 
 near a village instead of residing in the forest.® In all of the 
 societies much superstition is mixed up with the proceed- 
 ings. In some cases the members presume to be governed 
 by spirits, or kinds of somethings living in the bush. An in- 
 stance is cited where one of these spirits had been caught in 
 the forest and brought to town with great jubilation. Its 
 
 • Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 178. ' Wood, p. 675. 
 
 ' Kingsley, " Travels in West Africa," p. 376. ■• Ibid., p. 380. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 380. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 193 
 
 word is law.' Miss Kingsley thinks that some of the 
 Calabar societies put people to death simply for the fun of 
 it. One of their practices is that the last initiated member 
 must provide one of his own relatives to offer as a sacrifice/ 
 and when seizing a victim for this purpose, the murderer 
 dresses in a leopard's skin and plunges an iron fork into 
 each side of the victim's throat,^ The leopard skin dress 
 secures immunity for the murderer. The notion prevails 
 that whoever kills a real leopard will fall a victim to a curse 
 or disease. Hence sham-leopards ravage sheep, goats, 
 dogs and commit any kind of depredation.'' Members of 
 the Ogboni, Egbo and Aboni societies of the Benin king- 
 dom are admitted by drinking blood and are bound by oath. 
 No strangers may join. The functions of the society seem 
 to be both of a defensive and aggressive character. Cer- 
 tain costumes are worn at tournaments which protect the 
 members from ill treatment of each other. If any one gives 
 offense to the organization the death penalty is inflicted 
 without a word." Among the Calabars the Egbo society 
 exercises almost complete political control under the sanc- 
 tion of a mysterious supernatural spirit. " No one can be 
 admitted into the mystic fraternity without previously pay- 
 ing an entrance fee to every member. . . . The initia- 
 tory ceremonies are entirely secret and the death penalty 
 would be incurred by any member who would dare divulge 
 them. There are ten different degrees, each characterized 
 by some honorable distinction, and the exercise of certain 
 powers : and to the lowest degree boys and slaves are even 
 admitted : while the highest is reserved to the most influ- 
 ential families of high rank and to the ruling chiefs, who 
 are subject to the control of the society like all other mem- 
 bers of the same dignity. The privileges enjoyed by the 
 
 ' Kingsley, " Travels in West Africa," p. 383. ' Ibid,, p. 385. 
 
 » Ibid., p. 386. * Ibid., p. 390. 
 
 5 Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 131. 
 
194 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 members of the association are altogether exclusive, and 
 neither freemen nor slaves that do not belong to the frater- 
 nity can claim any rights which may not be annulled or 
 thwarted by this irresponsible despotic power. It is the 
 Egbo that enforces the claim of creditors, who, when the 
 day of payment has passed, may beat the Egbo drum be- 
 fore the door of the delinquent debtor, commanding him to 
 leave his dwelling till his liabilities are discharged : requir- 
 ing him after the lapse of a certain time, to deliver up his 
 person and property in satisfaction of the debt, if the amount 
 due has not been previously paid. In the interior, poor 
 orphans are seized and sold to satisfy the indebtedness of 
 their deceased father. A slave even may purchase Egbo 
 privileges and his position becomes almost equivalent to 
 freedom, though the rights of the master to the services of 
 his slave are not thereby affected." ' 
 
 {d) Succession in the female line not favorable to stabil- 
 ity. — On account of the uncertainty of parentage inherit- 
 ance almost everywhere among the Negro races is in the 
 female line, and this is unfavorable to the development or 
 perpetuation of a superior ruling class. As Miss Kingsley 
 points out, the property of a man does not fall to the sons 
 born to him " by one of his wives who is a great woman of 
 a princely line, but to the eldest son of his sister by the same 
 mother as his own. This sister's mother and his own 
 mother was a slave-wife of his father's : this you see keeps 
 good blood in a continual state of dilution with slave blood " 
 and does not " tend to the production of a series of great 
 men in one family." ^ The family is not a miniature king- 
 dom as in the case where the system of primogeniture pre- 
 vails. However, in the Benin kingdom, during the period of 
 its independent existence, sons often succeeded their fathers 
 (who appointed them without regard to age) ^ and some- 
 
 1 Featherman, p. 2;,^. -• ■• West African Studies," p. 374. 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 226. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 195 
 
 times also in the Ibo kingdom* and among the 
 Aminas.' 
 
 Another element of weakness in the small kingdoms was 
 that men devoted much of their time to fighting, and wher- 
 ever this is the case there is always a tendency to give the 
 leadership to the physically strong.^ The title to office de- 
 pended primarily upon physical vigor and not upon blood 
 or wisdom. The ruler usually came suddenly into power 
 without bringing with him those traditions of rulership 
 which were necessary to equip him for his duties and invest 
 his office with respect. Thus it is seen how the composition 
 and character of the family may affect the stability of a 
 government. Indeed, the absence of the patriarchal type of 
 family among the Africans more than anything else distin- 
 guishes their rulers for incapacity to govern and renders 
 their empires ephemeral. 
 
 {e) Common Language not a strong basis of unity'. — 
 In many regions of this zone, as elsewhere in the world, kin- 
 ship of language exists over a wide area without bringing 
 about a political unity of commensurate extent. The reason 
 for this is that political power is less easy to communicate 
 than language. Hence for example, the Ibo people have a 
 very wide linguistic domain and a very small kingdom.* 
 
 ' Hovelacque, p. 328 ; Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. 232. 
 
 » Featherman, p. 158. • Hawkins, p. 96. * Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 330. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 POLITICAL LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 
 
 Integrating Factors, (a) Influence of Natural Re- 
 sources. — The political groups of this zone comprise numer- 
 ous States of various sizes formed among the Mandingos, 
 Bambaras, Yorubas, Hausas, Adamawas, Bongos, Mittus, 
 Madis and Shulis. The territory occupied by the groups 
 west of the Slave Coast hinterland is now mostty under 
 French influence, and is known as French Sudan.^ The great 
 Samory empire inland from Sierra Leone was overthrown by 
 the French in 1893.^ The British sphere of influence up to 
 1903 included all of Yorubaland, and the region from Sa on 
 the Niger to Lake Chad,* taking in Hausa and Adamawa* 
 and since 1903 it has taken in Kano and extended west to 
 Sokoto. The groups in Upper Egypt, i. e., Egyptian 
 Sudan, extending to the Nile-Congo watershed, are also 
 now under the British sphere of influence.^ Notwithstand- 
 ing the less exuberant vegetation in this zone the popula- 
 tion is very dense, owing to the less amount of forest and the 
 large area employed in the cultivation of the soil. There 
 are not many barriers in the way of impenetrable forests, or 
 impassable rivers and swamps to isolate one group from the 
 other ; and hence over wide stretches of country there are 
 large groups of people of the same type, speaking the same 
 language and having the same beliefs and institutions. 
 However, in the direction of the south the thickening of the 
 forest tends to break up the populations into unlike types, 
 dialects and customs. 
 
 » Stanford, Vol. I, p. 246. ^ Ibid. » Ibid.. Vol. i, p. 248. 
 
 ■• Ibid., Vol. I, p. 252. 6 mj^ Vol. I, p. 246. 
 
 196 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 197 
 
 It is important to note in this connection that the mere 
 fact that people over a wide area are of the same type and 
 have the same language, does not, as one would suppose, 
 imply correspondingly large political organizations. In the 
 millet zone the population is everywhere congested in towns 
 and cities more or less far apart and situated with reference 
 to the most favorable conditions for agriculture. There are 
 no isolated families scattered over the country, as in the 
 agricultural districts of Europe. Preville thinks that the 
 congestion of population in towns is made necessary by the 
 annual burning of the grass which would destroy all houses 
 that were scattered about.' The towns vary in size from a 
 few hundred to over one hundred thousand inhabitants, and 
 formerly in many cases constituted independent kingdoms. 
 {b) Invasions from Outside. — The political conditions 
 that tended to bring about cooperation and the formation of 
 States were, first, the invasion of the nomad pastoral people 
 from the north who robbed and ravaged the cultivated fields 
 and carried away the inhabitants to sell into slavery.^ And 
 second, the invasion of the people from the banana regions 
 of the south who sought to steal the harvested grain, 
 domestic animals, etc. A conspicuous fact was that there 
 were no natural obstacles to render invasion difficult either 
 from the north or south. 
 
 Necessity and Facility for Defense. — In this region it 
 would seem that the people had every reason for combining 
 on a large scale for purposes of defense, but strange to say 
 in many localities the defense did not amount to anything 
 more than the coming together of the people in fortified 
 towns.' In some cases the houses of a village were con- 
 nected by subterranean passages to enable the people more 
 
 ' P. 252. ' Lander, Vol. i, p. 35, 118, 273, 282; Park, p. 60. 
 
 'Bowen, p. 294; Park, pp. 35, 193 ; Spilsbury, p. 13; Lander, Vol. I, pp. 127, 
 147 ; Vol. 2, p. 122; Lasnet, " Une mission au sSn^gal," p. 86 ; Clapperton, " Second 
 Expedition," p. 144 ; Binger, Vol. i, p. 199. 
 
198 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 effectively to protect themselves in case of a sudden attack.* 
 The isolation of the groups and feeble sense of nationality 
 caused a reign of complete anarchy and rendered the vil- 
 lages easy prey to the Fellatahs and other invaders. The 
 incoming of the Fellatahs, however, gave an impetus to unity 
 and effected the organization of large States. Ratzel has ob- 
 served with his characteristic discernment that the first effect 
 of nomad contact with settled people is to bind the latter to- 
 gether.^ 
 
 But besides the danger of invasion from outside there 
 was constant danger of attack of one town upon another. 
 The fact that there were no individual families scattered 
 about between the towns, forming connecting blood ties 
 between town and country and between one town and an- 
 other, as in European countries, made the people of each 
 town strangers and foes to each other, and liable to perpetual 
 hostility and strife. In reality, the different communities of 
 this zone were constantly at war with each other, stealing 
 each other's provisions, women and slaves. Some villages 
 were inhabited entirely by robbers ' and vast regions of the 
 country were infested with bands of outlaws.^ As a result 
 of the incessant warfare European explorers always met 
 numerous abandoned villages. Sometimes the only signs 
 of life about a village, formerly teeming with inhabitants, 
 were groups of monkeys chattering and scampering amidst 
 the ruins. ° The people of this zone would have remained 
 mere political fragments had not the Fellatahs and other 
 peoples from the desert invaded the country and brought 
 some order out of the chaos. And notwithstanding the in- 
 fluence of the desert invaders, in many localities, the remote- 
 ness of one group from another and the difficulties of com- 
 municating, caused the people to remain scattered and 
 disunited. For example, the Bongos had no large or 
 
 ' Binger, Vol. I, p. 43. " " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, pp. 151, 152. 
 
 » Lander, Vol. I, p. 198. * Ibid., Vol. i,pp. 153, 195. <■ Binger, Vol. i, p. 117. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 199 
 
 definite political organizations, but remained divided into 
 fractions by their net-work of rivers.* Hence this region, 
 both on account of intertribal conflicts and invasions from 
 outside, became the great slave hunting territory of the 
 Sudan.* 
 
 (c) Motives for Aggression. — ^The motives which 
 turned a defensive into an aggressive movement in this 
 zone were the same as those in the banana zone, to wit, 
 the desire to rob, and to capture slaves.^ The motive 
 for defense became the motive for aggression. The chief 
 of a tribe at first had no system of revenue, and as 
 his wants increased, he found that his only resource 
 was in waging war and stealing from his enemies. The 
 tribute which the small semi-independent Hausa and 
 other States paid to the head-chiefs of the federation of 
 Gando and Sokoto, consisted mostly of slaves, and this form 
 of exaction was a constant provocation to the aggression 
 of one community upon another.^ " Experience teaches us," 
 says Binger, "that as soon as a Negro chief commands 
 more than 20,000 souls, he dreams of empire ; his needs 
 augment and he seeks expansion. As he has no budget, 
 all is deficit and it is necessary to hunt slaves in order to 
 make up the shortage." " 
 
 During the era of the slave trade with the Europeans and 
 Americans the motive to make war for slaves was greatly 
 reenforced. The large number of slaves living in every 
 village, in many cases constituting two-thirds of the popula- 
 tion, and the high price at which they could be sold, were 
 extraordinary temptations to local razzias. The whole 
 region fermented with strife and villages and empires were 
 daily rising and falling with the fortunes of war.' Within 
 the limits of the Egba Kingdom in the Yoruba country 
 
 ' Schweinfurth, Vol. I, p. 258. ' Preville, p. 260. 
 
 ' Clapperton, " Journey to Kouka and Sackatoo," pp. 5 1, 82 ; Staudinger, p. 526. 
 * Robinson, p. 16. » Vol. i, p. 502. ' Clapperton, " Second Expedition," p. 156. 
 
200 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 there were nearly three hundred towns destroyed in the 
 course of only fifty years.' In the same period it is said 
 that not less than 500,000 people were killed.^ Along the 
 road from Kano to Sokoto, Clapperton found the ruins 
 of many villages whose inhabitants had been sold into 
 slavery.^ 
 
 Another motive for aggression which was entirely absent 
 in the banana zone arose from the desire to propagate the 
 Mohammedan religion. This religion had many followers 
 among the Nigritians, and it was essentially proselyting, 
 very jealous of all rivals and always aggressive. 
 
 Perhaps another motive for aggression was national 
 pride. As soon as a people acquire some knowledge 
 and some skill in the industrial arts and become conscious 
 of such acquirement, they begin to swell with pride and 
 enthusiasm for expansion. This motive, however, was prob- 
 ably effective only in the States under Fellatah control. 
 
 Aggressive Power of the States Generally, (a) Influ- 
 ence of natural boundaries. — The aggressive power of the 
 States of this zone was limited along the coast in the west by 
 the net-work of broad rivers and the numerous swamps and 
 lakes, but in the higher and more open country there were 
 scarcely any impediments. The most aggressive States 
 were therefore in territories most exempt from natural limi- 
 tations. 
 
 {!}) Size of the Population. — In the more open areas the 
 largeness of the population added considerably to the ex- 
 pansive power of the States. 
 
 {c) Economic Resources. — In ability to support a fight- 
 ing class the conditions were generally less favorable than 
 in the banana zone. The food supply was limited to what 
 could be cultivated and it was never superabundant. The 
 carrying on of war soon exhausted the country's resources 
 
 > Bowen, p. 107. 2 Uid., p. 1 14. 
 
 '"Journey to Kouka and Sackatoo," p. 51. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 201 
 
 and set limits to offensive activity. The soldiers usually 
 laid waste the country through which they passed and, after 
 impoverishing the inhabitants, often died by the thousands 
 of starvation. 
 
 {d) Ability to Cooperate. — But the people of this zone 
 were more active physically and mentally and they com- 
 pensated for their less bountiful food supply by greater 
 intelligence and ability to cooperate and greater skill and 
 courage in fighting, especially after the Fellatah conquests. 
 
 {e) Military Strength. — The armies in this zone were 
 superior in equipment to those in the banana zone in 
 that they had horses, oxen and asses for mounts and for 
 transportation of provisions. After the coming of the Eu- 
 ropeans in the Sudan all of the armies used muskets. The 
 powder was often a native manufacture which burned very 
 slowly and caused the muskets to kick terribly and divert 
 their aim.^ However, a considerable part of the foot-soldiers 
 still used bows and arrows. A great obstacle to expansion, 
 so far as the Nigritians proper were concerned, was found 
 in the fact that the groups of people were far apart and 
 pretty evenly matched so that no one of them could gain a 
 decided advantage over another without the intervention of 
 a stronger race. 
 
 Comparative Aggressive Power of the Different States. 
 {a) The Hausas. — The aggressive power of the Hausas was 
 due partly to their greater number of horses and large 
 cavalry which facilitated rapid movement in attacking and 
 retreating, and partly to a generous infusion of Fellatah 
 blood. At the beginning of the nineteenth century most of 
 the rulers of Hausaland were Mohammedans, while the 
 masses of the people were still heathens. Each town had 
 its separate king who, in many cases was a Fellatah, but 
 there was no cooperation between the towns and no real 
 Hausa nation or empire. " In the year 1802," says Robin- 
 
 ' Binge r, Vol. I, p. 104. 
 
202 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 son, " a Fellatah Sheikh, named Othman dan Fodio, began 
 to preach a holy war against infidels. He suffered many 
 reverses at the hands of the Hausa kings, but at length suc- 
 ceeded in gathering around him a formidable army, com- 
 posed chiefly of Hausas, with which he established his sway 
 over the whole of the present Hausa States." ^ These States 
 thus united came under the control of the sultanate of 
 Sokoto, the head of the Fellatah Empire.^ The Hausas 
 were shut in at the north by the Kanuris who had a still 
 larger supply of horses and a still stronger cavalry and still 
 greater mixture of foreign blood. 
 
 {p) Mandingos. — The Mandingos were held in check 
 on the west by the Atlantic Ocean and on the north by the 
 pastoral Fellatahs with their irresistible cavalry. They 
 seemed to have no area open to them except in the east 
 whither they were slowly advancing. The expansive power 
 of the Mandingos, however, lay more in their commerce 
 than in their military operations. The Mandingo traders 
 were celebrated all over the western part of the Sudan. 
 They would go on extensive expeditions, sometimes settling 
 permanently in distant towns and among people of other 
 nationalities. They learned the different dialects and grad- 
 ually won the favor and gained the upper hand of their 
 neighbors. Thus in Africa as elsewhere in the world the 
 flag has tended to follow commerce. In the thirteenth 
 century the Mandingos had built up the greatest empire in 
 Western Sudan.* But after the introduction of the horse, 
 they were not able to hold their territory to the north against 
 the Fellatahs and other invaders. Horses in the Mandingo 
 country do not thrive and people who use them must pur- 
 chase them from outside and pay a high price.* 
 
 (<r) Yorubas. — The Yoruba Empire once occupied the 
 area between Dahomi on the west, Borgu on the northwest, 
 
 ' P. 15. « Staudinger, p. 515. 'Stanford, Vol. i, p. 260. 
 
 ■• Binger, Vol. i, p. 100. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 203 
 
 the Niger on the east, Benin on the southeast and the coast 
 on the south.' But the invasion of the Hausas in 1821 
 caused the empire to fall to pieces, and at a later date it 
 was divided into a number of petty states, of which that of 
 Egba in the west was the most important. The whole of 
 Yoruba was for a time under Hausa domination ^ but it is 
 now under the sphere of influence of the British.' Its su- 
 periority over its coast neighbors was due largely to its 
 cavalrymen, and to its more intelligent and more active 
 population. If the slave trade had not disintegrated the 
 empire it would never have succumbed to the invading 
 Hausas. 
 
 Different Forms of Government, (a) Facility for com- 
 munication as a Factor. — The general absence of natural 
 boundaries in this region was not favorable to centralized 
 forms of government. In order to hold several communities 
 together in an open country it is necessary that the govern- 
 ment have a military power which is able to reach to all parts 
 of the territory. The fact is evident that only a highly 
 civilized State could organize and govern people scattered 
 over a wide and undefined area. In this zone, on account 
 of the scattered nature of the population no State could 
 count with any certainty upon the loyalty of towns situated 
 remotely from the seat of power. The towns at a distance 
 from the centre of the government vacillated from one State 
 to another according to the amount of pressure brought to 
 bear upon them, and consequently they retained in a large 
 measure local independence. However, the very difficulties 
 of holding the communities together, made it necessary, in 
 so far as the power of the government could reach at all, to 
 use despotic methods. 
 
 (d) Distribution of Wealth and Character of the People. 
 — Power in this zone was based upon the possession of 
 
 > Clapperton, " Second Expedition," p. 87. ' Staudinger, p. 532. 
 
 •Stanford, Vol. i, pp. 249, 386. 
 
204 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 wealth and not upon military prestige or aristocratic blood, 
 and it was therefore not so easily concentrated. The people 
 generally put forth more effort to live than the inhabitants 
 of the banana zone, they used their muscles and brains 
 more and consequently had a greater spirit of independence, 
 as little as that may have been. 
 
 (c) Amount of Warfare. — The amount of warfare in 
 this zone was less than in the banana zone, yet there was 
 enough of it to bring about centralization of power but for 
 the fact above stated that the distribution of population 
 was such as to render political solidification very diffi- 
 cult. 
 
 While some of the governments of this zone were rather 
 despotic, as a rule, they were mild and timid as compared 
 to those of the banana zone. The people who possessed the 
 wealth demanded a voice in the government, and all im- 
 portant questions were usually settled in free palavers.^ 
 
 Comparison of the Different Forms of Government. — 
 The Hausa government consisted of a loose confeder- 
 acy of a large number of little kingdoms owing a general 
 allegiance either to Gando or Sokoto. This allegiance was 
 shown by the payment of an annual tribute consisting 
 chiefly of slaves, but it did not in any way prevent the little 
 kingdoms from carrying on war against each other.^ Each 
 king or governor of any one of the confederated States was 
 generally assisted in the control of public affairs by a coun- 
 cil of men of wealth. For example, at Kano there was a 
 serki or governor who was assisted by a council, at the head 
 of which was the ghaladima who often exercised more in- 
 fluence than the governor himself.' 
 
 The Yoruba government was a weak kind of monarchy 
 which left all of the towns in the hands of the local chiefs 
 or governors who were almost independent of the king. 
 
 ' From a Portuguese word polabro^discussion, negotiation. 
 
 » Robinson, p. i6. s Featherman, p. 396. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 205 
 
 The king ruled conjointly with his eldest son ' and a coun- 
 cil of nobles, but the real power of the State was in the 
 hands of the Ogboni secret society which had a lodge in 
 every town.^ All of the king's actions were closely watched^ 
 and if he displeased the council, it invited him to go to sleep, 
 i. e., to take poison. On important occasions all of the 
 people were consulted and all allowed to express an 
 opinion.* 
 
 The Mandingos were divided into little oligarchical re- 
 publics, ruled over by a religious chief Almamy and a civil 
 ofificer Alcaty.^ The power of these ofificers was modified 
 by an aristocratic council." The government of the Kru- 
 men was nominally monarchical, but in substance was 
 democratic, the power of the king being circumscribed by 
 the privilege which every one had of calling a palaver." 
 The Mossis were divided into numerous more or less inde- 
 pendent confederations. They had a central chief and a 
 local chief, both using rather despotic methods.' The 
 Egarah State was a monarchy, but important questions were 
 discussed in the assembly of judges and headmen.' The 
 Serers formed a certain number of small republics.'" The 
 Samory kingdom was divided into provinces or districts, 
 and at the head of each was a chief who was usually a son 
 or brother of the Almamy. 
 
 The chiefs of the villages were also subordinates of the 
 Almamy " and the government was despotic in every ac- 
 ceptation of the word.'^ The Bongos, says Featherman, had 
 no regularly organized government. Every tribe or vil- 
 lage community had its chief, who by virtue of his superior 
 possessions and his proficiency in the magic art, exercised 
 
 ' Ellis, " Voruba Speaking Peoples," p. 167. ' Ibid., p. III. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 164. * Ibid., p. 165. ' Lasnet, p. 91. • Hovelacque, p. 327. 
 ' Journal of an African Cruiser, p. 55. *Binger, Vol. r, pp. 479, 502. 
 
 » Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. 326. i" Ibid., Vol. i, p. 327. 
 
 "Bingev, Vol. i. p. 70. "Binger, Vol. I, p- '50. 
 
2o6 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 limited authority in time of peace, and was recognized as 
 leader in time of war. Prior to British intervention they 
 had been subjugated by the Nubians.' The Bambaras had 
 a nearly absolute monarchy which was but slightly re- 
 stricted by a representative body of nobles and members of 
 the army. The villages were governed by the sons and 
 relatives of the king." 
 
 ' p. 5 1. * Featherman, p. 339. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 POLITICAL LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE {Continued) 
 
 Systems of Administration, (a) Legislation in the sev- 
 eral States. — Among the Hausas legislation was in the 
 hands of the governor of the state or city acting in con- 
 junction with a council of rich men or nobles. Among the 
 Yorubas it was in the hands of the king and the local gov- 
 ernors or councils, but sometimes the whole people assem- 
 bled and made and administered the laws.' In each State 
 there was a council of chiefs and elders, and a two-thirds 
 vote was required for the enactment of a law.^ However, 
 the Ogboni secret society, as mentioned in another connec- 
 tion, largely usurped the legislative functions,' and was the 
 power behind the throne. The king had a number of 
 officers and advisers composing his council, most of whom 
 were slaves.^ 
 
 The legislation in the other States was pretty uniformly 
 divided between the king and some kind of council. 
 
 (3) Executive Officers. — The executive officers of the 
 Hausa State consisted of a commander of the cavalry, sev- 
 eral judges, a chief of slaves, a minister of finance, a su- 
 perintendent of beasts of burden, etc' In other States 
 there were councilmen varying in number according to the 
 size and importance of the government. 
 
 (r) Laws and Judicial Proceedings. — The laws in this 
 zone were aimed mostly at the three cardinal African crimes 
 of theft, adultery and murder. In the region of the Niger 
 theft was often punished by death.'' Among the Bambaras 
 
 • Bowen, p. 318. ' Ellis, " Voruba Speaking Peoples," p. 164. 
 
 ' Campbell, p. 42 ; Featherman, p. 199. « Campbell, p. 61. 
 
 » Featherman, p. 396. 'Allen and Thomson, Vol. 2, p. 175. 
 
 207 
 
2o8 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 theft, adultery and murder were all capital offenses.^ The 
 Hausas inflicted the death penalty for either murder or 
 adultery. Theft was sometimes punished by cutting off the 
 hands or by death.^ However, in this zone penalties were 
 more often in the nature of condemnations into slavery than 
 in the banana zone because of the greater value of men as 
 field workers. The Hausas had a law forbidding any one to 
 stroll about the streets at night, and an officer would arrest 
 any one who committed such offense.^ Any kind of 
 rowdyism in the streets was strictly forbidden and those 
 found guilty of it were severely punished.* The Hausas 
 had clearly progressed beyond the private revenge stage of 
 development. They had a good idea of law and order, and 
 offenses were dealt with in the interest of the public. In 
 times of peace robbery and murder were rare.' Regular 
 policemen preserved order at the markets.* 
 
 But the Yorubas had perhaps the most enlightened 
 criminal code of any people in this zone. Murder, treason 
 and house-burning were capital crimes, and in some dis- 
 tricts, also theft, robbery and adultery. Minor offenses were 
 punished by fine and imprisonment.' Men were imprisoned 
 for debt and every town had a prison where debtors were in- 
 carcerated. A husband was held responsible for the debts 
 of his wife, but not those of his children.^ Criminals who 
 could not pay fines were flogged.' Theft was considered an 
 offense against social order as well as an offense against the 
 individual.*" Jurisprudence here, as in Hausa, was under- 
 going an evolution from a stage in which the family or 
 group protected its own rights and redressed its own 
 wrongs to that in which the State protected and punished." 
 Trials were held before the chief of the town or before the 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 339. = Staudinger, p. 568. sFeatherman, p. 397. 
 
 * Staudinger, p. 569. « /diti., p. 553. « /^sV., p. 569. 
 
 ■> Bowen, p. 319. e Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 190. 
 
 9 Uii/., p. 191. w Hid., p. 302. 11 /iitf., p. 299. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 209 
 
 town council or before the Ogboni secret society.' In every 
 town there was an lyalode, " mistress of the street," to whom 
 were referred ail disputes between women.^ Every judge 
 who tried a case was seen in private by both parties, but as 
 the trial was in public no great injustice was tolerated.* 
 Among the Hausas small matters were tried by the local 
 governors while great matters were referred to the sultan 
 and his council. All contests in regard to land were adjusted 
 by special judges, and the loser of a suit had to pay 
 indemnity and also the fees to the officers. When a robbery 
 was committed in Kano the party robbed applied to the dis- 
 trict chief or policeman who was bound to procure the ac- 
 cused person or become liable himself to the amount of the 
 loss.^ In all of the principal cities there were judges before 
 whom cases could be brought for trial." 
 
 In many localities the question of guilt or innocence 
 was decided by drinking fetich- water.* The priest could 
 make the potion effective or harmless as suited his fancy. 
 Most of the victims were, of course, innocent, as only the in- 
 nocent would willingly drink it' The Mandingos had a 
 palaver house at the entrance of each village where litiga- 
 tion of every kind took place.* They had professional ex- 
 pounders of the law for both plaintiff and defendant,' and 
 sometimes the advocates employed in cases were so able 
 and evenly matched that the public acting as jury was 
 unable to decide between them. The following case of this 
 kind was related by Mungo Park. An ass belonging to a 
 Mandingo Negro had broken into his neighbor's field and 
 was ravaging the com, whereupon the neighbor drew his 
 knife and killed the trespassing ass. The owner of the ass 
 
 • Bowen, p. 319. ' Ellis, " Voruba Speaking Peoples," p. 167. 
 
 ' Jiiii., p. tyi. * Featherman, p. 396. ' Staudinger, p. 525. 
 
 ' Lander, Vol. i, p. 142; Allen and Thomson, Vol. I, p. 121 ; Spilsbury, p. 40. 
 
 ' Ellis, " Voruba Speaking Peoples," p. 191. 
 
 « Lasnet, p. 86. ■ I'ark, p. 26. 
 
2IO THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 then brought suit for damages, and the case was argued with 
 all of the learning, eloquence and verbosity for which the 
 Africans are celebrated. On the one hand the legal talent 
 set forth the enormity of the crime of killing an ass, the 
 great loss to the owner and the great grief thereof. On the 
 other hand the lawyers for the defendant argued an offset 
 for the damage to their client's corn. After three days of 
 learned argument, pro and con, the court adjourned without 
 being able to arrive at a decision.' The Krumen in their 
 judicial proceedings, required every witness to swear by 
 salt. He had to dip his fingers in that divine article, point 
 to earth and to heaven, and then put his fingers in his 
 mouth.^ Everybody had a right to call a palaver and the 
 litigants employed regular attorneys, as was done by the 
 Mandingos, and sometimes the attorneys were brought from 
 towns two or three hundred miles away.' Each town had a 
 palaver house for the trial of local cases, and every two or 
 three years, there was a grand palaver of the whole tribe at 
 which cases on appeal from the local palavers were finally 
 disposed of. Perhaps something should be said here of the 
 Maghi method of legal procedure which was certainly un- 
 like that to be found in any other part of the world, and 
 which had the merit of economy and promptness, to say 
 nothing of its unerring justice. When any of the Maghi 
 people got into trouble, they repaired to a holy rock, called 
 Kobshi, which was the residence of a kind of chief justice, 
 who, instead of permitting lawyers to spar and squabble be- 
 fore him, settled each case by requiring the plaintiff and 
 defendant to appear in court, each with his best fighting 
 cock, and always rendered a verdict in favor of the winning 
 bird. " When two men are litigating about a matter," says 
 Barth, " each of them takes a cock which he thinks the best 
 for fighting, and they go together to Kobshi. Having ar- 
 rived at the holy rock, they set their birds a-fighting, and he 
 
 " Park, p. 27. ! Bowen, p. 39. » Journal of an African Cruiser, p. 55, 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 211 
 
 whose cock prevails in the combat is also the winner of the 
 point of litigation. But more than that, the master of the 
 defeated cock is punished by the divinity whose anger he 
 has provoked, and on returning to his village he finds his hut 
 in flames." ' 
 
 The methods of executing criminals in this zone varied 
 much according to locality and the character of successive 
 rulers. It must suffice to name some of the methods men- 
 tioned from time to time by Europeans who have visited the 
 country. Clapperton referred to beheading, hanging, impal- 
 ing and crucifixion,^ and Bowen referred to strangling with 
 a rope.* It is said that the Krumen were sometimes put 
 through a course of physical suffering before execution, es- 
 pecially in the case of war captives, who were turned over to 
 professional female torturers to be lacerated with thorns.* In 
 Yoruba an imaginary deity, Oro, an officer of the secret so- 
 ciety, was considered the personification of legal punishment, 
 and he went abroad at certain intervals to execute the judg- 
 ments of the society by decapitating all objectionable per- 
 sons.' Women and girls remained shut up in their huts 
 while he was abroad which sometimes lasted thirty-six 
 hours. As twenty or thirty women were often, during this 
 time, shut up in one hut, the results were hundreds of fights 
 and ten thousand quarrels." 
 
 Secret societies that assumed judicial functions were 
 distributed over a great area of this, as of the banana zone, 
 but they seem to have been confined mostly to the popula- 
 tions near the west coast, and to the Mandingos and Bam- 
 baras of the interior.^ 
 
 {d) Revenue. — The sources of revenue in this zone were 
 
 \ Vol. 2, p. 217. '" Journey to Kouka and Sackatoo," p. 8l. 
 
 "P. 319. * Journal of an African Cruiser, p. 59. 
 
 ' Campbell, p. 42- ' Bowen, p. 140. 
 
 ' Hovelacque, pp. 330, 331 ; Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 303; Bowen, p. 319; Feather- 
 man, p. 321. 
 
212 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 about the same as in the banana zone. Among the Hausas the 
 government made regular levies upon the local communities, 
 taking away an arbitrary portion of their yearly product, 
 and whenever this did not suffice, a raid would be made for 
 what more was needed. When the chiefs of villages had 
 an extra demand made upon them they did not hesitate to 
 seize their own women and children and sell them into 
 slavery.' The sultan of the Fellatah Empire of which Hausa 
 was a part, demanded a share of all of the slaves taken 
 in raids.^ Throughout the region of Mohammedan domina- 
 tion the officials of the sultan had a right to steal as much 
 as they liked from their subjects, especially if the subjects 
 were unconverted.^ The rulers everywhere required pres- 
 ents from all traders who entered their towns or districts, a 
 custom which was equivalent to regular duties on imports.* 
 Mungo Park, it is to be remembered, was killed on the 
 Niger in resisting an effort of a certain chief to exact double 
 payment.^ The Shulis depended for the support of their 
 government upon irregular tributes from the farmers. When 
 a Shuli chief went out on his periodic collecting tour he 
 rode on the back of one of his subjects, while one of his 
 wives went along to carry a jug of beer to refresh the rider 
 and bearer. If the tribute was not forthcoming he be- 
 witched his subjects' goats, and fowls, and kept back rain.' 
 The revenue of Yoruba was derived from the toll paid in 
 cowries upon merchandise brought into the towns, and 
 sometimes a tax on com, paid in kind, to the gatekeepers 
 as each farmer brought in his crop." Public labor, such as 
 the building of walls, was done without compensation.* 
 The support of the Samory Empire was obtained by general 
 pillage and organized slave raids. A regular portion of the 
 
 ' Clapperton, " Second Expedition," p. 189. 2 Staudinger, p. 526. 
 
 ' Lander, Vol. I, p. 303. « Journal of an African Cruiser, p. 112. 
 
 ' Duncan, Vol. 2, p. 180. « Reclus, Vol. i, p. 44. 
 
 ' Bowen, p. 318. « uy. ,- Campbell, p. 96. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 213 
 
 products of the farmers was annually collected, and often 
 the remainder was taken by pillage.' 
 
 Elements of Stability in the States Generally, {a) In- 
 telligence and Character of the People and of the Ruling 
 Class. — The elements of stability and order were somewhat 
 stronger and more numerous in this than in the banana 
 zone. The people were generally more intelligent and had 
 organized more solid States. However, there were no 
 effective cohesive elements in the population until branches 
 of the Berber race had taken advantage of the feuds and 
 divisions of the masses, and had overrun and seized a large 
 part of their territory." As far as character was concerned, 
 the rulers of this zone were perhaps a few degrees higher 
 than those of the banana zone. They were mostly old men, 
 risen to power through the accumulation of wealth,^ in con- 
 trast to the more youthful leaders in the banana zone whose 
 power was based upon strength of body, that is, ability to 
 lead in war and hunting. They were more enlightened and 
 more inclined to mete out justice. But they were far from 
 being upright or good models for their subjects, and they 
 would have been a good deal worse than they were if the 
 conditions had favored more concentration of power. Sub- 
 ordinate officials received no regular salaries, and conse- 
 quently they enriched themselves by dishonest and oppress- 
 ive methods.'' None of them seemed to have any concep- 
 tion of public obligation, and all used their power only for 
 self-aggrandizement. In many cases the private citizens 
 who had earned some hundreds of cowries were forced to 
 hide them in the ground or in their huts to prevent them 
 from being confiscated by the chief." The rulers in some 
 localities were so rapacious that the people formed con- 
 
 'Binger, Vol. I, pp. 150, 151. 
 
 'Ogilby, pp. 321, 322; Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. 380. 
 » Preville, p. 257. * Staudinger, p. 526. 
 
 ' Binger, Vol. i, p. 259. 
 
214 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 federations to prevent their rise/ The ruling classes pro- 
 ceeded on the theory that society existed only for their 
 benefit and not that they existed for its benefit. They either 
 dozed or slept away the greater part of their lifetime or 
 spent it in the most childish and frivolous pursuits.^ They 
 were generally loafers or slave hunters, and in either case, 
 oppressors, and from a moral point of view stood on a 
 lower level than the common people.^ 
 
 (d) Common Ties. — The elements most favorable to 
 stability were racial kinship over a wide area, and also, to a 
 considerable extent, common language, common economic 
 life and common religion. The mixture of Fellatah and 
 Nigritian blood, which up to a certain point put cohesive 
 power into the population, was fast becoming a source of 
 weakness as it tended to remove from the population en- 
 tirely the virile superior race. 
 
 (c) Family Status. — The family life in this zone was 
 slightly better organized, but as a political element, was still 
 very weak because of the prevalence of the matriarchate. 
 
 (</) Order of Succession. — In the matter of the political 
 succession, therefore, the people of this zone were no better 
 off than those of the banana zone. Very often competition 
 took place among the women of a deceased king to furnish 
 the heir to the throne,* and a change of rule was sometimes, 
 as in Dahomi, followed by an interregnum of anarchy." 
 Nearly all of the rulers in one way or another were elective, 
 generally being chosen by the chiefs and elders, and ratified 
 by an assembly.* 
 
 It stands out pretty clearly that the larger and better 
 organized states in this zone were due in a great measure 
 to the collision between the sedentary Nigritians and the 
 
 1 Eiiiger, Vol. I, p. 502. 2 Lander, Vol. i, p. 31 1. 
 
 » Staudinger, pp. 554, 555, 556. 
 
 < Binger, Vol. 2, p. 43 ; Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. 325. 
 
 5 Lander, Vol. I, p. 1 13. « Campbell, p. 36. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 215 
 
 nomad and pastoral Fellatahs. There runs through all 
 history a struggle between herdsmen and tillers of the soil, 
 and the conquest of the latter by the former, always furnishes 
 an impetus to the formation of great states. The tillers of 
 the soil furnish the necessary economic foundation and the 
 herdsmen the necessary power for governing. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 POLITICAL LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 
 
 Integrating Factors, (a) Influence of Natural Re- 
 sources. — All of the political groups of this zone are now 
 under the sphere of influence of the French or British. 
 They comprise the once great Fellatah Empire, the King- 
 dom of Bornu among the Kanuris, and numerous smaller 
 kingdoms among the Jolofs, Songhays, Malinkops, Dinkas, 
 Shillooks, Nuers and Latukas. The combination of pastoral, 
 agricultural and commercial life in this zone, yields bounti- 
 ful supplies of food, except in occasional times of drought 
 and destruction of crops from locusts ; and hence in many 
 localities the populations are very dense, as for instance, 
 among the sedentary tribes of the Nile. In the west the 
 areas suitable for agriculture are scattered, and vary much 
 in size, so that only in spots are dense populations possible. 
 
 ip) Invasions. — The Nigritians of this zone even more 
 than those of the banana zone have been subjected to con- 
 tinual invasions. In the west the Moors, Tuaregs and 
 Fellatahs have overrun the country, and in the east the 
 Arabs and Berbers.^ It has been necessary, therefore, for 
 the people to live together in fortified villages. There have 
 been no natural barriers to protect the people except in the 
 east where the numerous tributaries of the Nile have acted 
 as fortifications. 
 
 {c) Necessity and Facility for Defense. — In the absence 
 of natural barriers to keep out invaders, each community 
 has been obliged to protect itself by cooperation and ex- 
 termination of its rivals. Hence there has been a tendency 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 35. 
 216 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 217 
 
 in this, as in all, steppe regions, for the strong to unite and 
 exterminate the weak.^ In large open territories both ani- 
 mals and men have a tendency to force out invading rivals 
 from smaller territories. The contest between the prairie 
 people of the Sudan and the agricultural populations in the 
 same region has been going on for many centuries, but the 
 complete supremacy of the former was not brought about 
 until the advent of the Fellatahs and Arabs. The steppe 
 regions have been the points of departure of the world's 
 greatest migrations and offensive movements,^ favoring 
 more than any other part of the world, by their openness 
 and vastness, the development of a race having homogene- 
 ous features, language and customs.* The steppe people 
 are forced to combine to protect their fields and cattle, and 
 at the same time, are tempted to aggress upon their neigh- 
 bors in order to find new pastures. 
 
 (d) Motives for Aggression. — Capital being necessary 
 to existence in this zone of the Sudan the temptation was 
 great for those who had none to organize raids upon the 
 property of their neighbors.* When these raiding expedi- 
 tions met with success they sometimes culminated in a great 
 expansive movement and the establishment of an empire. 
 As in the zones already considered the desire to capture 
 slaves for commercial purposes was also a powerful stimula- 
 tion to aggression. A still further motive for aggression 
 arose from the introduction of the Mohammedan religion 
 which kindled some national sentiment and spirit of 
 conquest. 
 
 Aggressive Power of the States Generally, {a) hi- 
 fluence of Natural Boundaries. — The natural limits to ex- 
 pansion for the people of this zone were the desert on the 
 
 » Ratzel, " Anthropogeographie," Vol. I, p. 440. 
 
 ''Ibid., Vol. I, p. 432. 
 
 ^ Ibid., Vol. I, p. 445. 
 
 < Featherman, pp. 35, 315. 
 
2i8 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 north, and the millet zone on the south, where the damp 
 climate and absence of grass were unfavorable to cattle and 
 horses. In the east, the Nile, and in the west, the Niger 
 and Senegal, offered some obstacles to the spreading out of 
 several of the small and feeble kingdoms. 
 
 (b) Size of Population and Economic Resources. — In the 
 central part of the zone the unobstructed nature of the 
 country, the large masses of population and ample resources 
 were highly favorable to empire building. 
 
 ic) Ability to Cooperate. — ^The Arabs in the east and 
 the Fellatahs in the west had the intelligence and impetus 
 to form States, and they played the rSle of dominators in 
 their respective localities. Among the pure Nigritians, 
 however, the lack of intelligence and also lack of national 
 sentiment, kept the groups apart and hostile to each 
 other, so that, instead of expanding, it was more than 
 they could do to defend themselves. The ability to co- 
 operate is connected intimately with the dry and invigorat- 
 ing climate of the steppe regions from which the Arabs and 
 Fellatahs came. Spencer points out that all of the great 
 conquering races of the world have come from dry climates. 
 
 {d) Military Strength. — ^The military forces of this zone 
 were more powerful chiefly because of the greater number of 
 horses available for the cavalry. Indeed, horses have played 
 a great part in the military drama of Europe, Asia and 
 Africa and but for their existence the whole map of the 
 Western World would have been different. 
 
 {e) Resistance of Border States. — ^There were no people 
 on the borders of this zone strong enough to offer any 
 effective resistance to expansion. Outside of the zone it 
 was the absence of grass rather than the presence of hostile 
 armies that prevented the pastoral States from enlarging 
 their boundaries. 
 
 Comparative Aggressive Power, {a) The Fellatahs: 
 History of their Invasion and Conquests. — The most power- 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 219 
 
 ful people of this zone were the Fellatahs. They sprang 
 originally, no doubt, from the Libyan branch of the Berbers 
 who played such an important part in the history of ancient 
 Egypt as invaders and conquerors. For a long time the 
 Berbers occupied almost the entire northern part of Africa, 
 and as late as the seventh century A. D. they occupied the 
 whole region of the north except a narrow strip along the 
 coast.* This race which is, in fact, Caucasian, was influenced 
 somewhat by the ancient Egyptians, and by the successive 
 invasions into North Africa of the Phoenicians, Carthagin- 
 ians, Greeks and Romans ; and later, of the Vandals and 
 other populations of Western Europe. With the Arab in- 
 vasions beginning in the seventh century,^ the Hamitic or 
 Berber populations were pressed southward and westward, 
 and at the same time, were absorbed to some extent by the 
 Arabs, who infused their language and imposed their relig- 
 ion throughout a great portion of North Africa.* In the 
 conflict between the Arabs and Berbers, the former had two 
 decisive advantages, first the possession of the horse which 
 facilitated rapid movement, and second, the possession of a 
 common religion which aroused national sentiment and 
 passion for conquest. The Berbers gradually adopted the 
 religion of the Arab, and at the same time, his horse, and 
 thus they acquired the same advantages over the Negro of 
 the south that the Arabs once possessed over them. 
 
 Pressed by the Arabs from the north, the Berbers began 
 to invade the Sudan in the thirteenth century.^ The ad- 
 vanced guard perhaps had not been indoctrinated with the 
 Mohammedan religion, as some of the invaders, even to 
 this day, hold fast to their primitive fetich beliefs and 
 practices." 
 
 •Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 241. 
 ' Keane, " Man : Past and Present," p. 472. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 473; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 244. 
 
 * Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 299. » Lasnet, p. 40. 
 
220 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 The whole history of the desert people is characterized 
 by such periodic waves of migration as the one here de- 
 scribed, and the reason for these phenomena is that the 
 people live in oases whose areas are as fixed as those of the 
 islands of the sea, and therefore when the population over- 
 flows it is necessary that the surplus numbers migrate en 
 masse} Whenever a migration starts in one direction the 
 impact is communicated throughout the whole desert region. 
 These waves of migration mark the turning points in the 
 history of all the great nations of Asia and Africa, and even 
 of Europe up to the tenth century. 
 
 According to some authorities the Fellatahs entered the 
 Sudan from the east and moved westward,^ their starting 
 point being perhaps somewhere east of Lake Chad,* while 
 others maintain that they entered from the west somewhere 
 about the Senegal River and moved eastward.* A very 
 recent and plausible theory, to be noticed more fully in an- 
 other volume, is that they were not immigrants at all but 
 branches of the original African stock, having acquired their 
 deviating peculiarities in the highlands of the Sudan, and in 
 the Atlas Mountains; their lighter color of hair and skin 
 being due to the altitude of their habitations. But whatever 
 their origin, once in the Sudan, they began to mix gradually 
 with the blacks and to assume a new physical type. They 
 became known to the people of the Sudan under a variety 
 of names, all of which, probably, had a common origin in 
 the word pulo which, among the western Fellatahs, means 
 red or light brown. The Hausas called them Fellani, 
 Fulani or Foolbes, the Kanuris called them Fellatahs," the 
 Mandingos called them Pools and the Arabs called them 
 
 iRatzel, " Anthropogeographie," Vol. J, p. 483. 
 
 ^Binger, Vol. i, p. 392; Deniker, p. 443. 
 
 ' Staudinger thinks that the Fellatahs are an Asiatic people, p. 541. 
 
 ^ Ratzel, " History of Mankind, Vol. 3, p. 298. 
 
 ' Deniker, p. 443. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 221 
 
 Foolans.' They were also known as Fulbes, Pulloes, Futa 
 Torros, etc.^ 
 
 At first the Fellatahs disposed themselves in small 
 sequestered groups among the Nigritians, bringing with 
 them their cattle and horses and seeking new pastures. 
 They were by nature nomadic and did not live in large 
 towns like the Negroes, but in temporary huts of reeds, 
 straw or skins, dispersed over the grassy plains, in such a 
 way as apparently not to encroach in the least upon the 
 territory under cultivation by the blacks. Hence the natives 
 did not think it worth while to interfere with them, and in 
 a short time they were encamped over almost the entire 
 grass area of the Sudan, and were not even aware of their 
 own numbers or strength, and had made no effort towards 
 unification.^ More than a majority of them were staunch 
 Mohammedans and not a few of them had made the pil- 
 grimage to Mecca, or had visited Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, 
 Tripoli and even Turkey.'' 
 
 However, in the first years of the nineteenth century, 
 there arose among them a hero warrior and prophet, Sheikh 
 Othman dan Fodio, sometimes called the Napoleon of the 
 Sudan, who aroused in his people a spirit of conquest and 
 of nationality. Featherman says, " He emerged from the 
 forest of Ader or Taleda, established himself in the province 
 of Goober, where he built a city, and there the Fellatahs 
 began to rally under his banner." He " appointed chiefs 
 over the different divisions, to each of whom he deliv- 
 ered a white standard, enjoining upon them to go out and 
 conquer in the name of God and the prophet, adding that 
 Allah had given to the Fellatahs the lands and the riches of 
 all the unbelievers, because they were the only faithful of 
 Islam. ... He affirmed that every Fellatah warrior 
 that was wounded or was killed in battle was sure to gain 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 381. 'Slaudinger, p. 540. 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 3' o. <Ibiii. 
 
222 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 admittance into paradise. Kano submitted without striking 
 a blow, Goober followed next, and finally Haoossa, Cobbi, 
 Yaori and part of Nyfle were subjugated by the victorious 
 conqueror." The Fellatahs carried their victorious arms as 
 far as Yoruba and Bornu.' They penetrated into Baghirmi, 
 Waday, Darfur, Adamawa and into the regions on both 
 sides of the Benue River,^ but they nowhere constituted a 
 majority of the population except perhaps in Futa Jallon.^ 
 Under Othman, the great empire of the Fellatahs was es- 
 tablished and its capital located at Sokoto.* For a while it 
 included Bornu, but after a bitter struggle, the natives of 
 Bornu, the Kanuris, gained the upper hand.* The rapid 
 conquests by the Fellatahs was greatly facilitated by the 
 depletion of the Negro populations through the ravages of 
 the slave trade. Upon the death of Othman in 1817 the 
 territory which he had conquered was divided between his 
 brother Abd Allah and his son Mohammed Bello. The 
 former retained Gando as his capital and ruled over the 
 southwestern portion of the conquered territory, whilst the 
 latter, who was acknowledged as the spiritual head of the 
 whole, ruled from Sokoto over the remainder, including 
 the important towns of Kano, Katsena and Zaria.* At 
 the time of the British conquest in 1903 the empire was 
 divided into three nominally independent kingdoms, to wit, 
 Sokoto, Gando and Adamawa, but the sultan of Sokoto 
 exercised a kind of sovereignty over all.' However, the 
 treaty of 1885 with Great Britain had already practically 
 placed the Fellatah Empire under the British Protectorate.' 
 Within the zone of grass the Fellatahs had no trouble in 
 making conquests. They had all of the resources for carry- 
 ing on effective and prolonged campaigns. Their army of 
 cavalry moved with irresistible momentum, and the innu- 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 380. ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 297. 
 
 »/*iV., Vol. 3, p. 296. < Featherman, p. 379. '■ IHd., p. 279. 
 
 'Robinson, p. 15. 'Staudinger, p. 532. 8 Stanford, Vol. 2, p. 250. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 223 
 
 merable herds of cattle which followed the march, supplied an 
 inexhaustible commissariat. Their fighting forces could 
 come together quickly and escape the disasters of defeat by- 
 rapid flight. They not only knew how to conquer, but had 
 the intelligence to organize States and to systematize the 
 machinery of government. As Ratzel points out, it has not 
 been at all accidental, but due to natural superiority, that the 
 great conquering and State-founding people have come 
 from the North. For example, the Germans who migrated 
 in the early Middle Ages to Italy, France, Spain and North 
 Africa ; the Keltic invasion of Greece, the descent of the 
 Aryans into India, the conquest of China by the Manchurians, 
 and the passage of the Toltecs and Aztecs from southwestern 
 North America to Mexico.' 
 
 (6) The Kanuris. — The next State of importance in 
 this zone was that of Bornu, comprising for the most part 
 the Kanuris who had a strong admixture of Arab and 
 Fellatah blood. The State dates back to the ninth century 
 when it arose under the influence of an invasion of Arabs.^ 
 Its military strength lay in its standing army which was 
 composed of several thousand cavalrymen. The riders 
 wore metal helmets with chin pieces, and also coats of mail 
 made of iron chains which covered them from breast to knee. 
 Even the horses were defended by plates of iron, brass and 
 silver that fitted over their heads. The weapons were spears 
 six feet long, battle-axes which hung by the saddle, and 
 long daggers fastened by a strap to the left arm of each 
 rider. The infantry carried muskets, spears, shields, an ax 
 like a scythe for throwing, and sometimes bows and ar- 
 rows.' Before the Kanuris were conquered by the 
 Fellatahs, the king or sultan had 80,000 armed men that had 
 been recruited by his local chiefs.* After the fall of the 
 Fellatah Dynasty, the army consisted of an irregular soldiery 
 
 ' " Anthropogeographie," Vol. i, pp. 244, 558. 
 
 « Stanford, Vol. I, p. 259 »Wood, p. 693. * Featherman, p. 218. 
 
224 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 who were the followers of the several petty sultans or chiefs 
 within the State, and comprised in all about 30,000 men,' 
 including an artillery company equipped with twenty home- 
 made cannon.^ In time of war the sultan took command, 
 accompanied by an unlimited supply of wives, and a num- 
 ber of his palace officials. The real command of the army, 
 however, was in the hands of a minister of war.^ Instead of 
 salaries, the soldiers received free allotments of land upon 
 which they earned their living/ Upon the whole, the 
 Kanuri army was the best equipped and most irresistible in 
 the Sudan. 
 
 (c) Other Peoples. — The other groups of this zone were 
 too weak to extend their domains. In the regions of the 
 Upper Nile the tribes had no regular army. When war 
 broke out some of the women and children were placed in 
 the centre of the village or cattle range, while the men in 
 groups of eight or ten sallied forth against the enemy, 
 throwing their iron-pointed lances and flourishing their clubs 
 and sticks. The defensive armor consisted of parrying 
 sticks,^ and shields made of buffalo hide.* Bows and arrows 
 were seldom used by the people along the Nile and in some 
 localities they were entirely unknown.' 
 
 1 Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 4; Stanford, Vol. i, p. 403. ^Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 4. 
 
 » Wood, p. 690. < Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 4 ; Stanford, Vol. i, p. 403. 
 
 6Schweinfurth, Vol. i, p. 154. « Featherman, p. 33. 
 
 ' Schweinfurth, Vol, i, p. go. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 POLITICAL LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE {Continued) 
 
 Forms of Government in General, {a) Influence of the 
 Natural Conditions. — As to the forms of government in this 
 zone, the openness of the country would seem at first view to 
 have favored centralization by affording easy communica- 
 tion and cooperation, but there is such a thing as having a 
 country too open, if it is very large in area, rendering it dif- 
 ficult for a government to hold the segregated communities 
 together and to impose upon them any effective authority. 
 In this vast prairie region the natural conditions did not 
 at all seem to favor effective centralization. 
 
 (b) Character of the People. — Furthermore a large per 
 cent, of the people in this zone possessed capital which 
 gave them a spirit of independence and this fact militated 
 against concentration of political power. Although the 
 theocratic religion strongly favored a centralized and 
 absolute form of government, it was not able to overcome 
 entirely the opposing tendencies. The fact that the people 
 of this zone were more intelligent, more spirited and freer 
 from gross forms of superstition than the people of the 
 lower zones, explained why they had a certain respect for 
 individual liberty and an intolerance of absolutism. 
 
 {c) Amount of Warfare. — The great military activity 
 of the Fellatahs and Kanuris was very conducive to central- 
 ization, but the country was so vast and the communities so 
 far apart that military power could not be made to cover the 
 entire area. Hence it may be concluded that all of the con- 
 ditions in this zone tended to conserve a certain degree of 
 local independence. 
 
 225 
 
226 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Comparison of the Forms of Government. — The Fellatah 
 government was theoretically absolute, but the authority of 
 the Sultan of Sokoto scarcely extended with any effective- 
 ness outside of the limits of his capital. In the several States 
 of the empire the sultan was assisted by an elective council 
 of elders/ which exercised supreme authority and claimed 
 the right to depose the sultan, if he were objectionable to the 
 people. 
 
 The Bornu government, though theocratic in form, was 
 not at all absolute.^ The authority of the sultan was limited 
 by a council held every morning, composed of the royal 
 family, officials of rank, the Kanembe who represented the 
 freemen, and lastly, the captains of the army who, by the 
 way, were mostly of slave origin. * 
 
 The government of the Malinkops was a monarchy, 
 but the real power was in the hands of the village headmen 
 who claimed the right to depose the king if the circum- 
 stances justified it, while the citizens of the villages some- 
 times deposed their village headmen. National affairs 
 were left to the council of headmen which convened at the 
 king's residence. * 
 
 The Jolofs had a nominal sovereign presiding over a 
 number of districts, each having its chief, but the real gov- 
 ernment was in the hands of the noble or free class whose 
 opinions prevailed in matters of general interest.' 
 
 The Shillooks had a chief who shared authority with a 
 council of elders.* Thus it seemed that there was nowhere 
 in this zone an absolute form of government such as existed 
 in the Banana zone. 
 
 System of Government, (a) Legislation in the States 
 Generally. — Legislation was, as the facts already stated in- 
 
 1 Featherman, pp. 375, 387. 2 Waitz, Vol. 2, p. I39. 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 280. * Ibid., p. 315. 
 
 » Ibid., p. 359 ; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 304. 
 * Featherman, p. 66. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 227 
 
 dicate, a matter for the king or sultan, assisted or influenced 
 by a property-holding aristocratic class. 
 
 {b) Executive Offices. — The Fellatah and Kanuri gov- 
 ernments were the only ones that had a systematized ad- 
 ministration. The head of the Fellatah administration was 
 the sultan who resided at Sokoto and was both political and 
 religious chief. His council consisted of a chief adviser, a 
 treasurer, a commander of the army, a steward, a chief of 
 the eunuchs, and a sort of priest, malum, who wrote letters ; 
 and finally a judge who administered the law.' The pro- 
 vincial offices were sold to the highest bidders who were 
 usually the relatives of the sultan ; and upon the death of 
 an officer, all of his property reverted to the sultan. All 
 inferior offices in the towns and provinces were in like man- 
 ner sold to the highest bidder by the governors, who also 
 inherited the property of their subordinates.'* 
 
 The ruler of the Kanuris was assisted in the administra- 
 tion by a chief counselor or prime minister, a secretary of 
 state, a commander-in-chief of the army (who under the 
 Fellatah dynasty was always a slave), a minister of foreign 
 affairs who conducted the correspondence and regulated in- 
 tercourse with strangers, a governor of the capital, and a 
 secretary of the interior who made an annual tour of inspec- 
 tion throughout the empire, reporting upon the administra- 
 tion of the country, the condition of agriculture, and industry.^ 
 
 {c) Laws and Judicial Proceedings. — The laws of this 
 zone were largely governed by a written code, i. e., the 
 Koran, and were much more comprehensive than those of 
 the people near the coast. Among the Fellatahs the Koran 
 was their civil as well as religious law, and was always 
 brought into court and read before sentence was passed 
 upon a criminal. Adultery was punished by a flogging and 
 shaving the offender's head, and theft by amputating a leg 
 
 ' Ratzcl, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 306. 
 
 ' Clapperton, " Second Expedition," p. 264. ' Featherman, p. 280. 
 
228 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 or hand.' In Bornu there were regular tribunals and judges 
 for all crimes and disputes. The lower court was presided 
 over by a Kadi whose jurisdiction was quite extensive, but 
 from whose decisions appeals could be taken to the sultan. 
 The sultan's court was held on certain days of the week, 
 attended by the district governors and the parties and wit- 
 nesses concerned in litigation. Among the Malinkops cases 
 of great moment were brought before the national council, 
 and minor matters before the local council.'' 
 
 The penalties and manner of executing the judgments 
 of the courts varied much according to locality. In case of 
 murder the Kanuris delivered the criminal to the relatives 
 of the victim who dashed out his brains with a club. A 
 thief who committed several offenses was punished by the 
 loss of a hand, but if still a novice in the business, he was 
 only buried in the ground, leaving his head well buttered 
 and honeyed, above the surface, as a banquet table for flies 
 and mosquitoes.^ 
 
 (d) Revenue. — The revenue of most of the states was 
 derived from slaves, sheep, grain and salt, paid as tribute 
 by the local chiefs and villages,* and from traveling mer- 
 chants who were required to pay for the privilege of passing 
 through the kingdoms. The income of the Fellatah empire 
 was derived from the sale of offices and from wholesale 
 plundering of Negro settlements." The sultan took two- 
 thirds of the dates and other fruits sold in Sokoto, and he 
 rented stalls and collected taxes on all articles sold in the 
 markets.* In Bornu the sheikh regulated the markets and 
 collected a commission on all sales amounting to more than 
 
 1 Featherman, p. 375. a Ibid., p. 315. s Denham, p. 245. 
 
 * Barth, Vol. 2, p. 564 ; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 306 ; Lan- 
 der, Vol. I, p. 299. 
 
 5 Lorin, p. 254; Lander, Vol. i, p. 282; Ratzel, •■ History of Mankind," Vol. 3, 
 p. 306. 
 
 " Clapperton, " Second Expedition," p. 264. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 229 
 
 four dollars.* The Malinkop king supported himself largely 
 from his landed estates and from voluntary contributions in 
 gold.^ The Shillook king claimed all of the elephant tusks 
 obtained in his domain, and each village paid tribute in a 
 certain number of cows in proportion to its wealth.^ 
 
 Elements of Stability in the States Generally, (a) Intel- 
 ligence and Character of the People. — The elements of stability 
 were stronger in this zone than in any of the others. The 
 people had the advantage of more intelligence and character. 
 Many of the ruling class had been educated in the Moham- 
 medan doctrines, and taught to read and write Arabic, but 
 they were upon the whole rapacious, treacherous, avaricious 
 and addicted to all of the vices peculiar to tropical rulers. 
 If the rulers were better in this zone than in the others, they 
 nevertheless did not rise much above the masses. 
 
 {B) Common Ties. — Other elements of stability con- 
 sisted of a more interwoven and complex economic life, 
 wider linguistic and racial afifinities and more general ad- 
 herence to a common religion. Nevertheless, the cohesion 
 of the population was not very great, except in Bornu and 
 in the Fellatah Empire. The Fellatahs, Arabs and Nigri- 
 tians nowhere formed a unit of interest. The latter people 
 especially were difficult to weave into a durable social fabric 
 for the reason that they often submitted to be enlisted as 
 the instruments of treachery by intruders from outside.* 
 
 {c) Status of the family and succession of power. — A 
 common source of weakness in the States in this zone, as 
 in the others, was the system of matriarchy and inheritance 
 in the female line. This, as already pointed out, was not 
 favorable to political stability. The Kanuris had an 
 elective monarchy, the privilege of choosing a successor 
 among the sons of the deceased king without regard to 
 
 I Wood, p. 697 ; Rohlfs says that there were no duties or taxes on trade when 
 he was there. Vol. i, p. 347- ' Featherman, p. 315. 
 
 ' Jbid.tf. 67. « Schweinfurth, Vol. I, p. 167. 
 
230 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 priority of birth, having been conferred by the nation on 
 three of the most distinguished men of the country.i 
 Among the Jolofs succession was in the female line subject 
 to the approval of the nobles, and was sometimes elective." 
 Among the Shillooks the throne did not pass in direct line 
 from father to son, but to the mother's child or some other 
 relative on the female side.^ An exception to the general 
 rule seems to have been found in the case of the Malinkops 
 where succession was in the male line, this having been 
 due, if it was a fact at all and the writer questions it, prob- 
 ably to Arab influence.* 
 
 Estimate of the Fellatah Power. — Notwithstanding the 
 superiority of the Fellatahs in intelligence and ability to found 
 States, they did not have the elements of stability, nor the 
 power of promoting progress that their racial supremacy at 
 first seemed to promise. The empire was held together 
 more by religious zeal than by national sentiment based 
 upon common political, economic and cultural interests, or 
 effective coercive power. For this reason many of the 
 States that composed the empire were in a high degree in- 
 dependent and refractory. The most serious drawback 
 was that they, as well as the Nigritians, lacked the patri- 
 archal form of the family and the institution of succession 
 to power and property in the male line. Succession to 
 power among them was not uniformly hereditary but fol- 
 lowed from sultan to his councilmen in the order of their 
 importance,' and rulership in the subordinate States was 
 generally elective.^ In the next place the Fellatahs were 
 naturally averse to systematic warfare. Like their Berber 
 ancestors, they were devoted to their pastoral and commer- 
 cial pursuits and fought only incidentally when their eco- 
 nomic conditions rendered it necessary, i. e., when they 
 
 1 Earth, Vol. 2, p. 27. ' Featherman, p. 359. ' Reclus, Vol. i,p. 122. 
 ■> Featherman, p. 315. » Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 306. 
 
 ' Lasnet, p. 54 ; Featherman, p. 375. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 231 
 
 needed new pastures, or were in quest of booty. It was not 
 to their taste to give up their traditional mode of life and 
 submit to the discipline of a standing army. Therefore 
 they imposed the duty of regular military service upon 
 slaves and serfs, often turning over to them the places of 
 command. Their standing army of cavalrymen and 
 archers, even to commanders was made up of slaves.* 
 This policy weakened the force of the army and demoral- 
 ized the Negro population which did not yield readily to the 
 commanders of their own race. The Fellatahs of Futa 
 Jallon found the practice of enlisting Negro soldiers so un- 
 satisfactory that they were compelled to abandon it, and 
 to prohibit the Negroes from carrying a gun or even a bow, 
 without permission.^ In other districts the employment of 
 Negroes in the army continued, but with baneful results.' 
 
 Finally the gradual mixture of Fellatah with Negro blood 
 was tending, as Ratzel says, to drag down the higher race, 
 undermine its spirit and cause the States which it had 
 formed to dissolve and disappear in the ocean of Negro 
 disintegration and timidity.* 
 
 The Fellatahs therefore had no great future to contem- 
 plate in the Sudan. Their empire, as that of all previous 
 pastoral people, terminated with the empire of grass. The 
 Fellatahs, said Ellis, " fight on horseback — hence they could 
 not fight in the forest." ° Their manner of life did not fit 
 them for penetrating the regions of the Equator, and even 
 if they had advanced in that direction, the more prolific 
 Negro population would have absorbed and obliterated 
 them before they could have gained sufficiently in numbers 
 to establish a permanent footing. The Fellatah women 
 
 ' RaUel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 305. 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 376. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, pp. 305, 306. 
 
 * <• History of Mankind," Vol. 3, pp. 293, 300, 301. Binger says that wher- 
 ever the Fellatahs came in contact with the Mandingos that the former were 
 drowned and absorbed, Vol. i, p. 395. '■■ ■• Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 332. 
 
232 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 usually have only three or four children as compared to six 
 to a dozen among the pure Nigritians.^ Rohlfs thought 
 that at the rate of intermixture prevailing in his time the 
 Fellatahs would be absorbed and blotted out in a few gen- 
 erations.^ Thus what was gained by mixture with a 
 superior race had a tendency to be neutralized by absorp- 
 tion. 
 
 The racial intermixture and the climatic conditions to- 
 gether seemed to combine to bring about the degeneracy of 
 the Fellatahs as soon as they advanced too far into the South. 
 Miss Kingsley, with her rare insight, once remarked that " as 
 long as they have plenty of sand and the chance of perish- 
 ing now and again for want of water, they will flourish." ^ 
 As a result of contact with the Negro the character and in- 
 stitutions of the Fellatahs seemed to receive more and more 
 of a savage stamp, particularly in the direction of more 
 merciless and cruel treatment of their subjects, which is a 
 characteristic of Negro rulers. Referring to the Fellatah de- 
 generacy Lady Lugard writes : 
 
 " The judicial system of the Hausas, already founded 
 on Mohammedan institutions, and adopted in the first in- 
 stance by the conquerors, was allowed to fall into disuse. 
 Courts continued to exist, but the Alkalis who should have 
 presided over them and dispensed justice according to 
 Koranic law, irremovable from their positions as the judges 
 of Great Britain, were either disregarded, as in some cases 
 by the great chiefs who held their own courts and gave deci- 
 sions at their own will, or overruled by the emir, or worse 
 still, subjected to the authority of the emir's favorite slaves, 
 who decreed to their enemies inhuman punishments of their 
 own invention. For the nails to be torn out with red hot 
 pincers, for the limbs to be pounded one by one in a mortar 
 while the victims were still alive, for important people who 
 
 ' Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. i6i. 2 Vol. 2, p. 214. 
 
 ° Article " Life in West Africa," in British Africa, London, 1901, Vol. 2, p. 378. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 233 
 
 had offended to be built up alive gradually in the town walls, 
 till, after a period of agony, the head of the dying man was 
 finally walled up, were among the punishments well attested 
 to have been inflicted in the decadence of the Fulani 
 power. . , .' 
 
 "The system of taxation, like the system of justice, 
 originally based in the Hausa States upon Koranic law, and 
 in the first instance adopted by the conquerors, was similarly 
 debased. ... In the degradation of Fulani rule in the 
 latter half of the century, trade was practically destroyed, 
 and agriculture rendered almost impossible by the ceaseless 
 creation of new taxes. 
 
 "In nearly all of the country districts the peasantry had 
 remained pagan. To raid pagan countries for slaves was 
 lawful according to the Koran. In the early days of their 
 rule the Fulani used this permission to carry out raids 
 against the pagan centres of the southern districts. . . . 
 As their power weakened and was confined within narrower 
 limits in the southern emirates, they were forced to abandon 
 the process of distant raiding. They began to raid and sell 
 their own peasantry and thus completed the desolation of the 
 country by a process which resembled the fabulous devour- 
 ing of its own body by a snake." " 
 
 ' p. 401. ' P. 404. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 POLITICAL LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 
 
 Integrating Factors and Aggressive Power. — The Tibbus 
 are scattered over a wide mountainous area and divided into 
 segregated groups made necessary by the narrow valleys in 
 which the people must find pastures for their camels and 
 other animals. From the surrounding desert regions the 
 Tuaregs and Arabs make frequent incursions into the Tibbu 
 settlements for the purpose of stealing their camels, horses, 
 goats and dates. On the other hand, the Tibbus themselves 
 make raids outside of their territory and come into collision 
 with the races of the Sudan,' or with the Tuaregs over the 
 salt mines of Bilma.^ Therefore they are obliged to effect 
 some kind of organization for defense. Their scant resources 
 would naturally tempt them to make continuous aggressions 
 upon their immediate neighbors in the desert, but they find 
 at their elbows more powerful races against whom they are 
 unable to cope. Their problem is more one of defense than 
 of attack. Whenever they receive warning of the approach 
 of the Tuaregs or Arabs they take refuge on the top of a 
 rock, carrying with them by means of ladders, all of their 
 portable property, and abandoning their animals to the in- 
 vaders. The Tuaregs not only steal their animals but carry 
 away their people to sell into slavery.^ The natural barriers 
 separating one Tibbu group from another do not favor con- 
 centration of power, and the people therefore are grouped 
 upon a tribal rather than upon a political basis, having 
 really no organization that deserves to be called political.* 
 
 'Barth, Vol. 2, p. 583. ' Ratzel, " Anthropogeographie," Vol. i, p. 454. 
 
 ' Wood, p. 705. 
 * Rohlfs, Vol. I, p. 264 ; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 264. 
 
 234 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 235 
 
 Their aggressive activities are limited to predatory attacks 
 upon their own race and upon the passing caravans. Every 
 Tibbu must keep himself in readiness for an attack, and even 
 women find it necessary to wear daggers concealed under 
 their robes.' The men have formidable weapons such as 
 lances, javelins, poniards, broad-swords, and knives for 
 hurling, besides the more recently introduced fire EU^ms. 
 Their defensive armor consists of leather shields.^ 
 
 Form and Character of the Government. — The absence 
 of political protection and the consequent necessity for each 
 man's protecting himself, together with the energy and in- 
 telligence required in providing means of subsistence in this 
 bleak and bare region, naturally tend to develop a spirit of 
 independence, which is not at all favorable to a political 
 despotism. Nevertheless, the influences of their religion 
 would in a measure overcome this independence and cause 
 them to yield to the arbitrary power of the sultan if they 
 were more compactly grouped. Their form of government 
 represents a transition from the despotic Negro regimes of 
 the south to the somewhat free and independent govern- 
 ments of the Tuaregs, Berbers and Arabs of the North and 
 West.' In contrast to the Sudan Negroes, the Tibbu ruler 
 has no power of life and death, and levies no tax or tribute. 
 His only revenue consists of toll levied on caravans and a 
 share of the booty taken in raids.* He is not a law-giver 
 but acts only as a sort of arbiter in cases of dispute." The real 
 government is in the hands of the nobility or capitalists, i. e., 
 those who own the camels, goats and other animals. 
 
 Some elements of stability are given to the Tibbu so- 
 cieties by common race, common language, religion and 
 economic conditions, but the transmission of power, as 
 among the other Negroes of Africa, is not established upon 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 262. ' Featherman, p. 756. 
 
 >Rat?,el, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 264. 
 
 ♦Rohlfs, Vol. I, p. 262. » Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 264. 
 
236 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 any solid basis. In some localities succession is in the 
 female line, and elsewhere the rulers are chosen alternately 
 from different families of the nobility.^ Wealth in the form 
 of movable property is very unstable everywhere in the 
 world and furnishes a precarious basis for the transmission 
 of power or the perpetuation of an enlightened and experi- 
 enced ruling class. 
 
 General Considerations. — The facts presented in reference 
 to the treatment of criminals in the several zones seem to 
 lend probability to the theory that in judicial evolution, the 
 righting of wrongs committed within the tribe was first at- 
 tempted by appeal to supernatural agents, i. e., to the ordeal 
 and intervention of the witch-doctor, and not as commonly 
 supposed by means of private revenge. There seems to be 
 no system of private revenge anywhere in the zone of the 
 banana, for the reason that the people are so overawed by 
 fear of evil spirits that they dare not retaliate for any wrongs 
 that they may suffer. After the change from the tribal to 
 the political organization, a wrong done to an individual 
 comes to be regarded as an offense against the public, and 
 even then appeal is often made to the ordeal, witch-doctor 
 or priest to obtain redress. The general practice of blood 
 revenge is only compatible with a solid family or tribal 
 organization such as exists among pastoral and patriarchal 
 people, or those who are less under the bondage of su- 
 perstition. It arises from love of family just as patriotism 
 arises out of love of country and people. In Africa the 
 family is too much disorganized to give birth to a sentiment 
 of family pride and honor. 
 
 There seems to be a close correspondence in the several 
 zones between the concentration of wealth and the con- 
 centration of political power. In the banana zone the 
 aristocratic or property class is proportionately small and 
 compact, and political power exists there in its most con- 
 
 1 Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, pp. 264, 269 ; Featherman, p. 755. 
 
POLITICAL LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 237 
 
 centrated form ; while in the millet zone and in the cattle 
 zone, the property class is relatively large and scattered, and 
 political power is there less concentrated. In the camel 
 zone, probably a majority of the men are capitalists but 
 they cannot unite with their fellow capitalists owing to the 
 detached nature of the population. Here political power is 
 subject to long division and each man is his own king. 
 Buckle's statement may be taken as true that in all tropical 
 countries there is a tendency for property to be controlled 
 by a few men and consequently for political power to be 
 concentrated. The people receive only a small share of 
 production and have no part in government. " There is 
 no instance on record," says Buckle, " of any tropical coun- 
 try, in which wealth having been extensively accumulated, 
 the people have escaped this fate ; no instance in which the 
 heat of the climate has not caused an abundance of food 
 and the abundance of food an unequal distribution first, of 
 wealth and then of political power. Among nations sub- 
 jected to these conditions the people have counted for 
 nothing : they have had no voice in the management of the 
 State and no control over the wealth that their own industry 
 has created. Their only business has been to labor : their 
 only duty to obey. Thus there have been usually generated 
 among them those habits of tame and servile submission, 
 by which as we know from history, they have been always 
 characterized." ' 
 
 In the banana zone where there is the most despotism, 
 political and religious, there is also the least freedom of 
 action for the individual citizen. In the millet zone there is 
 less despotism and more freedom ; and in the cattle zone 
 still less despotism and still more freedom. Hence it may 
 be concluded that the farther man emerges from the lowest 
 social stage the less he is subject to any kind of coercion. 
 
 The progress from slavery to freedom depends upon 
 'Vol. I, p. 81. 
 
238 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 the power of men to exercise self-restraint, and to act wisely 
 upon individual initiative. The more they subordinate their 
 animal instincts and passions, and develop their higher 
 mental faculties, the less willingly they will submit to exter- 
 nal restraints and the less such restraints become necessary. 
 
 " The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars 
 But in ourselves that we are underlings." 
 
 "The free man," says Carlyle, "is he who is loyal to the 
 laws of the universe." But the majority of mankind are 
 unacquainted with the laws of the universe and cannot be 
 reached by appeal to reason or conscience, and hence 
 checks to their savage nature must be brought about by 
 force. The lash, the prison, the gallows, the javelin, sword, 
 and cannon, and the despotic master and king, are every- 
 where and in all ages the advertisement of man's inability 
 to govern himself. The political institutions in Africa, as in 
 all other countries, are fairly well adjusted to the status of 
 the people. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 CUSTOMS, CEREMONIES AND THE SPECTACULAR IN 
 THE BANANA ZONE 
 
 General Purpose of Customs, Ceremonies, Etc. — People 
 everywhere, particularly savages, have many strictly ob- 
 served customs, ceremonies and many kinds of spectacular 
 displays, of which some have reference to the economic life, 
 some to the family life, some to the social life, some to the po- 
 litical life and some to the religious life. It is probable that, 
 all of them have, or have had, some important significance, 
 although in particular instances their meaning may not be 
 easily traced or understood, but in every case they have come 
 into existence for the purpose of exercising some kind of con- 
 trol over the people, to habituate them to certain desirable 
 things, or to deter them from injurious or undesirable things. 
 They are important as a discipline to conduct and conscience, 
 and maybe rightly considered, at least in part, as "an outward 
 expression of ethical principles." ' The people who observe 
 them may not be, and often are not, aware of their origin 
 and purpose, since lapse of time has caused the origin to be 
 lost sight of. 
 
 Taboos on Food, Etc. — A very common custom in this 
 zone, as in savage countries generally, is that of placing a 
 taboo upon certain kinds of food. For example, among the 
 Bassamese, the sorcerers and medicine-men have alone the 
 right to feed on milk, and the belief prevails that if a pro- 
 fane person were to partake of this sacred beverage the 
 cows would go dry or something else go wrong. The com- 
 
 ' Small and Vincent, p. 264. 
 239 
 
240 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 mon people are forbidden to eat the flesh of the hog, the 
 he-goat, and the dog, or to partake of certain kinds of fish, 
 which if eaten, would cause death. In some parts of this 
 zone the privilege of fishing in certain waters is reserved to 
 the king ; in other places fishing is interdicted to the com- 
 mon people two out of every three days, and whoever con- 
 travenes this prohibition, will surely be devoured by a 
 crocodile. In some localities yams are not allowed to be 
 eaten until the chief has had the first taste of them ; and in 
 other localities white hens are considered sacred and are 
 killed only for sacrificial purposes.' Miss Kingsley says that, 
 in Calabar, each person is under a multitude of restrictions 
 as to his kind of food, method of eating, and so forth.^ Such 
 customs, together with the fictions that support them, very 
 likely arise from the scarcity of certain kinds of foods and 
 the desire of the ruling classes to have a monopoly of them, 
 and when such customs are once established they are gen- 
 erally perpetuated as a means of keeping up class distinc- 
 tions. In civilized societies they are enacted into what are 
 known as sumptuary laws, a good account of which may be 
 found in Roscher's " Political Economy." 
 
 Yam Customs. — Yam Customs are held in this zone 
 twice a year ; once when the crop is planted in December, 
 and again when it is ripe in September. They are always 
 occasions of great freedom and result in unsettling law 
 and order for days.^ No one may eat yam until the Sep- 
 tember festival, which lasts two weeks, during which a 
 criminal is sometimes sacrificed as a thank offering.* These 
 festivals probably originated from an effort to propitiate the 
 evil spirits that bring about the destruction of crops ; but in 
 the course of time the propitiatory motive came to be sup- 
 planted by the feeling of thanks to the spirits for having 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 140. ^ Kingsley, " Travels in West Africa," p. 309. 
 
 ' Kingsley " West African Studies," p. 149. 
 * Ellis, "Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 229. 
 
CUSTOMS IN THE BANANA ZONE 241 
 
 protected the crops, and a desire, perhaps, to prevent people 
 from digging up the yams before they mature. 
 
 Familial Customs. — Ceremonies in connection with the 
 family life are very manifold. First is the marriage cere- 
 mony, which is observed everywhere in Africa with a good 
 deal of fanfare^ the chief features of which are the drinking 
 much palm wine, and feasting and dancing until late at night." 
 It arises from a desire to enhance one's prestige and in- 
 fluence in the community. The ability of the man to buy a 
 wife and the triumph of the girl in being chosen from among 
 many, lead to a desire in both bride and groom to advertise 
 their good fortune to the public ; and the greater the demon- 
 stration the more the public is inclined to pay homage to 
 the contracting parties. After the marriage, the ceremonies 
 to be observed in the family circle, are limited almost 
 entirely to certain obeisances to be performed by the wife. 
 Whenever she approaches her husband she must get on her 
 knees ' and crawl on her all-fours. She eats apart from him 
 and after he has had his fill. Even the wives of kings are 
 not exempt from these humiliating requirements. In 
 Dahorai when the king used to go for a walk, several of his 
 wives would hold an umbrella over him to protect his com- 
 plexion from the burning rays of the sun, and if perchance 
 a few drops of sweat trickled down his face, one of his 
 wives would delicately wipe them off with her handker- 
 chief.'' The motive of these humiliating performances is to 
 maintain the absolute authority of the husband, and. to keep 
 the woman perpetually reminded of her inferiority and sub- 
 ordination. 
 
 In the heyday of Dahomi, certain ceremonies had for 
 their object to prevent the wives of the king from carrying 
 on flirtations with the other sex. The rule was that every 
 man should turn out of the road whenever he met one of the 
 king's wives. He was required not only to turn aside but to 
 
 ' Foa, p. 189. ' Hawkins, p. 109. ' Foa, p. 245. « Wood, p. 643. 
 
242 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 turn his back until she had passed out of sight. Her ap- 
 proach was always announced by a female slave who pre- 
 ceded her and jingled a bell.^ 
 
 Ceremonies of respect on part of children for their par- 
 ents are observed in this zone only in a few places for the 
 reason that there is little authority exercised over children. 
 The children in most cases belong to the mother and not to 
 the father, and there are no ceremonies of respect to fathers 
 except where descent is traced in the male line. 
 
 In Dahomi, for example, where primogeniture prevailed 
 among the ruling classes, a child was obliged to kneel to 
 speak to its father, and when grown to treat him as one of 
 the great men of the country.^ A similar ceremony of 
 respect was shown by the younger to the elder brother.^ 
 
 Ceremonies and Customs to Denote Class Distinctions. — 
 As soon as society becomes divided into castes and classes 
 there arise appropriate ceremonies and customs having for 
 their object to distinguish the higher from the lower orders, 
 and especially to prevent the lower from encroaching upon 
 the higher. Generally the more arbitrary and rigid the 
 division into classes, the greater and more humiliating the 
 ceremonies. In Dahomi all subjects used to prostrate them- 
 selves in the presence of the king, and any one who received 
 a message from him was made to get down on his knees and 
 kiss the ground.* In the Niger region every one bends the 
 knee slightly in passing a superior, and as a mark of great 
 respect men prostrate themselves and strike their heads 
 against the ground. Slaves salute their master the first 
 thing in the morning, prostrate themselves before him and 
 make flattering speeches." When one chief visits another, 
 he who receives the visitor if of a higher rank, remains seated : 
 if of equal or lower rank, he rises and embraces the visitor 
 or prostrates himself at his feet.* 
 
 1 Duncan, Vol. I, p. 257. ' Foa, p. 245. *IHti. 
 
 ■* Duncan, Vol. I, p. 218. ' Allen and Thomson, Vol. I, p. 392. 'Foa, p. 246. 
 
CUSTOMS IN THE BANANA. ZONE 243 
 
 Special privileges and proscriptions of dress have always 
 been and are everywhere enforced by primitive governments 
 to preserve class distinctions. For example, the Dahomi 
 government decreed that certain fabrics and colors might be 
 worn only by the royal family. Any subject who dared to 
 wear cloth used by the king was fined.' Only the king and 
 officers of State could use an umbrella,'' and only the aristo- 
 cratic class could use stools, wooden doors and long pipes.' 
 Similar regulations prevailed in Ashanti.* 
 
 Regal Spectacular. — Referring to the kingdom of Benin in 
 the seventeenth century Ogilby said, " By the king's Order 
 yearly Festivals are kept, in Commemoration of the deceased 
 kings ; wherein they make horrible Sacrifices of Men and 
 Beasts, to the number of four or five hundred, but never 
 more than three and twenty in a day, most of them Male- 
 factors who have deserv'd Death and reserv'd in the Trunk 
 of a Tree for this Time. But if it happen that there be not 
 Malefactors, then the king, to compleat the number, sends 
 for some of his Servants in the Evening into the Streets to 
 take all those that go without Lights and bring them into the 
 Prison. If the surprised be a poor or idle person, he must 
 expect no favor, but hurried to prison, soon receives his 
 doom ; but a rich Man may redeem himself."* 
 
 In Dahomi and Ashanti the inauguration or demise of a 
 king was the occasion of much pomposity. A new king was 
 ushered into office by a great /^ie, consisting of a parade of 
 the military forces, dancing, singing and carousing. When 
 a king died in Dahomi the impressiveness of the funeral 
 ceremony was enchanced by placing on the parade grounds 
 several thousand human skulls ° and by beheading several 
 hundred human beings to accompany the deceased into the 
 
 ' Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 17 1. ' /iiJ., p. 171. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 126; Ellis, "Ewe Speaking Peoples," 
 p. 171. 
 
 « Brackcnbury, p. 331, » P. 477. « Duncan, Vol. 2, p. 275. 
 
244 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 other world. And in addition to the great celebration on 
 the occasion of each king's death, public festivals, called 
 customs, were held annually in honor of all of the kings that 
 had gone to the other country. At these customs man)' fresh 
 victims were sacrificed in order to replenish the royal retinues 
 of the other world. Describing one of these customs in 
 Dahomi, Wood says that the reigning king, decked in all of 
 his finery, appeared on a high platform surrounded b)' his 
 favorite wives, while below him were throngs of people, who 
 scrambled for the cowries thrown at their feet. The sacrifi- 
 cial victims were now brought forward, each being gagged 
 in order to prevent him from crying out to the king for 
 mercy. . . . They were firmly secured by being lashed 
 inside of a basket so that they could move neither head, 
 hand nor foot ; . . . the king arose and with his 
 own hand and foot pushed one of the victims off the plat- 
 form into the midst of the crowd below, where he w as torn 
 limb from limb, while around each portion of the still quiver- 
 ing body a mass of infuriated Negroes were fighting like so 
 many infuriated dogs over a bone.' Canot mentions in 
 connection with one of these customs that a short distance 
 from the palace was an enclosure nine feet high, surrounded 
 by a pile of briars, within which were fastened to stakes fifty 
 captives who had been selected for the immolation. The 
 ceremony began by a parade of tiie Amazons before the 
 king after which, at a given signal, they leaped over the 
 briar enclosure, lacerating their flesh, and each seizing a 
 captive and dragging him to the feet of the king. Then 
 began the work of chopping off the captives' heads." Those 
 who preferred to commit suicide were permitted to do so 
 after which their bodies were thrown into a big reservoir. 
 Sometimes such ceremonies were enlivened by a cannibal 
 feast which filled the air with the aroma of roasteil human 
 desh." It is said that as many as 500 human beings were 
 'Wood, p. 651, » p, a68. 'Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 262. 
 
CUSTOMS IN THE BANANA ZONE 245 
 
 sacrificed ;it the piaiid cusioiu of 1791.' A great festival 
 was always held before .noinij to war. It lasted sometimes 
 a month with the usual daiicinq^, singini; and decapitation.- 
 Similar festivities used to take place among the 
 Ashantis, and in addition to the regularly appointed cele- 
 brations, the king, now and tluii, when the mood struck 
 him, would cut off thi- heads of a liw of his subjixts just to 
 show his giMierosity in kec'i)iiig up the supply of servants 
 for his dt'd'asi'il royal kin. It oftrii happeni'il wlien he was 
 carousing late at night, drinking much palm wiuc and listen- 
 ing to the stories of his wi\es, that he would send for his 
 ancestors' stt>ol and wash it with the blood of two or three 
 of his subjects. An oiluer always tapped a drum whenever 
 an execution took place, anil the music of this instrument 
 was likely to be hcanl at any time of day or night.' The 
 king often nuule a great demonstration on the occasion 
 of receiving at his court any distinguished visitors. For 
 example, when Mr. Bowdich of the royal African Company 
 visileil the capital in 181 7* there was a magnificent parade 
 of ,vx*^^^ warriors, a great display of goUl, of grand cos- 
 tuint's and other things calculated to astonish thespi>ctators. 
 The most interesting feature of the parade, perhaps, was a 
 persou undergoing torture preparatory to his execution, 
 lie was k'll by a conl passed through his nose and he had 
 his back full of gashes, one ear cut oil, three kni\es sticking 
 in his llesh, one thrust through both of his checks and one 
 under each shoulder blade. Tl\e exhibition of military 
 
 ' Kllis, " Ivwc Spealting IVonlrs," p, \oy. 
 
 " l■■o^lH■^, \\il. I, p. 1.). » Urackcnbury, p. ,Vi4- 
 
 * riic l\oy;\l Vfiionn t"ouip:\ny entered into conlr.ul in loSo to supply the 
 Sp.uiish Wot Indies wilh sKnos -liut in 171,; tlic b'njjlisli j»ovcinmcnt granted a 
 nuino|vily ol the trade to the l\inMl Assunui under treaty willi S|)ain. Tliis nuisi 
 li.vvr put the Ixoyal Aliican rom|wny out of business lor n time, but il ni^iy liave 
 continued to trade in other than human merchandise or may have resumed the slave 
 trade alter the Assicnio dissolved and the trade was thrown o|icn in 1749: Corner 
 Williams. "liveii>ool t'nvalcovs." London. iSi)^, p. 46O; liamlmfl, "Some Ac* 
 oount ol the Trade in Slaves from Africa," 1 oiulon. 1S42, p. 624. 
 
246 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 power and cruelty was intended to impress the crowd, and 
 especially the strangers present, of the danger of incurring 
 the displeasure of the great Ashanti king.^ 
 
 At the end of military campaigns the Ashanti generals 
 usually sent to the capital the dried and smoked jaw-bones 
 of the men slain in battle, for there was an unwritten law 
 that the army could not return to the capital without 
 trophies. In case of an unsuccessful campaign the army 
 would dig up some of the jaw-bones of their own people 
 who had been offered in sacrifice to the gods, and substitute 
 them for the trophies of slain enemies.^ 
 
 Palatial Spectacular. — Scarcely anything is more im- 
 pressive among primitive people than a large and gaudy 
 edifice, and the .kings and princes are not slow to realize 
 this fact. The king's palace at Dahomi consisted of a vil- 
 lage of separate houses, enclosed by a wall, of which the top 
 was ornamented with thousands of human skulls.^ The in- 
 teriors of the houses were embellished with all of the articles 
 of wealth of which the country could boast, as well as with a 
 great quantity of European furniture, utensils and bric- 
 £L-brac. One human skull surmounted the king's stafE-of- 
 office and three human skulls supported his foot-stool. 
 
 Spectacular in Dress. — Another manifestation of the 
 spectacular life is shown in the costumes of the privileged 
 classes. Of course, the most gaudily dressed person in any 
 State is the king. The quantity of gold and ivory, in the 
 form of rings, bracelets, necklaces and what not usually dis- 
 played on an African Monarch is, to say the least, amazing. 
 His garments are of the finest native fabrics, to which are 
 often added the richest silks, velvets and other stuffs of 
 Europe. Describing the dress of the Ashanti king in 1873 
 Stanley said, " A tunic of crimson velvet covers his body, his 
 loose Moorish pantaloons are made of the same stuff, a 
 
 ' Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 248. 
 
 ^ Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 267. ' Duncan, Vol. I, p. 219. 
 
CUSTOMS IN THE BANANA ZONE 247 
 
 broaxl band of gold encircles his waist, a cap or turban of 
 silk, richly embroidered, covers his head : his weapons are 
 decorated profusely with the precious metal." ^ Lander de- 
 scribed the dress of an Ibo king as consisting of a cap of a 
 sugar-loaf shape, covered with strings of coral and pieces of 
 broken looking-glass : a Spanish surtout, rather too short ; 
 gold epaulettes, and front overspread with gold lace : four- 
 teen bracelets on each wrist, and coat-sleeves torn off to 
 show them : trousers of same material as coat, but cut off to 
 expose his leg-bracelets and a string of brass bells that en- 
 circled his ankles. Thus splendidly clothed, Obio smiling 
 at his own magnificence, vain of the admiration that was 
 paid him by his attendants, flattered by the presence of 
 white men, who, he imagined, were struck with amazement 
 at the splendor of his appearance, shook his feet for his bells 
 to tingle and sat down with the utmost self-complaisance and 
 looked around him.'' 
 
 The Dahoman priests and priestesses always wear 
 some kind of peculiar costume, and otherwise make their 
 persons odd and conspicuous. They shave one-half of their 
 heads and leave the other half to grow long tufts of hair. 
 The head-dress of the priests is usually a white cap, while 
 the priestesses decorate their heads with a rich array of 
 feathers, beads and cowries.' 
 
 Ceremonies Arising from Sycophancy. — Certain practices 
 owe their origin in this zone to sycophancy. Without any 
 initiative perhaps on part of the king, his subjects or in- 
 feriors seek in all possible ways to flatter him and magnify 
 his greatness. They fawn at his feet and lavish upon him 
 thousands of complimentary phrases and thousands of little 
 attentions, with the hope of receiving some crumbs from his 
 royal table, or of escaping some exaction. Illustrations of 
 ceremonies of this kind may be found in all of the kingdoms 
 
 I" Cooiuassie," p. bi. » Vol. 2, p. 214. 
 
 ' Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 146. 
 
248 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 of this zone, but especially in those of Ashanti and Dahomi. 
 During the public processions in Ashanti it was the custom 
 for all of the important chiefs to be followed by a group of 
 parasites whose business it was to proclaim in boisterous 
 song the great deeds of their masters/ Whenever the king 
 took a drink an attendant who always followed him held a 
 bowl under his chin to catch the royal drippings.^ When 
 the king's mother went abroad she was sometimes carried 
 in a basket, followed by slaves who suspended large fans 
 over her head as protection from the glare of the sun.^ If 
 the Dahoman king happened to sneeze while holding court, 
 the whole assembly would burst into shouts of benedictions, 
 or if he took a drink in public, drums would be beaten, guns 
 fired, rattles shaken and all of the courtiers would bend to the 
 ground and clap their hands/ Many a modern sycophant 
 who fawns at the feet of his social, political or economic 
 master, may see in this African mirror a true image of him- 
 self. 
 
 Religious Ceremonies. — Religious ceremonies vary in 
 amount according to the density of population and the ex- 
 tent of the development of a priesthood. They arise from 
 the same motives as the political ceremonies. The fetich- 
 man or priest in order to impress the public with his super- 
 human powers, goes through a lot of gymnastical per- 
 formances, and dresses himself in the most astonishing para- 
 phernalia, and when called upon to officiate on public 
 occasions, he seeks to magnify his functions by as much 
 display of ceremony as possible. All of this appeals to his 
 vanity and increases his control over the masses. His whole 
 life being devoted to the manipulation of the people, and 
 other-world spirits, he is naturally inclined to envelop him- 
 self and his practice in as much mystery as possible. He 
 has his incantations for naming children, and for initiation 
 
 1 Freeman, p. 148. ^ Ibid., p. 130. ' Braclcenbury, p. 331. 
 
 4 Wood, p. 643 ; Duncan, Vol. I, p. 222. 
 
CUSTOMS IN THE BANANA ZONE 249 
 
 into manhood. He officiates at public sacrifices, at the 
 feasts of the harvest, and of the new moon, at the mask 
 dance and at the solemnities over the dead.' 
 
 Ceremonies of Civility Among Equals. — ^The general in- 
 tercourse among equals everywhere is accompanied by 
 more or less ceremony if only in the nature of a word of 
 greeting. In Dahomi when two persons meet each claps 
 his hands three times as a polite salutation.^ Along the 
 Niger in certain places, the people ask about each other's 
 health and wish each other blessings and prosperity, ac- 
 companying the words of greeting by snapping their 
 fingers. When women chance to meet, each kneels, pre- 
 tending to pour sand alternately upon her right and left 
 arm. Viewed from a distance they are said to look like 
 two dogs pointing.* Formalities of this kind arise from 
 motives of self-protection. In the encounter of strangers 
 upon the highways it is necessary to have some signal of 
 peace or good will before approaching, and the amount of 
 ceremony depends upon the amount of danger. 
 
 In many places it is the custom in offering water or 
 wine to a stranger for the host to drink first as proof that 
 it is not poisoned.* 
 
 The writer hopes, in another volume, to go more fully 
 into the origin of ceremonies of civility, although Spencer 
 has already covered the subject in a way that leaves little to 
 be said.' 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 369. 
 
 ' Duncan, Vol. I, p. 248. ' Allen and Thomson, Vol. I, p. 392. 
 
 * Bouche, p. 69. » " Principles of Sociology," Vol. 2, Part 4. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 CUSTOMS, CEREMONIES AND SPECTACULAR IN 
 THE MILLET, CATTLE AND CAMEL ZONES 
 
 Millet Zone. — In the millet zone the customs, ceremonies 
 and spectacular displays are much the same as in the 
 banana zone except where the people are influenced by the 
 Mohammedan religion. Marriages are everywhere cele- 
 brated with about the same sort of noise and shaking of 
 feet. A peculiar kind of etiquette among the Yorubas re- 
 quires that when a betrothed girl meets in the streets any of 
 the wives of her fiance, she must salute them by falling on 
 her knees.' Wives must prostrate themselves before their 
 husbands, and sons must prostrate before their mothers and 
 senior female relatives.^ At the court of Samory, the death 
 penalty used to be visited upon any man who showed any 
 politeness to the king's wives. If a man met one of them it 
 was his duty to turn out of the road.^ In all of the im- 
 portant kingdoms of this zone the subjects are required to 
 prostrate themselves before the king. In Yoruba after 
 sprawling before his majesty the subjects must rise and clap 
 their hands.* Public ceremonies of one kind or another are 
 very common, but not so often attended with human sacri- 
 fices. Yam customs are held almost universally and also 
 celebrations in honor of the new moon.* The Mandingos 
 believe that every new moon is newly created and when it 
 first appears they offer prayers of thanks to Allah, at the 
 conclusion of which, they spit in their hands and rub the 
 saliva over their faces.* The Jack-a-Jacks used to celebrate 
 
 • Bowen, p. 304. • Campbell, p. 56. 
 
 ' Binger, Vol. i, p. 159. * Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 167. 
 
 ' Staudinger, p. 566. « Featherman, p. 308. 
 
 250 
 
MILLET, CATTLE AND CAMEL ZONES 251 
 
 great events by sacrificing a few slaves and drinking a few 
 hundred gallons of rum.' Everywhere funerals are occa- 
 sions of great demonstrations, and people often pawn or 
 sell their children to meet the expenses of the ceremony.'' 
 
 Among the ceremonies arising from sycophancy, it 
 may be mentioned that, when the Mossi king drinks, sneezes, 
 blows his nose or spits, his attendants always pop their 
 fingers,^ indicating that the king can do nothing unworthy 
 of the admiration of his subjects. 
 
 In the matter of gorgeous palaces and costumes the 
 people of this zone are fully up to anything of the kind in the 
 other zones. They are also fully up in ceremonies indica- 
 tive of class distinctions. In Borgu inferiors prostrate them- 
 selves full length before their superiors. When women 
 meet a superior, they fall on their knees and elbows, hold- 
 ing their hands open and turned upward.'' In Yoruba 
 when a superior meets an inferior, the latter puts aside his 
 burden, kneels on all-fours, then sprawls upon the ground 
 and covers himself with dust. If equals riieet they squat 
 and pop their fingers. In some places people salute by 
 saying "Good morning," and striking their thigh or leg 
 with their right hand." It is said that in Yoruba each citizen 
 spends upon the average an hour per day rendering and 
 receiving homage.* Among some tribes drinking water 
 together or sharing kola-nuts together is a sign of good 
 fellowship.' At Kano the form of salute is that each indi- 
 vidual place his hands upon his breast, bow and ask " How 
 have you passed the heat of the day?" The Negroes of 
 that city, says Clapperton, are excessively polite and cere- 
 monious.* 
 
 Cattle Zone In the catde zone customs, ceremonies and 
 
 ' Journal of an African Cruiser, p. 127. 
 
 'Ellis, "Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 161. » Binger, Vol. i, p. 451. 
 
 ♦Clapperton, " Second Expedition," p. 107. ' Binger, Vol. I, p. 446. 
 
 •Wood, p. 661. ' Duncan, Vol. I, p. 118 ; Rolilfs, Vol. 2, p. 243. 
 
 ' " Second Expedition," p. 48. 
 
252 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 spectacular displays are less numerous and less important 
 than in the lower zones, while human sacrifices as an element 
 in them are almost entirely absent. Ceremonies of marriage 
 and court etiquette are about the same as in the other zones. 
 In Bornu as soon as the courtiers have made their obeisances, 
 they seat themselves on the ground with their backs towards 
 the monarch. Nearly three hundred people thus took their 
 places when Denham and Clapperton were received at the 
 Bornu court.^ The Mohammedan Fellatahs greet each other 
 by the Arab salutation meaning " peace be to you," which 
 is replied to by saying, "to you be peace." The pagan 
 Fellatahs salute each other " by joining the palms of their 
 right hand, and drawing them off towards the extremity of 
 the fingers, they snap these together." ^ Formalities of 
 greeting in some localities are very novel if not altogether 
 dignified. For example, when the Senaarian women meet 
 a chief in the streets they must take off their sandals and 
 walk barefooted ; ^ and among the Dinkas, when two people 
 meet in the road, etiquette requires that they spit on each 
 other.^ This spitting salutation is very common in East 
 Africa.^ 
 
 Public ceremonies in this zone are mostly in accordance 
 with the Mohammedan traditions, although celebrations of 
 the new moon and of the beginning of the rainy season are 
 generally held by the unconverted.* Ceremonies arising 
 from sycophancy are not so common in this zone as in the 
 others, but they are sufficiently common and ridiculous in 
 some localities. Among the Foorians, when the sultan 
 spits, an attendant wipes up the royal saliva with his hand ; 
 and when he coughs, all of the retinue make a peculiar 
 clicking sound with their tongues.' The funeral customs 
 closely resemble those of the other zones. Among the 
 
 ' Wood, p. 690. ' Featherman, p. 371. 'Idiri., p. 790. 
 
 < Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 380. » Thomson, p. 443. 
 
 « Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 10. 7 Featherman, p. 737. 
 
MILLET, CATTLE AND CAMEL ZONES 253 
 
 Sienre, when any one dies, an old woman comes and washes 
 the corpse and places it upon a mat in the largest hut, and 
 then musicians with flutes, tarn tarns, and stringed instru- 
 ments play night and day without interruption for several 
 days, and in the meantime the people feast, dance and make 
 merry. The dance is seen at best about midnight when 
 men decorated with vulture and chicken feathers, shuffle 
 amazingly, and the girls in frenzy of excitement jump up 
 and strike their buttocks with their heels.^ 
 
 Camel Zone.— Not much is known about the ceremonies 
 among the Tibbus, and the reader must be content with 
 scant details. "When two acquaintances meet in the 
 street," says Featherman, " they sit down about ten steps 
 distant from each other, holding their spear in their hand in 
 an erect posture, after which they exchange words of salu- 
 tation, repeating them several times if they wish to be par- 
 ticularly courteous. Polite compliments are addressed to 
 the visitor, both on his arrival and departure which are re- 
 sponded to in proper style." ^ Dancing is sometimes a 
 mode of greeting for a hero or guest of honor who is met 
 by the women with dances and songs just as Jephthah's 
 daughter met her victorious father and the women of Israel 
 met David after he had killed Goliath.' However, public 
 celebrations are not so much occasions of merrymaking 
 with song and dance as pretexts for extempore recitations 
 and verbal contention.* 
 
 General Considerations. — A general review of the cus- 
 toms, ceremonies and spectacular exhibitions designed to 
 exercise control over the people, seems to support the con- 
 clusion drawn by Spencer in his general investigation of 
 ceremonies " that such control is the most primitive of all 
 means of regulating conduct and that it always precedes the 
 
 ' Binger, Vol. I, p. 222. ' P. 754. 
 
 ' Wood, p. 705. * Reclus, Vol. 2, pp. 424, 428. 
 
 '" Principles of Sociology," Vol. i, Chapter 12. 
 
254 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 org-anization of government and paves the way for it. Cere- 
 monial control seems to bear a close relation to the degree 
 of political and social inequality despotically maintained, 
 and to the extent of ignorance, superstition, unsociability, 
 and lack of spirit among the people. The greatest amount 
 of ceremonial control is found in the banana zone, where 
 there is greatest despotism, inequality, stupidity and abject- 
 ness ; and the least amount of such control is in the camel 
 zone, where there is the least despotism and greatest spirit 
 of independence. Elaborate formalities and rigid codes of 
 etiquette are found everywhere in societies which despot- 
 ically maintain artificial inequalities. They are a natural 
 development to reduce friction. "Of Japanese, living for 
 these many centuries under an unmitigated despotism," 
 says Spencer, "castes severely restricted, sanguinary laws, 
 and a ceremonial system rigorous and elaborate, there has 
 arisen a character which while described by Mr. Rundell as 
 haughty, vindictive, and licentious, yet prompts a behavior 
 admirable in its suavity.' Mr. Cornwallis asserts that amia- 
 bility and an unrufHed temper are the universal properties 
 of the women in Japan ; and by Mr. Drummond they are 
 credited with a natural grace which is impossible to de- 
 scribe. Among the men, too, the sentiment of honor, based 
 upon that regard for reputation to which ceremonial ob- 
 servance largely appeals, carries them to great extreme of 
 consideration. Another verifying fact is furnished by 
 another despotically governed and highly ceremonious 
 society, Russia. Custine says : ' If fear renders the men 
 serious, it also renders them extremely polite. I have never 
 elsewhere seen so many men of all classes treating each 
 other with such respect.' Kindred, if less pronounced, 
 examples of this connection are to be found in Western 
 countries. The Italian, long subject to tyrannical rule, and 
 
 •The author of this book doe» not think that the Japanrie are exceptionally 
 licentioug. 
 
MILLET, CATTLE AND CAMEL ZONES 255 
 
 in danger of his life if he excites the vengeful feelingfs of a 
 fellow citizen, is distinguished by his conciliatory manner. 
 In Spain, where governmental dictation is unlimited, where 
 women are harshly treated, and where 'no laborer ever 
 walks outside his door without his knife,' there is extreme 
 politeness. Contrariwise, our own people, long living under 
 institutions which guard them against serious consequences 
 from giving offense, greatly lack suavity, and show a com- 
 parative inattention to minor civilities." ^ 
 
 As artificial inequalities come to disappear from 
 political and social life, artificial formalities will also disap- 
 pear, leaving only such ceremonies and etiquette among 
 men as arise spontaneously from mutual esteem. The 
 sham-politeness will disappear like the paint and powder 
 from the face of the sham-beauty when she comes to have 
 real charms, revealing the natural color and play of 
 emotion. 
 
 Religious ceremonies, as the political and social, arise 
 from the conception of a despotic ruler who is an object 
 of terror, and as the idea of God comes to be more that 
 of a real father and the people come to place more value 
 upon inward grace than outward show, there ensue a 
 simplicity and genuineness in religious, as in political and 
 social, forms of expressing adoration and esteem. The 
 more men place value upon their moral worth, the more 
 they shrink from any kind of mere formality. Much 
 formality coagulates the spirit. 
 
 Spectacular exhibitions in political and social life belong 
 to the childhood of the race and will diminish in proportion 
 as people learn to appreciate the intrinsic merit of things 
 and to depreciate the mere extrinsic manifestation of them. 
 The modem craving for display of every kind, especially of 
 luxury'' in dress, house furnishings, entertainments and gen- 
 eral surroundings is the opposite of that which leads to 
 
 '" Principles of Sociology," Vol. 2, p. 222. 
 
256 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 true culture and refinement ; for tfie more the inner life of 
 man is enriched, the more simple become his tastes in 
 reference to the outward aspect of things, the fewer his 
 material wants and the more he is sickened by the ostenta- 
 tion and vulgarity of opulence. " The fewer one's wants," 
 says De Laveleye, " the more one is free to follow the dic- 
 tates of duty, the less one is likely to be influenced by the 
 promptings of cupidity in important matters such as the 
 choice of a career, of a wife, or of a political party. 
 . . . Let us have the courage to set up as models, 
 Socrates, whose vigorous frame, when in the army, endured 
 heat, cold and fatigue better than the veterans, and who be- 
 ing without wants, lived only for philosophy and justice ; 
 or, again, St. Paul, enduring without shrinking every kind 
 of trial — imprisonment, stripes, shipwreck, poverty, ' many 
 deaths ' — for the service of truth. The soul of an apostle in 
 a frame of iron, — ^this is what we must hold up to the ad- 
 miration of our age, and the imitation of our rising genera- 
 tion ; not the pursuit of an over-refined luxury for the pam- 
 pering of enervated tastes, and senses blunted by satiety." * 
 
 ^" Luxury," London, 1891, p. 76. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 
 
 Definition of Religion. — As religion is defined in a great 
 variety of ways, it is necessary to explain in what sense it is 
 used in this book. A definition covering all religions 
 would seem to be that of the conception of one or of sev- 
 eral spiritual personalities supposed to have some kind of 
 control over man's life. In its lowest form religion is the 
 conception of multitudinous spiritual personalities (an- 
 imism) and in its highest form it is the conception of a 
 single spiritual personality. Superstition is the attribution 
 of occult powers to some special phenomenon which has 
 been ascertained to be governed by natural law. As the 
 savage knows little of natural law, he attributes everything 
 to supernatural agency ; and as the civilized man knows 
 much of natural law, he attributes to supernatural agency 
 or to special interference of Providence, few things which 
 do not lie strictly outside of the regular play of forces which 
 God has revealed and designed that man should obey. All 
 religions still retain some element of superstition ; for up to 
 the present time, many of the most enlightened Christians 
 continue to attribute to divine intervention many things 
 which science has demonstrated to be the result of invari- 
 able natural law. From the European point of view, the 
 African religion is mostly superstition, but it is nevertheless 
 religion because of its personality conceptions. 
 
 Fundamental Conceptions. — In the first place let us in- 
 quire. How do conceptions of the spirit world enter into 
 the mind of the African ? Situated in a country where there 
 are earthquakes, volcanoes, thunder, lightning, wild beasts, 
 poisonous reptiles and many diseases and deaths, how is he 
 
 257 
 
258 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 to explain all this ? How is he to account for the move- 
 ments of the sun and stars and the clouds ? How is he to 
 account for the growth of trees, fruits, and flowers or the 
 actions of animals ? There is only one possible explanation 
 and that is that everything that moves or lives is a kind of 
 personality or spirit. If the wind blows it is the hurrying 
 of some spirit ; if the ocean lashes itself into fury it is tiie 
 writhing of some spirit; if the lightning hisses it is the 
 breath of some spirit, and if the sun and moon traverse the 
 heavens it is because they are real beings traveling through 
 the air. Thus everything animate or inanimate can be ex- 
 plained onl)^ upon tiie supposition of its being a living, in- 
 telligent spirit or an object inhabited by a spirit 
 
 In the next place, what would naturally be the attitude 
 of the African towards these spirits ? He would at first fear 
 them, and later seek to pacify them, coax them, beg them 
 or bribe them by offering food and drink, and if this did not 
 calm their temper he would offer them his dearest friend, 
 or even his own child. 
 
 In fact, the African religion is in all respects only that 
 which one would naturally expect it to be from a priori con- 
 siderations. 
 
 All Phenomena Animated by Spirits. — ^The people of the 
 banana zone believe that all phenomena are the result of 
 indwelling spirits. As they are conscious that their own 
 actions are the result of their own individual intelligence, 
 they naturally infer that all other things must move or act 
 by a similar intelligence. Their idea of spirits is a mere re- 
 flection of their idea of their own personality. 
 
 Idea of Double Personality. — For example, among the 
 Tshi tribes every man believes that he is a double personality, 
 i. e., has two spirits residing in him. Proof of this he finds 
 in the phenomenon of dreams, the reality of which he does 
 not question.* When a man dreams he feels convinced 
 
 > Ellis, "Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 151. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 259 
 
 that he often goes ofE on a long journey, meets friends and 
 enemies, and has a hunt or fight with them. When he 
 awakes he learns by inquiry that the men he had met in his 
 dream were not really present and participating in the events 
 dreamed of, but were at home and asleep in their beds. 
 He therefore concludes that men must have a double self, 
 one which can lie asleep and another which can go abroad 
 and act in the most independent and irresponsible manner. 
 
 Sometimes a dreaming man sees people who have been 
 dead and buried, and not doubting the reality of the dream,' 
 he concludes that one of the two spirits that dwell in a man 
 must survive after death and move about among the living.^ 
 Perhaps another proof to him of his double personality is 
 found in the fact that each man has a shadow which he sees 
 following him about upon the ground or in the water. And 
 still another proof to him is that when any one calls out in 
 a loud voice he hears an echo, which is interpreted as the 
 answering of the other spirit.* 
 
 The Body Soul and the Dream Soul. — The Tshi people 
 believe that one of these indwelling spirits corresponds to a 
 man's physical body, and that after death it leaves through 
 the mouth, wanders about awhile as a ghost or vagabond 
 soul, and finally goes to Dead Land.^ The other spirit 
 called the kra is not so inseparably connected with a man's 
 body, since it comes in and goes out at pleasure. A 
 peculiarity of this spirit is that it can sojourn successively in 
 an indefinite number of living beings. In the case of any 
 particular man, it is believed that it has existed previously 
 in other men, and that after his death it will live in still 
 other men or in sundry kinds of animals. This kra always 
 enters and goes out by way of a man's mouth and is liable 
 to do so at the most undesirable moments. Now, in any 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 229; Ellis, "Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 151. 
 
 'Ellis, "Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 102. 
 
 » Lander, Vol. 2, p. 259. * " Kwe Speaking Peoples," p. 107. 
 
26o THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 community, there are many of these kras flitting about, and 
 when any one of them has left its dwelHng place and gone 
 off on an excursion, a strange kra may creep into the vacant 
 dwelling and cause mischief. The kra usually escapes from 
 a man when he is asleep and it is then also that a strange 
 one most often ventures in. Hence people are careful not 
 to sleep with their mouths open.' Sometimes they find it 
 necessary to wear a muzzle over their mouths to prevent 
 their kras from escaping and to bar out intruders. On one 
 occasion Miss Kingsley was very much astonished to find a 
 Negro sleeping under a thick blanket and with a handker- 
 chief tied over his face. " It was a hot night," she says, 
 " and the man and his blanket were as wet as if they had 
 been dragged through a river. I suggested to the head- 
 man that the handkerchief muzzle should come off, and was 
 informed by him that for several nights previously the man 
 had dreamed of that savory dish, craw-fish seasoned with red 
 pepper. He had become anxious and had consulted the 
 headman, who decided that undoubtedly some witch was 
 setting a trap for his dream-soul with this bait, with intent, 
 and so forth. Care was now being taken to, as it were, 
 keep the dream-soul at home. I, of course, did not interfere 
 and the patient completely recovered." ^ In case the dream- 
 soul or kra succeeds in making its escape great anxiety is 
 felt for its safe return. " It is this way," says Miss Kings- 
 ley. " The dream-soul is, to put it miidly a silly, flighty 
 thing. Off it goes when its owner is taking a nap and gets 
 so taken up with skylarking, fighting or gossiping with 
 other dream-souls that it sometimes does not come home to 
 its owner when he is waking up. So, if any one has to 
 wake a man up, great care must always be taken that it is 
 done softly— sofriy, namely, gradually and quietly, so as to 
 give the dream-soul time to come home. . . . We will 
 take an example. A man has been suddenly roused by 
 
 ' Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 107. ^ ,< ^est African Studies," p. 176. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 261 
 
 some cause or other before that dream-soul has had time to 
 get into quarters. That human being feels very ill, and 
 sends for the witch-doctor. The medical man diagnoses 
 the case as one of absence of dream-soul, instantly claps a 
 cloth over the mouth and nose, and gets his assistant to hold 
 it there until the patient gets hard on to suffocation : but 
 no matter, it's the proper course of treatment to pursue. 
 The witch-doctor himself gets ready as rapidly as possible, 
 another dream-soul, which if he is a careful medical man, he 
 has brought with him in a basket. Then the patient is laid 
 on his back and the cloth removed from the mouth and nose, 
 and the witch-doctor holds over them his hands containing 
 the fresh soul, blowing hard at it so as to get it well into the 
 patient. If this is successful the patient recovers." ' When 
 a kra is belated in coming home, it is sometimes because it 
 is being pursued by other kras, and the awaking person finds 
 it necessary to fire off a gun to scare them away.^ In day- 
 light the kra sometimes follows people about in the form of 
 a shadow, and lest it should get away, they avoid walking 
 on the shady side of a street. Furthermore a shadow is not 
 only liable to get lost, but to get injured or killed. Alliga- 
 tors, for instance, sometimes pull a man into a river by seiz- 
 ing his shadow, and " murders are sometimes committed by 
 secretly driving a nail or knife into a man's shadow, and 
 so on, but if the murderer be caught red-handed at it, he or 
 she would be forthwith killed." ^ 
 
 The Kra Goes to Dead Land But May Return as a 
 New-Born Infant. — When a man dies his kra at once be- 
 comes a sisa which is supposed to take up its abode in 
 Dead Land oi the iaiiG or insisa (plural of sisa) beyond the 
 Voita Rivei . Bi t tht sisa is not always in a hurry to get 
 there It sometimes persists in lingering about its old place 
 or residence, thereby causing sickness or other unpleasant- 
 
 • " West African Studies," p. 171. ' /^«a'-. P- •74- 
 
 * Kingsley, '• West African Studies," p. 176. 
 
262 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 ness. In such case a witch doctor has to be called in to in- 
 duce it to move on to Dead Land. But even after all of the 
 trouble and expense in coaxing or driving it away, it can and 
 often does return and take lodgment in the bosom of some 
 unfortunate man in the absence of his kra/ or if the sisa is 
 not seeking revenge, it may come back into the world as the 
 kra of a new-born infant,* In the Niger Delta, says Miss 
 Kingsley, the spirit of the dead always comes back in the 
 form of a new babe.^ Its reappearance may be in the guise 
 of a male or female, a slave or freeman ; and the amount of 
 wealth taken out by the deceased spirit determines its rank 
 upon coming back in another person. Usually parents can 
 tell from the likeness or actions of an infant who it is that 
 has come back to life. The first thing that it notices upon 
 being shown a collection of articles determines its identity. 
 " Why he's uncle John, see, he knows his own pipe." * But if 
 parents are in doubt as to the identity, they sometimes send 
 to Yoruba for a celebrated, diviner, who, on account of his 
 intimate acquaintance with the sexual god Ifa, is an expert 
 in this particular matter and never makes a mistake." 
 
 The Ewe people of this zone have the same notion of a 
 double personality. Their indwelling spirit, called luwo 
 corresponds to the kra of the Tshi people and causes no less 
 trouble.^ 
 
 Notion of Double Personality Among Civilized People. — 
 It would be well for the reader to remember that this notion 
 of a double personality is not an exclusively African product, 
 but is found among savage people in many parts of the 
 world, and even among civilized people, not a few of whom, 
 with scholarly attainments, have written books to demonstrate 
 its reality. Mason in his "Telepathy and the Subliminal 
 
 ' Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 150. » Ibid. 
 
 '" Travels in West Africa," p. 343. 
 
 < Kingsley, " Travels in West Africa," p. 344. 
 
 « Ellis, "Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 115. ^Ibid., p. 10*. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 263 
 
 Self," says that in cases of hypnotic trance, in somnambulism, 
 etc., there is a manifestation of double consciousness ; and 
 that " there are weighty proofs that such a secondary or sub- 
 liminal, or if you choose so to designate it, supra-normal 
 self, actually exists, and that it exhibits functions and powers 
 far exceeding the functions and powers of the ordinary self. 
 We have seen it expressing its own personal opinions, its 
 own likes and dislikes, quite different and opposite to the 
 opinions, likes and dislikes of the ordinary self." ' Mason 
 also agrees with the Africans that actual occurrences may be 
 seen by persons far away " in the dreams and visions of or- 
 dinary sleep, in reverie and in various subjective condi- 
 tions." '^ " Again it has been demonstrated," he says, " that 
 some persons can voluntarily project the mind ... a 
 distance of one, a hundred or a thousand miles and that it 
 can there make itself known and recognized, perform acts 
 and even carry on a conversation with the person to whom 
 it is sent. That is, mind can act at a distance from and in- 
 dependent of the physical body and the organs through 
 which it usually manifests itself." ^ Another celebrated 
 champion of the double personality is Gurney, who be- 
 lieves that phantasms, impressions, voices or figures of per- 
 sons undergoing some crisis, especially death, are actually 
 perceived by their friends and relatives, and he cites numer- 
 ous cases where a man's soul has left his body and ap- 
 peared visible to people many miles away.^ He mentions 
 the famous case of Laura Fleming, whose dream soul went 
 off and witnessed the death of her husband as he was 
 thrown from a horse." An idea much like that of the 
 African kra is presented by Myers in his book " Human Per- 
 sonality and its Survival of Bodily Death." " I hold," he 
 says, " that certain manifestations of central individualities, 
 
 ' " Telepathy and The Subliminal Self," New York, 1897, P- 258. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 317. ' Ibid., p. 318. 
 
 < " Phantasms of The Living," Vol. I, p. 109. ' Ibid,, Vol. I, p. 339. 
 
264 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 associated now or formerly with definite organisms, have 
 been observed in operation apart from those organisms, 
 both while the organisms were still living and after they 
 had decayed." ' Sidis also believes in the double person- 
 ality and has written much in its favor.^ Even some of 
 our most orthodox psychologists lend some encouragement 
 to this idea, at least, they go so far as to admit a double 
 consciousness. For example, James says that we " are 
 forced to admit that a part of consciousness may sever its 
 connections with other parts and yet continue to be." ^ But 
 let us return to Africa. 
 
 A peculiarity of the Tshi people is that they do not 
 limit the idea of double personality to human beings, but 
 belijeve that all living things have a soul and a kra. Even 
 a bush has two spirits and when it dies the soul goes to 
 Dead Land, for there are bushes in Dead Land, and 
 the kra enters a seedling and grows into another 
 bush. 
 
 The reader should now be able to see the point of 
 view and understand the fundamental basis of the Negro's 
 religion. He should be able to imagine a world fairly 
 swarming with spirits — spirits of dead men in the form of 
 souls, — spirits of living men in the form of kras, — spirits of 
 animals, trees, bushes, rocks, mountains, thunder and light- 
 ning and so forth, and the number of spirits everywhere 
 exceeding the number of human beings. Nearly all of the 
 spirits are malicious and continually meddling in all of the 
 affairs of the people, so that it takes about all of a man's 
 time and cunning to conjure them. Among civilized peo- 
 ple the idea prevails that the mind of the African is idle and 
 empty, but on the contrary it is in a perpetual ferment and 
 never lacking in excitement, except during sleep, and even 
 then it is often most busy. The spirits that inhabit the air, 
 
 " Vol. I, p. 35. 2 " The Psychology of Suggestion," New York, 1898. 
 
 ^" Principles of Psychology," Vol. i, p. 213. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 265 
 
 forests and waters of the Dark Continent play a real drama 
 in the life of its people, and the whole fantastic spectacle is 
 as if some Oberon from fairy-land had streaked their sleep- 
 ing eyes with the juice of a magic flower. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE {Continued) 
 
 Spirits Take Part in Economic Activities. — With the 
 general considerations contained in the previous chapter, 
 the reader may now more clearly comprehend the vast influ- 
 ence which the religion of this zone exercises upon the 
 economic, political and social life of the people. Except 
 where the natives have been influenced by the missionaries 
 it does not appear that the religious notions of the people 
 have undergone any substantial change since the time of 
 the first European explorers. In the first place, it is believed 
 that spirits cause success or failure in all economic activities. 
 In order to catch fish it is necessary that the spirits of the 
 water be propitiated and won over by some kind of offering 
 or pleasant speech. In many huts along the rivers little 
 carved images of fish, in which some fish god dwells, are 
 hung up or suspended to lines, and daily worshiped.^ 
 The king of the Brass River people, always before eating, 
 was wont to offer a bit of his food and a drop of rum to the 
 spirits of the water.^ All spirits, of course, get hungry and 
 thirsty and must be fed. Even amulets and charms partake 
 of food and drink.^ Success in hunting depends upon the 
 strength and cunning of the spirits that dwell in the bows 
 and arrows, in throw-sticks and so forth. If any weapon 
 wears out, or misses its aim, it is because its spirit has gone 
 away, or perhaps has been enticed away by some other 
 spirit.* Even pots and utensils have spirits in them, and if 
 
 • Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. 201. » Lander, Vol. 2, p. 242. 
 'Ellis, "Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 91. 
 
 * Kingsley, " Travels in West Africa," p. 1 10. 
 
 266 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 267 
 
 one breaks it is on account of the departure of the spirit that 
 held it together.' A certain spirit animates the fire that cooks 
 the food, and therefore, it must be treated with respect, 
 or it may get in a bad humor and do something terrible. 
 Without the help of spirits the crops will not grow nor the 
 fruits ripen. Usually the crop-protecting spirits are carried 
 about in the form of amulets, which, of course, no good 
 farmer would think of doing without. Spirits also engage 
 in the occupation of gold mining. They are good enough 
 to bring the gold from the bowels of the earth up to a place 
 just below the surface where it may be dug out by man. 
 The labor of bringing up this heavy metal, as one may 
 easily imagine, is very fatiguing and the spirits sometimes 
 call for assistance from the upper world. The needed help 
 is always obtained by causing the mine to cave in on the 
 men who dig the gold. Knowing that the spirits employ 
 this method of obtaining workers, the people never attempt 
 to rescue miners if the earth swallows them up.^ Not in- 
 frequently spirits or deities act as regulators of commerce. 
 For example, at Whydah, there used to be two local deities 
 whose business it was to regulate the number of European 
 trading ships that should cast anchor at that port' The 
 management of transportation is no less an affair in which 
 the spirits take a lively interest, and no citizen would think 
 of making a journey overland without their protection. In 
 the interest of the public safety, the Dahomans at one time 
 established depots, all along the public roads, where the in- 
 visible traffic managers had their offices, ^^'henever trav- 
 elers arrived at one of these stations, an officer, or repre- 
 sentative of the deities, came out to pronounce a blessing 
 upon them and to beg for them a safe journey.^ Trans- 
 portation by water is also under the supervision of the 
 
 ' Kingsley, " Travels in West Africa," p. no. 
 
 « Ellis, '< Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 69. 
 
 ' EUlis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 90. « Freeman, p. 265. 
 
268 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 spirits, and any neglect on part of a citizen to assure him- 
 self of their protection would be on par with the neglect of 
 a European captain to insure his cargo against the hazards 
 of the sea. Along the Niger River there are numerous 
 spirits that will undertake for a small consideration to guar- 
 antee a safe passage.* Miss Kingsley says that canoemen 
 may often be seen bending over a river and having a con- 
 versation with its spirit.^ When going down the Niger, 
 Lander noticed that the native boatmen were continually 
 bawling through trumpets to the river fetich, and that the 
 echo to the call was interpreted as the spirit's reply.^ The 
 canoeman sometimes threw into the water, as a tip to the 
 fetich, a half glass of rum or a piece of yam.* 
 
 Spirits Meddle in Love and Family Affairs. — Spirits of 
 various kinds busy themselves in the love affairs of the peo- 
 ple, exciting the amorous impulses of the women, determin- 
 ing their fertility, and so forth. The Ewe people have a 
 sex god, Legba, who makes a specialty of love projects, and 
 whose inspirations everybody must obey. We are told that 
 his temples are places of unlimited licentiousness.' Sterility 
 is generally considered a curse inflicted by some one or 
 other provoked spirit, and to ward off the curse, the spirit 
 must be propitiated or somehow outdone. The Agni peo- 
 ple have learned to coax away the sex spirit or in some way 
 prevent it from causing sterility by wearing wooden dolls 
 on their backs.* In many communities, as soon as a child 
 is born, the witch doctor binds around its limbs certain spirit- 
 inspired preparations, using at the same time a kind of in- 
 cantation or prayer to fortify the child against all the ills 
 that the flesh is heir to.' In the Niger Delta people regard 
 twins as a curse and the mother of such is supposed to be 
 
 ' Lander, Vol. 2, p. 178. ' " Travels in West Africa," p. 1 10. 
 
 8 Vol. 2, p. 243. 4 /iicf,^ Vol. 2, p. 259. 
 
 » Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," pp. 41, 44. 6 Binger, Vol. 2, p. 230. 
 
 "< Kingsley, " West African Studies," p. 147. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 269 
 
 bewitched, or to have committed adultery with evil spirits.' 
 The twins are summarily disposed of.^ They " are taken 
 by the feet and head, and have their backs broken against 
 a native woman's knee, in the same manner as one would 
 break a stick. The bodies are then placed in an earthen- 
 ware receptacle and taken to the bush where they are de- 
 voured by the flies, insects or animals. . . . The mother 
 becomes an outcast. If she does not take her owp life she 
 has to flee to the bush." ' In some cases the mother of the 
 twins is put to death,* and in others she is required to pass 
 a long period of purification in a rude hut where no one 
 dare sit or talk with her.' If infants, in the Niger region, 
 cut their upper before their lower teeth it is a sign that they 
 are bewitched,* and consequently they are at once killed. 
 On account of the belief that deceased persons or their 
 spirits, continue to live in another world, infants are fre- 
 quently interred alive with their deceased mothers. When- 
 ever the father of a family dies, it is deemed the proper 
 thing to kill a few of his wives so that he may have agreea- 
 ble companions in the other world.' Thanks to missionary 
 efforts such customs in many districts are now abolished. 
 In former times, in case of the demise of a king, the slaugh- 
 ter of his wives was sometimes carried on to the extent of 
 several hundred ; and strange to say, instead of objecting 
 to such treatment, the wives were often anxious to be 
 immolated,' and sometimes took their own lives. For 
 instance, in 1789, when the Dahoman king, Adanza the 
 Second, died, as many as 595 of his palace women destroyed 
 themselves in their eagerness to follow him into the new 
 kingdom to which he had gone to take possession. These 
 
 ' Kingsley, " West African Studies," p. 125. 'Ogilby, p. 473. 
 
 ^Missionary Review of the World, Vol. 12, n. s., p. 557. 
 
 * Kingsley, " Travels in West Africa," p. 324. 
 
 ' Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. 243. • Ibid. 
 
 ■" Kingsley, " Travels in West Africa," p. 340. 
 
 ' Allen and Thomson, Vol. I, p. 329. 
 
270 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 facts seem to indicate that the affection of wives for their 
 husbands is usually very strong, while that of husbands for 
 their wives is very weak, since there is no instance of a 
 husband's immolating himself upon the grave of his wife. 
 The belief that the spirits of deceased people linger about 
 their former places of abode, causing sickness and becom- 
 ing a general nuisance, implies that the general feeling to- 
 wards the dead is that of terror rather than of veneration ; 
 and therefore it would hardly be expected that ancestor 
 worship would arise among a people whose deceased 
 spirits were dreaded disseminators of disease. The nearest 
 approximation to ancestor worship has been found in 
 Ashanti and Dahomi where the bones and other memorials 
 of the kings used to be, and perhaps are still, preserved in 
 mausoleums.' 
 
 Spirit Activities in Political Affairs. — The whole political 
 life of the people of this zone has been and is still to a con- 
 siderable extent dominated by supernatural beings. It used 
 to be said that every act of the king of Ashanti was in some 
 way or other connected with fetichism.^ In some cities 
 the politically talented spirits assume the function of police- 
 man, and have inaugurated a system of protecting property, 
 which, for uniqueness, efficiency and economy, is ahead of 
 anything that Paris, London or other great city has yet 
 devised. The principal feature of the system is that each 
 piece of property is provided with a kind of spirit-inspired 
 charm, which inflicts violent punishment upon thieves with- 
 out any trial or other troublesome and expensive process. 
 For example, suppose that a Negro merchant has some palm- 
 oil, bananas or other articles that he wishes to sell. He places 
 them anywhere along the highways, under the protection 
 of a charm, with a few cowries to indicate the price. He 
 then goes on about his other business with perfect peace of 
 mind ; and if any thief should dare interfere with the goods, 
 
 > Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," pp. 25, 1 1 1. 2 Brackenbury, p. 334. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 271 
 
 a kra, sisa, suhman or other varmint would leap out of the 
 amulet, begin to gnaw upon his vitals and probably cause 
 his death/ 
 
 Spirits Take Part in Judicial Proceedings. — In judicial pro- 
 ceedings the spirits or deities often serve as witnesses, judge 
 and jury. For example. Lander relates that when King 
 Boy, ruler of a certain Niger district, had a case in court, he 
 would run through the town, stripped naked and hideously 
 masked, crying Dju Dju and invoking the assistance of a 
 certain deity in the examination of the accused.^ The deity 
 called upon usually concealed himself in some kind of 
 poison which the accused was obliged to drink, and which 
 acted fatally if the accused were guilty and harmlessly if he 
 were innocent. Trials of this kind seem to be as common 
 now as ever. Some of these judicial spirits reside in rivers 
 and lakes and accused people must be brought there for 
 trial. For example, the Togbo people of Ashanti throw 
 the accused person into a river, and if he is guilty the river 
 spirit will pull him under and drown him, but if innocent, it 
 will cast him ashore.* At times the deities take matters in 
 their own hands and condemn and punish people even be- 
 fore they have been accused. For example, the lightning 
 god of the Ewe people occasionally discovers that a certain 
 individual has slighted him or done some kind of wrong, 
 and accordingly punishes him by setting fire to his house. 
 The mere fact that the house is struck '\% prima facie evidence 
 that the owner is guilty of some crime. Acting upon this 
 presumption, the priests and a mob of people gather at the 
 house of the unfortunate victim and steal and demolish 
 everything not already destroyed, and in addition to this, 
 impose a fine upon him for offending the deity. If the fine 
 is not paid, the owner of the house and his family are im- 
 prisoned or sold into slavery. Ellis says, " It is not at all 
 
 • Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 92. ' Lander, Vol. 2, p. 276. 
 
 ' Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 85. 
 
272 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 uncommon for a whole household to be enslaved in con- 
 sequence of such an accident." ^ In 1863 the natives of a 
 certain village were so enraged at a Catholic missionary 
 who extinguished the flames of his own house that had been 
 struck by lightning, that they required him to pay a fine to 
 the priests as an offering to pacify the god.^ When an 
 individual has suffered any kind of wrong at the hand of his 
 neighbor, instead of avenging it himself or appealing to 
 the courts, he frequently negotiates with some local deity or 
 spirit, who undertakes to punish the offender by taking his 
 life or inflicting some other suitable punishment.* 
 
 In Diplomatic Affairs In the diplomatic affairs of 
 
 Dahomi the spirits, especially of dead men, often played a 
 very important r61e. For instance, it was often necessary 
 to communicate important secrets to the rulers in the other 
 world, which was accomplished by means of messengers, 
 who, being selected by the king and fully instructed as to 
 their mission and beheaded, proceeded then directly to Dead 
 Land to deliver the message to the proper ancestor. About 
 500 messengers were thus annually slain to keep up this 
 diplomatic correspondence.* Each messenger was provided 
 with a piastre and a bottle of rum for the expenses of the 
 journey.' Sometimes the Ashantis attempted to avert war 
 or repel an invasion by a simple act of diplomacy on part 
 of one of their ingenious deities. For example, on one oc- 
 casion when an invasion of the Slave Coast was threatened 
 by the European troops, the natives prevented it by merely 
 offering a sheep to one of their deities which saw to it that 
 no invasion took place.® 
 
 Spirits of the Dead Call for Food and Sacrifices. — When 
 the kings of Benin, Dahomi, or Ashanti died and went to Dead 
 Land, they changed their place of residence, but not at all 
 
 ■ " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 39. ' Ibid. 
 
 ' Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 75. 
 
 < Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peopl.es," p. 137. s Ibid. • Brackenbury, p. 336. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 273 
 
 their rank or mode of living, and it happened frequently 
 that they were in need of supplies from this world. In order 
 that they might not suffer, food was placed on their graves 
 or otherwise provided for them, and human beings were 
 sacrificed to become servants of the other world courts. 
 " When a king dies," says Ogilby, writing in 1670, " a 
 great Cave is digg'd in his Court, broad below, and narrow 
 above, and so deep, that the Diggers must be drown'd in 
 the water. 
 
 " In this Cave they put the Corps, and then all his 
 Favorites and Servants appear to accompany and serve him 
 in the other Life ; and when they are gone down to the 
 Corps in the Cave, they set a great stone over the Mouth, 
 the people that day and night standing round about it. 
 
 " The next day some go to the Cave and removing the 
 Stone, ask them within, What they do? and. If none be 
 gone to serve the king ? To which then perhaps nothing 
 else is answered but. No. 
 
 " The third day they ask the same Question, and then 
 sometimes receive answer. That such are the first, and 
 those and those are the second, whom they highly praise 
 and esteem happy. 
 
 " At length after four or five or more days, the Men 
 dead, and none left to give answer, they give account 
 thereof to the new establish'd King ; who presently makes 
 a great Fire over the Grave, whereat spending a great 
 quantity of Flesh to give away to the Common- People, so 
 solemnizeth his Inauguration. 
 
 " After the Cave stopp'd, many Men, as they pass along 
 the Streets, and some in their own Houses, are struck down 
 dead ; whose Heads cover'd with a Cloth none dare remove, 
 but so let it lie to be devour'd by Camifferous Foul ; which 
 are of these two sorts, one call'd Goere, and the other 
 Akalles." ' 
 
 •p. 476. 
 
274 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 The Ashantis built for their deceased monarchs a 
 Bantama (Mausoleum) where food was cooked daily for 
 their refreshment. In addition to the wives and slaves im- 
 molated on the occasion of a king's death, a fresh supply 
 was slaughtered at intervals during the year to replenish 
 the retinue. In Dahomi replenishing sacrifices of a similar 
 kind were called the king's customs, which have already 
 been described on another page. The slave trader Drake 
 witnessed one of these customs at which he said not less 
 than 500 boys and girls were sacrificed, some of whom were 
 horribly tortured before being executed. He said, " One poor 
 wretch had a knife passed through both cheeks and his two 
 ears cut off and dangling from the blade and handle. A 
 long spear was thrust under his shoulder-blades, through 
 the tendons, and he was led along by this, bleeding like a 
 bullock. . . . Then followed a young woman stark 
 naked with both breasts cut smoothly off, and her hips and 
 belly stuck full of arrows." There was no end to the horrid 
 ingenuity of torture exhibited.' Ellis says that the number 
 of sacrifices at one of the grand customs in i860 was six 
 hundred.^ In Ashanti prior to 1873 at least 3,000 were 
 annually sacrificed, and a case is on record where as many 
 as 3,000 were immolated upon one royal tomb.* 
 
 Spirits as Military Strategists. — In time of war, spirits of 
 varying degrees of importance responded cheerfully to the 
 call to arms, and by their wisdom and strategy, determined 
 the fate of opposing armies. The Dahomans had a war- 
 god, Bo, who, although versed in all branches of military 
 science would sometimes play into the hands of the enemy 
 if not suitably bribed. This probably happened when the 
 French overcame the Dahomans in 1893. In order to keep 
 Bo true to the flag, the people used to set up images in his 
 honor and offer him many sacrifices.* Whenever it was 
 
 • Drake, p. 95. ' •< Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 318. 
 
 8 Brackenbury, p. 19. < Ellis, « Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 68. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 275 
 
 suspected that old Bo would not be equal to the demands of 
 a great battle about to be fought, the people would invoke 
 the aid of all of the king's ancestors. The ruling king and 
 his ministers and captains would crawl upon their all-fours 
 to the royal tombs, and there beg the departed spirits for 
 help.' In some quarters of this zone if the soldiers were in- 
 clined to be weak-kneed, they could have courage imparted 
 to them by eating the flesh of an alligator^ and if their 
 weapons were weak and unsteady, they could be strength- 
 ened by rubbing medicine into them.* A part of the neces- 
 sary equipment of every Dahoman soldier used to be the 
 tail of a horse, cow or goat which, when flourished during a 
 battle, caused bullets to turn aside and miss their mark.* But 
 the Ashantis more than the Dahomans were accustomed to en- 
 list a large fighting force from among the deities and spirits. 
 Before going to battle they sacrificed to all of their tribal 
 gods in order to make sure of their cooperation ; for it was 
 believed that in every battle, the gods of the contending 
 nations were fighting at the same time that the opposing 
 armies fought, and that the conflict of the gods really de- 
 cided the outcome of the battle.' Of course all of the gods 
 and their lieutenants and colonels, in case of victory, de- 
 manded payment in sacrifices for their services, and in case 
 of the god Bo, the demand was sometimes a little extor- 
 tionate. For instance, in 1727 when the Dahomans con- 
 quered Whydah, the number of human sacrifices amounted 
 to four thousand. This, however, was not a total loss as 
 120 of the victims were eaten.' 
 
 In consequence of the political overthrow of Ashanti 
 and Dahomi, respectively in 1873 and 1893 the war gods of 
 
 ' Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 112. 'Duncan, Vol. I, p. 178. 
 
 ' Kingsley, " Travels in West Africa," p. no. 
 
 * Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 94. 
 ' Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 77. 
 
 * Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 121. 
 
276 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 these nations received a severe shock if not a fatal blow, but 
 the other gods, big and little, so far as can be ascertained, 
 suffered no serious inconvenience from the disintegration, 
 and they continue to operate in their several spheres with 
 undiminished vigor. 
 
 Spirits Cause Disease and Death. — Diseases and deaths, 
 as already stated, may be caused by the body-soul of a de- 
 ceased person (sisa) before it has taken its final departure 
 for Dead Land, or by that other spirit of man, the kra, or by 
 various agencies, varying according to locality. But of all of 
 the spirits the sisa is perhaps the most aggravating. Some- 
 times it wanders about and taking advantage of an open 
 mouth and the absence of a kra or dream-soul, enters into a 
 person and causes rheumatism, colic or other painful ail- 
 ment. The medical man has to be summoned at once to 
 get it out. "The methods employed to meet this," says 
 Miss Kingsley, " may be regarded as akin to those of anti- 
 septic surgery. All the people in the village, particularly 
 babies and old people — people whose souls are delicate — 
 must be kept awake during the operation, and have a piece 
 of cloth over the nose and mouth, and every one must howl 
 so as to scare the sisa off them if by chance it should escape 
 from the witch doctor. An efficient practitioner, I may re- 
 mark, thinks it a great disgrace to allow a sisa to escape 
 from him : and such an accident would be a grave blow to 
 his practice, for people would not care to call in a man who 
 was liable to have this occur. ... If the patient's 
 family are sufficiently well off, they agree to pay the doctor 
 enough to enable him to teach the sisa the way to Hades." ^ 
 Sometimes when unskilled or malicious practitioners handle 
 a case of this sort they permit the sisa to escape and it en- 
 ters perchance into some new-born babe causing it to die 
 perhaps of tetanic convulsions. " Soon another baby," says 
 Miss Kingsley, " is born in the same family — polygamy be- 
 
 » " Travels in West Africa," p. 173. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 277 
 
 ing prevalent, the event may occur after a short interval — 
 well, after giving the usual anxiety and expense, that baby 
 goes off in convulsions. Suspicion is aroused. Presently 
 yet another baby appears in the family, keeps all right for a 
 week may be, and then also goes off in convulsions. Sus- 
 picions are confirmed. The worm — ^the father, I mean — 
 turns, and he takes the body of that third baby and smashes 
 one of its leg bones before it is thrown into the bush ; for 
 he knows that he has got a wanderer-soul — namely, a sisa, 
 which some unprincipled practitioner has sent into his 
 family. He just breaks the leg so as to warn the soul he is 
 not a man to be trifled with, and will not have his family 
 kept in a state of perpetual uproar and expense. It some- 
 times happens, however, in spite of this, that when his 
 fourth baby arrives, that too goes off in convulsions. Thor- 
 oughly aroused now, paterfamilias sternly takes a chopper and 
 chops that infant's remains extremely small, and it is scattered 
 broadcast. Then he holds he has eliminated that sisa from 
 his family finally." ' At Badagry, it is supposed that witches 
 or spirits produce death by sucking the blood of people 
 while they sleep, especially of fat people.^ Some of the 
 Ewe tribes believe that deaths are caused by some ancestral 
 ghost that has come to seize one or more of his 
 descendants whose services are needed in Dead Land.* 
 A similar idea prevails among the Fantis, who regard 
 an outbreak of sickness in one of their towns as mean- 
 ing that a palaver is going on in Srahmandazi, and that 
 the inhabitants of that region are sending up for wit- 
 nesses.* 
 
 Deaths Caused by Bush Souls. — With all of these agencies 
 at work producing diseases and deaths, it is no wonder that 
 
 '"West African Studies," p. 174. 'Bowen, p. 97. 
 
 'Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. ill. 
 
 * Kingsley, " Travels in West Africa," p. 369 ; Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peo- 
 ples," p. 108. 
 
278 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 the medical men are put to their wits' end to make accurate 
 diagnoses in each case and to follow the proper treatment. 
 To appreciate the difficulties that the medical men have to 
 grapple with it is only necessary to recall that in the Niger 
 Delta every man has a soul which roams about in the forest 
 under various disguises, and that if it dies naturally or gets 
 killed, its owner immediately or soon thereafter dies also. 
 " This bush-soul," says Miss Kingsley, " is resident in some 
 wild animal in the forest. It may be only in an earth pig 
 or it may be in a leopard, and, quite providentially for the 
 medical profession, no layman can see his own soul — it is 
 not as if it were connected with all earth pigs, or all 
 leopards, as the case may be, but it is in one particular 
 earth pig or leopard or other animal — so recourse must be 
 had to medical aid when anything goes wrong with it. It 
 is usually in the temper that the bush-soul suffers. It is 
 liable to get a kind of aggrieved neglected feeling and want 
 things given it. When you wander about the wild gloomy 
 forests of the Calabar region, you will now and again come 
 across, far from all human habitation or plantation, tiny 
 huts, under whose shelter lies some offering or its remains. 
 Those are offerings administered by direction of a witch 
 doctor to appease a bush-soul. For not only can a witch 
 doctor see what particular animal a man's bush-soul is in, 
 but he can also see whereabouts in the forest the animal is. 
 Still these bush-souls are not easily appeased. The worst 
 of it is that a man may be himself a quiet steady man, care- 
 ful of his diet and devoted to a whole skin, and yet his 
 bush-soul be a reckless blade, scorning danger and thereby 
 getting itself shot by some hunter or killed in a trap or pit ; 
 and if his bush-soul dies, the man it is connected with dies. 
 . . . On the other hand, if a man belonging to a bush- 
 soul dies, the bush-soul animal has to die too. It rushes 
 to and fro in the forest and ' can no longer find a good 
 place.' If it sees a fire, it rushes into that : if it sees a 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 279 
 
 lot of hunters, it rushes among them — anyhow, it gets itself 
 killed off." ' 
 
 Scope and Methods of the Witch Doctor.— Realizing from 
 the above stated facts the peculiarly complicated nature of 
 diseases in this part of the world, and the numerous vaga- 
 bond spirits that injure crops, upset canoes, make way with 
 goats, chickens, and so on, it ought to be of interest, not 
 only to the general reader, but to the medical specialists 
 and practitioners of civilized lands, to know more accurately 
 than has hitherto been revealed, the general scope and 
 methods of the doctors of this region in safeguarding the 
 public health and other things pertaining to the general 
 welfare. It is pretty evident to an unbiased mind that our 
 microbe or bacteriological theory of disease is merely a thinly 
 disguised imitation of the African spirit theory, and it is also 
 perfectly apparent that the effort of modern criminologists, 
 such as Lombroso, Ferri, etc., to explain crime upon the 
 theory of craniological abnormalities, " sexual psychopathy," 
 " paranoea," " psychical aberrations," " brain storms," and 
 so forth and so on, is only an imitation in vague phraseology 
 of the clear and comprehensive African theory that criminals 
 are possessed of evil spirits. Moreover, while modern 
 science is just now recognizing the connection between 
 physical and moral abnormalities, the Africans have always 
 recognized this fact and have explained all abnormalities 
 upon the same general principle. Well, according to Miss 
 Kingsley, the methods of the native witch doctor are first 
 prophylactic, that is, " making charms to protect your 
 patient's wives, children, goats, plantations, canoes, etc., 
 from damage, houses from fire, etc., and to protect the 
 patient himself from wild animals and all dangers by land 
 or water. This is a very paying part, but full of anxiety. 
 . . . The other part of your practice — the clinical — con- 
 sists in combating those witches who are always up to 
 
 1 " West African Studies," p. 177. 
 
28o THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 something — sucking the blood of young children, putting 
 fearful wild fowl into people to eat up their most valued 
 viscera or stealing souls o' nights, blighting crops, and so 
 forth." ^ Among other things the doctor extracts intruding 
 kras, or insisa or prevents the body-soul from escaping 
 through the mouth to Dead Land. To do this requires 
 much incantation and knowledge of medical and other kinds 
 j of jurisprudence. "When a person is insensible, violent means 
 I are taken to recall the spirit to the body. Pepper is forced up 
 ; the patient's nose, and into his eyes, and he is at the same 
 ! time required to inhale the smoke of some noxious substance. 
 His mouth is propped wide open with a stick while crowds 
 of friends and relations yell the name of the dying man to 
 come back." ^ Among the Agni people the medicine man 
 places a wooden statuette in the centre of the patient's hut, 
 and after executing a magic dance, extracts a splinter, bone 
 or other thing that some designing spirit has inserted in the 
 patient's body. The method prescribed by medical science 
 in the Calabar region for ridding the people of obnoxious 
 spirits is quite remarkable for its novelty and effectiveness. 
 The people are required to provide a sufficient number of 
 images for all of the bad spirits to reside in, supplying at 
 the same time, plenty of food and drink for them, so that 
 they may have no excuse for coming out of their homes, 
 roaming about and causing trouble. If, however, they re- 
 fuse to abide in the images and persist in hanging about 
 the villages, the people become so exasperated that they 
 rise up with one accord and drive them by force back into 
 their images, and while thus entrapped, carry them out to 
 sea and drown them.* 
 
 Having now described the general principles and man- 
 ner of treatment employed by the African practitioners, it is 
 proper in the next place to say something of the fees which 
 
 I " West African Studies," pp. 182, 183. 
 
 » Kingsley, " Travels in West Africa," p. 323. ' Ibid., p. 348. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 281 
 
 they receive for their services. Being generally very mod- 
 est, they do not take all of the credit to themselves, as 
 doctors elsewhere do, for their wonderful works. They 
 frankly admit that they are aided by certain powerful spirits 
 that reveal valuable secrets. In many cases the practitioners 
 make no charge at all for their own services, requiring only 
 that the patient pay a fee to the cooperating spirit. For 
 example, in the Cape Coast district, a certain doctor, in case 
 of sickness, orders his patients to bury in the ground a few 
 bottles of rum as a suitable recognition of the services of the 
 spirit that has been brought into consultation.' 
 
 Medical Schools.— Although the lay reader may be 
 fatigued already with this discussion, a few additional re- 
 marks must be made for the benefit of the medical pro- 
 fession, in reference to the African medical schools and the 
 general preparations necessary to equip a man properly for 
 general practice. In the Calabar region, for example, the 
 doctor is educated in the following manner : " Every free- 
 man has to pass through the secret society of his tribe," 
 says Miss Kingsley. " If during this education the elders 
 of the society discover that a boy is what is called in 
 Calabar an Ebumtup — that is, a person who can see spirits 
 — the elders of the society advise that he should be brought 
 up to the medical profession. Their advice is generally 
 taken and the boy is apprenticed, as it were, to a witch 
 doctor who requires a good fee with him. This done, he 
 proceeds with his studies, learns the difference between the 
 dream-soul basket and the one insisa are kept in — a mistake 
 between the two would be on par with mistaking oxalic 
 acid for Epsom salts. He is then taught how to howl in a 
 professional way, and, by watching his professor, picks up 
 his bedside manner. If he can acquire a showy way of 
 having imitation epileptic fits, so much the better. In fact, 
 as a medical student, you have to learn — well, as much there 
 
 1 Duncan, Vol. i, p. 52. 
 
282 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 as here. You must know the dispositibns, the financial po- 
 sition, little scandals, etc., of the inhabitants of the whole 
 district, for these things are of undoubted use in divination 
 and in the finding of witches, and in addition, you must be 
 able skilfully to dispense charms and know what babies say 
 before their own mothers can. Then some day your pro- 
 fessor and instructor dies, his own professional power eats 
 him, or he tackles a disease-causing spirit that is one too 
 many for him, and on you descend his paraphernalia and 
 his practice." ^ 
 
 As absurd as these practices of the witch doctor may 
 seem, it is nevertheless a fact that many of these doctors 
 possess an intelligent knowledge of the pathology of dis- 
 eases, and use a variety of efficacious remedies, of which some 
 are taken by white residents for fever,^ while others have come 
 into general use throughout the civilized world. To be sure, 
 the African doctors often grope in the dark, but they are 
 guided by the same motive as the real man of science and 
 apply to their cases the same methods of investigation that 
 were common at one time to every science. Medical 
 science, as every other science, arises from a passion or 
 curiosity born in mankind for whatever is strange, extra- 
 ordinary or mysterious ; and it is through this love for pry- 
 ing into obscure things that men invent theories, make ex- 
 periments, watch results, and occasionally stumble upon 
 some valuable truth. Let us not therefore be too severe 
 upon the witch doctor, nor forget that only a few years ago 
 civilized practitioners were bleeding people to death by the 
 wholesale, and that they are yet killing thousands of people 
 by all manner of quack medicines. And let us not forget 
 that it was only yesterday that civilized people abandoned 
 the idea that spirits and demons wandered about causing 
 diseases, madness, crime and injury to property. The 
 Romans believed in such spirits, as we know from the Laws 
 
 '" Travels in West Africa," p. 182. 'Staudinger, p. 7. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 283 
 
 of the Twelve Tables, which provided that no one should by 
 incantation conjure away another man's grain crop.' The 
 belief in witchcraft, demons, devils, etc., was rife throughout 
 the Middle Ages, when spirits stalked in all of the high- 
 ways. The same belief prevailed in the fifteenth century, 
 when many people upon the charge of witchcraft were hor- 
 ribly tortured and put to death. Victor Hugo gives a vivid 
 description of the witchcraft superstitions of that century in 
 his Notre Dame. In England in 1603 the Established 
 Church forbade the clergy to cast out devils without a 
 license from the bishop ; and the notion that people were 
 possessed with evil spirits survived far into the eighteenth 
 century. In America the witchcraft superstition prevailed 
 during the whole colonial period, of which the burning of 
 witches in Boston in 1691-2, is only one of many proofs. 
 
 The \A^ork of the Witch Doctor Does not End With the 
 Death of His Patient.— But it is to be observed that the prac- 
 tice of the African doctor does not end when the patient dies 
 or recovers. A man who has an enemy sometimes bribes a 
 god or connives with one to afflict that enemy with a 
 venomous demon, and in the case of any sickness, the ques- 
 tion often arises. Who has caused the demon to enter into 
 the patient ? and the answering of this question often causes 
 more deaths than actual diseases. The witch doctors are 
 rarely at a loss to indicate some one whom they declare the 
 gods have pointed out as the guilty person ; and thus one 
 death leads to another with the result that in many districts 
 of this zone the death rate exceeds the birth rate. This de- 
 tective function of the witch doctor gives him an opportunity 
 to " gratify his private malice with perfect safety." ^ 
 
 Belief in Signs, Omens, Etc.— The inhabitants of this zone 
 are governed largely by signs, omens and practices indicat- 
 ing good or bad luck. Por example, at Whydah the people 
 
 1 " Encyclopsedia Britannica," Vol. 24, p. 619. 
 • Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 145. 
 
284 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 will not sleep with their heads towards the sea, and will not 
 enter a hut as a dwelling on Thursday or Friday/ In 
 Dahomi it used to be considered bad luck for dancers to fall 
 in the presence of the king and those who so offended were 
 put to death.^ The Ashantis never undertake anything un- 
 less the signs are propitious. They have certain days of 
 celebration, called Adai Days, some of which are lucky and 
 others unlucky, and on the unlucky days no one dare ven- 
 ture out of doors for fear of some calamity.^ The cry of an 
 owl near a house means the death of some one of its in- 
 mates. Sneezing indicates that something is going wrong 
 with a man's kra.^ A piece of bent iron over a door means 
 good luck.' It is considered bad luck to eat an animal or 
 a plant that represents the tribal totem.^ 
 
 Charms have been discussed already in connection with 
 the activities of the numerous spirits, and it is not worth 
 while to enter into further explanation of their powers, ex- 
 cept to mention that thieves among the Ewe people have 
 invented a kind of charm that renders them invisible while 
 they are performing their nefarious work.' In reference to 
 signs and omens it would be well to bring to mind in pass- 
 ing that such superstitions are not altogether absurd or lack- 
 ing in utility. They are the survivals of the primitive 
 man's effort to reason and to ascertain the nature and cause 
 of things. In all investigations, even by the most scientific 
 methods, man begins by considering some fact or effect or 
 object to be attained, and imagining some fact or effect to 
 explain it or bring it about. His mind naturally attributes 
 the cause to whatever resembles or is in close proximity to 
 the fact or object investigated. It is only by thus observing 
 resemblances and dissimilarities that reasoning is possible 
 and truth arrived at. For example, the inquiry into the 
 
 ' Duncan, Vol. i, p. 193. » Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 95. 
 
 ' Brackenbury, p. 338. * Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 203. 
 
 » Bowen, p. 298. » Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 100. ' /iul., p. 93. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 285 
 
 cause of death begins by calling in the witch doctor who 
 discovers that at the time of the death an owl was hooting 
 in the tree-top near by. Naturally he attributes the death to 
 the owl. In the case of another death, the doctor may con- 
 clude that it was caused, not by an owl, but by a kra or sisa, 
 which some one, perhaps the dying man, had seen in a 
 dream or delirium. This theory is held until it is contra- 
 dicted by some later observation, which gives rise to still 
 another theory. Thus by tracing closer and closer the 
 proximity, or space and time resemblance, of the cause to 
 the effect, the mind of man jumps from one theory to an- 
 other, until finally, after many centuries of blundering, some 
 one comes forward with the microbe theory which is sup- 
 posed to be the final solution of the cause, at least of a cer- 
 tain class, of diseases. Nevertheless, the owl theory sur- 
 vives in the form of a notion of bad luck. In the same way 
 all signs and ill-omens are probably only survivals of the 
 original theories which have been successively deposed as 
 human knowledge has progressed. Professor Jastrow has an 
 interesting chapter in his " Fact and Fable in Psychology," 
 showing how these superstitions have been real stepping 
 stones to progress. The chief difference between a sound 
 reasoner and one who jumps to absurd conclusions is that 
 one traces proximate causes and effects and makes a con- 
 nected chain of thought, while the other grasps things so re- 
 mote from each other that they have no real connection. 
 
 S 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE {Continued) 
 
 Origin of Gods and Priests.— Having shown how the 
 spirits and deities of this zone are concerned in all of the 
 phenomena of life, it is next in order to show how, in the 
 course of time, out of the innumerable spirits that dwell in 
 the sky, forests, rivers, animals and men, there arise definite 
 gods, each having its idols ; and to show also how the witch 
 doctor becomes a priest. Naturally the spirits that do the 
 most mischief come in for the largest share of attention and 
 their deeds soon gain for them a wide renown, if the char- 
 acter of the country and distribution of population admit of 
 free intercornmunication of ideas. Then the witch doctors 
 who heretofore have been doing a general practice repre- 
 senting all of the deities and spirits, begin to specialize and 
 limit their practice to some one of the spirits that have be- 
 come celebrated. Such witch doctors are transformed into 
 priests and the spirits into gods. The priests build huts or 
 temples where the gods may find shelter, food and drink and be 
 consulted. The difference between the gods and the ordinary 
 kras, insisa, dream-souls, bush-souls, etc., is that the former 
 reside simultaneously in a variety of localities and deal 
 simultaneously with a large class of phenomena, while the 
 latter reside in one particular place or object and have to do 
 only with one particular phenomenon at a time. A god deals 
 simultaneously with many people ; a fetich spirit deals with 
 one man at a time. 
 
 Different Kinds of Gods.— Among the Tshi people, ac- 
 cording to Ellis, there are four kinds of gods. First, those 
 worshiped by an entire tribe or by several tribes ; second, 
 
 286 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 287 
 
 those worshiped by the inhabitants of certain towns, local- 
 ities or districts, comprising the spirits of the rivers, hills 
 and sea. The general name for this second class of gods is 
 Boshun. " The common sacrifice," says Ellis, " to the tu- 
 telary deity of a town, when the inhabitants are threatened 
 by some great danger, is a newly-born infant, a few hours 
 old at most, who is torn limb from limb on the spot where 
 the Boshun is kept, and the members strewn around." The 
 innocence of the child of any offense to the deity is supposed 
 to render it especially acceptable to him.' Third, those 
 deities worshiped by special families or town companies, 
 and who give protection in return for worship and sacrifices.* 
 " The tutelary deity of a family," says Ellis, " protects the 
 members of it from sickness and misfortune, and sacrifices 
 are also made to it to remove sterility." In case of sickness 
 the priest comes and prescribes the treatment which he pre- 
 tends the gods have revealed to him. Death is supposed to 
 be due to the anger of the household god who has been 
 offended. A special day on which no labor is done is set 
 apart for sacrifices in honor of this deity.' Household 
 deities are wide-spread in this zone.* Fourth, those spirits 
 worshiped by one individual. They are tutelary and the 
 general name of them is suhman, plural esuhman." This 
 latter group, according to the view of the writer, should not 
 be considered as gods, but merely as fetiches or spirits, such 
 as kras, insisa, etc. 
 
 General or Nature Gods. — The chief god of the south- 
 em Tshi tribes is Bobowissi who looks after the general wel- 
 fare of that part of the world. The northern and more sav- 
 age tribes have as their chief god Tando, who carries a 
 sword and is very malignant. Sometimes " human beings 
 are sacrificed to him, the ordinary number on each occasion 
 being fourteen, — seven men and seven women." He has a 
 
 • " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 172. » Ibid., p. 18. • Ihid., p. 93. 
 
 * Fe«therman, p. 139. » "Tshi, Speaking Peoples," pp. 18, 19. 
 
288 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 wife who is also very malignant, and " women are sacrificed 
 to her whenever her assistance is invoked." ^ A sort of 
 omnipresent deity of the Tshis is Sasabonsum who divides 
 himself into fractions and appears in several different r61es 
 and in several different places at the same time, but under 
 all circumstances he is the emissary of evil. He is the spe- 
 cial confederate of witches and wizards, and is the most 
 cruel and malignant of all the gods. He takes special de- 
 light in destroying any one who may offend him, and the 
 sight of his red body and long hair is enough to frighten 
 people out of their wits. Whenever he gets hungry, which 
 is not seldom, he seizes and devours any one who may be 
 passing along the highways. One of these Sasabonsums 
 lives in a tall bombax-tree, and nothing pleases him better 
 than to throw this tree down on any innocent person that 
 may chance to pass within its reach. Ellis remarks in refer- 
 ence to this matter, that a dead bombax-tree does in fact 
 often fall and kill people as a result of having become rotten 
 from a stroke of lightning. Well, another one of these 
 Sasabonsums lives in the earth, and, when he gets his back 
 up, causes the earth to tremble and throw down houses. 
 " In Ashanti and amongst the northern tribes several persons 
 are invariably put to death after an earthquake as a sacrifice 
 to Sasabonsum." ^ Another important deity is Srahmatin, 
 who is a sort of schoolmistress. She lives in and among 
 the silk cotton trees and when she wishes to secure pupils 
 she seizes them as they pass along the roads, and after 
 keeping them for several months and versing them in the 
 mysteries of her worship, graduates them as priests and 
 priestesses.* 
 
 Each local deity in the Ashanti region has a day set 
 apart for worship in his or her honor, when people abstain 
 from work and offer sacrifices of sheep, fowls and palm oil.* 
 
 1 Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," pp. 32, 33. s Ibid., p. 35. 
 
 8 Ibid., p. 36. 4 Ibid., p. 47. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 289 
 
 It is to be remembered that a layman can communicate 
 directly only with the tutelary deities called esuhman who 
 are all subordinates of Sasabonsum. Now these esuhman 
 enable the people who possess them to perform very won- 
 derful works. When any citizen desires the services of one 
 of these spirits, he first makes a charm, confected of red 
 clay, parrot's feathers and so forth, and then visits Sasa- 
 bonsum in the woods, who causes a suhman to take up its 
 residence in this charm. Thus impregnated the charm can 
 cause the death of any person that its owner may wish to 
 get rid of. The possessor of such a charm is naturally 
 much feared and respected by his neighbors, although he 
 may not be at all loved. A remarkable quality of a suhman- 
 charm is that it has unlimited power of propagating itself. 
 For instance, if its owner wishes to make any number of 
 other charms, the suhman will multiply itself, and impart its 
 power to them. Among other things a suhman can act as 
 night-watchman and keep off thieves.^ 
 
 Turning our eyes to Dahomi, the god of the first rank 
 is Mawu, a sky god, who is the impersonation of the firma- 
 ment.^ Perhaps next in dignity is Dso, who is the fire 
 deity. If he is not shown proper deference he will manifest 
 his displeasure by burning houses. The people are there- 
 fore careful to do him reverence and they never occupy a 
 new house without first making fire in it and offering sacri- 
 fices to his spirit. Formerly it was the custom to put to 
 death any citizen whose house had been destroyed by fire, 
 since the mere fact that the house was burned convinced the 
 people that its owner had given some offense to old Dso.* 
 At present the owner of the house that has been set fire to, 
 is let off if he pay all damages that the fire may have caused 
 to his neighbors. The lightning god Khebioso, like the fire- 
 god Dso, is very malignant, and spends much of his time 
 
 •Ellis, "Tshi Speaking Peoples," pp. loi, 102. 
 
 ' Ellis, •< Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 34. * IHd., p. 46. 
 
290 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 throwing down hot rocks upon the heads of innocent or 
 other kind of people, and setting fire to houses. It is neces- 
 sary to supply him with about 1,500 wives to keep him in a 
 pleasant frame of mind. When, however, he sometimes 
 loses his temper and sets fire to a house, no one will attempt 
 to extinguish the flames for fear of offending him. Next to 
 the fire gods, it would seem proper to mention the water 
 god, Wu, who is a sort of Neptune, presiding over the sea. 
 He has a very high temper and when he gets angry he 
 begins to deluge the country with water, upset canoes, drown 
 fishermen and make himself generally disagreeable. Some- 
 times the only way he can be quieted is to offer him a human 
 sacrifice.' The sun god Lissa is so far away that litde is 
 known of him except that he is married to Gleti, the moon 
 deity, and causes eclipses sometimes by following his wife 
 and beating her.^ 
 
 Animal Deities. — Occupying a very exalted place in the 
 Dahoman pantheon is Danh-gbi, the great god of wisdom 
 and earthly bliss. He exists in the form of a python, and 
 no one may kill one of his reptilian kin on penalty of 
 being burned alive. He is very fond of sheep and oxen, 
 and frequently demands them as sacrifices. One of his 
 strongest points is his power of infatuating women, many 
 of whom become his wives, and on the occasion of festivals 
 in his honor, give themselves over to unrestrained harlotry.^ 
 At Whydah special houses used to be built for the residence 
 of divine pythons, and whenever one of these creatures 
 made its escape it was picked up and carefully brought back 
 by some devotee. Any citizen who met it in the streets 
 was obliged to bow down and kiss the dust.* The king of 
 Dahomi used to inflict the death penalty if any one killed 
 a divine snake even accidentally." The Bassamese have 
 
 ' Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 64. ^Ibid., p. 66. » Ibid,, p. 60. 
 « Forbes, Vol. I, p. 109. > Duncan, Vol. i, pp. 195, 196, 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 291 
 
 divine crocodiles, lizards, etc' The Dahoman rainbow god 
 Anyi-Ewo exists in the form of a huge serpent that drinks 
 water with his tail on the ground and his head in the clouds.^ 
 
 In the Niger region there are countless gods of the 
 sky, wind, lightning, thunder, etc., similar to those already 
 mentioned, except that instead of being appealed to through 
 the instrumentality of priests, they are communicated with 
 through the more friendly representatives, such as iguanas 
 in Bonny, sharks in New Calabar, and elsewhere monkeys, 
 lizards and the like.^ The gods of this region, as elsewhere, 
 often require human sacrifices and in some localities the 
 favorite method of putting the victims to death is to drag 
 them over the ground/ 
 
 Sacrifices. — Very likely the reader has already asked 
 himself to what extent the sacrifices such as herein men- 
 tioned are still prevalent. The only answer that can be 
 made is that they prevail pretty generally except in the 
 neighborhood of missionary settlements or in districts policed 
 by European administrative officers. In this zone, on ac- 
 count of the many rivers, lagoons and swamps, and the 
 dense forests, there are innumerable tribes that live far be- 
 yond the reach of the missionary or the colonial magistrate. 
 
 Idols and Temples. — In this zone idols are so numerous 
 that they may be seen in every village ° and in the Niger 
 Delta, in every house.' Their general aspect is that of 
 horrible caricatures of men, beasts, snakes and so forth. 
 Some of them are life-size and some miniature.' Describing 
 an Ashanti idol, Stanley says that it is simply an armless 
 and legless figure, placed right by the side of some public 
 street and at its back is generally a medicine heap covered 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 139. 'Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 49. 
 
 'Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 331 ; Falconbridge, p. 51. •'Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 330. 
 
 » Ogilby, p. 477 ; Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," pp. 49, 68, 79 ; Duncan, Vol. i 
 pp. 80-124. 
 
 • Allen and Thompson, Vol. i, p. 242 ; Kingsley, " Travels in West Africa," 
 p. 348. ' Duncan, Vol. i, p. 124. 
 
292 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 over with a turtle's back or huge stone. " A white man edu- 
 cated at a university in all of the secrets of medicine and 
 surgery, is not gifted with one-half the powers commonly 
 ascribed and commonly believed to be possessed by this 
 miserable idol." ^ 
 
 The temple or dwelling place for the idol is sometimes 
 a mere shed in the woods, sometimes a commodious house 
 adorned with human skulls, or as in Bonny, a small room 
 connected with the dwelling house.^ 
 
 The Priests and their Practices. — Among the Tshi peo- 
 ple the priesthood is recruited from those who may vol- 
 unteer to enter it or who are dedicated to it by relatives. 
 Its doors are open to men, women and children, but, in fact 
 those who do enter are mostly the grandchildren of priests 
 and priestesses. A novitiate of two or three years of retired 
 life is necessary as a qualification for membership. Priests 
 have the privilege of marrying the same as other men, but 
 it is considered unlawful for priestesses to have human 
 husbands. Theoretically the priestesses are the wives of 
 the gods and therefore ought not, at the same time, to be 
 the wives of mortal men. However this restriction does not 
 at all prevent the priestesses from sexual indulgence but on 
 the contrary makes them public prostitutes.' The priests no 
 less than the witch doctors are supposed to work all kinds 
 of miracles. " They are applied to for information and as- 
 sistance in almost every concern of life — to detect the person 
 who has caused the death of another, to expose the thief, 
 the adulteress and the slanderer, to avert misfortune and 
 procure good luck. ... In their anxiety to secure the 
 services of the priesthood, persons frequently reduce them- 
 selves to absolute penury, and cases have been known in 
 which individuals have enslaved themselves in order that 
 
 'Stanley, "Coomassie," p. 55. 
 
 2 Duncan, Vol. i, p. 80 ; Wood, p. 601 ; Allen and Thomson, Vol. I, p. 244. 
 
 'Ellis, "Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 121. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 293 
 
 they might obtain a sufficient sum wherewith to purchase a 
 priest's aid." ' If priests fail to perform the wonders for 
 which they have been paid, they, as well as the witch doctors 
 in such cases, are sometimes put to death. For example, 
 during the British-Ashanti war of 1873-4, ^ priest was re- 
 quired to inform the public on what day a British gun-boat 
 lying at anchor would put out to sea. After the proper 
 conjuration, he announced that it would surely depart on the 
 next day. However, at sunrise next morning, instead of the 
 departure of the gun-boat, two others hove ominously upon 
 the horizon. The result was that the priest was beheaded.^ 
 A peculiarity worthy of note among the Tshi people is that 
 " there are no different grades of priests and no 
 priest or priestess has, as such, any authority over an- 
 other." ' 
 
 In Dahomi the youth of both sexes who go into the 
 priesthood are known as kosios and in preparation for their 
 office undergo training in regular seminaries. " In every 
 town," says Ellis, " there is at least one institution in which 
 the best-looking girls between ten and twelve years of age 
 are received." Here they remain three years as prostitutes 
 of the priests and inmates of male seminaries, after which 
 they become fully ordained priestesses, z. e., public prostitutes.* 
 After the female kosios have been fully initiated, they retire 
 from the seminary and live together in a group of houses 
 enclosed by a fence. The supply of inmates for this institu- 
 tion is kept up partly by abduction of young girls on feast 
 days." Now and then a married, or single or even slave 
 woman enters the priesthood by simulating possession. 
 This method of entrance offers to women a means of escape 
 from the ill-usage of their husbands, and, at the same time, a 
 means of unlimited gratification of their passions. The 
 
 » Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 124. « Ibid., p. 127. » Ibid., p. 123. 
 
 * Ellis, "Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 141. 
 
 • Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 267. 
 
294 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 priestesses, says Ellis, "are most licentious and have not the 
 slightest regard for public decency." ^ 
 
 The members of the priesthood are of course distin- 
 guished from the commonalty by special dress and privileges. 
 They usually wear articles of clothing forbidden to others, 
 and are exempt from penalties for crime. In former times 
 no priest was subject to capital punishment.^ 
 
 The priests and priestesses of Dahomi, in contrast to those 
 of Ashanti, cooperate and form hierarchic organizations with 
 fixed rules and practices. The priests constitute the 
 members of one organization and the priestesses of another, 
 and the rank occupied by a member of either organization 
 depends upon whether he or she represents a general, a 
 tribal or local deity. 
 
 Ideas of Another World. — The people of this zone believe 
 that everything in Dead Land is the same as in this world, 
 including mountains, rivers, trees, animals, men, family life 
 and form of government.' When the sun sets in this world 
 it rises in the other." They even believe that people carry 
 into the other world all of their physical imperfections.* But 
 strange to say the people seem to have no notion of immor- 
 tality. They argue in their minds that if people of this life 
 die, so, in the course of time, the people of Dead Land must 
 die also.* The belief that life in the other world is the same 
 as in this is easily accounted for, since, when a man dreams, 
 he sees frequently the images of dead men who appear in 
 dress, and in behavior just as in their previous life. He is 
 therefore not only convinced that people live after death, but 
 that they lead the same kind of existence as before.^ Most 
 of the people, however, prefer this world to the other one. 
 A Tshi proverb says, " One day in this world is worth a year 
 
 • Ellis, "Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 149. ^ Ibid., p. 147. 
 
 » Ibid., p. 18. " Kingsley, " Travels in West Africa," p. 340. 
 
 » Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 107. s Ibid., p. 108. 
 
 ' Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 158. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 295 
 
 in Srahmandazi." ' In the Niger Delta, as already men- 
 tioned, the dead do not tarry long in the other world, but 
 come back speedily in the form of new-born infants.^ The 
 people nowhere have any conception of eternal punishment,^ 
 except those who have been influenced by missionaries. The 
 general practice of placing food, drink and sundry articles 
 upon the graves of the dead is a survival of the belief 
 that the spirit of the dead lingers about the place of burial 
 and often gets hungry and thirsty, or in need of some other 
 of the ordinary requirements of life. 
 
 Among the Tshi people there are no gods worshiped 
 universally. This is because the density of the forest and 
 scattered condition of the people make it difficult for a god 
 of one locality to become known to other localities. Among 
 the Ewe people, on the contrary, the more open country and 
 better facilities for communication, permit the fame of im- 
 portant gods to extend over a wide area, thus giving rise to 
 a distinct polytheism.* 
 
 ' Kingslcy, " Travels in West Africa," p. 339. * Hid., p. 343. 
 
 •EUis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 127. *Idid.,f. 13. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 
 
 Spirit Beliefs. — This zone offers a great diversity of re- 
 ligious beliefs, including fetichism, polytheism and monothe- 
 ism. In general it may be said that along the lower borders 
 of the zone, the religion is mixed with the grossest supersti- 
 tions, and that towards the middle and northern districts, it 
 is blended with Mohammedanism and is somewhat more 
 rational. 
 
 To begin, the Yorubas believe that each man has three 
 spirits dwelling in him ; one in his head, one in his stomach 
 and one in his great toe. The head spirit presides over 
 thought, the stomach spirit causes hunger, and the toe spirit 
 helps him to walk and run. Before setting out on a journey 
 a man must not forget to anoint his toe.' The belief is uni- 
 versal that when a man dies one of his spirits can come back 
 and reside in another person or in an animal, tree, shrub or 
 rock.^ In the eyes of the Yorubas the whole universe is ani- 
 mated. The moon is an old hen and the stars are little 
 chickens following after her. The Milky Way is therefore 
 only a vast flock of chickens.* The mountains, rivers, clouds 
 and trees are all living beings of some kind or other. Even 
 artificial things are animated.* 
 
 Spirits in the Economic Life In the course of time some 
 
 of the most dreaded of these spirits soar to the dignity of 
 gods, and, as in the banana zone, both the gods and the 
 minor spirits take part in everything that concerns human 
 life. For example, the god Orisha Oko gives attention to 
 
 ' Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," pp. 126, 127. 
 
 » Ibid., p. 123. 3 Ibid., p. 83. I' Ibid., p. 284. 
 
 296 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 297 
 
 agriculture and causes a big yield of yams. He is honored 
 by an annual festival, which, in former times, was an occa- 
 sion when women gave themselves up to free sexual inter- 
 course, but that feature of the festival is now omitted, except 
 by slave girls and the lowest class of women.^ The Yoruba 
 god Ogun corresponds somewhat to the Roman god Vul- 
 can, and is the special friend of blacksmiths and teaches 
 them all the secrets of their trade.^ Other kinds of divinities 
 live in rivers and forests so that if a man hunts or fishes or 
 gathers wood or wild fruit, he must propitiate them or have 
 some charm to secure their good graces. The tree spirits 
 sometimes cause a good deal of trouble to any one in search 
 of fire-wood. They do not like to have their dwelling places 
 ruthlessly destroyed, and whenever an axman cuts down a 
 tree he must use some kind of strategy to entice away its 
 spirit. For instance, one device is to place a calabash of 
 palm oil on the ground near the tree to be cut, and as the 
 spirit comes down to lick up the oil, the axman begins his 
 cutting.' If the Yorubas wish to go hunting, they must call 
 upon Shango, who, when not busy hurling thunderbolts, 
 presides over the chase and insures a good supply of game ; 
 or if they wish to go fishing, they must first make terms 
 with Olokun, the chief sea god, who regulates the move- 
 ments of the fish.* In some districts there is no one god 
 powerful enough to transact all of the business pertaining to 
 agriculture, and in consequence of this fact, the crops suffer 
 very much from the machinations of numerous small spirits 
 that get in the millet, corn and cotton fields. Always just 
 before the planting time the farmers come together and 
 attempt to drive away these bad spirits by dressing in masks 
 and fantastic costumes and parading the streets with great 
 noise and flourishing of clubs." 
 
 In the Family Life. — The Yorubas have two gods who 
 
 ' Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," pp. 77, 78. » Ibid., p. 68. 
 
 *Ibid., p. 115. * Ibid., p. 72. 'Binger, Vol. i, p. 379. 
 
298 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 give all of their time to the regulation of sexual and family- 
 matters ; one is Ifa, the god of fecundity, who causes women 
 .to become pregnant ; and the other is Obatala, who causes 
 the child to grow.' If the latter deity takes a dislike to a 
 woman, he may cause the child to come into the world de- 
 formed. Ifa is the more popular of the two deities on ac- 
 count of the fact that he is the inspirer of human passion. 
 An important peculiarity to note is that he is not the per- 
 sonification of love and beauty as was Aphrodite among the 
 Greeks or Venus among the Romans, for the reason that 
 the Yorubas have not reached the point of regarding their 
 Ifa in a sentimental and romantic aspect, but only as a god 
 of sexuality. 
 
 In Political AfFairs. — The deities of this zone, as in the 
 banana zone, take a lively interest in statecraft and mili- 
 tary matters. In Yoruba, for instance, there is a god of 
 war, Ogun, who will undertake to insure successful cam- 
 paigns upon the consideration of the sacrifice of a slave. 
 The priest who ofificiates on the occasion of one of these 
 sacrifices usually takes the heart of the freshly killed slave, 
 seasons it with rum and sells it to any of the soldiers who 
 may wish to have extraordinary courage." Charms of 
 various kinds are used for strategic purposes, but they are 
 liable to be outwitted by some of the gods, and therefore are 
 not altogether reliable. For example, on one occasion at 
 Freetown, when some trouble arose between the natives and 
 the British, a Negro girl obtained from a witch doctor a 
 couple of bottles of magic water, which had the power of 
 dampening the powder of the English soldiers ; but owing, 
 without doubt, to the spiteful interference of some god, the 
 prescription did not work, and as she was dancing and 
 scattering the magic potion near the garrison, one of the 
 soldiers, seeing the performance, shot her in the arm and 
 she " ran screaming away." ^ 
 
 ' Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 56. ' Ibid., p. 69. ' Spilsbury, p. 38. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 299 
 
 The spirits of this zone also generally act as detectives, 
 policemen and night-watchmen. They have the power of 
 concealing themselves in a variety of fetich objects which 
 men set up along the streets to protect valuable property or 
 to guard entrances to houses.' The Yorubas have a kind of 
 goblin detective, who in reality is a man, but is supposed 
 to be supernatural, his business being to disguise himself in 
 a fanciful costume, appear among the villagers at night and 
 carry away troublesome neighbors.^ In judicial proceed- 
 ings, some spirit or deity often acts as judge, jury and exe- 
 cutioner, as in the banana zone. For instance, when a 
 person is required to drink poison, a certain god, Yemaja, 
 who presides over brooks and streams, is supposed to cause 
 the potion to have a fatal effect if the accused is guilty.* 
 
 Festivals, Feasts, etc. — Many festivals and feast days 
 naturally arise in connection with the religious beliefs of this 
 zone. For instance, the Yorubas celebrate the first day 
 of the week as Ifa day, in honor of this god of Divination 
 and Fecundity. Fowls and other things are offered up and 
 sometimes a human being.* This weekly rest day probably 
 originated from moon worship and was at first merely the 
 celebration of the new moon. Later, when the lunar month 
 was divided into weeks, the rest day came to be observed 
 on the first day of the week." Among the followers of Islam 
 the festivities and feast days are in accordance with the tra- 
 ditions of that religion. The Mohammedan Sabbath is a 
 great festival and people turn out to parade the streets, sing 
 and dance and thoroughly enjoy themselves." Without 
 going into details it is sufficient to state that among the 
 Yorubas, as among the ancient Greeks and Romans, each 
 god has his or her celebrations and dances. 
 
 'Lander, Vol. i, p. 204; Binger, Vol. 1, p. 203 ; Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking 
 Peoples," p. 115. ' Ellis, "Yornba Speaking Peoples," p. 108. 
 
 > Ibid., p. 44. * Ibid., p. 57- 
 
 ' Ibid., pp. 146, 147. • Lander, Vol. I, p. 319. 
 
300 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Spirits Cause Diseases and Deaths. — All deaths, except 
 those resulting from violence or accident, are attributed to 
 the work of wicked spirits. In Yoruba the people imagine 
 that the woods fairly swarm with hungry and thirsty spirits. 
 A certain one of them called Abiku frequently enters chil- 
 dren and eats up their blood. In order to drive it away, a 
 mother sometimes has to make incisions in the body of her 
 child and place therein some kind of spice or some green 
 pepper, the pain from which, being felt by the Abiku, causes it 
 to depart. In case of death, the corpse of the child is beaten 
 and mutilated so that the indwelling Abiku that has eaten 
 up the child's blood may be sufficiently punished.' When 
 adults die it is customary to hold a post mortem examina- 
 tion to ascertain what kind of spirit has caused the mischief. 
 It sometimes happens that wicked spirits conceal themselves 
 in some old man or woman, and through them afflict the 
 people with death and other calamities. Such people having 
 evil-spirits in them correspond to what civilized people have 
 generally designated as witches. Any person accused of be- 
 witching must submit to the poison ordeal, unless the evidence 
 of guilt is so plain that the people take the law into their own 
 hands and deal with the witch in a summary manner.^ 
 Among the Timni the punishment for witchcraft is either 
 death or the enslavement of the guilty person together with 
 all of his family.^ Lander found two old women imprisoned 
 on an island in the Niger who had been convicted of eating 
 the souls of five human beings. The Bongos attribute sick- 
 ness or death to the craftiness of old women, who connive 
 with evil spirits or witches. Old women are supposed to 
 wander about at night searching for magic roots and herbs 
 wherewith to torment their enemies. " Whenever any case 
 of sudden death occurs, the aged people are held responsi- 
 ble. . . . Woe to the old cronies, then, in whose house 
 
 •Ellis, "Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 114. 
 
 ^Ibid., p. 115. 8 Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 204. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 301 
 
 the suspected roots and herbs are found : though they be 
 father or mother, they have no chance of escape." In 
 view of this superstition it is not surprising to learn that 
 old women are scarce.' A deplorable thing about witch- 
 craft is that no individual can tell what moment a wandering 
 demon may enter him and make him a witch. Even an ac- 
 cused person cannot be absolutely certain of his innocence. 
 Cases are known where people have believed that they were 
 really possessed and in consequence have either died of 
 fright, or become insane.^ The inhabitants of this zone ex- 
 plain every kind of mental or physical derangement or ab- 
 normality as the work of demons. Epilepsy, insanity and 
 delirium are supposed to be the result of some kind of kra 
 or sisa that usurps the place of the normal spirit. Even 
 nightmares are the work of these demons, as for example 
 in Yoruba, where there is a widely known demon called 
 Shigidi, who goes about the country and amuses himself 
 by giving people spasms of fright.' 
 
 It is not altogether pleasant to have to admit that some 
 of the most important medical discoveries of modern times 
 were first made in Africa. For example, the discovery that 
 flies and mosquitoes are the purveyors of disease. While 
 this fact has been announced in Europe and America with 
 a flourish of trumpets as if it were something new, it has 
 been known for many centuries by the medical men of 
 Yoruba, who have demonstrated to their entire satisfaction 
 that smallpox is produced by Shankpanna, a most powerful 
 and malignant spirit, and that its agents and messengers are 
 flies and mosquitoes. In some other respects the medical 
 men of this zone are entirely up to date. For example, they 
 do not always resort to magic or rely upon spirits and deities, 
 but have a considerable knowledge of materia medica, and 
 treat diseases on purely scientific principles ; that is to say, 
 
 ' Schweinfurth, Vol. I, p. 307. ' Lander, Vol. 2, p. 24. 
 
 « Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 76. 
 
302 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 they examine the patient, locate the seat of the disease and 
 prescribe certain diet and medicines. Among many effica- 
 cious medicines of the Hausa practitioners, it may be men- 
 tioned, for example, that the flesh of a jack-ass is a sovereign 
 remedy for coughs and pains in the chest/ 
 
 Duties and Responsibilitie:: of the Witch Doctor and Rain 
 Doctor, — Perhaps in no part of the world are medical prac- 
 titioners required to have a wider range of information, or 
 to assume graver responsibilities. They must not only be 
 able to cure all kinds of diseases, make charms to protect 
 homes, and personal property from theft, but must regulate 
 the weather to suit the crops. The doctor who fails to bring 
 rain at the critical hour, not only loses his reputation and 
 practice, but his head ; for people will not be trifled with 
 in an important matter of this kind. , As an instance of 
 summary treatment of a rain doctor, it may be mentioned 
 that in 1859 when the Bari people were in the midst of a 
 terrible famine, they demanded that their doctor bring down 
 an ample supply of rain forthwith, but the combination 
 failed him and he could not induce the clouds to part with 
 their moisture. Thereupon the people waxed indignant and 
 slew him.^ The various methods employed by the Sudan 
 doctors to produce rain have never been fully comprehended 
 by European men of science, simply because such matters 
 have been kept as profound secrets. Each local doctor has 
 an invention of his own, which according to the most un- 
 biased opinion, never fails, if put into operation at the proper 
 moment. A Shuli doctor can take a simple antelope horn 
 and by some mysterious manipulation make it a very potent 
 excitor which never fails to shake down the clouds.* When 
 a citizen of Yoruba dies, a doctor is sent for to ascertain 
 whether the death is due to a natural cause, /. e., to accident 
 or injury, or to a witch or spirit ; if the latter he must dis- 
 
 'Clapperton, "Second Expedition," p. 191. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 26. ' Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 42. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 303 
 
 cover who and where the witch or spirit is,^ The friends 
 and relatives, in the meantime, are careful to carry all of the 
 articles of the deceased out of the hut and bury them, so as 
 to offer no excuse for the spirit that caused the death to 
 linger about the premises.^ 
 
 Reincarnation.— As among the Tshi people of this zone, 
 the soul of the dead man sometimes remains for days in the 
 neighborhood of its former abode, perhaps causing sickness 
 and death, and then wanders off to Dead Land. After a 
 while, however, it comes back in the form of an infant reborn 
 into the same family, proof of which is found in its resem- 
 blance to a deceased father, mother, or other relative.^ 
 
 Signs, Omens and Divination.— Signs, omens and charms 
 play a great part here as in the other zones. The Bam- 
 baras, for instance, make a practice of suspending magic 
 bags in their huts to keep away sundry obnoxious spirits,* 
 and almost everywhere the people place charms about their 
 houses and fields and wear many kinds of protecting amu- 
 lets. Even the Mohammedans have great faith in charms 
 and amulets. Clapperton mentions that an old woman at 
 Koolfu kept in her house some magic pieces of wood which 
 had been given to her by a priest, and which, when soaked 
 in water, were supposed to accomplish many marvels.' The 
 Mandingo Mohammedans generally wear scraps of paper 
 scribbled on by a priest to keep off snake bites, etc.,' and 
 they consider it bad luck to start on a journey during the 
 last quarter of the moon.' The people of Lodio consider it 
 bad luck for a crane to fly over the village, and when one 
 attempts to do so, they assemble in the streets and shout at 
 it to go away.' In some places it is believed that if a bird 
 cries in a tree near a village it is a sign of death.' In other 
 
 ' Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 155. * Ibid., p. 159. 
 
 • Ibid., p. 128. « Binger, Vol. i, p. 203. 
 
 » Clapperton, " Second Expedition," p. 171. ' Park, p. 36. 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 309. « Binger, Vol. 1, p. 446. • Ibid., Vol. i , p. 203. 
 
304 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 places it is considered bad luck to kill a crocodile in a 
 stream of water from which the people drink.^ The Dioulas 
 seem to have a superstitious dread of anything strange or 
 unusual. For instance, when Captain Binger was sojourn- 
 ing among them, they begged him not to eat from his table, 
 as it would bring bad luck.^ The Basomas consider it bad 
 luck to put on their trousers without spitting in them, or 
 to sit on a bench or stool without the same protecting 
 ceremony.* 
 
 Among people who have to provide for future wants, 
 and exercise some foresight, it is natural that they should 
 be more interested in future events than a people who live 
 from hand to mouth upon the spontaneous products of 
 nature. We should, therefore, not be surprised to find in 
 the millet zone more effort to divine the future than in the 
 banana zone. While the data bearing upon this point are 
 scant, the greater interest of the agricultural people in future 
 events may be inferred from the fact that the god Ifa of the 
 Yorubas, among other accomplishments, has the power of 
 divining the future and is consulted to a great extent by all 
 classes of people.* 
 
 'Binger, Vol. I, p. 446. ^ Vol. i, p. 360. 
 
 3 Binger, Vol. I, p. 194. * Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 57. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE {Continued) 
 
 General and Nature Gods. — In addition to the multitudi- 
 nous spirits and deities mentioned as interfering in some 
 particular phase of the life of the people, there are some 
 widely known gods that personify the forces of nature. For 
 example in Yoruba there is a sky god Olorun, who corre- 
 sponds somewhat to the Jupiter of the Romans. He lives a 
 pretty long way off, and, as he does not meddle seriously 
 with mundane affairs, he is not much feared or worshiped.' 
 His wife Odudwa is the earth deity and the patroness of love. 
 She is very active in mundane affairs, and vies with Obatala 
 in exciting the human passions. She is held in great esteem, 
 especially by the women, who abandon themselves unre- 
 servedly to her male worshipers.^ One of the powerful 
 deities, and certainly the most dreaded one, is Shango, the 
 god of thunder and lightning. He frequently gets out of 
 humor and thumps and bangs people over the heads and 
 lets fly hot stones upon their houses. If he sets fire to a 
 house, the people of the neighborhood feel free to plunder 
 it, as among the Ewe people, because the owner of the house 
 is believed to have incurred the ill-will of the deity by some 
 crime or act of disrespect. Shango is a polygamist and has 
 taken three of his own sisters for wives. Altogether he is a 
 pretty bad character. Of the less widely known deities of 
 Yoruba is Olosa, goddess of the Lagos lagoon. Whenever 
 this divine lady gets angry, the lagoon swells and overflows, 
 and a human sacrifice has to be offered sometimes before 
 she can be persuaded to behave herself. Crocodiles are her 
 
 ' Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 36. ' Ibid., p. 43. 
 
3o6 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 messengers and must not be molested.' The mountain god 
 Oke, though of no great importance, must not be entirely- 
 slighted. If the people fail to show him proper respect he 
 will roll down rocks upon them.^ 
 
 Animal Deities : Household Gods.— Serpent deities are not 
 so common in this zone because the country is mostly inland 
 where the conditions do not favor the existence of numerous 
 and dangerous snakes. People, however, who live along the 
 water courses usually have some reptilian species in their 
 pantheon. The Baris, for example, have a certain serpent 
 which is supposed to be the grandfather of their tribe,' and 
 to which they show great reverence. The people of Nyffe 
 keep in their fetich houses lizards, crocodiles and tortoises.* 
 
 Household gods are not generally found in this zone 
 except along its lower borders.' Such gods probably arose 
 everywhere from the practice of burying people in or near 
 the house in which they lived. Believing that the spirits of 
 the dead linger about their former place of habitation, the 
 people set up images in their houses for the spirits to 
 reside in.* 
 
 Sacrifices Sacrifices of every kind are less frequent in 
 
 this zone, and are generally attended with less ceremony.' 
 Human sacrifices scarcely exist except in the region of the 
 Niger, and never on such a wholesale scale as in Dahomi 
 and in Ashanti. Among some tribes when a king or chief 
 dies, a few of his wives, attendants and slaves are required 
 to go along with him and minister to his wants in the other 
 world.* If the reader is inclined to be shocked at these hor- 
 rible practices, he should remember that there are many ex- 
 
 • Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 72. ' Ibid., p. 81. 
 
 ' Reclus, Vol. I, p. loi. 4 Featherman, p. 402. 
 
 ' Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 281. * Ihid. 
 
 ' Binger, Vol. i, p. 203 ; Ellis, "Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 104. 
 'Lander, Vol. I, p. iio; Binger, Vol. 2, p. 184; Clapperton, " Second Expe- 
 dition," p. 79. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 307 
 
 amples of such practices among the white races. For ex- 
 ample, the ancient Gauls, upon the death of a chief, used to 
 bury everything that he cherished during life, including his 
 slaves and clients.' For religious purposes the most com- 
 mon objects of sacrifice in this zone are chickens, especially 
 of the white variety,^ sheep, goats, oxen, rats, wine ' and 
 pigeons.'' 
 
 Idols. — As a rule idols and images diminish as one ad- 
 vances northward from the banana zone, and at the same 
 time become less grotesque. Along the lower border of this 
 zone, however, they are quite numerous and correspondingly 
 fantastic. The forest god Oroni, for instance, is represented 
 as a human monstrosity, standing upright upon only one 
 leg and having the head and tail of a dog.' Some images 
 represent a man on horseback, others a woman nursing a 
 child, while still others are in the form of an animal or ser- 
 pent. Rohlfs describes a clay god. Dodo, the principle of 
 evil, as being animal in form, with four antelope horns on 
 its back, but having two human faces, one turned forward, 
 and the other backward. The face turned forward was col- 
 ored white and partly covered with a beard of sheep-wool.° 
 Near the Benue River Rohlfs observed a serpent idol, having 
 a female head with long horns.' In the Yoruba towns the 
 serpent symbol and the partes genitales in coitu are often 
 sculptured on temple doors.' The custom prevails in many 
 parts of this zone of making an image of a deceased twin so 
 that the spirit of the dead child may have a place to dwell 
 and not be tempted to enter the body of the living child.' 
 It is to be noted that twins are not put to death in this zone 
 as among the tribes of the Niger Delta. 
 
 Priests. — Montesquieu asserted as a general proposition 
 
 ' Biuger, Vol. 2, p. 187. ' Lasnet, p. 87. 
 
 ' Lander, Vol. I, p. 327. * Bowen, p. 313. 
 
 ' Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 79. ' Vol. 2, p. 199. 
 
 ' Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 204. 6 Bowen, p. 315. » Ellis, p. 80. 
 
3o8 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 that the number of dervishes and priests increases in pro- 
 portion as the heat of the dimate increases/ but, in fact, 
 there are probably as many priests relatively to population 
 in the temperate zone as in the torrid. It is obviously true, 
 however, that the functions of the priests become more 
 numerous and extravagant in proportion as one advances 
 towards the Equator. If the priests are not fewer in number 
 in the millet zone they are certainly less extravagant in their 
 pretensions. Perhaps they are more plentiful in Yoruba 
 where the people deal with their great gods by means of 
 intercessors.^ A striking fact about the Yoruba priests is 
 that they cooperate and form a regular priesthood, the head 
 of which is, at the same time, the head of the Ogboni secret 
 society.^ The priestly hierarchy consists of three orders 
 who represent correspondingly different classes of gods.* 
 The office of priest is generally hereditary, but laymen 
 may attain to it by means of seminaries of the kind found 
 among the Ewe people.^ 
 
 Notions of the After Life. — All of the people of this zone 
 believe in some kind of hereafter. The Yorubas have their 
 Dead Land where the same activities go on as in this life. 
 The practice of placing upon graves food, drink, weapons, 
 clothing and the like is based upon the presumption that 
 these things will be needed by the dead people's spirits.* 
 When any one wishes to know what is going on in Dead 
 Land he can find out from the priests.' Generally there is 
 no division into heaven and hell in the other world, but in 
 some provinces, as for example that of Wowo, bad people 
 are supposed to undergo temporary punishment somewhere 
 for their wickedness, after which they are permitted to enter 
 the land of the good people.' The prayers and sacrifices of 
 the Negroes have reference mostly to this life,' and what 
 
 •Vol. I, p. 335. » Bowen, p. 313. s Ellis, p. 95. 
 
 ^Ibid., p. 97. 6 Ibid., p. 97. « Ibid., p. 137. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 141. 8 Lander, Vol. I, p. 326. ' Bowen, p. 313. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 309 
 
 may happen when this mortal coil is shuffled ofi is of little 
 concern. 
 
 More Rational Ideas Than in the Banana Zone. — Consider- 
 ing the whole millet zone, it is very evident that the people 
 are less superstitious than those in the banana zone.' Barth 
 says, " In general, I think I am not mistaken in supposing 
 that the sacerdotal functions with these tribes of the interior 
 are less developed than those on the coast ; for as yet, I had 
 seen very little of real fetichism." ^ This difference in the 
 zones is due partly to the influence of Mohammedanism, but 
 in great part to the fact that the people have to exert their 
 minds and bodies more vigorously to live, and hence bring 
 about more development of their reason. Being obliged to 
 do more to overcome nature they necessarily become less 
 afraid of it. Their deities are less violent and malignant, and in 
 some cases, real friends and benefactors, with the result that 
 the people, instead of continually making sacrifices to bribe 
 them, sometimes offer prayers as thanks for favors.' The 
 gods of this zone are generally more anthropomorphous than 
 those of the banana zone. This is because the imagination 
 of the agricultural people is less inflamed and the people 
 rely more upon their own efforts to get along. They there- 
 fore give to their deities the forms and attributes of men. 
 On the other hand, the people of the banana zone, whose 
 lives are more under the dominion of the blind forces of 
 nature, and whose minds are fevered with terror, give to 
 their deities the forms and characteristics of semi-human 
 monsters. The fact stands out pretty clearly that, corre- 
 sponding to the somewhat more rational religion of this 
 zone, there is a somewhat higher development of the social 
 and moral life of the people. 
 
 Influence of the Mohammedan Religion. — The Moham- 
 medan religion, no doubt, strengthens the moral element 
 in a great part of this zone. A very striking contrast be- 
 
 ' Lander, Vol. I, p. 327. ' Vol. 2, p. 382. ' Park, p. 129. 
 
3IO THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 tween the Mohammedan and the fetich religion is that while 
 the one is proselyting, jealous and intolerant of all others, 
 the other is tolerant and friendly to all others. Negro 
 deities do not attempt to monopolize public attention. They 
 leave every man free to worship the gods of his choice so 
 long as he does not insult any of them. The Mohammedan 
 religion takes an easy and deep hold upon the mind and 
 heart of the Negro, because it sanctions polygamy and re- 
 tains faith in charms, magic and other superstitions ; and to 
 say the least of it, it is a vast improvement over fetichism. In 
 some respects it even has ennobling influences. Its followers 
 have regular prayers several times a day, and often where- 
 ever two or three people are gathered together in a school- 
 house or in a millet field. Staudinger says that he had 
 been often deeply impressed by the farewell prayer which 
 the people are accustomed to make when pilgrims are setting 
 out on a journey. It seems that a cavalcade accompanies 
 them for a certain distance of their journey and then coming 
 to a halt, the leader of the cavalcade, sitting upon his horse, 
 with clasped hands and face uplifted to heaven, repeats the 
 pious strophes asking the Almighty to bless those going on- 
 ward with a prosperous voyage.' 
 
 Origin of Mythology. — Generally the gods of this zone 
 have more of a personal history than those of the banana 
 zone. In Yoruba each god has its particular legend and all 
 of them together form a rich mythology. The probable 
 reason that gods come to have a personal history is that 
 when they begin to be worshiped at a distance from the ob- 
 jects in which they originally dwelt, people forget where 
 they came from, and hence find it necessary to invent some 
 story to explain their origin. In this way, no doubt, myth- 
 ologies have everywhere had their origin.^ A comparison 
 of the religion of the Slave Coast and the Gold Coast, brings 
 out the fact that there are more general gods in the former 
 
 • Staudinger, p. 563 ; Canot, p. 145. s Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 85. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 311 
 
 than in the latter. The explanation of this phenomenon is 
 made easy if we remember that the Slave Coast country is 
 more open and more compactly settled and therefore more 
 favorable than the Gold Coast for the dissemination of ideas 
 over a wide area. Hence in the religion of these two peo- 
 ples there is seen a gradual transition from fetichism to 
 polytheism.' If outside the Slave Coast country there are 
 few general gods among the Nigritians of this zone, it is 
 because of the segregated and disconnected manner in 
 which the people are grouped and the imperfect intercom- 
 munication of ideas. 
 
 > Ellis, << Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 290. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 
 
 Mohammedanism the Predominant Faith. — In this zone 
 Mohammedanism is the predominant faith and its chief ad- 
 herents are the Fellatahs who introduced it, and, with their 
 aggressive missionaries, are rapidly converting all of the 
 blacks of the Sudan. They are fanatic and intolerant and 
 strict observers of all of the external part of their religion. 
 " They say their daily prayers and perform the usual ablu- 
 tions : they keep the fast of Rhamadan, during which they 
 abstain from food and every kind of indulgence from sunrise 
 to sunset." Each village has its mosque, to which a mara- 
 boo (same as marabout) is attached who recites the usual 
 prayers five times a day to the assembled people. The 
 Fellatahs observe the Mohammedan weekly rest day which 
 comes on Friday, and also several great festivals during 
 the year. The women do not worship in the mosque with 
 the men, but in a shed outside, where a maraboo joins 
 them in the proper prayers, genuflections and prostra- 
 tions. As a rule the Mohammedan Fellatahs make no 
 idols and offer no sacrifices, but believe much in signs, 
 omens and charms. A few passages from the Koran sewed 
 up in a leather case and worn around the neck, arm or leg, 
 are supposed to protect the wearer from drowning, from the 
 effects of firearms, snake-bites, and to keep off sharks and 
 wild beasts.^ 
 
 Next to the Fellatahs the Kanuris are the most zealous 
 followers of Mohammedanism. " They are Mussulmans of 
 
 ■Featherman, p. 378; Clappeiton, "Journey to Kouka and Sackatoo," p. 52; 
 Canot, p. 177. 
 
 312 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 313 
 
 the orthodox sect : they strictly attend to their prayers, and 
 perform their ablutions five times a day. Being much more 
 ignorant they are much less tolerant than the Arabs. In 
 the large towns there are many hadjis or men who have 
 made their pilgrimage to Mecca, who are excellent scribes, 
 and write the Arabic characters in a neat style. They act 
 as teachers as well as fights, or copyists to the chiefs, and 
 write out despatches composed in the Kanuri language and 
 written in Arabic characters." ' 
 
 Mohammedanism has a strong following also among 
 the Jolofs. Each village has a maraboo who resides within 
 its limits, acts as religious teacher, and is the schoolmaster 
 that instructs the boys in reading and writing Arabic, as 
 well as in the precepts of the Koran.^ ..." Like all 
 Mohammedans they (the Jolofs) give credit to the existence 
 of genii, some of whom are supposed to be beneficent 
 beings, and as such they accompany man wherever he goes 
 to protect him. They are the tutelary patrons of the houses : 
 some live on land and others take up their abode in the 
 waters. They are quite exacting in their demands ; some 
 require that no hot water be poured on the ground ; others 
 wish that certain places should be approached only while 
 singing ; others again want to be regaled with a mess of 
 food served up in a fine plate.'" 
 
 Fetichism Among the Unconverted.— But in many towns 
 and districts among the Fellatahs, Kanuris, Jolofs and oth- 
 ers, there are thousands of heathens who hold to their 
 fetichism, without, however, infusing into it so much terror 
 and delirium as the heathens of the other zones. Many of 
 the Jolofs imagine that spirits dwell in the air, forest and 
 waters and must be worshiped to propitiate their wrath or 
 to gain their favor.* The Shillooks believe that the ghostly 
 spectres of the dead are always invisibly present with the 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 282. ' Ibid., p. 360. ' Ibid, * IHd. 
 
314 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 living and aid or hinder whatever is undertaken.' If rain is 
 needed, instead of employing a witch doctor, they call upon 
 the traditional father of their race.^ 
 
 Sexual deities or superstitious notions respecting the 
 family relations are not at all common in this zone. Occa- 
 sionally the traveler meets with some such superstition as 
 that prevailing among the women of Bornu who believe 
 that if they lie upon a panther skin or leopard skin they will 
 be sure to give birth to a boy.* 
 
 In political and judicial matters the spirits are not very 
 active and people do not so frequently call upon nor so 
 much rely upon them as in the other zones. However, 
 their assistance in war is not altogether disdained and their 
 superior wisdom is sometimes deferred to in the trial of 
 criminals. Among the Jolofs a man accused of theft is tried 
 by the fire spirit in the following manner : " An iron spade 
 is heated to redness, which the suspected person is required 
 to touch with his tongue, and he who is badly burned is 
 pronounced guilty and is bound to pay the value of the 
 property stolen." * The spirits sometimes become the con- 
 federates of thieves. For example, in Darfur, the thieves 
 have a kind of magic horn which when blown, causes the 
 people whose property is being stolen to become deaf .and 
 blind." 
 
 The Witch Doctors. — Sickness and death are not so 
 generally ascribed to the work of spirits or witches, yet in 
 many districts the spirits are up to much devilment and 
 recourse must be had to the conjurer, sorcerer or magic 
 doctor. Among the Dinkas, the conjurer, "after having 
 examined the sick person who is dangerously ill, announces 
 at once whether the patient will live or die. An ox is killed, 
 and the sick man is bedaubed with its dung to disgust the 
 
 ' Schweinfurth, Vol. I, p. 91 ; Featherman, p. 68. 
 
 > Schweinfurth, Vol. I, p. 91. s Denham's " Narrative," p. 247. 
 
 < Featherman, p. 361. » Jiiti., p. 740. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 315 
 
 demon of disease and induce him to leave the deity-man- 
 sion in which he has taken up his abode. The flesh of the 
 sacrificial victim is eaten by the cogyoor (conjurer) and the 
 relatives and friends of the patient." ' The Shillook magic 
 doctors " build their huts in sacred places, such as a large 
 tree or a piece of forest, and there they are visited by the 
 people who consult them in case of dangerous maladies." ^ 
 If the reader will refer back a moment to the banana zone 
 he will recall that one of the worst things about the death- 
 dealing spirits of that region is that after they have caused 
 the death of a person they often return and kill others. 
 Now, in the cattle zone, the Jolofs have discovered a very 
 simple and ingenious method of preventing the return of 
 these spirits. After burying a dead person, they elude the 
 pursuit of its spirit by making several circuitous turns in 
 their course before returning to their homes.* This simple 
 ruse diminishes the sphere of action of the magic doctor 
 and saves the people the expense, so burdensome else- 
 where, of continuing the services of the doctor after the 
 patient has died. 
 
 Few General Gods. — With the exception of Allah of the 
 Mohammedan religion, the gods of this zone have only a 
 local reputation and limited jurisdiction. Before the intro- 
 duction of Mohammedanism there were perhaps some cele- 
 brated gods among the larger political groups, as now 
 among the Yorubas and Dahomans, but they seem to have 
 been dethroned everywhere by Allah, leaving no traditions 
 of their existence. Gods in the real sense do not exist 
 among the heathens of this zone, but only fetiches. The 
 Dinkas who have come into contact with Christian mis- 
 sionaries believe in a god and a devil ; that the soul of a 
 good man goes to heaven, whereas when a bad man dies 
 "the devil comes from the desert and carries off his soul 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 36. ' /iid., p. 68. 'Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 142. 
 
3i6 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 during the night to plunge it into hell or the land of fire," ' 
 A kind of god among the Malinkops, similar to that found 
 in the other zones, is a subterranean something that " dwells 
 in the bowels of the earth and is sovereign ruler of the 
 regions where gold is produced." ^ Certain tribes near the 
 Senegal River seem to share the belief, common in the 
 lower zones, that conflagrations are due to the wrath of a 
 fire deity, and they would consider it an insult to that deity 
 to attempt to extinguish the flames of any house that had 
 been set on fire. The most that they will do is to stand off 
 and mumble prayers at the deity, or climb upon the house 
 and spit in the blaze.* 
 
 Reverence for Serpents. — Many tribes in this zone seem 
 to have a strong inclination towards serpent worship. 
 "Snakes," says Schweinfurth, "are the only creatures to 
 which either Dinkas or Shillooks pay any sort of reverence." 
 They are called by name and are treated as domestic ani- 
 mals.* Among the Jolofs certain lizards are regarded as 
 household gods and are daintily nourished on sweet milk.' 
 Adanson states that the natives about the Senegal River 
 have a reverence for a particular kind of serpent and allow 
 it to grow and multiply in their huts and even to sleep with 
 them.* The Shillooks have a sort of deified lizard or bird, 
 being in fact sometimes the one and sometimes the other, 
 which they regard as their ancestor and which is supposed 
 to have led them to the pasture land that they now occupy.' 
 
 Few Sacrifices, Idols or Heathen Priests. — In this zone 
 human sacrifices have disappeared. They used to take 
 place among the Furs, who, according to Ratzel, held a 
 spring festival called the feast of the Drums, in commemo- 
 ration of deceased sovereigns, when several children were 
 sacrificed and the skin of one of them was used to make a 
 
 1 Featherman, p. 36. ^ /iid. , p. ^16. 'Adanson, p. 255. 
 
 *Vol. I, p. 158. » Featherman, p. 160. ep. 231. 
 
 ' Schweinfurth, Vol. I, p. 91 ; Featherman, p. 68. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 317 
 
 new drum-head.^ Even sacrifices of cattle, goats, sheep or 
 other animals are very uncommon. Travelers sometimes 
 refer to the sacrifice of oxen on the graves of the deceased," 
 but there are no great gods demanding regular sacrifices, 
 and no public occasions, as in the banana zone, when 
 wholesale sacrifices take place. The relative absence of 
 sacrifices is due partly to the influence of Mohammedanism, 
 partly to the temperate climate, which is not so inflammatory 
 in its effect upon the people's minds, and partly to the isola- 
 tion of the political groups before the advent of Mohammed- 
 anism, and, on that account, lack of opportunity to develop 
 a polytheism, priesthood and ceremonial. 
 
 Priests other than those of the Mohammedan religion 
 scarcely exist, owing to the absence of widely known gods. 
 There are no idols, and the witch doctor, so all important 
 and powerful in the lower zones, is here transformed into a 
 sort of clown, buffoon, itinerant singer or quack doctor.^ 
 The less enervating climate, and the greater energy of 
 body and mind necessary to live, have a tendency to clear 
 man's mind of those extravagant fancies and terrors which 
 are so universally characteristic of people who live under 
 tropical skies. 
 
 ' " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 290. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 307. > Ibid. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 
 
 Beliefs of the Tibbus.— Passing to the Tibbus of the camel 
 zone we find that they were won over to Mohammedanism 
 about three centuries ago, but like other Negro converts, 
 blend a good deal of native superstition with their new re- 
 ligion. They have priests and offer sacrifices, but never in 
 the form of human beings. They look upon certain mineral 
 springs as divine, and offer sacrifices to them. They have 
 the characteristic Negro faith in charms. Small leather bags 
 containing sentences from the Koran are fastened as amulets 
 to their turban or fez, and to their arms, legs and necks, and 
 also to their spears or other weapons. Even horses and 
 camels are equipped with these magic protectors.* A sin- 
 gular characteristic of the Tibbus is their dread of black- 
 smiths, who are regarded as magicians and treated as out- 
 casts.^ 
 
 General Considerations. — While the Tibbus have many 
 superstitions, like all other people who are unacquainted 
 with science, they do not mix with their superstitions those 
 terrors which inflame the imagination and fill the universe 
 with innumerable gods, demons, devils, and every conceiva- 
 ble malignant spirit. 
 
 Fear is the transcendent element in all equatorial re- 
 ligions, and even a strong element in the religions of the 
 temperate zone where it is manifested by an aversion on 
 part of the people to any inquiry into their traditional beliefs 
 and superstitions. It makes people cowardly and closes the 
 door of their minds to God's deepest truths and therefore to 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 756. s Reclus, Vol. 2, pp. 424, 438. 
 
 318 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 319 
 
 His highest revelations. It is the parent of intolerance and 
 bigotry, and an enemy to both the expansion of mind and 
 soul. The relatively sane view of the world taken by the 
 Tibbus is due to the fact that nature deals niggardly with 
 them and causes them to put forth strenuous efforts both 
 mental and physical. Another factor to consider is that the 
 phenomena of this zone are more regular and less terrible. 
 The conditions, therefore, tend somewhat to develop the 
 reason and not to overexcite the imagination. 
 
 Looking back over the four zones it seems that the 
 number of deities, idols and superstitions of every kind 
 diminishes as one moves away from the equator. Rain 
 doctors appear only in regions where there is a dry season. 
 The less man does for himself the more he leaves for the 
 gods. In the banana zone the gods do much and men little, 
 and when the people of that zone go to war they pay their 
 deities instead of their soldiers. As the gods are supposed 
 to cause success or failure in all important undertakings, 
 men feel no incentive to exert their own powers. In the cat- 
 tle zone the gods play a diminishing r61e, and man an in- 
 creasing one. As monotheism begins to develop men begin 
 to perceive that God is operating through them and not in 
 competition with them. 
 
 Relation of Religion to Morality. — Many sociologists, an- 
 thropologists, psychologists and theologians, as well as 
 many laymen, hold that primitive religion has no connec- 
 tion with morality. For example, Ribot argues that religion 
 and morality have an entirely independent development,' 
 and the argument of Spencer is that morality is a later de- 
 velopment than religion.^ Ellis, who has studied the African 
 religion at fir^t hand, says that " religion is not in any way 
 allied with moral ideas, whose source is essentially distinct, 
 although the two become associated when man attains a 
 higher degree of civilization. Murder, theft and offenses 
 
 ' p. 315. » " Data of Ethics," Chapter 7. 
 
320 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 against the person or against property are matters in which 
 the gods have no immediate concern and in which they take 
 no interest, except in the case when, bribed by a valuable 
 offering, they take up the quarrel in the interest of some 
 faithful worshiper."^ 
 
 However, a full consideration of the facts does not seem 
 to support the views of these authorities. The truth seems 
 to be that the operations of nature upon the savage are the 
 fundamental imspirations of his moral perceptions, and that 
 what he sees and believes as a consequence of these inspi- 
 rations is only a visualized reflection of his dawning con- 
 science. He is in this world seeking to find pleasure and to 
 avoid pain. The impulse to inquire into the cause of things 
 is the same as the impulse to inquire into the effects of them 
 and the only reason for inquiring into either is that he may 
 adjust his actions so as to obtain some good or escape some 
 evil. When the savage hears the thunder he asks two ques- 
 tions. First, What is it ? He gets the answer that it is a 
 spirit. Second, Why is it angry ? He gets the answer that 
 he, himself, or some one of his fellowmen, has done some- 
 thing wrong — has offended the spirit. When the savage 
 has a disease he asks two questions. First, What caused it ? 
 He gets the answer that a malignant spirit has invaded him. 
 Second, Why has it invaded him ? Because he or some one 
 of his fellows has done some evil — has offended the spirit. 
 Acting upon this kind of reasoning he seeks to avoid offend- 
 ing the thunder spirit or the disease spirit. He propitiates 
 them and hires a magic man to conjure them that they may 
 not do mischief. The moral significance of this acting is 
 that he feels a sense of obligation to do or not to do certain 
 things for the sake of the well-being of himself and his fel- 
 low men. He is learning from experience to avoid lines of 
 conduct that entail suffering, and the motive of his action 
 and the process of his thought are the same as those em- 
 
 • Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. lo. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 321 
 
 ployed by the civilized man in arriving at his standard of 
 right and wrong. The difference between the civilized and 
 savage in this respect, is that the former acts more often 
 upon realities, the latter upon fictions. But both base their 
 conduct upon what they believe to be realities. The very 
 notion of a God that has power to reward and punish, to 
 make happy or miserable, is the result of an already awak- 
 ened moral sense. It implies an attitude of inquiry towards 
 questions of conduct — a power of self-approbation or blame 
 — a sense of oughtness — a disposition to yield obedience to 
 the ideal personality which the mind has conceived. Hence 
 the religious and moral development in man spring from 
 the same impulse of the soul, and all acts arising from the 
 terror of gods are incipient manifestations of conscience. 
 The savage is just as anxious that his fellow men act in a 
 way to receive the blessing or avoid the wrath of a god, as 
 he is careful so to act himself. His religion disciplines his 
 mind to consider what acts are good or bad for the com- 
 munity and causes him to act so as to obtain the one and 
 avoid the other. In this incipient moral state, man cannot 
 reason clearly and therefore cannot distinguish clearly be- 
 tween acts which are in reality good or bad. On the one 
 hand, the animal nature surviving in him impels him to acts 
 of selfishness, cruelty and general bestiality, and on the 
 other hand, the Divine Spirit in him impels him to acts of 
 justice, duty and philanthropy. There is always this strug- 
 gle going on in man between what he ought and ought not 
 to do, and his religion is nothing but this inner struggle vis- 
 ualized and personified in the world of spirits, demons, 
 ghosts, devils and gods. Any religion is evidence of some 
 moral awakening and some presence of the inworking of the 
 Divine Spirit. If man does foolish, immoral or cruel acts in 
 connection with his religion, it is because his animal nature 
 is strong and his Divine nature weak ; and if he fails to 
 make a connection between his religion and any of his social 
 
322 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 activities it is not because religion develops independently 
 of morals, but because he has not yet been able to apply his 
 religion to the detailed relations of life. But as a matter of 
 fact the writer does not believe that there are any activities 
 of the savage that are not connected in one way or another 
 with his religion. The savage even attributes his appetites 
 and passions, and his likes and dislikes, to the promptings 
 of some spirit. The forces of nature that operate upon and 
 in man are only the voices of God speaking to his conscience, 
 and they are obeyed with the same moral motive that gov- 
 erns the conduct of the most conscientious civilized man. 
 The ethical element, though born with religion, is at first 
 feeble and gradually develops as religion develops. When 
 the African believes that Shango will set fire to the house of 
 any one who steals, it indicates a consciousness that stealing 
 is wrong. 
 
 Religion and Morality Inseparable. — Indeed, it seems to 
 the writer that religion and morality have not only devel- 
 oped together, but that they are so interwoven that one can- 
 not survive without the other. As soon as the savage begins 
 to have moral conceptions his mind projects or ejects im- 
 aginary spirits or persons that are merely the reflection of 
 his own personality. Some of these spirits are good, but 
 most of them are bad, corresponding to the preponderance 
 of evil in his nature. As his good and bad impulses are 
 vacillating, so he has a variety of deities that appeal to 
 good and bad acts. As there is in him a struggle between 
 the good and the bad, so the struggle goes on between the 
 good and the bad deities ; and as the good in him finally tri- 
 umphs over the bad, so the good deities finally triumph 
 over all of the evil or indifferent ones ; and at any stage of 
 development, the deities that a man sees and believes in, 
 correspond to the ideals by which he is governed, or to state 
 it in another way, a man's ideas of right and wrong always 
 correspond to one or more definite personalities, how- 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 323 
 
 ever changeable, to whom he refers all questions of con- 
 duct. 
 
 Morality Cannot Develop From Mere Abstract Con- 
 siderations. — Neither primitive man nor civilized man can 
 develop his ethical nature by purely abstract thinking. An 
 idea cannot influence a man's moral nature until it becomes 
 an ideal, i. e., until it becomes personified and appeals to 
 his feelings as an individual that he loves can do. In the 
 last analysis the ethical ideas are always personified and 
 stand out in the mind's eye as God, or as several spiritual 
 personalities, according to which man seeks to shape his 
 conduct and which are made up of fragments of mother, 
 father, child, friend, hero or prophet. Whether man recog- 
 nizes as real the god or personifications that make up his 
 moral consciousness, they are in fact always the spirit of 
 God revealing itself according as man yields to it. A man 
 can be moral only by a constant reference of his conduct to 
 his God or Ideal and a constant attitude of obedience to that 
 authority. A man's moral nature and his conception of 
 God act reciprocally upon each other. The vision of God 
 or Ideal Ruler, Judge or Counselor builds up his moral 
 nature, and at the same time, the elevation of his moral 
 nature expands and perfects his conception of God. Bald- 
 win expresses this psychological truth in the statement that, 
 " Without the recognition of the ideal self embodied in re- 
 ligious institutions and necessarily so embodied, ethical 
 growth is impossible." ' 
 
 The Brutal and Licentious Element in Religious Rites 
 
 • " Fragments," p. 336. Baldwin says, " The impulse to read self into others, 
 »'. e., to recognize personality as more than individual, with its final development in 
 the recognition of ideal personality — this is what, in my opinion, a genetic account 
 of religion requires. . . ." — " Fragments," p. 329. He says again that " the 
 attributes of the deity at any stage of religious development are drawn from the 
 thought of ideal personality. . . . Religion is the embodiment on part of so- 
 ciety of the highest personality." — /6id., p. 332. The same thought is brought out 
 in his " Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Development," pp. 357, 443, etc. 
 
324 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 not the Outcome of Religion, but of Man's Ignorance and 
 the Survival of His Animal Nature After the Dawn of Re- 
 ligion. — But how are we to reconcile the horrible sacrifices, 
 abominable magic and unbridled licentiousness connected 
 with primitive religion with the idea that religion and 
 morality are inseparable ? The reply is that these practices 
 are simply the result of ignorance, and the survival of man's 
 animal impulses after the dawn of religion. The people 
 believe them to be essential to the general welfare and carry 
 them out with the best of intentions. The practices in 
 themselves may be ever so foolish, injurious or immoral, but 
 the motives behind them are moral. No one doubts that 
 Moses was a great moralist and prophet, yet he believed in, 
 and put in operation, the practice of an eye for an eye and a 
 tooth for a tooth — a practice condemned by Christ. If in 
 the name of religion pious men encourage lust, avarice, 
 malice, bigotry, human sacrifices, inquisitions, burnings at 
 the stake and exterminating wars, it is because of defective 
 reasoning and inability to discern truth from error. If there 
 is inconsistency between the good motives and bad prac- 
 tices of the savage, or any other believer in religion, it is on 
 account of lack of knowledge and it ought to teach all men 
 that reliance upon mere moral motives can never meet the 
 demands of true religion but that the motives must be com- 
 bined with intelligence, careful investigation of the effects 
 of conduct and constant adjustment of doctrines and stand- 
 ards of conduct to an ever-increasing enlightenment. It 
 ought to teach the unwisdom of a blind adherence to the 
 external and traditional authorities imposed by a past age, 
 instead of obeying the direct inspirations of the inner spirit 
 and the revelations of truth as manifested by the Creator in 
 the physical and social laws of His universe. Man is a part 
 of God, and God's kingdom is in man. In man, therefore, 
 operative as God, or as Divine Spirit, is that stream of power 
 making for righteousness of which the philosopher speaks, 
 
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 325 
 
 that infinite and eternal energy of which the scientist speaks, 
 and that spirit " within you " of which Christ speaks, caus- 
 ing man to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink to 
 the thirsty, hospitality to the stranger and to love all men 
 as himself. Those who seek to make religion something 
 mysterious and other than goodness and perfect living, 
 should fear lest on the day of judgment they be of that 
 " many " who will say — " Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied 
 in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils ? and in 
 thy name done many wonderful works?" and to whom 
 Christ will say, " I never knew you : depart from me, ye 
 that work iniquity." 
 
CHAPTER XXX 
 
 ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 
 
 Love of Beauty and Appreciation of Art Universal.— In 
 order to understand the aesthetic life of the Negro two things 
 are necessary. First, to realize that love of beauty is not 
 a cultivated characteristic of human beings but is as natural 
 and fundamental as the appetite for food. Cultivation may 
 change man's interest from one form of beauty to another 
 but not his fundamental liking for it. Second, to discard 
 the prevalent notion that art is a sort of superfluous adjunct 
 to civilization, a frill or ornamental touch like the volutes 
 and carvings of a piece of architecture after all of the solid 
 work is finished. This view has been taken unfortunately 
 by many historians who do not think it worth while to con- 
 sider the art of a people until a certain degree of progress 
 is reached or until some great artist comes upon the scene 
 whose works command national admiration. Few historians 
 have ever made any effort to interpret art or to explain its 
 development. It is generally considered as something mys- 
 terious and difficult to understand, and is therefore left to 
 be grappled with by a few men like Ruskin and Taine, who 
 are supposed to have been born with a special aesthetic 
 sense. In the popular mind art is something imported from 
 France and suitable for people of leisure and wealth. The 
 theologians look askance at it and men of affairs regard it 
 as something curious and effeminate and pride themselves 
 on knowing nothing about it. Until recent years it was left 
 entirely out of college curriculums. The first art introduced 
 in schools was literature, and for a long time that was not 
 regarded as an essential part of education. The study of 
 
 326 
 
ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 327 
 
 all of the fine arts has been left almost exclusively to private 
 schools in which there is greater confusion and misunder- 
 standing of art than anywhere else, for the reason that in 
 these schools it is not art that is studied but only technique. 
 As a matter of fact art is not something that has a special 
 connection with civilization or the educated classes, but it is 
 as universal as man and differs among races and nations 
 rather in character than in the degree of interest felt in it. 
 If there is any difference between the savage and civilized 
 man in attention given to art the difference is in favor of 
 the savage, for as civilization advances men tend, perhaps 
 unfortunately, to be guided more by science and less by art. 
 Mutilations and Tattooing. — Savage men usually devote 
 much time to the adornment of their bodies, in this respect 
 resembling many of the lower species of animals. It is a 
 common observation that peacocks, flamingoes, barn-yard 
 fowls and, indeed, nearly all birds, have an eye to the beauty 
 of their plumage ; that the cat and other feline species wash 
 their faces and lick their fur into a gloss ; that butterflies 
 and other insects glory in their motley colors and brilliant 
 illuminations ; and that even snakes dress gaudily and change 
 their styles with the change of the seasons. Perhaps among 
 primitive men personal decorations were first displayed by 
 tattooing, i. e., perforating or cutting lines upon their skin, 
 a practice which probably originated at a time when the 
 matriarchate was universal and before children came to 
 have individual names. Instead of giving a special name 
 to each member of the family or tribe, all of the same blood 
 on the mother's side were designated by a common tattoo 
 mark. Later, when the naming of children came into gen- 
 eral use, the practice of tattooing was continued as a mark 
 of distinction for some notable achievement or as a mere 
 ornament. Men who had slain a wild beast, or an enemy, 
 or, in some cases, who had only undergone the ceremonies 
 of initiation into manhood, would be entitled to so many 
 
328 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 scars on the cheek, forehead or chest. As curious and 
 senseless as this practice may at first seem it is not without 
 its value in the evolution of civilization. In the absence 
 of historians, poets, and monuments to proclaim human 
 achievements, it is neither surprising nor regrettable that 
 the savage should record them upon his skin where the 
 public may observe and admire them. The civilized man 
 who depends upon the newspaper, magazine, or history to 
 record his deeds, has reason very often to be disappointed. 
 Either the space given to him is not adequate, or he is 
 overshadowed by some other man, or he is entirely un- 
 noticed. All of this is avoided when a man uses his chest 
 and abdomen as a placard to advertise who he is and what 
 he has achieved. But to be serious, tattooing has two dis- 
 tinct merits. First, it shows a love of public esteem, a 
 striving for some kind of distinction, and second, it teaches 
 the lesson that distinction can be won only by a man who 
 has risked or suffered something, since the mere cutting of 
 the skin involves pain. This is a lesson which civilized 
 people have not yet sufficiently learned, for too many of them 
 gain their distinctions by making others suffer. Although 
 tattooing, as a survival among civilized people, is regarded 
 by criminologists and anthropologists as a sign of degen- 
 eracy, it is not altogether unbecoming if cut in the right 
 fashion. 
 
 In the course of time, however, savage men found 
 other means of distinguishing themselves. They accumu- 
 lated wealth, raised catde, acquired slaves, built houses, 
 granaries, etc. Then tattooing was kept up merely as a 
 decoration. Among the people of the banana zone tattoo- 
 ing is very widely practiced, and varies much in significance 
 and in styles. In some districts it exists in the form of skin 
 patterns to designate families and tribes ; in other districts 
 it is a mark of personal distinction ; and in still other dis- 
 tricts it is a mere decoration, while among the Dahomans it 
 
ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 329 
 
 scarcely exists.' Some tribes tattoo the entire body from 
 head to knee ; others tattoo only lines upon their cheeks, 
 chests, temples or foreheads.'' The Ibos cut the skin of the 
 forehead so that it always hangs down over the eyes like a 
 visor.' 
 
 Another means of beautifying the person common to the 
 Negroes of this zone is that of filing their teeth. This is 
 done in a variety of styles of which the most popular is that 
 of sharpening them to a point in imitation of the teeth of the 
 crocodile.* 
 
 Body Painting. — The practice of body painting is not so 
 common in this zone as in other parts of Africa, the chief 
 reason being that the people have rather dark skins that do 
 not make good backgrounds for colors. Among the white 
 and yellow races, body painting is, and has been, more uni- 
 versal. Even the man of the Neolithic age adorned his body 
 with paint, as we know from the pigment found among his 
 bones, implements and other relics. Body painting was 
 also common among the American Indians and the ancient 
 Aryans. Pliny says that in the early days of Rome, it was 
 the custom for the conquerors to paint themselves red in 
 celebration of their victories. " The ancient Britons," says 
 Tylor, " though a nation of considerable civilization, have 
 been treated by many historians as mere savages because 
 they kept up this rude practice, as Caesar says, of staining 
 themselves blue with woad (leaves) and so being of horrider 
 aspect in war. Among ourselves, the g^ise which was so 
 terrific in the Red-Indian warrior, has come down to make 
 the circus clown a pattern of folly. It is very likely that his 
 paint-striped face may represent a fashion come down from 
 ancient times when paint was worn by the barbarians of 
 Europe, much as in Japan actors paint their faces with 
 
 ■Duncan, Vol. i, p. 266. 
 
 ' Drake, p. 28 ; Allen and Thomson, Vol. I, pp. 284, 345. 
 
 ' Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 330. * Duncan, Vol. 2, p. 309 ; Drake, p. 28. 
 
330 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 bright streaks of red, doubtless keeping up what was once 
 an ordinary decoration."^ It may be added that some 
 civihzed people still paint and powder. 
 
 Hair Dressing In the tonsorial art the people of this 
 
 zone take a high rank. As the climate renders clothing a 
 superfluity, the hair oflers the best field for display of taste 
 and styles in dress. In some tribes the hair stands out in 
 big tufts on the crown of the head resembling a scouring- 
 broom ; among other tribes it grows in small tufts as if the 
 head were planted with paint-brushes ; elsewhere it is 
 twisted into long prongs like the horns of an ox ; and in 
 still other places it is piled upon the head like a hay-stack 
 or, as among the Negroes of America, twisted into ringlets 
 and divided, like all Gaul, into three parts.^ 
 
 Ornamental Clothing, Jewelry, Etc. — Clothing does not 
 come in for much in the way of artistic expression. The 
 original dress of this region was a cloth of woven grass 
 worn like a hilt* In many districts this cloth is still worn, 
 except in case of children, who always go naked. Natives 
 who have come in contact with the culture of the interior, 
 wear a variously colored dress made of cotton, which reaches 
 from the waist to the knee, and in addition to this, a mantle 
 of some stuff is thrown over the shoulder, leaving exposed 
 one side of the breast. In Ashanti, caps of leopard skins are 
 worn by the aristocracy, and sandals of red, green and white 
 leather.* Since the invasion of the European, the styles of 
 dress have become exceedingly gaudy and grotesque. 
 Nothing delights the native kings and princes more than to 
 bedeck themselves in the second-hand paraphernalia of 
 European soldiers or civilians. Describing the dress of an 
 Ashanti king, Freeman says that he wore a brown velvet 
 coat, white satin trousers, white linen shirt, black beaver 
 
 1 « Anthropology," p. 237. « Featherman, pp. 176, 205, 222. 
 
 ' Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. 394. 
 
 * Featherman, pp. 176, 205, 222 ; Freeman, p. 146. 
 
.ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 331 
 
 hat with a band of silver lace, and a spotted silk muslin 
 sash, etc' 
 
 But the natives make up for their scant clothing by a 
 vast array of jewelry and trinkets. Necklaces, armlets, 
 anklets and ringlets are in vogue everywhere, some being 
 made of gold, some of ivory and brass, and some of woven 
 vegetable fibres.^ The amount of gold and other finery dis- 
 played by the kings and princes of Ashanti is astonishing 
 to all European travelers. Freeman speaks of the king of 
 Ashanti as wearing sandals ornamented with gold and 
 silver, a pair of knives with mother-of-pearl handles sheathed 
 in gold and suspended from his neck by a golden chain, 
 while another gold chain, coiling six or eight times around 
 his neck, hung loosely down his breast.* The royal families 
 fairly load their ankles, wrists, breasts, shoulders and necks 
 with gold ornaments.^ Allen and Thomson describe a 
 princess whose arms were so heavily burdened with brass 
 rings that she was obliged to have an attendant on each 
 side of her to support each arm." Even her toes were 
 laden with these metallic decorations. In some commu- 
 nities, in addition to other jewelry, the women wear brass 
 wire coiled from ankle to knee. It is not surprising to learn 
 therefore that the total weight of iron and brass and other 
 rings worn by an African belle on State occasions will some- 
 times amount to fifty pounds, and that the metal often gets 
 so hot under the burning rays of the sun that an attendant 
 has to go along with a watering pot to cool it off. 
 
 Dancing. — The people of this zone, in common with sav- 
 ages everywhere, are much given to dancing. On moon- 
 light nights along the banks of the Niger, the natives gather 
 and dance until an early hour in the morning.^ The fact 
 that the dancing takes place at night is due to the climate, 
 which is unfavorable to spirited activity during the day. If 
 
 ' p. 139. 
 
 ' Hawkins, p. 89. 
 
 » P. 139- 
 
 * Hid., p. 146. 
 
 • Vol. I, p. 284. 
 
 « Staudinger, p. 39. 
 
332 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 the question be asked, why the savage gives so much atten- 
 tion to the dance, the answer is that all strong emotions tend 
 to express themselves in rhythmical movements of the body. 
 The pent up emotion of the caged lion, or other animal, is 
 often manifested by a swaying of his body from one side to 
 the other, and in like manner, the pent-up emotions of a 
 human being require some kind of rhythmical manifestation. 
 For example, in convulsive laughter people often swing their 
 bodies backward and forward, and when a barefoot boy 
 stumps his toe, he hops in a circle and hums a tune. At 
 religious meetings when people become emotionally aroused, 
 they sometimes swing their bodies, stamp their feet or clap 
 their hands in rhythmical regularity, and more commonly 
 still, when people are in deep sorrow, they wring their hands 
 and mourn in measured notes of lamentation. This explains 
 why poetry and impassioned prose are always expressed in 
 rhythmical lines. The savage cannot so well express his 
 emotions in words, or find vent for them in the thousands of 
 avenues available for civilized people, and hence he is the 
 more inclined to express them in movements of his body. 
 It is not at all strange, then, that all of the feelings that 
 originate from the joys and sorrows of his life should be ex- 
 pressed in some kind of dance. To some degree at least 
 dancing among savages corresponds to poetry, painting, the 
 novel and the drama among the civilized people. The gen- 
 eral notion that the dancing of savages is altogether friv- 
 olous and sensuous is quite erroneous. The sensuous ele- 
 ment, perhaps predominates, but there are times when 
 dancing appeals to, and awakens, many of the higher emo- 
 tions ; for example, dancing in celebration of the capture of 
 game, in preparation of war, or of planting the fields, or in 
 celebration of the ripening of fruits and the gathering of the 
 harvest. Such dances inspire courage, the feeling of grati- 
 tude, loyalty and social solidarity. At the courts of Ashanti 
 and Dahomi, instead of recording the deeds of the kings, as 
 
^ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 333 
 
 among civilized people, in great paintings or in books of 
 poetry and history, they are sung by the court women to 
 the accompaniment of dancing.' Thus it is evident that the 
 Africans express in their dances many of the same feelings 
 that civilized people embody in the more refined forms of 
 art. The civilized people stir up their war spirit by means 
 of the editorial, the oration, the novel and the cartoon. 
 They commemorate great national achievements by a fourth 
 of July or a fourteenth of July, when they pop firecrackers, 
 parade the streets and see how much noise they can make. 
 They express their rejoicing over the gathered harvest by a 
 Thanksgiving Day, when they see how much they can eat 
 and drink. Among all races of men dancing has been one 
 of the chief means of expressing their emotions of joy, sor- 
 row, love, hatred, revenge or of religious reverence, or grati- 
 tude for the bounty of Nature. Besides the many examples 
 of dancing found in the Bible, it may be mentioned that the 
 Egyptians used to sing and dance as they marched to their 
 temples of worship, that the Greeks sang and danced to 
 Apollo, and that the Salian priests of Rome sang and danced 
 along the streets at the yearly festival of Mars. Even the 
 early Christian church often introduced dancing as a regular 
 part of the service. The reason that modern people pay less 
 attention to dancing is that it has been superseded by other 
 forms of art. 
 
 The Drama.— In this zone the drama exists only in very 
 incipient form. Duncan witnessed among the Fantis a kind 
 of entertainment which might be classed as a drama, in 
 which the natives put on masks representing themselves as 
 bears, monkeys and other animals, and performing all man- 
 ner of buffoonery.^ According to Grosse, the drama every- 
 where originated from the dance. Whenever men in their 
 dances mimic an animal or imitate hunting, fighting or wife 
 
 ' Freeman, p. 148 ; Duncan, Vol. i, p. 247 ; Forbes, Vol. 2, p. 21. 
 'Vol. I, p. 247. 
 
334 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 capture, the dance at once merges into the drama. Spencer 
 takes the same view. He says that the drama originated 
 from the mimicry and gesticulations of the primitive priests 
 as they led the ceremonial dance.' However, this explana- 
 tion is hardly correct. A kind of embryonic drama may be 
 observed in the play of all animals, whenever they imitate 
 fighting or hunting, or in the play of children, when they 
 imitate domestic life with their toy-houses and dolls, or mili- 
 tary and industrial life with their bows and arrows, drums, 
 pop-guns, engines, and wagons. From this point of view 
 the drama probably existed long before the dance. Many 
 writers not only seek to find the origin of the drama in the 
 dance, but also poetry and music. But the fact seems rather 
 to be that these arts have their origin in the physiological 
 and psychological constitution of human nature. The dance 
 has unquestionably favored the development of these arts, 
 but it is no more the origin of them than the church is the 
 origin of religion, or the State the origin of government. 
 The disposition of modem writers to trace everything to a 
 communal origin must give way as more light breaks in 
 upon the life of the savage. 
 
 Music. — But if the Negroes take a low rank in the 
 dramatic art, they take a high rank in the art of song. Per- 
 haps no people in the world are so fond of singing. The 
 boatman sings all day long keeping time with his paddles, 
 the woman pounding grain beats in time to her voice, the 
 carrier sings to his tread and the farmer to his hoe. Joy, 
 grief and pain are all sown in spontaneous song." As a 
 rule, the African songs are nothing but monotonous and 
 often improvised recitatives." In the Calabar region there 
 are some strolling minstrels who may be met in the streets 
 carrying a large kind of net, to which are dangling such 
 
 ' " Principles of Sociology," Vol. 3, p. 228. 
 
 ' Missionary Review of the World, Vol. 19, n. s., p. 799. 
 
 > Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 328. 
 
^ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE BANANA ZONE 335 
 
 odd things as pythons' back-bones, tobacco pipes, bits of 
 china, feathers, birds' heads, reptiles' heads and bones, and 
 to every one of these objects hangs a tale or song. You 
 select an object and pay for the song to which it corresponds. 
 Miss Kingsley was fortunate enough one day to meet one 
 of these minstrels who had attached to his net a human 
 hand and a human jaw-bone. " They were his only songs," 
 she says, and, " I heard them both regardless of expense. I 
 did not understand them because I did not know his lan- 
 guage, but they were fascinating things, and the human 
 hand one had a passage in it which caused the singer to 
 crawl on his hands and knees round and round, stealthily 
 looking this side and that, giving the peculiar leopard quest- 
 ing cough and making the leopard mark on the earth with 
 his doubled-up fist. O I That was something like a song 1 
 It would have roused a rock to enthusiasm : a civilized 
 audience would have smothered its singer with bouquets — I 
 — well, the headman with me had to interfere and counsel 
 moderation in the heads of tobacco." ' 
 
 The chief musical instruments of this zone are the drum, 
 tambourine, a trumpet made of ivory, a long wooden pipe 
 which sounds like a bellowing ox,^ and several kinds of 
 harps. 
 
 Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture. — In the line of paint- 
 ing and drawing this zone has almost nothing to offer. 
 It is said that the Fantis have no idea of pictorial de- 
 sign and do not even make the rudest attempts at pic- 
 tures.' In sculpture and carving the quantity is great and 
 the quality is poor. The idols are made of wood or clay, 
 and are generally caricatures of the objects they are sup- 
 posed to represent. The carving of weapons, tools, etc., 
 however, is sometimes very good. Weapons are usually 
 ornamented with figures of men, reptiles and other animals.* 
 
 ' " West African Studies," p. 127. ' Duncan, Vol. i, p. 26. 
 
 " Brackenbury, p. 327. * Duncan, Vol. l, p. 247. 
 
336 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 In this connection the writer recalls a statement of Ruskin's 
 that the people who are the most cruel and cold-hearted 
 always bestow the most exquisite workmanship upon 
 their weapons. Stanley saw some carved soup-ladles in 
 Ashanti that an European workman might be proud of, and 
 a carved stool which would adorn any drawing-room.' 
 There are scarcely any attempts at architecture or the orna- 
 mentation of houses. Nevertheless, the front part of build- 
 ings is sometimes ornamented with figures of animals.^ 
 Stanley describes a home in Ashanti which he thought rose 
 to some architectural pretensions. The walls, to a height 
 of three feet above the ground, were painted an ochrish red, 
 and above that, they were painted a waxen white, covered 
 with designs in relief. The cornices were set off with many 
 grooves and freizes, and the pediments were something of 
 the Ionic order.^ The natives of this zone have a large 
 stock of folk-stories, which, however, have no particular 
 meaning or moral. 
 
 Love of Nature. — Nowhere in this zone do the people 
 seem to show any appreciation of nature. This is perhaps 
 because nature is so often manifested in a hostile form, 
 causing deaths from lightning, from earthquakes, hurricanes 
 and diseases, and hence the attitude towards it is always 
 that of terror. It is only where nature is less hostile or 
 where it has, in a measure, been conquered, that men come 
 to be on friendly terms with it and to manifest love for it. 
 
 1 " Coomassie," p. 167. 
 
 2 Freeman, p. 55 ; Allen and Thomson, Vol. I, p. 387. 
 
 ' " Coomassie," p. 167. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI 
 iESTHETIC LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 
 
 Mutilations of Skin, Lips and Teeth. — Tattooing is not 
 so common in this zone, except along the lower borders in 
 proximity to the banana zone. Although it exists to some 
 extent among the Hausas,' Lander observed it first at 
 Egga on his trip down the Niger.^ The women of Bidjii 
 have the flesh on their foreheads raised in the shape of 
 marbles and their cheeks similarly cut up and deformed.^ 
 The Kakandas have three gashes on each cheek.^ The 
 Krumen have marks only on their foreheads." The Man- 
 dingo women tattoo their lips and fill in the perforations 
 with a blue coloring substance." Some of the Sienre men 
 tattoo marks upon their stomachs, while all of the women 
 have their stomachs and chests tattooed in the forms of 
 ornamental squares, lozenges and bizarre geometric figures.^ 
 In the eastern part of this zone tattooing is practiced by 
 the Bongos, Shulis and Madis.' 
 
 The wearing of lip ornaments seems to have a peculiar 
 fascination for the people of this zone. In the eastern sec- 
 tion along the Nile the people wear a silver nail in the lower 
 lip, two of the lower teeth having to be knocked out to 
 make room for it' Baker saw two old women on the banks 
 of the Nile quarreling over some broken pieces of ther- 
 mometer with which to ornament their lips.'" Such orna- 
 ments are found in many of the Upper Nile regions and 
 
 ' Rohlfs, Vol. I, p. 344. 2 Vol. 2, p. 131. 
 
 • Lander, Vol. i, p. 94. * Allen and Thomson, Vol. 2, ji. 105. 
 
 » Spilsbury, p. 125. ' Lasnet, p. 84. ' Binger, Vol. i, p. 213. 
 
 9 Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 27 ; Schweinfurth, Vol. i, p. 298. 
 » Letourneau, p. 88. '" Ibid., p. 88. 
 
 337 
 
338 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 also in many districts of the west.' Ear ornaments are not 
 so common but are worn by the people of Bidjii and per- 
 haps elsewhere.^ 
 
 The practice of multilating the teeth is in vogue more or 
 less throughout the entire millet region, and among the Nile 
 people it is universal.' The styles of deformation vary ac- 
 cording to locality. In some places the people are satisfied 
 to knock out a few front teeth ; elsewhere they file the upper 
 incisors to a point/ and in still other places they cut an in- 
 verted V between the upper incisors.' In the east the upper 
 incisors are filed to a point and the lower ones knocked out* 
 The practice of filing to a point extends through the equato- 
 rial regions from Bongo to the Kassai River.' 
 
 Body Painting and Hair Dressing. — Body painting is very 
 popular and grotesque in this zone. The Nile people paint 
 and grease their bodies to such an extent that it is difficult 
 to discern the real color of their skin.* In the west, instead 
 of painting the entire body, the natives prefer to put on only 
 a few artistic touches here and there. For example, the 
 women of Kano dye their hands, feet, legs and eyebrows.' 
 The inhabitants of Nyfiee dye their hands, feet, eyebrows, 
 eyelashes and lips." The Borgus dye their lips, teeth, and 
 finger and toe-nails." The women of Yauri are satisfied to 
 give their lips a delicate coloring of blue or yellow.'^ Lip 
 painting is also common among the Mandingos'^ and 
 Hausas, the favorite color of the former being blue and of 
 the latter red. The Hausas also use red to color their teeth." 
 
 • Binger, Vol. I, pp. 184, 213 ; Lander, Vol. I, p. 300. 
 
 2 Lander, Vol. 1, p. 94. 
 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 27. 
 
 ■•Spilsbury, p. 125. s Wood, p. 612. 
 
 « Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 525. IitJ.,'V6l. 3, p. 69. 
 
 8 litd.. Vol. 3, p. 28. 
 
 ' Clapperton, " Journey to Kouka and Sackatoo," p. 47. 
 
 '0 Clapperton, " Second Expedition," p. 172. " Lander, Vol. i, p. 248. 
 
 «/*i/., Vol. I, p. 300. " Lasnet, p. 84. " Featherman, p. 39I. 
 
ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 339 
 
 The art of head decoration is not carried to such ex- 
 travagant heights in this zone, for the reason, perhaps, that 
 other means of showing off are more effective and less 
 troublesome. Still the tonsorial art here loses nothing of its 
 originality or picturesqueness. The women of Nupe and 
 Kano usually plait their hair and dye it with indigo,' and 
 the same style prevails in other cities.^ By the way, does 
 not this style suggest that the first wool dyeing was upon 
 the human head ? 
 
 Jewelry and Clothing. — The adornment of the body by 
 means of rings, bracelets, armlets, and anklets is everywhere 
 the fashion, but is not carried to the same excess as in the 
 banana zone. The more numerous and more bedizened 
 articles of clothing render such ornaments less necessary. 
 For example, among the Hausas, unmarried girls and boys 
 wear " a piece of cotton drapery of blue and white check, 
 notched at the edge with red woolen cloth. It is tied around 
 the waist with two broad bands ornamented with red stripes, 
 the loose ends of which reach down behind the ankles. The 
 men are dressed in tunics of blue dyed cotton cloth. Both 
 the men and women of the higher classes cover their 
 shoulders with a kind of shawl or mantle." ' The styles are 
 varied but always graceful.^ Skins, sandals and hats and 
 turbans are more generally used than among the people 
 near the coast. The Yorubas twist a handkerchief around 
 their heads or wear a palm leaf hat or fez cap.' The Bam- 
 baras sometimes wear a cotton cap pointed at the summit 
 and embroidered with many colored threads, and again they 
 wear a large straw hat surmounted with a colored tuft of 
 straw.' However, among some tribes the wearing apparel 
 is reduced to a minimum. For example, the Bongo men 
 wear only a piece of bark cloth between their legs, while 
 
 ' Clapperton, " Second Expedition," pp. 47, 171. ' Ibid., p. 47. 
 
 'Featherman, p. 391. *Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. 394. 
 
 » FsBtherman, p. 194. • Ibid., p. 332, 
 
340 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 the women wear only a banana leaf suspended from their 
 belt. Every morning a Bongo lady gets her costume fresh 
 from the forest.' Bark cloth is quite extensively worn 
 throughout the forest regions of this zone. Of course 
 feathers, beads and so forth are used everywhere for trim- 
 mings. 
 
 Dancing. — Dancing is universal except among a few 
 Mandingos who have been converted to Mohammedanism 
 and who regard it as a heathenish practice.^ In the city of 
 Jenne, the people romp and dance every night to the ac- 
 companiment of vocal and instrumental music, the per- 
 formers being liberally supplied with beer, and the affair 
 usually ending in intoxication and wrangling.^ One even- 
 ing on the banks of the Niger, Lander saw some young 
 girls, and women with infants on their backs, dancing, romp- 
 ing and clapping hands with the utmost agility. As now 
 and then a dancer fell to the ground exhausted, another 
 began anew, and the merry exercise thus continued until 
 daylight. Lander thinks that the moonlight dances on the 
 Niger are irresistibly charming.* Speaking of one of these 
 dances at Lever, he says, " In the evening the inhabitants 
 of the town assembled outside our house to amuse them- 
 selves by dancing and singing in the moonlight ; for not- 
 withstanding all of their misfortunes and oppressions, they 
 never refrain from indulging with all of their hearts in these 
 sprightly and thoughtless entertainments. Every dancer 
 held in each hand a cow's tail. They were all dressed 
 grotesquely and a great quantity of strings of cowries en- 
 circled their legs and bodies which made a loud, rattling 
 noise. The singing, clapping of hands and bursts of 
 laughter made the occasion one of great merriment." ° 
 Binger says that at Tengrela, the relative prosperity brings 
 to the evenings much gaiety, and the little children with 
 
 • Schweinfurth, Vol. I, p. 294. 2 Bowen, p. 42. 
 
 » Lander, Vol. I, p. 105. * Vol. i, pp. 306, 307. ' Vol. 2, p. 40. 
 
ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 341 
 
 torches in their hands, dance to the music of a rude harp 
 until nine o'clock.' In Yoruba the young people are also 
 very fond of dancing. They shuffle and jump to the beat of 
 the drum, and if their movements are never graceful, they 
 are, at least, not immodest. The one who can throw his 
 feet, hands, head and body in the most grotesque manner is 
 considered the best dancer.^ 
 
 Drama. — The drama, in this, as in the banana zone, is 
 seen only in its infancy. A rude beginning of it is found 
 among the Krumen, who, sometimes in their dances, attempt 
 to represent a hunting scene.* It has a more distinct devel- 
 opment at Katunga where the people are accustomed to act 
 plays or pantomimes on occasions when caboceers are on a 
 visit to the king. One of these plays, for instance, repre- 
 sents catching a boa-constrictor. While a man acts as ring 
 master, several other men arrange themselves in a row, 
 covered with cloth representing an immense boa. The 
 sham serpent now twists and turns and attempts to bite the 
 ring master, who, after a struggle, overcomes it and bears 
 it off in triumph to a fetich house. Another play, inspired, 
 no doubt, by some embryonic Juvenal, is a sort of satire on 
 the white man, who is impersonated by placing in an upright 
 position, a figure cast in wax, and making it take food, 
 snuff and perform other antics illustrative of the white man's 
 peculiarities.* 
 
 Music. — Fondness for singing is no less characteristic 
 of the people of this zone. At Kong, says Binger, the 
 young people do not dance at night, but form processions 
 and sing in chorus to the accompaniment of the tam tam 
 and bells." Schweinfurth observed that the Bongos " down 
 to the small boys are all musicians." Any hour of the day 
 they may be heard strumming away and singing a babbling 
 
 ' Vol. I, p. 184. ' Bowen, p. 302. ' Allen and Thomson, Vol. 2, p. 325. 
 * Clapperton, " Second Expedition," p. 86. 
 sVol. I, p. 300. 
 
342 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 recitative.* The propensity of the Negroes to sing is so great 
 that they often express in song anything they may happen 
 to be thinking about. A good example of this is given by 
 Mungo Park. Once, after his caravan had been devastated 
 by death and his horse lost, he reached the town of Sego, 
 where he sat all day under the shade of a tree, without food 
 and without being able to induce any one to take notice of 
 him. But just as night fell and he was about to climb a 
 tree to escape the wild beasts, an old woman returning from 
 her work in the field, looked with compassion on him, took 
 up his saddle and bridle and told him to follow her. She led 
 him to her hut, broiled some fish for him, and pointing to a 
 mat, told him he might sleep there. During a good part of 
 the night, she, together with some women who were spin- 
 ning cotton in the hut, sang in plaintive tones the following 
 song : 
 
 " The winds roared and the rains fell ; 
 The poor white man, faint and weary, 
 Came and sat under our tree ; 
 He has no mother to bring him milk. 
 No wife to grind his com." 
 Chorus : 
 
 " Let us pity the white man : no mother has he," etc. 
 
 The musical instruments used by the people of this 
 zone are numerous and varied, including the drum, tam 
 tam, reed pipes, triangles, trumpets, flutes, harps, guitars, 
 fiddles, castanets, etc.^ The Hausas have regular traveling 
 musicians and singers.^ 
 
 Painting and Sculpture. — Paintings are found only here 
 and there. At Busah, Clapperton noticed some figures of 
 human beings, and also of a boa, alligator and tortoise 
 
 'Vol. I, pp. 287, 289. 
 
 ^^Lasnet, pp. 88, 95; Binger, Vol. i, p. 184; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," 
 Vol. 3, p. 39; Binger, Vol. I, p. 300; Clapperton, " Second Expedition," p. 117; 
 Staudinger, p. 598. s Staudinger, p. 606. 
 
ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE MILLET ZONE 343 
 
 painted on the walls of a fetich house.^ To paint a landscape, 
 historical event or even a hunting scene, does not seem to 
 have ever occurred to the people of this zone. 
 
 Rude sculpture or carving prevails among all of the 
 heathen tribes but only to a slight extent among the Moham- 
 medans, whose religion forbids the imitation of the human 
 figure.^ Clay figures representing men, and sundry animals 
 are very common.^ Wood-carving is found in a good many 
 towns. At Kiama, Lander observed that the legs of stools 
 were sometimes ornamented with the figure of some animal, 
 as, for example, that of the hippopotamus.* Most often the 
 chairs and wooden pillows used in the houses are prettily 
 carved." In Hausaland, the children make little clay horses, 
 camels, etc' At Jenne, the fetich priests wear suspended 
 from their necks, small pieces of wood, carved in imitation 
 of men's faces.' The women of Egga, as mentioned in 
 another connection, wear on their heads, wooden figures of 
 little children.^ The court-yards of well-to-do people are 
 sometimes adorned with little statues of men and women.' 
 Among the Bongos, carved figures are found upon the gate- 
 ways of palisaded enclosures or set up beside huts as monu- 
 ments to renowned ancestors.'" Everywhere implements, 
 calabashes, and the like, are ornamented with carvings of 
 one kind and another." Wood-carving is not so well devel- 
 oped among the Hausas as farther south among the Nupes 
 and Yorubas," perhaps for the reasons that wood in Hausa- 
 land is not so abundant and that the Mohammedan religion 
 prohibits the representation of the human body. 
 
 '"Second Expedition," p. 157. 'Staudinger, p. 589. 
 
 « Lander, Vol. 2, p. 28. * Ibid., Vol. i, p. 204. 
 
 6 Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 39. • Staudinger, p. 59I. 
 
 ' Lander, Vol. i, p. 104. 8 Ibid., Vol. i, p. 120. 
 
 » Clapperton, " Second Expedition," p. 79. 
 '» Schweinfurth, Vol. i, p. 284. 
 
 "Lander, Vol. i, p. 104; Bowen, p. 296; .Staudinger, p. 589. 
 "Staudinger, p. 589; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 309. 
 
344 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Architecture : Folk-Lore.— The effort to give an archi- 
 tectural finish to houses is more obvious in this zone. The 
 Yorubas frequently sculpture on their temple doors figures 
 representing serpents, tortoises, leopards, fish, etc.,' and in 
 some districts similar designs adorn the ordinary houses.^ 
 The Bambaras decorate the interior of their houses with 
 figures of oxen, horses, birds, and sundry other beings.^ 
 At Katunga, the posts that support the verandas of houses, 
 as well as the doors of the houses, are often ornamented 
 with carvings of the boa, hog, horse and also of men and 
 slaves.^ 
 
 In the matter of folk-lore and animal stories, the Yorubas 
 perhaps take the lead in this zone. They have professional 
 story-tellers who wander from place to place reciting many 
 imaginary experiences of men with animals. There are also 
 narrators of the national traditions who are attached to each 
 king or chief, and who act as depositories of the ancient 
 chronicles.^ The general trend of the stories is about the 
 same as in the banana zone and the absence of any moral 
 application is no less conspicuous. 
 
 1 Bowen, p. 315. = Clapperton, "Second Expedition," p. 184. 
 
 'Binger, Vol. I, p. 205. < Clapperton, " Second Expedition," p. 79. 
 
 » Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 244. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII 
 ^ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 
 
 Mutilations.— The practice of tattooing is found in this 
 zone among the Dinkas/ Shillooks,^ Kanuris,^ Baris, Shulis, 
 Nuers,^ Latukas/ and among some of the tribes of Fellatahs.' 
 Knocking out the teeth and wearing lip ornaments are com- 
 mon in the east and infrequent in the west.' The higher 
 classes among the Kanuris introduce a piece of coral in the 
 right wing of the nostril,' and it is the fashion of the women 
 to dye their eyebrows, hands, arms, feet and legs with 
 indigo, and their finger and toe-nails with the ruddy henna. 
 Both the Kanuri and Fellatah women dye their eyelashes 
 with black antimony." 
 
 Body Painting. — The practice of painting the body in 
 this zone is more common in the east than in the west, the 
 reason being that the people of the east have lighter skins. 
 Among some tribes the color of the paint upon their bodies 
 is a means of denoting class distinctions. For instance 
 among the Shillooks " when the ashes are prepared from 
 wood, they render the body perfectly gray, and hereby are 
 known the poor : when the ashes are obtained from cow- 
 dung, they give a rusty red tint, the hue of red devils, and 
 hereby can be recognized the landowners. Ashes, dung and 
 the urine of cows are indispensable requisites of the toilet." " 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 29. ' Ibid., p. 64. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 273; Wood, p. 690; Rohlfs, Vol. i, p. 344. 
 
 * Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 27. ' Featherman, p. 79. 
 
 ' Binger, Vol. i, p. 382 ; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, p. 308. 
 ' Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, pp. 27, 277, 289 ; Schweinfarth, Vol. 
 I, p. 150; Featherman, pp. 29, 78, 272. e Featherman, p. 272. 
 
 » Wood, p. 689 ; Featherman, p. 383. " Schweinfurth, Vol. i, p. 88. 
 
 345 
 
346 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Jewelry. — Earrings are generally worn in all parts of 
 this zone, but vary much in quantity and quality. Those 
 worn by the Dinkas are made of iron ^ and also those of the 
 Nuers which sometimes measure a foot in diameter.^ The 
 Dinkas also fetter their wrists and ankles with great quan- 
 tities of iron rings.^ The Jolofs sometimes wear as many 
 as six gold rings in one ear, besides wearing necklaces, 
 bracelets, and anklets of gold, silver, coral or beads. They 
 wear around their waists sometimes thirty or forty strings of 
 variously colored beads which make a jingling sound with 
 every movement of the body.* Throughout this zone there 
 is the usual display of necklaces, anklets, bracelets so char- 
 acteristic of the Negroes generally. 
 
 Hair Dressing. — The most fashionable color for dyeing 
 the hair, especially in the eastern part of the zone seems to 
 be red. The Nuers dye their hair a tawny red by binding 
 it up for a fortnight in a compo of ashes and cow-dung,' 
 while the Dinkas give to their hair a lustrous red hue by 
 means of a simple application of the cow-liquid.® The 
 Fellatah women often plait their hair in tresses and color it 
 blue with indigo.' It ought to be added that in doing up 
 their hair the people show equally much taste as in color- 
 ing it. The young Dinka dandies train their hair into stiff 
 pointed tufts which stand out like the bristles of a porcu- 
 pine,' and the Kanuri ladies, after plastering their hair with 
 bees-wax, do it up in a large central roll which expands at 
 the end like a bird's tail or the peak of a helmet' The 
 Jolofs, after glossing their hair with an application of butter, 
 arrange it into long, beautiful tresses."" 
 
 Clothing. — In the matter of clothing, the people go to 
 the opposite extremes of too much and not enough. Among 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 29. > Geographic Journal, Vol. 16, p. 182. 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 29. 4 Ibid., p. 351. 
 
 ' Schweinfurth, Vol. I, p. 119. e Featherman, p. 29. 
 
 ' Ibid. p. 383. 8 Ibid., p. 29. » Ibid., p. 272. " Ibid., p. 350. 
 
ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 347 
 
 the Shillooks all of the men and children go about perfectly 
 naked, while the women barely conceal themselves behind 
 a calf-skin apron reaching to their knees and embroidered 
 with glass beads, iron rings and bells.' The Dinkas and 
 Latukas also disdain clothing with the exception of the 
 women who gird themselves with two flaps of untanned 
 skin.^ Among the eastern people, cows' and goats' tails 
 often lend a picturesqueness to their scant attire.* Skull caps 
 are sometimes worn decorated with cowry shells or ostrich 
 feathers.* Among nude people one would imagine that 
 ladies and gentlemen would not occupy much time in mak- 
 ing their toilet, and that they would therefore escape some 
 of the annoyances of civilized people. But alas, even nude 
 men and women have to do up their hair, grease and paint 
 it, bind body and soul together with some kind of girdle, 
 adjust rings, anklets, touch up their lips and toe-nails with 
 some indigo or what not. Binger says that when a Negro 
 is awakened in the morning, he rolls a while in his bed, then 
 gets up and searches for his charms, a forgotten bracelet, his 
 pipe, his quiver, and so forth and so on, and it is nearly an 
 hour before he is ready for work." The other extreme in 
 dress is reached by the Kanuris who estimate the wealth of 
 a person by the quantity of his clothing. The principal 
 dress of the men consists of cotton tobes or shirts, which are 
 piled one upon another according to the financial standing 
 of the wearer. In many cases men also wear cotton trousers. 
 The upper class women wear long gowns which trail the 
 ground, and they throw over their shoulders a scarf of showy 
 calico, leaving one shoulder and breast uncovered." The 
 Jolof men and women wear a loin cloth, fastened around 
 their waists by a sash, and a piece of drapery of blue cotton 
 stuff over their shoulders. The women sometimes cover 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 64. » Schweinfurth, Vol. i, p. 153. 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 29. ' Ibid., p. 64. 
 
 ' Vol. I, p. 411. ' Featherman, p. 272. 
 
348 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 their heads with picturesquely colored kerchiefs.* Both 
 sexes wear leather sandals. The Fellatah women wear " a 
 close shirt of white cotton, having short sleeves, which cov- 
 ers the body from neck to hips. Their ample drawers reach 
 a little below the knee, and as ornamental finery they have 
 a piece of red cloth patched to them behind at the lower 
 edge. A large, flowing shirt-like robe, generally of white 
 cotton cloth, but occasionally of blue baftus, constitutes their 
 over dress, which descends below the knee and is decorated 
 with embroidery at the breast and shoulders. Their legs 
 are always bare, but their feet are protected by sandals or 
 slippers. The head is covered by a cap of coarse red worsted 
 or of blue or red cotton cloth, which is sometimes entwined 
 in the fashion of a turban. . . . The women wrap around 
 their waists a large piece of cotton drapery, which reaches 
 to the ankles like a petticoat, but leaves the arms and upper 
 part of the body entirely exposed. . . . They always go 
 bareheaded as well as barefooted, but they nevertheless 
 cover their heads with a veil when going abroad." ^ 
 
 Dancing and Drama. — Dancing does not seem to be quite 
 so popular or universal in this zone, although among some 
 tribes it is the favorite pastime,^ and sometimes is an occa- 
 sion of debauchery. The Jolofs have their regular moon- 
 light dances, which are said to be " wild and lascivious," * 
 and to last all night.® In some hamlets, instead of dancing 
 every night, the people play games, sing, exchange visits and 
 tell stories.® Social life begins to take on more refined 
 forms. The transition from the dance to the drama in this 
 zone is seen among the Shillooks, when, in one of their 
 dances, they represent the attitude and movements of a 
 warrior in the presence of the enemy.' 
 
 Music, Painting and Sculpture. — In the musical line this 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 350. « Ibid., p. 364. ^ Ibid., pp. 370, 371. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 356. t Hovelacque, p. 27. 
 
 « Featherman, pp. 277, 356. 1 Ibid., p. 66. 
 
ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE CATTLE ZONE 349 
 
 zone offers nothing notably different from what is found in 
 the other zones. The Fellatahs " have^-rwis or professional 
 bards among them, both of the male and female sex, who 
 travel about the country like the minstrels of old, singing 
 the praises of those who are sufficiently ambitious to pur- 
 chase renown and immortality." The Kanuris also have 
 professional story-tellers.^ 
 
 Painting and sculpture are also about the same as in 
 the other zones. A common amusement of the Dinka chil- 
 dren is that of making clay images of goats and oxen.^ 
 Perhaps the carving in this zone is a little truer to life. For 
 example, it is said that the Shillooks carve on their tobacco 
 bowls very good imitations of the human face.' The imita- 
 tion of nature is likely to be more perfect among any people 
 where the religious feelings and the imagination are less 
 overcome with fear. 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 276. ' Schweinfurth, Vol. I, p. 166. 
 
 ' Ratzel, Vol. 3, p. 39. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII 
 ^ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 
 
 Tattooing, Dress, Etc. — Coming finally to the people of 
 the camel zone, it must sufifice to say that too little is known 
 of their aesthetic life to justify any detailed description. All 
 that can be said is that some of the tribes tattoo,* some wear 
 coral in their nostrils,^ and some mutilate their teeth. The 
 commonalty usually dress in sheepskins,* and the better class 
 in cotton cloth. A red fez or turban is their head dress. 
 They are fond of bracelets, armlets, rings and beads, as all 
 other Negroes. They are not very musical, their instru- 
 ments being limited to the drum and a rude bagpipe.* The 
 severity of their struggle for existence indisposes them to 
 frivolous amusements, and it is truly said that they take 
 their pleasure sadly.^ Furthermore, the scattered nature of 
 the population has a tendency to suppress the showing-off 
 instinct. Hence art is rudimentary and undeveloped. 
 
 General Considerations. — The nervous organization of 
 man is such that certain excitations of his senses produce 
 pleasure and others pain, and among the pleasurable sen- 
 sations those which produce a very heightened sense of 
 pleasure are characterized as beautiful. Therefore the sen- 
 sations of beauty may be produced by means of sight, hear- 
 ing, smell, taste or touch. Man has a natural craving for 
 these sensations and cannot be satisfied without them. The 
 appetite for food, the sexual passion and the appreciation 
 of beauty in any kind of art arise from the excitation of 
 
 'Rohlfs, Vol. I, pp. 256, 344; Denham's "Narrative," p. 30. 
 
 ' Rohlfs, Vol. I, p. 255. ' Denham, p. 243 ; Reclus, Vol. 2, pp. 424, 428. 
 
 * Featherman, pp. 752, 754. » Stanford, Vol. I, p. 238. 
 
 35° 
 
^ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 351 
 
 man's five senses and constitute the fundamental stimula- 
 tions to all of his activities. Man's love for seeing and 
 hearing pleasant things, like his love for smelling and 
 tasting them, is a means of forcing him to exercise his mind 
 and body. The mere love of beauty is therefore at the 
 foundation of all progress. But love of beauty should not 
 be confounded with man's love or appreciation of art, which 
 is an entirely different matter. Art is the communication 
 of ideas or feelings from one individual to another, employ- 
 ing beauty only as an instrument. This may be done by 
 wearing a jewel or otherwise decorating the body, by danc- 
 ing, acting, singing, playing on an instrument, painting or 
 sculpturing, building a house, or by writing or telling a 
 story. Everything that man expresses in the form of beauty 
 is art, but it is to be observed that much that appeals to the 
 sense of beauty is not communicated by man, but by Nature, 
 in the form of grass, flowers, fruits, forests, landscapes, clouds, 
 stars and sunsets. The appreciation of natural beauty is 
 not the same thing as the appreciation of art. Natural 
 beauty is always moral and ennobling, whereas art may be 
 good or bad, moral or immoral, according to the character 
 of the age or of the individual artist. 
 
 Art contributes in a manifold way to human progress. 
 Even in its lowest form, which is mere sensuality, it helps 
 to develop man's mind and body, and makes life a litde 
 more worth while. But its value may be stated in less gen- 
 eral terms. For example, personal decorations of every 
 kind cultivate a love of public esteem and tend to build up 
 self-respect. This kind of art continues until other and 
 more substantial means of gaining public favor come into 
 vogue. The dance, in addition to developing physical 
 beauty and grace, tends to make people more social and to 
 awaken a variety of sentiments and emotions which pro- 
 mote the development and specialization of music, poetry 
 and the drama. Music takes up the emotions which Ian- 
 
352 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 guage and the dance have in part developed and con- 
 tinues the work of refining them. Music is the language 
 of emotion and arises from the imitation of the tones and 
 feelings expressed in the cry of anguish, the shout of joy 
 and the intonations of speech in ordinary conversation. 
 The human voice is a compound of two elements : " The 
 words, and the tones in which tl'ey are uttered — the 
 signs of ideas and the signs of feelings." As man ad- 
 vances in culture his vocabulary increases so that he 
 can convey more delicate shades of thought, and at the 
 same time, the modulations or tones of his voice undergo 
 refinement so as to convey more delicate shades of emotion.^ 
 Now, savage people everywhere have relatively simple and 
 few ideas, words and feelings, and on that account, they can 
 produce and appreciate only musical tones corresponding 
 to their narrow range of emotions. They do not go beyond 
 the simplest melody. Among civilized people music be- 
 comes more and more complex and more delicate in its 
 combinations, corresponding to the ever increasing refine- 
 ment of thought and emotion. 
 
 The drama portrays and enlarges the knowledge of 
 human nature, and by representing real or fictitious tragical 
 events, contributes to the development of the heroic, the 
 romantic and the ideal. It serves to keep alive the national 
 traditions and sentiments and thus acts as a sort of stepping- 
 stone to the era of the written record, the library, the monu- 
 ment and the art gallery. 
 
 Art implies some degree of reflection. From time to 
 time man thinks over his past, rehearses in his mind the 
 events, scenes and experiences of the actual life, and he 
 naturally has a longing to reawaken the emotions and sen- 
 sations which the pleasures of the real world have afforded 
 him. His effort to revive these feelings causes him to 
 dance, sing, play on some instrument, paint or decorate. 
 
 • Spencer, " Progress : Its Law and Cause," Chapter 3. 
 
^ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 353 
 
 As the feelings of man are of various kinds, high, low, good 
 and bad, so the art which he creates is correspondingly 
 varied. Whatever he feels is expressed in every phase of 
 his art and on that account art is always a perfect echo of 
 the real life and one of the most accurate means of deter- 
 mining the character of an individual, race or epoch. 
 
 Whether considering savage or civilized people it is 
 important to know the relation of art to other phases of life. 
 It occurs to the writer that the fundamental incentive to 
 human activities is the desire for happiness. But experi- 
 ence teaches that this can be obtained in the highest degree 
 only by postponing present for future gratifications, and by 
 a rectitude of conduct which does not infringe upon the 
 happiness of others and is in the interest of all. This prin- 
 ciple of the greatest good to all is the final standard by 
 which all valuations must be judged. To strive for this 
 good is the highest human virtue. Broadly speaking, there 
 are two means by which man seeks this ideal good. The 
 first is by knowledge or science, which is necessary for 
 determining the difference between bad or good actions. 
 The second is beauty, both material and ideal, which man 
 employs to create sympathy for right actions and aversion 
 to wrong ones. By the first means man develops his under- 
 standing and by the second his feelings. In order for any 
 race to reach a high standard of civilization its science and 
 art must march pari passu; and it is just as necessary that 
 art contain an ethical significance as that science contain the 
 truth. Art therefore occupies a rank equal to that of science 
 as a factor of human progress. 
 
 Among the Negro races science and art have little con- 
 scious development. The aesthetic life of the Neg^o exists 
 in its lowest form, which is a love of beauty for its own 
 sake. The love of beauty for the sentiment which is ex- 
 pressed with it in the form of art, has scarcely more than a crude 
 manifestation anywhere among the natives of the Sudan. 
 
354 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Looking back over the several zones it seems that the 
 form of art which appeals to the eye predominates in the 
 lower zones, since the life of the people there is more exclu- 
 sively confined to objective interests. Advancing north- 
 ward, the arts which appeal to the ear and to the under- 
 standing, i. e., music and folklore, acquire relatively greater 
 importance, at least up to the camel zone, where the isolated 
 life is blighting to all art. Waitz says that in love and 
 talent for music, the Negroes are ahead of all other natural 
 races,^ but it is necessary to bear in mind that the music 
 that they love and appreciate is of the most elementary kind 
 corresponding to their deficient refinement of feelings. 
 
 In the plastic arts there is no effort on the part of the 
 Negroes to go beyond an exact imitation of the thing repre- 
 sented. The higher form of art where the effort is not to 
 portray the particular and concrete but the abstract and 
 ideal, is attained only by the most civilized races. 
 
 The sense of beauty in respect to the general aspect of 
 nature, which is the highest manifestation of purely aesthetic 
 development, is rare among the inhabitants of the Sudan, for 
 the reason that they grasp things too much in the concrete 
 and are too unaccustomed to reflection, contemplation and 
 observing things in combination. They can appreciate a 
 beautiful flower, a shining bit of gold or a colored bead or 
 other object, but they fail to appreciate a sunset, landscape 
 or anything existing in combination and made up of har- 
 mony and proportion. They have no sense of the beauty 
 of a thought, because when an image or idea is called up in 
 their minds, it tends to produce some kind of physical 
 activity, or it suddenly disappears in favor of the next comer. 
 The idea or image is too fleeting to enable the mind to see 
 it in all of its bearings and to pass judgment upon it. 
 
 None of the Negroes considered in this volume seem to 
 have any sense of the sublime. In every such sensation 
 
 1 Vol. 2, p. 236. 
 
.ESTHETIC LIFE IN THE CAMEL ZONE 355 
 
 there must be a certain pleasurable admixture of fear, but if 
 the ingredient of fear is too strong, the sense of the sublime 
 gives way to a mere feeling of fright. It is only when man 
 feels protected from the forces of nature or able to master 
 them that he can take delight in their great, and sometimes 
 awful, manifestations. On the same principle it is only the 
 brave and disciplined soldier who can see sublimity in a 
 great battle. As a rule, when a Negro contemplates the 
 great forces of nature, the content of fear is too great to ad- 
 mit of any leaven of pleasure. His aesthetic life is therefore 
 never manifested in that exalted form which is an admira- 
 tion of nature akin to worship. 
 
 Any statement of the order in which the fine arts have 
 developed is reserved for another volume. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE 
 BANANA ZONE 
 
 Relation of the Size of the Brain to its Activity. — In 
 this zone there seems to be a correspondence between the 
 shape and size of the brain and the quantity and character 
 of the work imposed upon it. On account of the dispropor- 
 tionate activity of the brain, it is smaller in this zone than in any 
 other .^ Discussing the evolution of man, Darwin says that " as 
 the various mental faculties gradually developed themselves, 
 the brain would almost certainly become larger. No one, I 
 presume, doubts that the large proportion which the size of 
 man's brain bears to his body, compared to the same pro- 
 portion in the gorilla or orang, is closely connected with his 
 higher mental powers. . . . The belief that there exists 
 some close relation between the size of the brain and the 
 development of the intellectual faculties, is supported by the 
 comparison of the skulls of savage and civilized races, of 
 ancient and modern people, and by the analogy of the whole 
 vertebrate series." ^ However, Darwin admits that " there 
 
 ' Hovelacque, p. 241. A consideration worthy of note here is that while the 
 Negroes having the smallest brain capacity are in the banana zone, those having the 
 most negroid face-features and the least mixture of foreign blood are in the millet 
 zone near Lake Chad. The smaller and more brachycephalic brain development 
 in the banana zone may be due somewhat to a mixture with the more aboriginal 
 Negritos, but the writer believes that the relative inactivity of the brain in that 
 zone is the chief explanation of its dwarfed or shrunken dimensions. Hence, what- 
 ever may be the race its brain development will correspond to its intellectual 
 activity, provided time is given ; and while in respect to the brain the race may 
 represent the lowest type of man, in respect to face-features or other morphological 
 characteristics, a lower type may exist in another race or region where the condi- 
 tions are more favorable to brain development. 
 
 ' " Descent of Man," p. 69. Referring to the Negroes of America, Dr. Bean 
 says, " The Negro brain is smaller than the Caucasian, the difference in the size 
 being represented in both gray matter (nerve cells) and white matter (nerve fibres). 
 
 356 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 357 
 
 may be extraordinary mental activity with an extremely 
 small absolute mass of nervous matter," and therefore it 
 may be concluded in respect to any given race or epoch, 
 as common observation teaches, that men of relatively small 
 brains are often among the most intellectual individuals. 
 This phenomenon is readily explained by the superior form 
 and organization of the brain, and it suggests the second 
 important fact to note in this connection, to wit, that the 
 conformation of the brain in this zone is different from that 
 of civilized people or of the Negroes in other districts of 
 Africa. The Negro skull in the banana zone is character- 
 ized by a receding forehead, extraordinary prognathism and 
 relatively large occipital development, which give it a long, 
 narrow form resembling somewhat an egg with the sharper end 
 foremost. The reason for this peculiar formis that the Negro's 
 higher mental faculties have not been developed, and conse- 
 quently the frontal region of his brain where those faculties re- 
 side, remains dwarfed or stunted. It is believed by the best 
 and most modern psychologists and physiologists that the 
 nerve centres that control the will, that restrain the passions 
 and the reflex activities, and that organize thought and con- 
 duct, are located in the forepart of the head. " The Interior 
 association," says Barker, " that is, the association centre of 
 
 . . , Brain cells are the basis of brain power or mental ability, and their number 
 is known to remain constant throughout life, so that there seems never to be a degree 
 of mental development beyond the possible expression of the brain cells inherited. 
 Development of brain activity by experience, education, etc., is considered to be 
 correlated with the development of sheaths around the nerve fibres as they become 
 active in the transmission of impulses. The efficiency of the brain depends upon 
 the number and position of such nerve fibres, just as the efficiency of a telephone 
 system depends upon the number of its various connections and ramifications. The 
 negro brain having fewer nerve cells and nerve fibres, assuming that gray matter 
 and white matter respectively represent these numerically, the possibilities of de- 
 veloping the negro are therefore limited, except by the crossing of other races." 
 " The Negro Brain," by Robert Bennett Bean, M. D., Century Magazine, Septem- 
 ber, 1906, p. 779. The only objection to the statement of Dr. Bean is that it does 
 not allow for changes in the size and powers of the brain produced by functional 
 activity. 
 
358 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 the frontal lobes has manifold connections with the somses- 
 thetic area and hence also with the motor regions concerned 
 in conduct. So that here in all probability, Flechsig states, 
 is to be sought the anatomical mechanism by means of 
 which memory traces all bodily experiences, especially acts 
 of the will are stored up. . . . Indeed, it is in the dis- 
 eases affecting this area that most marked alterations in the 
 character of the individual are met with. The phenomena 
 of attention, of reflection and of inhibition, are possibly 
 especially connected with this frontal association centre." ^ 
 " In the front part of the brain," says Dr. Bean, " are located 
 the motor area, part of the area for smell, and the great an- 
 terior association area. This association area is closely 
 connected with the area that controls the muscles of the 
 body, and contains definite bands of fibres to all other areas 
 of the brain, and is connected with the lower centres of the 
 nervous system. It represents the subjective faculties — the 
 great reasoning centre, the centre of abstract thought. 
 Lesions of the anterior association area are known to cause 
 alteration or loss of ideas regarding personality, the sub- 
 jective self ; and a loss of self-consciousness, of the power of 
 inhibition, of will power ; a diminution in the capacity for 
 ethical and aesthetic judgment." ^ As man's mental powers 
 develop the frontal region of his brain becomes larger.^ 
 " Professor Broca found," says Darwin, " that the nineteenth 
 century skulls from graves in Paris were larger than those 
 from vaults of the twelfth century, in the proportion of 1484 to 
 1426, and that the increased size, as ascertained by measure- 
 ments, was exclusively in the frontal part of the skull — the 
 seat of the intellectual faculties." * On account of the early 
 cessation of brain growth, the sutures of the Negro skull in 
 
 '"The Nervous System," New York, 1899, p. 1079. 
 
 ' " The Negro Brain," by Robert Bennett Bean, M. D., Century Magazine, 
 September, 1906, p. 784. 
 
 ' Haeckel, Vol. 2, p. 226. *■ •< Descent of Man," p. 70. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 359 
 
 this zone, as elsewhere, at least according to some authori- 
 ties, close up earlier than those in the skull of the Cau- 
 casian.' Ellis states that " throughout West Africa it is by- 
 no means rare to find skulls without any apparent transverse 
 or longitudinal sutures." " The relative largeness of the 
 Negro brain in the posterior region is due to the fact that 
 the sensory nerves have their centres chiefly in the parietal 
 and occipital lobes, and that the passions and feelings of the 
 Negro, having been subjected to little restraint, have given 
 those regions of the brain a relatively extraordinary develop- 
 ment' . . . "In the hind part of the brain," says 
 Dr. Bean, "are located the areas for sight, hearing, taste, 
 and smell, and the body sense area that receives impressions 
 from the whole surface of the body, from the muscles, and 
 from the viscera. Besides this, in the midst of these areas, 
 there is a large region called the posterior association area. 
 The posterior association area is intimately connected with 
 the special sense areas, just mentioned, and is considered to 
 represent the objective faculties." * On account of the 
 greater and more prolonged activity of the centres of sensa- 
 tion, it is thought by some authorities that the occipital 
 sutures in the Negro skull close later than his frontal 
 sutures. As to the convolutions of the Negro brain in this 
 zone, it is probable, although no direct evidence bears 
 upon the fact, that they differ from those of the Negro 
 brain in the other zones, since it is generally believed that 
 brain convolutions are less complex in the lower than in 
 the higher types of men." The growing complexity of the 
 brain is in all probability, due to the increasing exercise 
 
 •Binger, Vol. 2, p. 246; Fritsch, p. 441 ; Hovelacque, p. 240. 
 
 ' " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 10. 
 
 'Osier, "Principles and Practice of Medicine," New York, p. 913; James 
 " Psychology," New York, pp. 47, 53, 58, 60. 
 
 * " The Negro Brain," by Robert Bennett Bean, M. D., Century Magazine, 
 September, 1906, p. 784. 
 
 » Foa, p. 102 ; Tylor, p. 60 ; Haeckel, Vol. 2, p. 227. 
 
36o THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 of the higher faculties, such as associative memory and 
 constructive imagination. Finally it is to be remarked 
 that the character of the blood possibly has something to 
 do with the efficiency and growth of the brain, although 
 this is a matter which still awaits scientific investigation. 
 The blood of the Negro is known to be different from that 
 of the Caucasian in that it coagulates more rapidly. This 
 may be due to its peculiar chemical quality or to the cli- 
 mate.^ The Negro brain develops more rapidly and matures 
 earlier in this, than in any other, zone, and certainly earUer 
 than the brain of the white man anywhere. This is in 
 accordance with the general law that the simpler the organ- 
 ism the more rapidly it reaches its maximum of growth.^ 
 Hence the children of this zone, as of the lower races 
 generally, are remarkably precocious and when taught in 
 schools by the side of white children, often surpass them up 
 to the age of puberty.* At this period, however, the Negro, 
 accustomed from time immemorial to give complete reign 
 to his sexual passions finds it difficult to keep up interest in 
 lines of study which require the inhibition of other interests. 
 Ellis remarks of the children of this zone that at the age of 
 puberty " the physical nature masters the intellect and fre- 
 quently deadens it." * However, Waitz thinks that this 
 arrest of mental growth is due to the climate and not to race 
 characteristic, since the same phenomenon is observed 
 among the Nubians, Egyptians and Sandwich Islanders.' 
 The reply to such argument is that the climate has produced 
 the race characteristic. 
 
 Perceptive Power. — In perceptive power the Negroes of 
 this zone show a certain preeminence. In keenness of ob- 
 servation and attention to details, they are, in common with 
 
 1 Huxley, " Physiology," New York, 1892, p. 69 ; Binger, Vol. i, p. 36. 
 
 2 Spencer, " Principles of Sociology," Vol. i, p. loi. ' Hid. 
 * " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 10. 
 
 ' Vol. 2, p. 235. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 361 
 
 all of the lower races, superior to civilized people.* Their 
 habit of life tends to make them close observers. Sur- 
 rounded by all manner of dangers that are threatened both 
 by nature and by their fellow men, they are all eyes and ever 
 on the alert. They grasp easily and quickly any concrete 
 fact outwardly presented to their senses. 
 
 Conceptive Power. — On the other hand, in power of con- 
 ception, i. e., grasping things in the abstract, they are notably 
 deficient. The subject-matter of their consciousness is made 
 up of concrete memory impressions or momentary feelings 
 excited by the external phenomena, and floating images 
 such as one sees in dreams, reverie, delirium or insanity. 
 They do not easily see things in combination or form ideas 
 distinct from particular objects seen or things experienced. 
 In their world everything is heterogeneous. All things 
 seem lacking in any common element. The ability to gen- 
 eralize and see that things are related, have common ele- 
 ments, and are governed by rules or laws, is peculiar only 
 to the highest civilized races, and has been a very slow evo- 
 lutionary development. It seems probable that the first 
 generalized notions in the child and in the race were de- 
 rived from studying the actions of human beings, since one 
 necessarily observes the peculiarities of his own species 
 more closely than those of any other class of phenomena. 
 The primitive man discovers that the members of his own 
 species have like qualities and experiences, and hence the 
 abstract conceptions which he first consciously recognizes 
 and applies are in the nature of maxims and proverbs. For 
 example, among the Dahomans are such proverbs as fol- 
 lows : " No one chases two birds," ?'. e., one cannot do two 
 things at once ; " two men are not blockheads," i. e., two 
 heads are better than one ; " the stick you have in your hand 
 is the one with which you strike the snake," /. c, make the 
 best of your opportunities ; " Cowries are men," i. e., money 
 
 • Spencer, " Principles of Sociology," Vol. i, p. 87. 
 
362 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 makes the man ; " One tree does not make a forest," i. e., one 
 swallow does not make a summer,' These proverbs collected 
 by Ellis certainly contradict his statement that the people 
 " constantly fail to grasp and generalize a notion." ^ The 
 only conclusion that the facts seem to warrant in this matter 
 is that outside the realm of human conduct, the generalizing 
 power of the Negroes is weak and undeveloped. 
 
 Power of Attention. — In power of sustained attention, 
 which corresponds to mental energy, the natives of this zone 
 are manifestly imperfect. Ideas usurp their consciousness 
 according to the stimulations of the moment. Their will 
 power is not trained to reject irrelevant appeals to their at- 
 tention. "The Negro," says Hovelacque, "is noted for a 
 great inconsistency of mind. There is no regularity in its 
 conduct. If he accomplishes a task one day in a certain 
 fashion, the chances are that the next day he will perform 
 the same task in a different manner. . . . The intellec- 
 tual inferiority of the Negro in comparison with the Euro- 
 pean betrays itself above all in a great incapacity for sus- 
 tained attention." ^ The difference between the mental en- 
 ergy of the Negro of this zone and that of the average 
 European may be illustrated by comparing two steam en- 
 gines, one being capable of a strain of only ten horse power, 
 and the other of one hundred horse power. The smaller, 
 less perfect and weaker brain of the Negro, not being accus- 
 tomed to heavy pulling, suffers and frets under a burden 
 which the stronger brain of the European would scarcely 
 feel. The deficient power of attention of the Negro is due 
 partly to the smallness of his brain resulting from its lack of 
 exercise and possibly to the early closing of the sutures, 
 partly to the enervating climate, which owing to the de- 
 ficiency of oxygen, lowers the Negro's vital energy in the 
 same way that the lack of fuel or water, diminishes the 
 energy of an engine, and finally to the subordination of his 
 
 > Ellis, " Ewe Speaking Peoples," pp. 259, 262. » Ibid., p. 10. » P. 425, 427. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 363 
 
 intellect to his passions, which after the age of puberty, 
 monopolize his thought and impoverish his vitality. This 
 tendency of the Negro to succumb to prolonged mental 
 effort is a matter of frequent comment. Foa, who admits 
 that the intellect of the Negro is in many respects equal to 
 that of the white man says that "it does not follow from this 
 that we place the black on the same level as the European 
 in respect to mental energy and sense of order, — this com- 
 plement — this motive power of the intelligence. There he 
 is inferior to the white race : he is unable to struggle." 
 Thrust him " among the thousands of obstacles that encum- 
 ber those who have an elevated aim and who give their life 
 in order to triumph in practical science, politics or social 
 questions and he will founder, become discouraged and give 
 up at the first check." ' 
 
 The Negroes of this zone have not the same whips and 
 spurs to their brains that the people have in more favored 
 parts of the world. They have no serious problems to solve 
 and no heavy brain work to undergo. Their minds are 
 therefore in a state of spontaneous reverie.'' As in the child, 
 their attention is reflex and passive, and their train of 
 thought is followed because it is interesting per se. The 
 higher form of attention is what James calls derived atten- 
 tion, where the images or trains of thought " are interesting 
 as a means to a remote end, or because they are associated 
 with something that makes them dear." ' In every man's 
 life there are thousands of things, external and internal, daily 
 and hourly soliciting and beckoning him to look thither. 
 Whether he permits his mind to drift into reverie and like a 
 butterfly flit from one object to another, or fixes it continu- 
 ously upon one idea or one train of thought, depends upon 
 the extent to which he is interested in one or more of the 
 many concerns of life. A man's love for his family, desire 
 to provide a home, educate his children and leave them a 
 
 > p. 1 16. ' Bouche, p. 26. ' " Psychology," Vol. i, pp. 417, 418. 
 
364 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 competence, or his general love of mankind, fondness for 
 applause or mere intellectual curiosity, give him definite 
 aspirations and a tendency to concentrate his attention upon 
 some special line of work. His particular interest, whatever 
 it may be, is his rudder and compass. If he is deeply inter- 
 ested in industrial lines, he will think long and often upon 
 some kind of business ; if he is interested deeply in the aspect 
 of things he will direct his energies upon painting, sculpture, 
 architecture and decorative art ; if he is deeply interested in 
 the play of social forces he will fix his mind upon history, 
 the drama, novel or social science ; or if deeply interested 
 in the play of natural forces, he will work in the field of 
 physics, chemistry, biology or other natural science. Hence 
 in order to control his attention he must have certain pre- 
 ponderating motives or interests which he has consciously 
 selected, through the exercise of his will and judgment, and 
 which are strong enough to exclude all irrelevant appeals 
 that may be made by the external or internal transient exci- 
 tations. The people of the banana zone are absorbed 
 mostly in things which have only a spasmodic allurement 
 and which do not result from conscious selection and judg- 
 ment based upon an intelligent weighing of the significance 
 of those things for the individual and social welfare. Per- 
 haps man found for the first time, in the hunting stage, an 
 interest which gave fixity and duration to his attention and 
 served as a lesson in disciplining his mind to choose among 
 conflicting interests those which have a wide social signifi- 
 cance, since hunting is more cooperative and social than 
 living, as man in the first stage of evolution must have 
 done, upon the spontaneous products of nature. The 
 banana zone people seem to represent a transition from the 
 first stage to that of the hunting stage. As man advances 
 towards civilization, the increased knowledge and wider 
 range of interests furnish more profound and lasting objects 
 for the mind to act upon, and afford opportunity for more 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 365 
 
 intelligent judgment in selecting those objects. Sustained 
 attention is easier, says James, " the richer in acquisitions 
 and the fresher and more original the mind. . . . But an 
 intellect unfurnished with materials, stagnant, unoriginal, 
 will hardly be likely to consider any subject long." ' The 
 highest form of attention is that where a man has an all ab- 
 sorbing interest, a definite aim or ambition, which is large 
 enough to engage all of the powers of his mind and strong 
 enough to keep them to their purpose throughout life.^ 
 From the above considerations it is evident that the feeble 
 power of attention of the Negro's mind is due to the ab- 
 sence, through countless generations, of any motive to 
 stimulate it and give it tenacity, and the same considerations 
 teach the important lesson that moral development must 
 precede intellectual development.' 
 
 ' " Psychology," Vol. i, p. 423. 
 
 ' It is not necessary that a man's attention be uninterrupted. In fact, the mind 
 is all the better for being diverted, on the principle that a bow is the stronger for 
 unbending. Furtliermore a certain disposition of the attention to wander away from 
 any particular subject under consideration, is often characteristic of the highest order 
 of minds, because the attention is obliged to turn aside and run after ideas which the 
 immediate subject awakens, or because of a deeper interest in some other subject 
 which is in the line of one's life purpose. For example, a man may be listening to 
 a conversation, lecture, sermon, or reading a book, and suddenly become unconscious 
 of the words or letters striking his ear or eye. If this results from some new con- 
 nection or idea which he instinctively considers worth following as bearing upon 
 something in line with his predominant interest, it is indicative of a rich imagina- 
 tion, intricate power of associative memory, and subtle reasoning capacity. This 
 represents the highest form of attention, and is not in any sense reverie or fugitive 
 ideation. It indicates a mind of wide grasp, having the ability to absorb into the 
 main subject, ideas which are scattered over a wide area, and which to ordinary 
 minds, would have no connection. The essential thing is the predominant interest 
 and the constant recurrence to it. School-teachers often mistake this superior type 
 of mind for stupidity, incapacity for attention and idle reverie. Sustained attention 
 requires effort, and each effort put forth gives it increased strength. Says James, 
 " If we often flinch from making an effort, before we know it the effort making 
 capacity will be gone : and if we suffer the wandering of our attention, presently it 
 will wander all the time . . . keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a 
 little gratuitous exercise every day." — "Psychology," Vol. I, p. 126. 
 
 ' It is true that an immoral or unsocial motive may give stimulus to a man's in- 
 
366 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Connection Between Mental and Physical Energy. — 
 There is an intimate connection between mental and phys- 
 ical energy. Other things being equal, the man with the 
 larger brain power can put forth more physical energy than 
 the man of relatively small brain.' Therefore the lack of 
 mental energy among the Negroes of this zone partly ex- 
 plains their lack of physical energy. Referring to the 
 Fantis, Stanley says that they are the " most indolent, toil- 
 hating tribe it has ever been my lot to see." ^ With one 
 accord all authorities characterize the inhabitants of this zone 
 as indolent to the last degree. But it is a mistake to sup- 
 pose that the Negro is lazy in the sense of being slow of 
 movement or averse to physical activity. On the contrary 
 he is agile and dances with the greatest spirit and vigor. 
 He is only lazy in the sense of being indisposed to do dis- 
 agreeable or continuous labor, and this is due to lack of 
 mental incentive. Every Negro tries to shift his burden 
 upon the shoulders of another. Indeed there is nothing so 
 characteristic of man everywhere or so difficult to eradicate 
 from his nature, as this indisposition to do the work 
 necessary for his own support. The survival of this trait is 
 seen among civilized people in their mania for gambling, 
 for lotteries and all manner of schemes for getting what 
 another possesses without giving anything in return. Noth- 
 ing delights man more than a wind-fall. 
 
 Memory. — In the matter of memory, the Negroes of this 
 
 tellectual faculties, but only the moral or social motives can furnish the depth, 
 breadth and duration of interest which make for healthy mental growth. The im 
 moral and unsocial motives are generally disorganizing and hurtful to the faculties 
 by reason of unfavorable reactions. Therefore, intellectual progress is only com- 
 patible with moral progress. It is unquestionably true that a highly intellectual 
 people may be also highly immoral, but it is only after they have once been moral 
 and have begun to degenerate ; and in proportion as morals decline the intellect will 
 decline also. 
 
 ' Spencer, " Principles of Sociology," Vol. I, p. 53. 
 
 ' " Coomassie," p. 53. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 367 
 
 zone seem to be exceptionally endowed.* " The Negro," 
 says Hovelacque, " has ordinarily a prodigious memory, 
 and that is again an infantile side of his natural dispositions." ^ 
 However, the memory of the Negro differs from that of the 
 civilized man in one important particular. What the Negro 
 remembers is relatively simple and concrete, whereas what 
 the civilized man remembers is involved and complex. 
 When the latter recalls an idea, he usually drags along with 
 it a host of other ideas. This is because he is so accustomed 
 to combining ideas when they enter his brain that when he 
 happens to recall them they have a tendency to awaken all 
 other ideas with which they were originally associated, and 
 even to recall ideas not previously associated. The brain 
 of the civilized man is more complex, in that it has a more 
 intricate system of transverse and radiating channels for the 
 intercommunication of ideas. 
 
 Imagination is Reminiscent. — As in the case of the mem- 
 ory, the imagination of the Negro differs very much from 
 that of the white man. Accustomed to close observation 
 and to receiving mere impressions through the medium of the 
 eye, the ideas in the mind of the Negro are more visualized. 
 His mind is a picture gallery, reflecting and calling up 
 images of the external phenomena. Indeed, so crowded 
 is his mind with imagery, that all of his thoughts tend to 
 express themselves in metaphor, and his language itself be- 
 comes poetic. Every manifestation of the natural world, 
 such as rain, thunder, lightning, earthquakes, movement of 
 stars or actions of animals or growth of plants, is personified. 
 Every force in nature calls up in his mind the image of 
 some person or animal that has been photographed upon 
 his retina. This habit of seeing and interpreting things in 
 terms of images, gives to the imagination constant exercise 
 and consequendy extraordinary development. Spencer as- 
 serts that the imagination of the savage is reminiscent while 
 
 ' Wajtz, Vol. a, pp. 334. ' P. 426. 
 
368 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 that of the civilized man is constructive. This is no doubt 
 true, but the fact must not be overlooked that the develop- 
 ment of the reminiscent imagination is a necessary prepara- 
 tion for the constructive. The extraordinary development 
 of the imagination of the primitive man has been a necessary 
 and wise provision of nature, for without it the higher stages 
 in the evolution of the mind would have been impossible. 
 Indeed, it is now a serious question whether civilized people 
 are not suffering from a decay of the reminiscent imagina- 
 tion, and consequently experiencing a decline in poetic 
 capacity and power of idealizing. The statement of Ma- 
 caulay that with the progress of civilization, the imagination, 
 and with it poetry, tends necessarily to decline, is only true 
 in so far as he had in mind the imagination of the reminis- 
 cent kind, i. e., the power of calling up concrete images and 
 using them for descriptive purposes. 
 
 Undeveloped Constructive Imagination. — But if the imagi- 
 nation of the primitive man is more apt in imagery, it is far 
 behind that of the civilized man in handling ideas which are 
 not mere direct reflections of sense impressions, in power of 
 reconstruction and invention. The philosopher or scientist 
 who formulates an hypothesis for the solution of a problem, 
 must have an imagination as fertile as that of the poet, but 
 of another sort. The African does not employ his imagi- 
 nation for scientific purposes because he has been accustomed 
 to calling up in his mind only isolated, concrete pictures or 
 ideas. He has not analyzed, classified and organized his 
 store of facts, and hence in response to the call, few ideas 
 come forth. Facts or ideas which might be of service to 
 him lie in the detached cells and by-ways of the brain, be- 
 cause his reason has not analyzed their parts, and his imagi- 
 nation has not been accustomed to shuffling them and es- 
 tablishing connections between them. What we call origi- 
 nality is nothing but this power of the imagination of play- 
 ing over a wide and intricate area of stored up facts,^of 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 369 
 
 rummaging the brain for what it wants, — of having the key- 
 to all of its store-rooms and secrets. Of course, the more 
 knowledge a man possesses the greater opportunity the 
 imagination will have to accomplish results. Constructive 
 imagination is undoubtedly the highest intellectual faculty, 
 and men differ more in respect to this than any other power 
 of the mind. It is the distinctive mark of the genius, and 
 has nothing in common with the obsessions of fools and 
 madmen. Those scientists who hold that genius and in- 
 sanity are twin brothers overlook the fact that the imagi- 
 nation of the genius is constructive, while that of the mad- 
 man or crack-brain, like that of the savage, is reminiscent 
 and reflex. A genius may become insane, but an insane 
 man never becomes a genius. The insane and degenerate 
 are capable only of obsessions. 
 
 Connection Between Imagination and Morals. — But the 
 most important fact in this connection, is that no matter how 
 gifted a man may be in imaginative faculty, he will be a 
 total failure, so far as results are concerned, unless this fac- 
 ulty has something to stimulate it. Usually the imagination 
 is aroused into activity by some shock, or deep impression 
 upon the feelings. In the ordinary person, the passion of 
 love or jealousy, a great sorrow, or an insult or rebuff, is 
 sufficient to excite it to immediate and violent agitation. 
 Ideas and images will then rise up in wild and distorted 
 confusion, and a thousand of them will clamor for recogni- 
 tion at one time. A mind so inflamed will see, feel, think 
 and do things which in the normal state would be im- 
 possible. But excitations of this kind are likely to be tem- 
 porary, and do not sufifice to stimulate the mind to continuous 
 activity. The man who has some great purpose or pre- 
 dominant interest about which he feels deeply all the time, 
 will have the greatest incentive to develop this faculty to its 
 highest pitch. Therefore the more deeply one feels, — the 
 more sensitive his nature, — the more constant his purposes 
 
370 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 and interests, the more the imagination is likely to develop. 
 Here again we observe the dependence of intellectual de- 
 velopment upon moral development. 
 
 Imitation and Lack of Invention The deficient construc- 
 tive power among the Africans of this zone, partly explains 
 their great propensity to imitate, and lack of originality and 
 inventive power. Ellis says that the Ewe people " can imi- 
 tate but cannot invent or apply." ^ They have an antipathy 
 to innovation and are slaves to habit and custom. For ex- 
 ample, on one occasion when an European was building a 
 house in Dahomi, he made some wheelbarrows and showed 
 the Negroes how to use them to economize time and labor 
 in bringing rock. When, after some absence, he returned 
 to see how the work was progressing, he found the Negroes 
 carrying the loaded wheelbarrows on their heads.'' The na- 
 tives of this zone have never dreamed of a cart, although 
 they make long journeys to market with great loads on 
 their backs and heads ; and they have never dreamed of a 
 crutch, although many cripples hobble about their villages. 
 They have not even enough originality to change their styles 
 of dress, but wear the same shapes and colors from century 
 to century, except that the coast people, out of vanity, wear 
 as decorations, the cast-off garments of Europeans. But 
 another explanation of this lack of originality is found in the 
 large conglomerate groups into which the population is 
 divided. Originality bears a close relation to the density of 
 population. Where large numbers of people live in one 
 community, the crowd exercises a coercive influence upon 
 the individual's dress, manners, thoughts, beliefs and mor- 
 als, destroying his originality and making him a slave to 
 convention. In a country where people live in small scat- 
 tered groups, or isolate themselves as in the case of scien- 
 tific specialists, by forming small circles within the crowd, 
 the individual has less chance to imitate, and therefore more 
 
 ' " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. lo. » Duncan, Vol, i, p. 24. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 371 
 
 freely expresses his individuality, and more often innovates 
 and invents. No people in the world, not excepting the 
 Chinese, are so conglomerate and so little able to separate 
 themselves from the crowd as the Negroes. 
 
 Deficient Reasoning Power. — That the inhabitants of this 
 zone are deficient in reasoning power, is sufficiently attested 
 by the absurd superstitions connected with their religion. 
 And not only is their reason deficient in power, but differs 
 from that of the white man in its operations. In the first 
 place, when the Negro reasons, he employs almost altogether 
 concrete images or facts which he has experienced, and 
 which seem to him to have some similarity or applica- 
 bility to the thing about which he is thinking. As in the 
 operation of his imagination, the process is reproductive and 
 not constructive. He seizes and uses things stored up in 
 his mind just as they were at first seen or felt as wholes. 
 He does not analyze the wholes and use the parts as links 
 in his train of thought. This is the kind of reasoning also 
 manifested by the lower animals. For example, the writer 
 once saw a dog put out of the door of a hotel and left in the 
 street. The ejected animal began to reason how he might 
 get in again. He first attempted to push open the door, 
 but failing in this, he ran around the house to see if he could 
 enter through some other door. Failing in this also, he re- 
 turned and jumped up high enough before the front door to 
 be seen from the inside through the glass panel, but no one 
 seeming to take notice of him, he then meditated a moment 
 and seemed to light upon a new idea. He knew that peo- 
 ple coming and going along the sidewalk frequently entered 
 the door from which he was shut out. So he ran to meet 
 every pedestrian who happened to be coming in either direc- 
 tion, following him to see if he would enter the office door. 
 At last he joined a gentleman who happened to be heading 
 for the hotel, and both entered together. Now observe, that 
 all of the means of opening the door known to the dog were 
 
372 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 merely those which he had learned by experience. He had, 
 when the front door was not tightly closed, pushed it open ; 
 he had entered by means of other doors ; he had been let in 
 frequently in consequence of some one having seen him 
 through the glass panel, and he had many times entered 
 when the door was opened by a stranger. If he had re- 
 mained outside till doomsday he could never have thought 
 of anything not previously experienced, — could never have 
 thought of a key or the turning of a knob. Another illus- 
 tration of the inability of animals to reason outside of expe- 
 rience is found in the fact that, while monkeys will gather 
 around a fire which hunters have left in the forest, all of 
 the monkeys in the world could not muster wisdom enough 
 to throw another stick upon the blaze, — simply because that 
 is outside of their experience. A similar limitation of rea- 
 soning power is found among all of the lower human races, 
 but nowhere to the extent as among the Negroes of this par- 
 ticular zone. 
 
 The Peculiarity of the Reasoning of the Civilized Man. — 
 The reasoning of the civilized man goes beyond this. In 
 the first place, he can think of things in other relations than 
 those in which they were originally experienced. He can 
 divide his experiences or knowledge into fractions and re- 
 combine the parts so as to discover the new and the novel. 
 In the second place, the civilized man can reason not only by 
 a different method from that of the savage, but he can select 
 as the object of his reasoning, some fact, effect, or cause 
 which neither he nor any one else has ever observed, felt or 
 thought of before. The chemist searching for a new ele- 
 ment or the physicist searching for a new force is an illus- 
 tration. When Newton was seeking to discover why heavy 
 objects fall to the ground, he employed the two processes of 
 reasoning which are usually absent in the lower races. The 
 idea that there might be some law or force explaining the 
 fall of objects, was an entirely new objective point for in- 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 373 
 
 vestigation, something which could not be experienced, and 
 which only a cultivated intellect could conceive of. And in 
 his method of reasoning, he does not consider things as 
 wholes or concretes just as he has experienced them, but 
 takes the whole or concrete fact and analyzes it, splits it into 
 parts and endeavors to see if there is not something in one 
 of the parts which is common to other parts. In the case of 
 the falling apple he sees that it is made up of many parts or 
 elements and may be considered under many aspects. It 
 has form, color, seed, core, flavor, juice, peeling, weight, etc., 
 but all of these things he has previously known, and none 
 of them suggests to him anything which is common to all 
 other things and which might cause them to influence each 
 other. Finally he attributes to the apple a new element, 
 never before seen, experienced or dreamed of, to wit : attrac- 
 tion. This is the new means employed to reach the new 
 end sought. He now supposes this new element to be com- 
 mon to all matter, verifies his supposition by experiment 
 and thus discovers the law of gravity. The chief superiority 
 of the reasoning of the cultured over the uncultured, is in 
 greater power of singling out objects to be sought, in 
 greater power of analyzing things and discovering the char- 
 acteristics of their fragments, and greater power of seizing 
 upon some analyzed part and calling up all of its connec- 
 tions to bear upon the subject under consideration.' 
 
 ' The writer is here attempting to give in his own language the explanation of 
 reasoning contained in James' "Psychology." In true reasoning to quote James' own 
 belter, but more technical language, an idea suggested by the facts " is apt to be a 
 thing voluntarily sought, such as the means to a proposed end, the ground for an ob- 
 served effect or the effect of an assumed cause. All these results may be thought of 
 as concrete things, but they are not suggested immediately by the concrete things, as 
 in the trains of simply associative thought. They are linked to the concretes which 
 precede them by intermediate steps, and these steps are formed by general characters 
 articulately denoted and expressly analyzed out. A thing inferred by reasoning need 
 neither have been an habitual associate of the dictum from which we infer it, nor 
 need it be similar to it. It may be a thing entirely unknown to our previous ex- 
 perience, something which no simple association of concretes would ever have 
 
374 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 How Reason Begins. — The reason of man begins by a 
 simple process of analogy. Any whole fact which resembles 
 another or is in proximity to it, is supposed to act upon it 
 as cause or effect. " Furnishing parallel cases," says James, 
 " is the necessary first step towards abstracting the reason 
 imbedded in them all." '■ The next step is where the wholes 
 are analyzed and the connections, analogies or similarities 
 are discovered which are common to the separate elements. 
 After the mind begins to reason outside of experience, in 
 the manner set forth by James, the further progress in rea- 
 soning depends upon the general stock of knowledge. In 
 proportion as men analyze, classify and break up wholes 
 into parts, the number of common or connecting elements is 
 increased and therefore the materials for thoughts are multi- 
 plied and the possibility of discovering causes and effects is 
 
 evoked. The great difference, in fact, between that simpler kind of rational think- 
 ing which consists in the concrete objects of past experience merely suggesting each 
 other and reasoning distinctively so called, is this, that whilst empirical thinking is 
 only reproductive, reasoning is productive. . . . Let us make this abihty to deal 
 with novel data the technical differentia of reasoning. ... It contains analysis 
 and abstraction. Whereas the merely empirical thinker stares at a fact in its en- 
 tirety and remains helpless or gets stuck, if it suggests no concomitant or similar, the 
 reasoner breaks it up and notices some one of its separate attributes. This attribute 
 he takes to be the essential part of the whole fact before him. This attribute has 
 properties or consequences which the fact until then was not known to have, but 
 which now that it is noticed to contain the attribute, it must have. . . . Reason- 
 ing may then be very well defined as the substitution of parts and their implications 
 or consequences for wholes, and the act of the reasoner will consist of two stages. 
 First sagacity, or the ability to discover what part M (essential essence) lies imbed- 
 ded in the whole S which is before him ; Second, learning, or the ability to recall 
 promptly M's consequences, concomitants or implications. . . . The essence 
 of a thing is that one of its properties which is so important for my interests that in 
 comparison with it I may neglect the rest. . . . The first thing is to have seen 
 that every possible case of reasoning involves the extraction of a particular partial 
 aspect of the phenomena thought about and that whilst Empirical Thought simply 
 associates phenomena in their entirety, Reasoned Thought couples them by the con- 
 scious use of this extract." — Vol. 2, pp. 329, 330, 331, 341. It is to be noted that 
 James would not consider the act of the dog above referred to as reasoning. The 
 ideation of an animal or man limited to experience he calls empirical thinking. 
 ' Vol. 2, p. 364. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 375 
 
 greatly enlarged. The use of the microscope and telescope, 
 the furnace, dissolving acids, the dissecting knife and all 
 analyzing processes, has, with each step, increased the ma- 
 terials for reasoning and at the same time the accuracy of 
 the conclusions. From the foregoing considerations, it is 
 very evident that the reasoning of the Negroes of this zone, 
 represents a low stage of development and could be im- 
 proved only by a slow evolutionary process such as the 
 civilized races have gone through, and that it could never 
 be much improved under any circumstances in the unfavor- 
 able environment of this zone. 
 
 Connection Between the Development of Reason and 
 Morals. — But the most important fact to notice is that the 
 amount of stored-up knowledge, and the quantity of things 
 analyzed out and made available for reasoning, depend upon 
 the motive or stimulation, without which no knowledge 
 would be accumulated and no investigations attempted. In 
 this respect the civilized man differs widely from the unciv- 
 ilized, and still more widely from the lower animals. To a 
 certain extent all animals are investigators, but they are 
 guided mostly by their instincts, and have a very narrow 
 range of interests. The dog analyzes with his nose and the 
 eagle with his eye, but neither one has any interest except 
 that connected with food or sexual pleasure. The savage 
 has interests somewhat wider in range, in that he investi- 
 gates a greater variety of phenomena. He has aesthetic ap- 
 petites which are more intense and more varied than in the 
 case of animals. He likes to see beautiful things, hear pleas- 
 ing sounds, and to taste and smell agreeable things, but he 
 is not interested in them unless they appeal directly to his 
 senses, whereas, the civilized man takes delight in idealizing 
 and reproducing his experiences in some form of art, as a 
 poem, drama, etc. ; and in addition to these things that ap- 
 peal to his senses, he has an intellectual curiosity and in- 
 terest in social life which furnish much subject-matter for 
 
376 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 cogitation. Thus the civiHzed man adds to aesthetic stimu- 
 lations those of the scientific, and therefore he has a thou- 
 sand motives to excite inquiry where the savage has one, 
 and having more motives to reason, he reasons more often 
 and with an ever improving technique. James says that 
 " a creature which has few instinctive impulses or interests, 
 practical or aesthetic, will dissociate few characters, and will, 
 at best, have limited reasoning powers : whilst one whose 
 interests are very varied will reason much better.^ Here 
 again the intimate connection between mental and moral 
 development comes to light, showing that reason develops 
 in proportion as man feels deeply and extends his interests 
 and sympathies to all phases of life. A man who has con- 
 tracted or intermittent interests, is incapable of serial 
 thought. He can trace nothing to the end or bottom, and 
 his half reasoned conclusions give him an unbalanced judg- 
 ment. 
 
 Lack of Foresight. — ^The Negroes of this zone have very 
 little foresight, for the reason already indicated in the dis- 
 cussion of their economic life. Nature furnishes them with 
 the necessaries of existence and they do not aspire for much 
 in the way of luxuries on account of the enervating climate. 
 The Negro, says Hovelacque, "is so sluggish that if he 
 works it is only through constraint. He works not to amass 
 a fortune, but to live. . . . He maintains a tranquillity 
 unknown among most men. He never regrets the past 
 which he pretends to have well spent, and he does not re- 
 gard the future." ^ Foa, referring to this same characteris- 
 tic, says that " The future has for him little importance. He 
 does not think of it. In his old age when he has no more 
 strength to work, he dies of hunger and misery, without 
 succor or support. He has never helped his fellow men, and 
 he knows that he has nothing to expect from any of them.' 
 . . . The black works only from necessity and in order 
 
 1 " Psychology," Vol. 2, p. 345. s P. 424. » Ibid., 115. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 377 
 
 to earn or obtain his nourishment. As soon as he has food 
 for two days, he passes the time in his hut stretched out 
 upon his mat, smoking, and half the time sleeping. . . . 
 As a farmer, he works just long enough not to miss the 
 season suitable for the harvest, and he gives to his land only 
 the attention strictly indispensable. When he has sowed he 
 does nothing more. He waits," ' The natural indifference 
 of the Negro to the future is no doubt enhanced by the un- 
 favorable political conditions. "Where life is uncertain," 
 says Ellis, " of what advantage is it to prepare for to-mor- 
 row? Where any improvement in condition is likely to 
 arouse the cupidity of an irresponsible chief, why seek to 
 improve it? Hence, we find a great indifference to the 
 future." ^ The people of this zone seem to have no social 
 consciousness, and never even think of directing their activi- 
 ties towards any definite goal. 
 
 Lack of Wit. — Wit is an intellectual manifestation un- 
 known, and quite impossible, to the people of this zone. It 
 is in its nature an essentially facetious play of ideas, exciting 
 only the emotion of surprise, and can only be produced by 
 a people who are accustomed to much reflection, analysis 
 and shuffling of ideas. In the serious work of the intellect, 
 in the searching out of the relations between ideas, there 
 often come up in the mind associations of ideas which have 
 an apparent but not a real connection. This faculty of seeing 
 ideas in fictitious opposition does not exist in minds that are 
 filled with images or mere impressions of the senses, but in 
 minds that are skilled in the manipulation of abstract ideas, 
 and accustomed to rapid work. To the savage mind any 
 mental effort is usually painful. On the other hand, to the 
 civilized mind, rich in ideas and accustomed to josding them 
 about, mental effort ceases to be painful and becomes easy 
 and agreeable ; thought takes a wide range, goes out of its 
 beaten paths and discovers a variety of odd relations. Wit 
 
 ' p. 1 14. ' " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 1 1. 
 
378 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 is therefore a result of surplus energy and is the sport of a 
 mind that is athletic. The French are an example of a race 
 that is highly intellectual and at the same time very witty. 
 
 Keen Sense of Humor.— In respect to humor, however, 
 the people of this zone have an extraordinary development. 
 A sense of humor does not depend upon a play of ideas, but 
 may arise from any surprising incongruity perceived through 
 the eye or other sense, and which does not excite along with 
 surprise any serious emotion. For example, the sight of a 
 man dressed in some outlandish costume, or meeting with 
 some unexpected accident, as falling in a mud-hole, or doing 
 any strange thing, as walking on all-fours, — is so palpably 
 absurd that to appreciate it requires no mental effort or in- 
 sight. As the perceptive powers of the Negro are very 
 acute, he is particularly alert for all objective incongruities, 
 and takes a keen delight in them. In this respect he is like 
 a child. But there is a higher form of humor, which con- 
 sists of seeing the incongruities of words or ideas, and which 
 the Negro scarcely ever manifests, and which is found only 
 among the highly enlightened races. 
 
 Nevertheless, the fact should not be overlooked that the 
 simpler kind of humor trains the mind for the more elevated 
 kind. Any humor at all is an aid to both mind and morals. 
 A sense of what is incongruous in the aspect of things 
 strengthens the perception of the incongruities in the essence 
 of things, and helps to distinguish between right and wrong. 
 Men of very intense moral nature, however, are often so ab- 
 sorbed in the moral incongruities that they become indiffer- 
 ent and almost insensible to any other kind. Also, absence 
 of humor is often noticed in people who have a consuming 
 malignant passion, but from neither of these causes is humor 
 ever lacking in the people of this zone. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE 
 BANANA ZONE {Continued) 
 
 Feelings Relatively Few, Insensitive and Simple. — 
 Leaving now the subject of the intellectual capacity of the 
 Negroes, and considering their sensitive nature, i. e., their 
 feelings and moral disposition, the fact first to be noticed is 
 that their feelings are relatively few in number, insensitive 
 and simple. Among the lower races of men as among ani- 
 mals, there are a number of very fundamental feelings which 
 are necessary to the protection and propagation of the 
 species. One of the most fundamental of these is the feel- 
 ing of fear. This is instinctively felt in the presence of 
 danger and is the first step in self-preservation. It is mani- 
 fested by a paralytic shock, a suppression of movement, or 
 disposition to crouch, withdraw or escape. Another feel- 
 ing, hardly less important and derived from fear, is that of 
 anger, which is characteristic of a higher stage in which an 
 animal or man, instead of crouching or escaping, prepares 
 to fight. It causes a rush of blood to the extremities in 
 order to supply strength for sudden and extraordinary ex- 
 ertion. Other of the more fundamental feelings are those 
 of sexual pleasure, of pleasure in companionship of one's 
 kind, of pleasure in play, in adventure and in the satisfac- 
 tion of one's sesthetic wants. In the civilized man, to these 
 fundamental feelings, are added those connected with the 
 acquisition of knowledge, with discoveries and inventions ; 
 feelings of racial and national pride, of consciousness of per- 
 sonal virtue, worth and achievements, and many others. 
 
 In the next place, the feelings of the lower races are 
 
 379 
 
38o THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 relatively obtuse. The sensitiveness of any one's feelings 
 depends very much upon the complexity of his brain. In a 
 highly organized brain, every sensation which reaches the 
 consciousness, awakens in its track a multitude of other 
 sensations, and all combine to intensify the impression. 
 The biological law that the sensitiveness of impressions 
 varies according to the degree of integration and differentia- 
 tion of the nervous organism, is stated clearly by Ward who 
 says that " the higher the organization the more intense the 
 sensations, whether agreeable or disagreeable. This is be- 
 cause the more complicated the mechanism the more deli- 
 cate it is, and the greater damage occasioned by an equal 
 amount of violence, A high degree of sensibility is unnec- 
 cessary to a low degree of organization, since the tenacity 
 of life is inversely proportioned to the degree of organiza- 
 tion. . . . Helix Veatchii which was observed to live 
 six years without food, stands in no great need of a keen 
 sense of hunger. The hydra lives as well after being turned 
 wrong side out. Wheat-eels and tradigrades revive after 
 twenty-eight days' desiccation by chloride of lime and 
 sulphuric acid, in a vacuum, and exposed to a temperature of 
 1 20 Cent., while Octopus, the highest of mollusks, and 
 lobsters, the highest of crustacians, replace their arms and 
 legs when lost. Such creatures have moderate powers both 
 of enjoyment and suffering, because high powers are not 
 demanded by their physiological economy. As we rise in 
 the scale, the same law holds throughout, that the degree of 
 feeling increases with the degree of organization.'" Refer- 
 ring to the Negroes of the banana zone, Sanderval says that 
 they " are not much superior to animals in moral and phys- 
 ical sensations." ^ According to Foa, the calm and resigna- 
 tion which a Negro shows when captured are " in great part 
 due to his lack of moral sensibility." ' In another connec- 
 
 • " Dynamic Sociology," Vol. 2, p. 152. 
 
 * Quoted by Hovelacque, p. 324. a p_ 262. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 381 
 
 tion, the same writer says that, as a rule, medicines have less 
 effect per quantity upon the Negro than upon the Caucasian,* 
 and that thirty-five or forty per cent, of alcohol is necessary 
 to convince a Negro that he is not drinking water,^ 
 
 The feelings of the Negro are not only relatively insen- 
 sitive, but relatively simple and uninvolved. Take for ex- 
 ample the feeling of love. In its lowest form it is only 
 sexual animation and contents itself with specific satisfac- 
 tions, while in its highest form, it involves a multitude of 
 sensations other than those of a sexual nature.* The love 
 which a highly moral man or woman feels in the married 
 state is a combination of feelings, such as the pleasure of 
 beauty, of affection, of admiration, respect, reverence, love 
 of approbation, self-esteem, the pleasure of possession, of 
 unrestricted freedom, of sympathy, etc. As Spencer says, 
 there is no boundary line that may not be crossed by it.* 
 Indeed, in many cases, especially among women, love is not 
 primarily awakened by the sexual instinct at all, but by con- 
 siderations of respect, love of admiration and sympathy ; 
 and unless it involves some of these complex feelings it is 
 not likely to be more lasting than in the case of animals. 
 In the insane, degenerate or erotic maniac these complex 
 and elevated feelings are rarely experienced. Love in their 
 eyes is merely animal passion. 
 
 It is often remarked that the Negroes are the happiest 
 people in the world, but such a statement is far from the 
 fact. They are more often tormented by fright, more often 
 rent by the reaction of their violent and malignant passions 
 than civilized people, and, having less sensitive and less 
 complex feelings and fewer interests, they are incapable of 
 realizing that heightened sense of pleasure which may be 
 experienced by people of more cultivated mental and moral 
 natures. As man ascends in the scale of being, his nervous 
 
 > p. 1 10. ' P lo6. ' Ribot, pp. 253, 254. 
 
 ♦" Principles of Psychology," Vol. I, p. 488. 
 
382 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 organization becomes more refined and his susceptibility to 
 happiness increases, but whether that possibiUty of greater 
 happiness is reaUzed or not depends of course upon the im- 
 provement of his morals. 
 
 Nevertheless Negroes, as other peoples, experience a 
 predominance of pleasure over pain, and they are happy to 
 the extent that their nature and circumstances permit. It is 
 a mistake to suppose that savage people anywhere lead a 
 miserable existence. They adapt themselves to their en- 
 vironment and find joy in it. 
 
 Feelings Overwhelm Reason and Will. — ^A striking fact 
 about the people of this zone is that their feelings hold des- 
 potic sway over their reason, or to state it in more scientific 
 terms, their sensori-motor actions predominate over their 
 idio-motor actions. In the animal organism any excitation 
 is transmitted to the brain by means of the afferent nerves, 
 and is reflected back by means of the efferent nerves, caus- 
 ing a certain activity of some organ or muscle of the body. 
 In the lower organisms this process takes place unconsciously, 
 and may even take place in a dead animal before its body 
 becomes cold. In some animals, as frogs, the activity in 
 respect to food and sex may be excited after their heads are 
 severed from their bodies, which shows that the actions are 
 entirely reflex, the results of stimulations that reach only the 
 ganglionic centres of the spinal column, and may be produced 
 independently of the brain.^ But in the more highly devel- 
 oped organisms there exists a more complicated system of 
 nerves, having their centre in the brain, where actions are 
 generated, not directly from external stimulations but from 
 ideas, conscious judgment, choice or will. Actions origi- 
 nating in this way are known as idio-motor. They repre- 
 sent a later and higher development than the sensori-motor 
 activities, and only in the highly disciplined human brain 
 are the idio-motor activities able to obtain the mastery over 
 
 'James, Vol. i, p. 17. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 383 
 
 the others. In all of the lower races of men the idio-motor 
 apparatus, being less used, is comparatively undeveloped 
 and impotent. 
 
 Lack of Inhibition, — The Negroes of this zone have very 
 litde power of inhibition. Their wills are inundated and 
 paralyzed by the surging of every passion and impulse 
 towards immediate gratification. The riotous clamor of 
 their passions explains their ungovernable temper, propen- 
 sity to murder, steal, lie, deceive, or to overindulge their sex- 
 ual appetite, their love for liquor, tobacco, or anything that 
 may momentarily strike their fancy. It is this same lack of 
 restraint among civilized people that fills their world with 
 tragedy, strews the path of history with blood, makes neces- 
 sary wars, armies, navies, police, jails, reformatories and 
 penitentiaries, and fills to overflowing their insane asylums, 
 hospitals and orphanages. As a consequence of the long 
 thraldom of the Negroes to their passions, they have become 
 afiflicted with a kind of abulia, i. e., a certain antipathy to 
 whatever exacts resolution, constraint or mental effort. 
 They have acquired a disposition to lean on others, or upon 
 the powers of imaginary spirits, who relieve them of the 
 painful task of thinking and deciding for themselves. Like 
 the abulias among hysterics, they have a wonderful attach- 
 ment for their doctor, helpful friend or other individual who 
 may have strong will-power and decision of character.* 
 They are therefore natural slaves in their mental constitu- 
 tion. While they do not volunteer to become slaves (no 
 people do that) they seldom aspire to freedom. They not 
 only submit tamely to their economic masters, but love them 
 and are unhappy without them. No people in the world so 
 devoutly worship a superior or have a greater contempt for 
 an inferior. This characteristic would not be altogether un- 
 fortunate if the Negro masters were in any real sense superior 
 to Negro slaves, for the attachment of the latter for the 
 
 'Janet, p. 151. 
 
384 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 former, would have a tendency through imitation to lift the 
 slaves to a higher level. 
 
 Temper Rollicking and Unstable.— The unrestrained con- 
 dition of the Negro's passions renders his temper and dispo- 
 sition explosive, anarchic and incalculable. Stimulate his 
 mind in any way and the response is usually instantaneous 
 and unguarded, and gives to his character a naturalness, like 
 that of a child, which is often very attractive.^ He has 
 no fixed standard of conduct, and no general rules that 
 he is constantly afraid of violating as in the case of the 
 civilized man. He is unencumbered and careless, and 
 hence possesses, in contrast to the Mongolian, Indian or 
 Caucasian, a rollicking disposition and demonstrative char- 
 acter. His joys throw him into outbursts of hilarity and his 
 griefs call out the loudest lamentations. " The black," says 
 Foa, " is excessively mournful. When he is sick or wounded 
 he cannot bear physical pain. For nothing he complains, 
 groans, calls for the fetichman and crams himself with na- 
 tive drugs." ^ On account of his chaotic temper, the Negro 
 is often misunderstood and characterized by writers in the 
 most contradictory language. At one moment, or for a con- 
 siderable time, the Negro may be mild, docile, amiable, and 
 hence will be so characterized. At another time he will be 
 peevish, insolent, waspish and intractable, and accordingly 
 will be supposed to possess permanently these qualities. At 
 one time he will be faithful, at another treacherous, one time 
 honest and again thievish. Hence some writers say that 
 the Negro is as mild as a lamb, while others say that he is 
 an ungovernable wild beast. The truth is that he is neither 
 the one nor the other, but a compound of both, his behavior 
 being determined by the circumstances of time and place. 
 Under favorable circumstances, the Negro will be indefinitely 
 
 ' This is generally true except among the Dahomans, where the political des- 
 potism causes the people to hesitate and exercise caution in their conversation and 
 actions, ' P. 107. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 385 
 
 mild, and under unfavorable conditions, will be as perma- 
 nently the opposite. In districts where much war and des- 
 potism prevail, the temper of the Negro is irascible and high 
 strung. Slave-traders, for instance, often commented upon 
 the fact that Negroes from the regions of Dahomi and 
 Ashanti were generally unmanageable and had to be 
 shackled.' The general conditions of life in this zone more 
 often excite the Negro to fits of anger and savage outbursts, 
 while at intervals he is as mild as a lamb. 
 
 Sexual Impulses and Family Affection.— The Negro's ex- 
 traordinary sexual propensity is perhaps the most conspic- 
 uous outcome of his general lack of inhibiting power. From 
 the age of puberty both sexes indulge their passions almost 
 without restraint. Girls are married as soon as they reach 
 the age prescribed by nature, and the sexual passion takes 
 such complete control of both sexes as to interfere seriously 
 with any mental growth after that age. " At that period of 
 life," says Bouche, " I have seen children lose sight of what 
 they had already learned, so much were they absorbed in 
 the progress of the sensitive life." ^ The habit of unrestrained 
 indulgence through many centuries has made yielding an 
 instinct. Continence is seldom practiced, and no habit of 
 inhibition interposes itself to check the animal impulse. 
 Facts illustrative of the familial relations of the people in 
 this zone have been sufificiently stated already in connection 
 with the discussion of the family and religion, and it must 
 suffice here to recall to the reader's mind the substance of 
 what has there been said. Any outward expression of af- 
 fection between husband and wife is difficult to find, although 
 wherever man and wife (or wives) live together in a well- 
 defined family organization, it would be irrational to sup- 
 pose that the union is not cemented with some genuine af- 
 fection. However the absence of caressing or other expres- 
 sions of love, the fact that marriage is always by capture or 
 
 > Romer, p. 185 ; Drake, p. 83. » P. 21. 
 
386 THE NEGRO BLA.CES 
 
 purchase, the ill-treatment of the wife, the frequent separa- 
 tions, the short mourning period and almost immediate re- 
 marriage after the death of either partner, — all indicate that 
 the marriage bond is feeble, and rather animal than senti- 
 mental. A man's affection is generally stronger for his 
 mother than for his wife, and next to his mother he likes best 
 his sister. He argues that if he loses a wife he can get 
 another, but that he can never get a second mother.^ The 
 indifference of the husband for his wife is shown in the fact 
 that instead of supporting her he permits her to support 
 him. He does not regard his wife as a companion, but lives 
 apart from her and thinks it beneath his dignity even to eat 
 with her. The affection of a mother for her children is just 
 strong enough to carry them over the period of their help- 
 lessness. It scarcely ever goes beyond this. The father 
 usuall)' considers his children, or his wife's children, as bless- 
 ings, but shows little interest in them during their infancy, 
 and only in exceptional cases manifests fondness for them 
 after they become adults. The great difference between 
 civilized and savage parents in feeling for offspring, is that 
 the former see in their children a value that is potential, re- 
 sulting from the contemplation of what, it is hoped, they 
 may one day become in the full bloom of their manhood and 
 womanhood ; and the acute pain which the civilized parents 
 feel over the death of a child is due to their faculty of seeing 
 in it, not its real qualities, but those which the hopes and as- 
 pirations of the parents attribute to it. The savage parents 
 on the contrary, not having much constructive imagination, 
 generally see in their children only their real and present 
 personalities. 
 
 Fellow Feeling,— As a rule the people of this zone do not 
 seem to be very responsive to the distresses of their fellow 
 men. Duncan says that they never attempt to render assist- 
 ance if one of their number fall into the water. Though 
 
 ' Kingsley, " West African Studies," p. 320. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 387 
 
 they be near in canoes they hasten off. A native of Iddah 
 fell overboard from the Albert into the Niger, and there 
 were several natives alongside the ship in canoes " but not 
 one of his hard-hearted countrymen put forth a helping hand 
 or offered the least assistance." ' Of the Niger people, 
 Lander says that they never bestow a moment's reflection on 
 public misery or individual distress or the calamities of their 
 neighbors.^ According to Hovelacque, a sick man must re- 
 main alone if he has no slaves to serve him or no 
 money to procure them ; and " this desertion by his parents 
 and friends is not even regarded as a fault." * Says Foa, 
 " if a man debased himself by going from house to house 
 begging alms, he would infallibly die of hunger. No one 
 would take pity on him for this sentiment is unknown 
 among the blacks, and then they decline to give without an 
 equal return." If a man, in case of illness, happen to be 
 among distant relatives or strangers, he is simply put out- 
 side. He no longer works and no one owes him anything." ■* 
 Speaking in general of the West Africans, Ratzel says that a 
 person who has no relatives will seldom be supplied even with 
 water in illness and when dead will be dragged out to be 
 devoured by hyenas.* Among the Northern Ashantis, says 
 Ellis, " servants or slaves who may fall sick are driven out 
 into the bush to die or recover as best they may : and the 
 infirm and helpless are invariably neglected, if not ill- 
 treated. In the village Abankoro, the missionaries saw an 
 orphan boy about five years old who went about unnoticed 
 and reduced to a skeleton. . . . He cried for joy when 
 food was given him and the kindness of the missionaries to 
 the little sufferer astonished the people." * In this zone 
 " the individual," says Miss Kingsley, " is supremely impor- 
 
 ' Allen and Thomson, Vol. i, p. 330. ' Vol. 2, p. 40. 
 
 » P. 440. « P. 189. 
 
 ' " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 334. 
 • " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 174. 
 
388 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 tant to himself and he values his friends and relatives and so 
 on, but abstract affection for humanity at large or belief in 
 the sanctity of the lives of the people with whom he is unre- 
 lated and unacquainted, the African barely possesses." ^ In 
 this respect, however, the Negroes do not differ very much 
 from some civilized people, for instance the Greeks who 
 manifested very little love for strangers. Plato, we are told, 
 placed outside of the law any one who left his country even 
 for educational purposes.^ Accustomed as the Negroes are 
 to seeing their fellow men cut down in battle, devoured by 
 wild beasts, put to death by the poison ordeals, offered as 
 sacrifices to the gods, or otherwise meeting a horrible death, 
 they necessarily become too familiar with such tragedies to 
 be much moved by them.* Referring to the sacrifices among 
 the Ashantis, Freeman says that the people became so famil- 
 iar with these awful and bloody scenes that they thought as 
 little of them, yea not so much, as they would of seeing a 
 dead sheep, monkey or dog.^ People, he says, were walk- 
 ing about smoking their pipes among putrefying bodies." 
 In war, the Negroes treat the vanquished with great cruelty. 
 " Wounded prisoners," says Ellis, " are denied all assistance 
 and all prisoners who are not destined to slavery are kept in 
 a condition of semi-starvation that speedily reduces them to 
 mere skeletons." ^ 
 
 Relish for Human Suffering Indeed it cannot be doubted 
 
 that the people of this zone take real delight in human suf- 
 fering. " The most revolting scenes of cruelty and blood- 
 shed," says Ellis, " are regarded by the populace generally 
 with positive pleasure and no sooner is the death-drum 
 heard, than an excited mob, eager for the spectacle, rushes 
 to the spot and imbitters the last moments of the victims 
 with taunts and jeers." ' . . . " The executioners to 
 
 ' " West African Studies," p. 150. ' Bouche, p. 399. 
 
 'Ellis, "Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 17. *P. 29. 'P. 54. 
 
 « " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 191. 1 << Tshi Speaking Peoples,'; p. 174. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 389 
 
 pander to the tastes of the mob or to gratify their own lust 
 for cruelty, practice the most shocking barbarities, blunting 
 their knives to increase the suffering of their victims or cut- 
 ting pieces of fiesh from the neck before striking off the 
 head. In fact, the most refined tortures that human in- 
 genuity can devise are constantly inflicted, death is ever 
 present, and human suffering and human life are alike dis- 
 regarded." ' Two Europeans who witnessed an execution in 
 Ashanti reported that the " murderer with his hands bound 
 behind him, a knife through his cheeks, and two forks 
 piercing his back, was dragged by a rope past our rooms. 
 . . . Commencing at midday, the punishment increased 
 in intensity till eight o'clock, when the poor wretch was 
 gashed all over, his arms cut off, and himself compelled to 
 dance for the amusement of the king before being taken to 
 the place of execution. If he could not or would not dance, 
 lighted torches were applied to his wounds ; to escape this 
 excessive torture he made the greatest efforts to move, until 
 the drum was beaten and the head cut off." ^ Sometimes 
 " after slaughtering a victim they cut up and divide the 
 body and each odumso (chief ?) dances with the portion of 
 the corpse that has fallen to his share." * The instinct to 
 pursue, to torture and to kill, not being exercised upon 
 animals as in the hunting life, is, in the banana zone, turned 
 against man himself, and it survives even among civilized 
 people, who being restrained from overt acts by cowardice 
 or fear of the law, hack, stab and slash with their tongues 
 and pens, or manifest their savage instinct by a fondness for 
 reading or writing blood-curdling and incendiary literature. 
 The instinct to save life and to relieve suffering has been a 
 slow and imperfect evolutionary development. It arises 
 from centuries of national life, during which the individual 
 is, at first forced, and later trained and educated through 
 
 > "Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 174. ^ Ibid., p. 175. 
 
 » Ibid., p. 264. 
 
390 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 public sentiment, law, and religion, to the duty of fighting 
 and making sacrifices in the interest of the general welfare. 
 It depends largely upon the interdependence of the social 
 and economic life, and it is an instinct that varies very much 
 even among the most civilized people. While lack of fel- 
 low feeling is generally characteristic of the nations of this 
 zone, there are some exceptions to the rule in individuals 
 and tribes. It would be a horrible admission to make, if 
 human beings anywhere were less sympathetic towards their 
 kind than the lower animals. It is said even of ants that, in 
 case the feelers of one of their comrades be cut oil, they will 
 anoint the wound with the mucus of their own mouths.' 
 Occasionally travelers meet with people of this zone who 
 seem to be exceedingly hospitable and sympathetic, al- 
 though these qualities are often supposed to be only a part 
 of their diplomacy when they expect to gain something. 
 The slave-trader, Jos. Hawkins, says of the Ibo people that 
 in friendship and benevolence, no people are so truly stead- 
 fast and that the unfortunate are sure of support.'' But if as 
 a rule the natives of this zone are indifferent to the misfor- 
 tunes of their fellows, they are evidently fond of company 
 and keep open house. It would be incomprehensible indeed 
 in a country where nature is so lavish, if a certain generosity 
 were not shown to strangers. " All travelers," says Hovel- 
 acque, " are agreed in regard to the great hospitality that 
 the blacks show to each other." * If they do not trouble 
 themselves to minister to the sick, they are at least glad 
 to entertain the hale and hearty which involves no sac- 
 rifice. 
 
 Cruelty to Animals. — According to Duncan, the natives 
 of this zone have no sympathy or feeling for the lower ani- 
 mals.* Lander says that dogs are always badly treated," 
 and Wood states that " there is hardly a village where the 
 
 ' Letourneau, p. 153. > P. 105. s P. 439. 
 
 *Vol. I, p. 40. 6 p. 349. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 391 
 
 traveler does not come upon animals tied in some agonizing 
 position and left to die." * 
 
 Altruism the Result of Constructive Activities. — It has 
 required a long time for human sympathy to reach beyond 
 the limits of one's family, tribe or nation, to say nothing of 
 extending to the realm of dumb brutes. Altruism is the 
 result of multifarious mutual help — of constructive activities, 
 whereas it is always smothered by activities that are 
 destructive. In this zone man is engaged in the destruction 
 of animal life, of villages, of granaries, of homes and human 
 lives. He is seeking to live at the expense of others rather 
 than by helping others, and therefore his altruistic nature 
 has no opportunity to develop. 
 
 " P. 601. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE 
 BANANA ZONE {Continued) 
 
 Propensity for Lying and Deception. — The Negroes of 
 this zone are celebrated for lying and deception. According 
 to Ellis " the Negro lies habitually and even in matters of 
 little moment or of absolute indifference. It is rare for him 
 to speak the truth." ^ Waitz says, with some justification, 
 that this is due to distrust of the white man.^ But other 
 explanations are more to the point, of which one is that the 
 Negro does not distinguish clearly between a fact of experi- 
 ence and an idea conceived in the mind. A similar con- 
 fusion often arises in the minds of children among civilized 
 people, causing them, at a certain age, to believe that 
 something has really happened which they have only 
 imagined. Another explanation is that lying is the result of 
 traits developed in the hunting life. Deception is the essence 
 of lying and is so necessary and habitual in hunting that it 
 becomes an instinct. It is used by nearly all animals in 
 attacking and defending, and is especially celebrated in the 
 fox. " The cunning displayed by man," says Ward, " in 
 outwitting and circumventing animals, is only a step higher 
 than the ruse by which predatory animals deceive and catch 
 their prey." ^ This deceptive quality of man is naturally 
 carried over into his relations with his fellow men, and it is 
 so strong that it survives even among civilized people. In 
 fact it has been one of the chief methods used by man in all 
 of his economic and political activities. The words by 
 
 '" Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. ii. 2 Vol. 2, p. 257. 
 
 3 " Pure Sociology," p. 486. 
 
 392 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 393 
 
 which successful business men are often characterized, indi- 
 cate by their etymology that they originally implied decep- 
 tion, for example, such words as cunning, crafty, sharp, etc' 
 " Deception," says Ward, " may almost be called the foun- 
 dation of business. . . . The form of deception used 
 in warfare is called strategy and the kind that nations use is 
 known as diplomacy. . . . Fashionable society consists 
 wholly in sham, quackery reigns in the professions, and 
 charlatanism in scientific bodies : falsehood permeates busi- 
 ness, and as you look out a car window, the rocks and 
 trees are placarded all over with lies." '^ But coming back 
 to the banana zone, another explanation of the lying pro- 
 pensity of the Negroes is found in their unstable political 
 conditions. In Dahomi and Ashanti, despotism and oppres- 
 sion weigh so heavily upon the people that they have 
 acquired the habit of concealing their property, and pre- 
 tending that they have nothing when they have plenty. 
 They find it necessary to answer all questions with a certain 
 caution, indirection and deception, for they live in the midst 
 of spies and do not know at what moment their utterances 
 may fall upon treacherous ears. Bouche tells us that " the 
 black rarely attacks difficulties directly. He shifts and 
 attains his objects by ruse and duplicity, permitting nothing 
 to happen till sure of attaining his end." ' " The Negro," 
 says Foa, " is cunning and hypocritical because from his 
 most tender age, he has been prevented from saying what 
 he thinks. In the country in which he lives, it is never 
 necessary to obey the impression of the moment : he lives 
 under the shock of continual terror : he never knows 
 whether he will see the sun rise the next day. . . . Each 
 man has his enemy in this world and may be ruined by an 
 imprudent word. Hence the habit of deceiving, acquired in 
 infancy under the example of the parents, because it is the 
 
 ' Ward, " Psychic Factors of Civilization," p. 164. 
 
 • " Pure Sociology," p. 488. ' P. 24. 
 
394 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 custom and because he himself is deceived. . . . One 
 reads between his words, with practice, as between the 
 lines of a writing." ' "When a Negro comes into a store to 
 buy a pipe, he will pretend to be after something else, and 
 will seem to come accidentally upon the pipe. " He will talk 
 a long time of unimportant things and if the conversation 
 does not offer a proper turn to bring out accidentally his 
 phrase, he will return rather than tell you why he had come. 
 . . . If you discover it, he feebly denies with a smile 
 which is an admission and which renders him more repug- 
 nant to you." ^ The testimony of Ellis in this matter is to 
 the same effect. He says " concealment of design is the 
 first element of safety, and as this axiom has been con- 
 sistently carried out for generations, the national character 
 is strongly marked by duplicity." ^ 
 
 Propensity for Stealing. — ^Another characteristic of the 
 Negro is stealing, which is partly acquired from the habit of 
 hunting and partly from living upon the spontaneous 
 products of nature. In the banana zone pretty much every- 
 thing belongs to nature, and the people are in the habit of 
 taking, without hesitation, whatever they like. Fruits, 
 plants and animals are all stolen, so to speak, from nature. 
 Only where products are the result of human labor do the 
 people have occasion to restrain their inclination to appro- 
 priate anything desired. Mungo Park asserts that the 
 most notable defect of the Negro is " an insurmountable 
 propensity to stealing." ^ The same statement is made by 
 Duncan who says that " the most predominant passion of 
 the African is theft." ^ On one occasion, out of charitable 
 considerations, Duncan picked up a Negro who was in des- 
 titute circumstances, being without food or means of procur- 
 ing any, but " in a short time he began to steal everything in 
 reach." * " The black man steals," says Foa, " every time 
 
 ' P. 1 1 2. ' P. 1 13. ' " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 1 1. 
 
 *P. 127. 'Vol. I, p. 141. 6 Vol. I, p. 200. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 395 
 
 he can find a suitable occasion without the least scruple ; 
 what restrains him is not conscience but the fear of being 
 caught." ' 
 
 Vanity. — Vanity is another universal characteristic of 
 the Negro. It is very close akin to lying, for the reason 
 that, in most cases, it is prompted by a desire to deceive, to 
 sail under false colors. But it differs from lying in that it 
 often implies love of approbation. The Negro seeks to 
 win the applause of his fellows usually by a gaudy exhibi- 
 tion of dress, trinkets or boastful language. The least word 
 of praise or flattery gives him a lively sense of pleasure, 
 and this soft spot in his character is one which the shrewd 
 white man soon learns to take advantage of. He knows 
 that a few words of flattery will cause a Negro to do a great 
 deal more work and do it better than he could be persuaded 
 to do by any other means. So keen is the Negro's vanity 
 that if he happen to obtain any degree of superiority over 
 his fellows, even in the matter of gaudy costume, he is in- 
 clined to be exceedingly arrogant. He struts and puts on 
 airs. Bowen says that vanity is the Negro's second 
 strongest passion, and that to dress and swagger are as 
 natural to him as breathing." Vanity, says Ellis, " is a 
 common cause of debt and slavery, and the poor people 
 frequently pawn or enslave themselves in order to obtain 
 the means of making a respectable funeral." ^ 
 
 Lack of Courage. — Moral or physical courage is mani- 
 fested only to a very slight degree in this zone. Under the 
 spur of the moment, the men often act desperately, and in 
 battle show a capacity for spirited attack.^ But the general 
 lassitude resulting from the humidity of the climate, and the 
 lack of self-respect, render them as a rule indisposed to face 
 dangers. Sir Garnet Wolsley once remarked that it was 
 no wonder the king of Dahomi kept a corps of amazons, 
 
 ' p. 247. ' p. 91. ' " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 241. 
 
 «Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 2, p. 344. 
 
396 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 for the women were much less indolent and cowardly than 
 the men/ The soldiers of Benin, says Featherman, 
 " show very little discipline and still less courage." ^ The 
 Negro, not being in the habit of reflecting and forecasting, 
 does not realize what is at stake for himself or his fellows 
 when confronted with danger. Habituated to act upon the 
 spur of the moment, he naturally flees or succumbs when- 
 ever anything threatens his life or brings him face to face 
 with a severe trial. And courage depends not only upon 
 the ability to weigh what is at stake, but upon having some- 
 thing to stake. The civilized man is generally conscious 
 that he has much to lose, since his life is more interwoven 
 with that of society, and he has more contemporaneous and 
 traditional ties. This ever present consciousness arms him 
 for daring and dangerous deeds. 
 
 Lack of Revenge. — As a rule the Negroes of this zone 
 are not at all revengeful. When anything provokes them 
 to resentment, they are accustomed to act at once blindly 
 and impetuously. They do not conceal their rancor and 
 wait for a future time to square the account. A few hours 
 or a few days are sufficient to obliterate any resentful im- 
 pulse that they may have felt. Revenge requires mental 
 effort, reflection and planning, and such exertions are not 
 compatible with Negro indolence. The inertia of the 
 blacks, says Bouche, will survive their passion and 
 rancor.^ In fact, one of the most remarkable peculiarities 
 of the Negro is that he will submit to almost any amount 
 of ill-treatment without murmur or retaliation. " The 
 native indolence," says Bouche, " explains how he submits 
 without reaction to the absolutism of the oligarchies or 
 fetichmen, the despotism of kings, the exactions of the 
 chiefs, the rigors of the master and even the horrible cus- 
 toms of human sacrifice." * A Dahoman proverb is very 
 
 ' Brackenbury, p. 322. * P. 228. 
 
 »P. 23- *P.24. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 397 
 
 significant of this Negro characteristic. It says: "If any 
 one stronger than you torments you, be satisfied to 
 laugh.'" Another explanation of this characteristic is 
 found in the strong feeling of fear which the conditions of 
 life impose upon the inhabitants of this zone. People who 
 are much tormented with fears are never revengeful, for the 
 reason, as previously pointed out, that fear is paralytic in its 
 effect and indisposes an individual to aggression. It is only 
 hunger, avarice or sexual passion that constrain a Negro to 
 plot and attack. However, in certain localities of this zone, 
 and under certain provocations the Negroes sometimes 
 show a strong disposition to retaliate. The Dahomans are 
 sometimes even characterized as revengeful,^ and there are 
 many instances of retaliatory acts towards slave-traders, and 
 others who have committed acts of injustice against the 
 natives. In such cases, though, the retaliation is usually 
 swift and does not savor of real revenge. 
 
 Lack of Self-Respect — The Negroes of this zone have a 
 rather feeble sense of self-consciousness, and as a rule, very 
 little self-respect. Whatever may be their social position, 
 says Hovelacque, the African blacks are beggars of the first 
 order, and the princes beg just the same as the lowest 
 classes and not less boldly. * 
 
 Lack of Idealism. — Before concluding this chapter, it 
 should be said that the Negroes of this zone have almost 
 no capacity for setting up ideals. Although their minds are 
 full of imagery, which is in itself a favorable and essential 
 element in idealism, the imagery is almost altogether 
 reminiscent and is not often combined with anything hav- 
 ing moral significance or reference to the future. To 
 visualize aspirations in respect to any kind of personal 
 achievement or national destiny, belongs to the higher 
 races, and even among them is characteristic of only a 
 small class. Why is this so ? How does idealism begin ? 
 
 ' Bouche, p. 849. ' Ibid., p. 20. • P. 435. 
 
398 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 The probable answer to such questions is that it may arise 
 from any privation voluntarily induced ; from a vision, 
 based upon a moral motive, of something desired but, for 
 the present, unattainable ; or from the suffering entailed by 
 that healthy discontent which stimulates progress. The 
 cravings or visions of an immoral man, for instance, a man 
 involuntarily made to suffer for a crime, do not create 
 ideals, which are in their nature permanent acquisitions of 
 the mind, but only fancies which perish and are reborn with 
 each gratification. Whenever any individual, through a 
 yearning to elevate his own life or that of others, is con- 
 strained to exercise continence in respect to food, sex or 
 anything else — whenever things longed for and dear to life 
 are postponed or given up through altruistic and more 
 ultimate considerations or, when rendered futile by adversity 
 or even sometimes folly, then the suffering that follows 
 excites the imagination and causes the sufferer to think of 
 himself in a pitying mood, to dwell upon his privations, to 
 rehearse his misfortunes and nurse his aspirations. He 
 pictures to himself the realizations which he covets but 
 must now forego, and the more continence that the situation 
 requires the more vivid will be the imagery, and the more 
 the imagery will crystallize into permanent and authoritative 
 guides to conduct. In the meanwhile his pangs of con- 
 templation begin to transform themselves into joy, because 
 of the gradual discovery that his trials work out the final 
 good of himself and race. He is like the wounded oyster, 
 of which Emerson speaks, that mends its shell with pearl. 
 In the light of this explanation it is not difficult to under- 
 stand why it is that artists generally receive their inspira- 
 tions from their poverty, or some reverse, or shock to their 
 feelings, or from suffering sympathetically with others, and 
 that great political revolutions or national catastrophes are 
 often followed by an unusual development in art. It is the 
 wine from the pressed grape. After idealism has once 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BANANA ZONE 399 
 
 been built up in a race and has produced a few great per- 
 sonalities, it is further developed, as pointed out by Ross, 
 through the idealizing of the great personalities, i. e., the 
 objective models are reduced to a few abstract qualities or 
 virtues.' Granting this to be the true origin of idealism, it 
 is easy to comprehend why there is so little of it in the 
 banana zone. As the people scarcely exercise continence 
 in respect to anything whatever, but are accustomed to 
 satisfying all of their passions and appetites without restraint, 
 idealism has no reason for existing. The absence of this 
 great faculty in any race is a deplorable fact for the reason 
 that it is the only means by which it can learn to substitute 
 moral restraint for coercive restraint, and to develop yearn- 
 ings which raise its life to the plane of the heroic and 
 romantic. The mere fact that a man abstains from certain 
 forms of immorality is no evidence of moral progress if the 
 restraint is due to the vigilance of the police, the strength 
 of locks and keys and the unpleasant contemplation of 
 yawning prisons. Restraint is only a virtue when it is done 
 voluntarily and on account of attachment to some ideal 
 standard. At best, any kind of restraint or inhibition that a 
 man may exercise concerns only the negative side of his 
 moral development while idealism has to do with the posi- 
 tive side. " Kindle the inner genial life in him," says 
 Carlyle, " you have a flame that burns up all lower con- 
 siderations." 
 
 Close akin to idealism are the faculties of faith, con- 
 viction and determination. Faith is the conscious trust in 
 something that is not present or visible except to the 
 mind. It may be felt in reference to the attributes of 
 God or a person or in reference to some abstract truth to 
 which one is attached. Faith in things leads to a conviction 
 about them, — to a sure knowledge that the person or thing 
 believed to have such and such quality has it in fact Then 
 
 ' " Social Control," pp. 227, 232. 
 
400 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 conviction leads to determination, i. ^., to a fixed purpose to 
 adhere to or be guided by the person or thing concerning 
 whom or which one has faith and conviction, or to state it 
 in other words, a conscious resolution to guide one's life by 
 its ideals. Faith, conviction and determination are the 
 dynamic forces behind all moral progress. Psychologists 
 and theologians have made many attempts to point out 
 some clear distinction between the mind of man and that 
 of an animal, and they have generally fallen back on the 
 worn out and untenable proposition that a man can reason 
 and a beast cannot. The real distinction is that a man has 
 conscious faith, conscious conviction and conscious deter- 
 mination. Animals have not these faculties and hence no 
 moral consciousness. The lower races have these faculties 
 only feebly developed and their moral consciousness is 
 correspondingly weak. 
 
 The psychological powers of the Negroes of the banana 
 zone have reached their present state of development as a 
 result of the limited exercise which the conditions of life 
 have prescribed for them, and they could be strengthened 
 only by racial intermixture or a slow evolution, resulting 
 from a constantly increasing functional activity. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE 
 MILLET ZONE 
 
 Better Developed Brain and More Intelligence Than in 
 the Banana Zone. — The conditions of life in this zone de- 
 mand more mental effort, and hence the brains of the peo- 
 ple are somewhat larger and better developed.^ Going 
 west from the Slave Coast, Foa noticed that the heads of the 
 natives became less dolichocephalic, and less receding.^ 
 Staudinger says that the foreheads of the Hausas are often 
 pretty steep and high.' According to Featherman, the 
 Mandingos have "a broad slanting forehead," * and Keane 
 and Waitz say of the same people that they have a broader 
 forehead than their neighbors." The forehead of the Bam- 
 baras, says Featherman, " is prominent," and " their facial 
 angle never measures less than seventy-four degrees." ° The 
 Bongos have a forehead that is " measurably broad" and 
 " uncommonly prominent," but this is partly due to the 
 practice of mothers in pressing downward the heads of their 
 infants.' 
 
 The reader will understand of course that the meagre- 
 ness of the data in reference to the sizes and forms of the 
 Negro craniums in the several zones justifies only provisional 
 conclusions. 
 
 Greater Power of Conception : More Mental and Physical 
 Energy. — As the people are obliged to do more thinking in 
 this zone, their mental activities are somewhat less dependent 
 upon external excitations. They look more often inward 
 and have more ability to grasp things in the abstract. This 
 
 ' Hovelacque, p. 241 ; Deniker, pp. 446-450. 
 
 » P. 105. ' P. 551. <P. 294. 
 
 " Keane, " Man : Past and Present," p. 45 ; Waitz, Vol. 2, p. 34. 
 « P. 331. ■■ Featherman, p. 41 ; Reclus, Vol. i, p. no. 
 
 401 
 
402 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 is shown in their larger stock of maxims and proverbs, 
 better vocabulary, better system of counting, etc. Some of 
 the proverbs, for example among the Yorubas, are as follows : 
 " It is easy to cut to pieces a dead elephant," i. e., deeds and 
 not words count ; " a hog that has wallowed in the mud 
 seeks a clean person to rub against " ; "a poor man has no 
 relations " ; " an old dog cannot be taught " ; " he who claps 
 hands for a fool to dance is no better than a fool " ; " famil- 
 iarity induces contempt but distance secures respect " ; 
 " anger draws arrows from the quiver, but good words draw 
 cola-nuts from the bag," etc. The missionary Bowen found 
 no trouble in translating any abstract English word into the 
 Yoruba language. He found with ease corresponding 
 words for sin, atonement, faith, pardon and justification.* 
 The progress of the Nupes in mathematics is shown in the fact 
 that they have words that express numbers up to a million.'' 
 The people generally in this zone are much more intelli- 
 gent,^ and have more mental energy, of which the numerous 
 schools conducted by malams are an evidence.* They also 
 have more physical energy. Ellis says that the Yorubas are 
 more industrious than the Ewe people ° and all explorers 
 comment upon the thrift and enterprise of the Hausas. 
 Nevertheless, in some localities of this zone, the people are 
 exceedingly indolent, especially those living near the coast 
 where the spontaneous products of nature are more 
 abundant. 
 
 More Foresight.— Naturally more foresight is found 
 among the people of this zone, for the reason that they have 
 to provide for a winter season. A Bambara proverb says, 
 " Conserve always a bunch of sorgho in thy granary." ^ 
 But foresight is by no means a universal characteristic and 
 many are the individuals that suffer from lack of it. 
 
 ' P. 281. » Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 248. 3 Staudinger, p. 551. 
 
 ■• Hid., p. 562. 5 " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 32. 
 
 ' Binger, Vol. i, p. 194. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE MILLET ZONE 403 
 
 " Natives of the Gambia," says Moore, " never dream of 
 storing provisions for tfie time of scarcity. They prefer to 
 sell all that they do not immediately consume. When 
 famine arrives, it is necessary to fast for two or three days 
 at a time, and to compensate for lack of nourishment by 
 smoking tobacco." ' " Each year," says Berenger-Ferand, 
 " the Ser^res bring to the merchants ground-nuts, and sell 
 all that they have for some trinkets. Four months after, 
 when it is necessary to cultivate the land, they have sold 
 even the last grain, and it is necessary for them to return to 
 the European trader to buy seed at an enormous price. 
 But the lesson avails nothing, and each year they act with 
 the same improvidence." '^ 
 
 Feelings Master the Mind — The passions and appetites 
 of the people of this zone maintain the mastery over their 
 intellectual faculties, but not to the same extent as among 
 the people of the banana zone. In sexual practice the 
 people are not so excessive, indecent or public, and 
 have not so many priestesses and superstitions to foster 
 public prostitution. The Hausas have a well developed 
 sense of modesty, some appreciation of virtue and they 
 never perform acts of necessity in public.^ Nevertheless, 
 the people of this zone have not built up their inhibiting 
 power to any great extent. They are impulsive and, like 
 others of their race, inclined to yield to the solicitations of 
 the moment. In the matter of indulgence in liquor they are 
 more temperate than the people of the lower zone, but still 
 in some localities they are inclined to over-indulgence, and 
 we are told that women are frequently so besotted that 
 babies becomes intoxicated from their breasts.* In the mat- 
 ter of drink, however, the converts to Mohammedanism are 
 generally exceptions, because that religion enjoins total ab- 
 stinence. As in the banana zone, the people are strikingly 
 
 ' Quoted by Hovelacque, p. 432. ' Ibid. 
 
 • Staudinger, p. 557. * Binger, VoL I, p. 338. 
 
404 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 unstable and vacillating. At one moment they are mild and 
 at another waspish, one moment full of energy and at 
 another sluggish. Miss Kingsley observed this peculiarity 
 when she said of a Kruboy, " he reminds me of that charm- 
 ing personality, the Irish peasant, for though he lacks the 
 sparkle, he is full of humor and is the laziest and most indus- 
 trious of mankind. He lies and tells the truth in such a 
 hopelessly uncertain manner that you cannot rely on him for 
 either. He is ungrateful and faithful to the death, honest 
 and thievish, all in one and the same specimen of him." ^ 
 
 Family Affections. — Affection between members of the 
 family is stronger in this zone as already indicated in the dis- 
 cussion of the family life, but the consideration of the husband 
 for his wife and children is, in some instances, as conspicuously 
 absent as in the banana zone. For example, it is said that the 
 Baris sometimes ransom stolen cattle with their own wives 
 and children.^ As a rule, women perform most of the work 
 of supporting the family, and live and eat apart from their 
 husbands. In some districts consideration for old age is 
 remarkably lacking. For example, among the Maghi, " if 
 a person of old age dies, his death is deemed a cause of 
 satisfaction and mirth, while that of a young one is lamented 
 in tears." ' A peculiarity of the Yorubas is that while they 
 make loud lamentations over deceased relatives, they find 
 it necessary to employ professional mourners to work up 
 the bereaved to a frenzied grief.^ However, this practice 
 was common among the Hebrews, and is hardly worse than 
 the French custom of placing artificial flowers upon the 
 caskets and graves of their dead. 
 
 Fellow Feeling. — Generally fellow feeling is stronger in 
 this zone, and cases are more often cited of disinterested 
 kindness. The proverbs of the people reveal their more 
 generous nature, for example, " From time to time give a 
 
 1 " Travels in West Africa," p. 481. 2 Reclus, Vol. i, p. 101. 
 
 ' Barth, Vol. 2, p. 216. * Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 157. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE MILLET ZONE 405 
 
 little of thy surplus to others " ; ' " Not to aid one in trouble 
 is to kill him in his heart" ; "When you are not able to 
 succor an unfortunate with your money, visit him ; if you 
 cannot visit him, send him words of consolation and en- 
 couragement." ' '* Never pass before people with a pot 
 without stopping near them." But this last proverb, says 
 Binger, is only put into practice by people who are carrying 
 empty pots.' When Mungo Park passed through this zone 
 and was out of resources, he met with much inhuman treat- 
 ment, the natives often refusing him food and shelter. Once 
 at a certain village during a rain, he remained under a tree 
 until midnight when he was permitted to sleep on some 
 wet grass in a poorly sheltered court.* But on the 
 other hand, he met with some remarkable exhibitions of 
 hospitality. At Kamalia, when he was without a horse or 
 resources, a chief supported him and treated him with kind- 
 ness seven months and then sent him to the coast accom- 
 panied by a caravan of slaves. While this favor was partly 
 done through the hope of reward, it nevertheless indicates 
 some degree of humanity.' When a citizen's house is 
 destroyed by fire in this zone, the neighbors send what they 
 can spare of their goods to assist the homeless unfortunates." 
 This is a sharp contrast to the practice in the banana zone. 
 The higher moral development of the people in the millet 
 zone is due in a great measure to their suffering and hard- 
 ships, incident to their conditions of existence. To battle 
 with the ups and downs of life is a good discipline 
 for character building and perhaps it is fortunate that among 
 civilized people the majority of men live under pressure 
 and suffer privations. "Adversity," says Carlyle, " is some- 
 times hard upon a man, but for one who can stand pros- 
 perity there are a hundred that will stand adversity." 
 
 Some Feeling for Animals.— The people of this zone 
 
 ' Binger, Vol. i, p. 194. ' Bouche, p. 74. 'Vol. i, p. 194. 
 
 < P. no. 'P. 120. » Clapperton, "Second Expedition," p. 185. 
 
4o6 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 show more feeling for animals. This is because they use 
 more domestic animals and find it to their interest to care 
 for them. A Bambara proverb is significant of this solici- 
 tude. It says, " He who drinks out of the same calabash 
 as his horse will have many horses." ^ In fact, the Bambara 
 custom is not only to drink out of the same calabash, but to 
 drink after the horse has had his fill. The caring for ani- 
 mals has everywhere a softening influence upon man's 
 nature. 
 
 Courage and Revenge. — The people of this zone are de- 
 cidedly braver than those of the banana zone, although 
 they are less ferocious.^ They have put more of their 
 energy into the soil, made more sacrifices, paid higher 
 prices for their wives, and they have accumulated more 
 capital and possess larger stores of provisions. Therefore 
 they have stronger motives to excite their pride and self- 
 respect, and greater incentives to defend their possessions. 
 Although they are sometimes described as persevering 
 mendicants,^ they usually show more independence of char- 
 acter and less servility than the people of the banana zone,* 
 and while many individuals prefer slavery to freedom,* the 
 people generally are more restless under slavery and more 
 frequently run away from their masters. It is said that 
 adult Krumen never resign themselves to become slaves.* 
 The people of this zone are not conspicuously revengeful. 
 The Yorubas, says Bowen, are not revengeful and unfor- 
 giving, but fight and forget like children.^ 
 
 Lying and Stealing. — Throughout the millet region the 
 traveler often meets with very honest people, especially 
 among the women,' but as a rule, the people here as else- 
 
 'Binger, Vol. I, p. 194. 'Reclus, Vol. 3, p. 291. 
 
 ' yournal of an African Cruiser, p. 120. 
 
 < Ellis, " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 32. 
 
 <• Staudinger, p. 570. e Foa, p. 204. 
 
 ' P- 285. 8 Staudinger, pp. 554, 556. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE MILLET ZONE 407 
 
 where, have a propensity for lying and stealing/ "The 
 truth," says Clapperton, referring to the Nyffees, " is not in 
 them and to be detected in a lie is not the smallest disgrace : 
 it only causes a laugh." ^ 
 
 ' Staudinger, p. 552 ; Hovelacque, p. 436. * " Second Expedition," p. 185. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE 
 CATTLE ZONE 
 
 Brain Development Corresponding to the more com- 
 plex activities of this zone, the heads of the people are 
 larger ^ and better formed, except perhaps in the case of the 
 Dinkas, and a few other populations. The skulls of the 
 Shillooks are " well developed." ^ "To judge by the shape 
 of the skull," says Schweinfurth, " this people belongs to the 
 less degraded races of Central Africa, which are distinguished 
 from the Negro stocks by a smaller breadth of jaw and by 
 a less decided narrowness of head." ^ The Kanuris have 
 large heads and high foreheads.* The Latukas also have 
 high foreheads.' The skulls of the Fellatahs are apparently 
 not much larger than those of the Nigritians of this zone, but 
 are better formed and not so thick.* 
 
 Power of Conception. — In power of conception and ab- 
 stract thinking, the people of this zone are equal if not su- 
 perior, to those of the millet zone. The Jolofs, says 
 Featherman, "have produced a few men who are phi- 
 losophers in their way, and have left behind them many 
 moral maxims and proverbs that have been traditionally 
 preserved, and are universally repeated in all their conver- 
 sations, which are sprightly and somewhat spirited." ' 
 
 ' Hovelacque, p. 241 ; Featherman, p. 362. 
 
 ^ Featherman, p. 63. s Vol. I, p. 88. * Featherman, p. 270. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 78. Hovelacque places the brain capacity of the Kanuris be- 
 low that of the Calabars, but this is no doubt a mistake resulting from lack of ex. 
 amination of typical skulls. 
 
 « Deniker, p. 443 ; Staudinger, p. 543 ; Duncan, Vol. 2, p. 309. 
 
 ' P- 3S5- 
 
 408 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CATTLE ZONE 409 
 
 Mental Energy. — ^The people generally have more mental 
 and physical energy than is found in the lower zones. As 
 a rule the men do more work. Most of the Shillooks " are 
 quite industrious in their habits." ^ The Fellatahs, Kanuris, 
 Jolofs and Malinkops also are enterprising, as the state of 
 their agriculture, manufacturing and trade abundantly 
 shows. Nevertheless, many of the people are indolent, 
 especially near the coast. For example, Hovelacque says 
 " once their harvest is over, the Jolofs remain nine months 
 stretched out, reposing and employing their time in conver- 
 sation. Necessity alone constrains them to work."* But 
 the pastoral life has a tendency to overcome indolence. It 
 is a sort of industrial training school in that the adventures 
 attendant upon the keeping of cattle are a substitute for 
 hunting, and in that the indispensable ingenuity and vigi- 
 lance accustom men to systematic labor and to the exercise 
 of reason and foresight. Rohlfs says that the Kanuris 
 are exceptions to the general rule of laziness among the 
 Negroes.' The greater mental energy of the people is shown 
 in their superior arts of government, laws, military equip- 
 ment and in the more numerous schools where children are 
 taught to read and write.'' The city of Kouka has a famous 
 school with about a thousand students." In the Bondoo 
 district schools are established in almost every town. 
 Students from a distance are boarded and lodged by their 
 teachers and pay their tuition and board by doing domestic 
 and field work.* The schools are usually attached to a 
 mosque and conducted by a maraboo, a sort of priest, or by 
 a malam, a learned doctor. Even slaves, especially of rich 
 people, are taught to read and write.' 
 
 Foresight. — The pastoral life everywhere demands con- 
 siderable foresight, yet among the populations of this zone 
 
 ' Featherman, p. 63. ' P. 430. ' Vol. 3, p. 8. 
 
 'Featherman, p. 277. 'Rohlfs, Vol. I, p. 342. 
 
 'Staudinger, p. 608 ; Featherman, p. 370. '< Featherman, p. 386. 
 
4IO THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 near the coast where fishing receives much attention, fore- 
 sight is not at all a common characteristic. The Jolofs, says 
 Hovelacque, frequently squander their earnings. " Then at 
 the end of some days they appear sad and dressed in rags 
 in the very streets where they have displayed so much arro- 
 gance. They no longer possess the least resources, and if 
 the merchants do not consent to advance them a small sum 
 upon the probable gains of the next trade, they are reduced 
 to beg some sous." ' 
 
 Feelings not so Supreme as in the Other Zones. — The 
 people generally have more control over their feelings, and 
 are not so liable to give way to every passion and appetite. 
 They are more original and less slaves to custom. In this 
 zone one meets with the first mention of a change of fash- 
 ions. A trader, says Schweinfurth, sometimes becomes 
 overstocked with beads for which there is no longer any 
 demand.^ The disposition of the people is not so rollicking 
 but rather " sullen and stubborn," ^ and their temper is more 
 steeled. This is shown even in their countenance which 
 becomes more rigid and severe. 
 
 Familial Aifection More Marked. — In family affection and 
 in general development of the sympathetic nature the people 
 show a decided advance over the inhabitants of the other 
 zones. Women are generally treated with more consider- 
 ation and are not so often overworked.* The care of cattle 
 and the weaving of cloth are mostly the work of men. Of 
 the Dinkas, Schweinfurth says, " Parents do not desert their 
 children, nor are brothers faithless to brothers, but are ever 
 prompt to render whatever aid is possible." ° Eight days 
 after the burial of a Jolof "a great dinner is prepared, which 
 is sent to the schools of the maraboos, and is distributed to 
 the poor that they may offer their prayers for the deceased. 
 This act of charity is repeated on the anniversary day, and 
 
 ' P- 431. ' Vol. I, p. 153. » Ogilby, p. 346. 
 
 < Featherman, p. 313. 6 Vol. i, p. 169. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CATTLE ZONE 411 
 
 each evening during the current year the part of the food 
 which would have been eaten by the deceased member of 
 the family is either given to a poor man or to one of the 
 slaves, who eats in the place of the dead person." ' This 
 shows undoubted altruism and is a marked improvement on 
 anything to be observed in the other zones. The hospitality 
 of the Malinkops " is most disinterested and most generous. 
 When a stranger enters their hut at meal time and salutes 
 the master of the house, he is immediately invited to sit 
 down." ^ Among the Jolofs " the unfortunate, the helpless 
 and the infirm are objects of commiseration ; they are re- 
 ceived in every household with the greatest alacrity, and 
 they are instantly provided with food, and even provided 
 with clothing if their condition requires it." * The Dinkas, 
 according to Schweinfurth, while cruel, often show tender- 
 ness and compassion. He mentions the case of a Bongo 
 who was wounded in an attack upon the Dinkas and lay 
 helpless near the Dinka's hut. The magnanimous Dinka 
 gave shelter and food to the wounded Bongo until he was 
 well and strong, and then sent an escort to lead him back to 
 his own people. * 
 
 Pilfering Habit. — The pilfering habit of the people of this 
 zone seems to be about on a level with that of the people of 
 the other zones. At Loggun on the Shari, Denham says 
 that nearly every one tried to steal something from him.° 
 The Kanuris, he says, are much given to petty larceny.' 
 Featherman states that the Dinkas " rob and plunder when- 
 ever an opportunity presents itself." ' Indeed, pilfering is a 
 common complaint which all travelers bring against the 
 natives of this, as of every other zone, of Negro Africa. 
 
 Courage and Revenge.— Upon the average, the people 
 of this zone are much more spirited and courageous than 
 those of the other zones. For example, it is said that the 
 
 ' Fealherman, p. 350. ' Itid., p. 3 1 1 . ' P- P- 349- 
 
 « Vol. I, p. 169. '"Narrative," p. 182. "P. 241. "^ Ibid. 2&. 
 
412 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Kanuris " fight bravely to maintain their independence," * 
 and that the Latukas are remarkably brave.^ And since the 
 indolence of the people does not overcome their resentment, 
 they are " excessively revengeful." ^ 
 
 The Fellatahs differ very strikingly from the Nigritians 
 in psychological characteristics. They are more ingenious 
 and intelligent, have greater energy of mind, more will- 
 power and a better balance between the reason and the 
 passions. They are more courageous, more stable in pur- 
 pose, more serious and less rollicking in disposition, more 
 humane and generous, and more considerate of animals. 
 Having passed from the coast to a Fellatah population, 
 Lander remarked that the " loud laugh that speaks the 
 vacant mind" we have not heard these many days.^ They 
 have more self-consciousness, a high degree of pride, often 
 accompanied with insolence, and greater foresight and 
 inhibiting power. But they are rapacious, revengeful and 
 much given to robbery. The women are conspicuously 
 more self-assertive and virtuous.* 
 
 Mental and Moral Superiority Due to More Favorable 
 Conditions. — The mental and moral superiority of the people 
 of this zone is accounted for partly by the more favorable 
 climate, and partly by the environmental conditions of the 
 pastoral mode of life ; and within this zone, the superiority 
 of the Fellatahs and Kanuris over the natives generally, is 
 partly explained by the still more favorable climate and 
 more complex and diversified nature of the environment 
 in which these particular populations live.* The centres of 
 the Fellatah populations are the Futa Jallon highlands in 
 
 » Featherman, p. 277. ^ Ibid., p. 27 1. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 271 ; Denham's " Narrative," p. 241. < Vol. i, p. 140. 
 
 « Staudinger, pp. 545-546, 560 ; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, pp. 298- 
 299 ; Lasnet, pp. 48, 52, 70 ; Lander, Vol. i, pp. 140, 151 ; Canot, p. 187 ; Duncan, 
 Vol. 2, p. 311. 
 
 • Ratzel, " Anthropogeographie," Vol. i, pp. 197, 442, 443, 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CATTLE ZONE 413 
 
 Senegambia, and the high plateau east of the Niger.* The 
 territory of the Kanuris has a greater contrast of contour, of 
 vegetable and animal life and of land and water than any 
 other portion of the Sudan. ^ 
 
 Peculiarities of the Pastoral Nomads But it is a 
 
 peculiarity of pastoral people that their manner of life 
 does not permit them to originate culture. The most that 
 they can do is to diffuse it. Only when they are forced to 
 get out of the grass region and have lost their herds, do 
 they take to a settled life and develop civilization. Nomadic 
 people are generally invincible opponents of civilization, as 
 for example, the steppe dwellers of China, of Mesopotamia 
 and of Egypt.* In the Sudan, only the people who have 
 abandoned the pastoral roving life, have made any sub- 
 stantial progress, and they are handicapped by the im- 
 poverishing tributes levied by the portion of the population 
 which remains nomadic. The future development of Africa, 
 says Ratzel, depends upon the emancipation of the agricul- 
 tural people from the pastoral nomads.* Where the pastoral 
 people give up the steppe and roving life, they are often, 
 on account of their vigor of body and mind, the greatest 
 promoters of civilization. 
 
 • Rohlfs, Vol. 2, p. 205. » Ibid., Vol. I, p. 212. 
 'Ratzel, " Anthropogeographie," Vol. I, pp. 159, 161,447. 
 
 ♦ " Anthropogeographie," Vol. I, p. 161. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL 
 
 ZONE: AND GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 RESPECTING ALL ZONES 
 
 Traits of the Tibbus. — Coming now to the people of the 
 desert, it seems that while the physical conditions are quite 
 favorable to mental and moral development, the social con- 
 ditions are unfavorable. The many obstacles which the 
 people have to overcome develop a certain mental strength, 
 but little refinement of feeling. A high degree of foresight 
 is absolutely necessary, and also considerable power of 
 inhibition, but the population is so scattered that social 
 virtues or humanitarian sentiments have little chance to 
 evolve. The solitariness of the groups and their struggle 
 against each other rather favor a sort of coldness of heart. 
 " As plundering is a professional pursuit," says Feather- 
 man, " stealing is not considered reproachful among them." ^ 
 They are tyrannical masters and show great indifference to 
 the suffering of their slaves. They start on expeditions 
 without sufficient supplies and strew the desert with the 
 skeletons of the starved.^ They are harsh, greedy and 
 suspicious. Their features are hard and their expressions 
 cruel.^ They have steel in their nature and know how 
 to revenge. They have a serious cast of countenance and 
 seldom laugh or unbend. 
 
 General Considerations — Mental and Moral Character of 
 the Negro Varies in the Different Zones. — Stanford believes 
 that the progress of the Kansas and Kanuris has been due 
 
 ' p. 752. ' Wood, p. 705. 
 
 ' Reclus, Vol. 2, pp. 424-433 ; Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. 3, pp. 263, 
 264. 
 
 414 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL ZONE 415 
 
 entirely to outside influences, and that the "standard 
 attainable by pure Negro communities left to themselves 
 may be measured by the social usages prevalent amongst 
 the people of Ashanti, Dahomi and the Oil Rivers, with 
 their degraded fetichism, and now abolished sanguinary 
 customs."* But Stanford overlooks the fact that the en- 
 vironment of the millet and cattle zones is very different 
 from that of the banana zone, and that if no race mixture 
 had taken place, the Negroes in the more favored zones 
 would have made a decided advance over those near the 
 coast. The literature bearing upon the Negro gives too 
 much emphasis to foreign influences and not enough to 
 local environments. It is quite evident that the Negroes 
 near the Equator could never evolve a civilization, and 
 equally evident that in the millet and cattle zones north of 
 the Equator, the gross forms of superstition and sanguinary 
 customs of the banana zone could never have existed. In 
 all likelihood, the development of a civilization among the 
 Negroes anywhere in Africa would be possible only after 
 they had undergone such physical and mental transforma- 
 tion as to constitute practically a different race. But per- 
 haps this transformation has already taken place and is now 
 taking place as the Negroes move from one environment to 
 another. At any rate, there are certain regions of Africa 
 and certain modes of life which seem to change the Negroes 
 into a race bearing a close resemblance to that which in 
 ancient times occupied the borders of the Mediterranean 
 Sea, and it is easily demonstrable that the Negroes of Africa 
 differ widely according to the different environments in 
 which they live. 
 
 Looking back over the four zones, it seems that, up to 
 the camel zone, there is a gradual ascent of the mind from 
 the lowest state found anywhere in the world, to that of a 
 mind in many respects comparable to the best ; from a state 
 
 >VoI. I, p. 332. 
 
4i6 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 in which reason is completely subordinated to the passions, 
 to a state in which the inhibiting power of the will begins 
 to gain the mastery over the passions. That the ascent of 
 the mind is gradual from the savage to the civilized state, 
 is attested by James, who says that " since nature never 
 makes a jump, it is evident that we should find the lowest 
 men occupying in this respect an intei mediate position be- 
 tween the brutes and the highest men. And so we do. 
 Beyond the analogies which their own minds suggest by 
 breaking up the literal sequence of their experience, there 
 is a world of analogies which they can appreciate when im- 
 parted to them by their betters, but which they could never 
 excogitate alone. This answers the question why Darwin 
 and Newton had to be waited for so long. The flash of 
 similarity between an apple and the moon, between the 
 rivalry for food in nature and the rivalry for man's selection, 
 was too recondite to have occurred to any but exceptional 
 minds." ' 
 
 Inferring from the data bearing upon the economic and 
 political life, the faculties of conception, reason, constructive 
 imagination, foresight and wit improve gradually as one ad- 
 vances from the banana to the cattle zone ; while the facul- 
 ties of perception and memory appear to be the same in all 
 of the zones, and the faculty of humor to decline as the 
 other faculties expand. Inferring from the data bearing 
 upon the family and social life, it seems that the feelings of 
 the people become more varied, complex and sensitive, the 
 inhibiting power stronger, the temper more steady and 
 steeled, fellow feeling more marked, more self-respect, cour- 
 age and idealism as one likewise advances from the banana 
 to the cattle zone. But in propensity for lying and stealing 
 any difference in the zones is hard to discover. The highest 
 mental and moral development seems to be reached in the 
 cattle zone, where the pastoral Fellatahs and Arabs come in 
 
 > " Psychology," Vol. 2, p. 360. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL ZONE 417 
 
 collision with the sedentary Nigritians, — a fact which brings 
 to mind a fine phrase of Ratzel's that " There is a notable 
 reciprocal relation between mighty forest vegetation and im- 
 potent men, and short grass and mighty men and States." * 
 It is difficult and indeed impossible to decide how far the 
 improvement, which is observed in the population in going 
 from the south to the north, is due to physical conditions 
 and how far to the influence of race mixture. The author 
 inclines to the opinion that too much stress generally is laid 
 upon race mixture and believes that modifications of races 
 and peoples which are often attributed to intermixture are 
 amply accounted for by the peculiarities of environment. 
 The dryer climate and greater amount of sunshine, the greater 
 multiformity of the phenomena, the more abundant, more 
 regular and more concentrated food and greater variety of 
 activities, go far to explain the superiority of the people of 
 the northern zones. 
 
 Relation of Economic Progress to Moral Progress. — 
 The highest development in strictly economic lines is in the 
 millet zone, a fact which shows that economic progress and 
 moral and mental progress are not inseparably connected. 
 Mind and morals have their best field for growth, not in the 
 realm of material things but in that of the social relations. 
 When the social life of a people becomes complex and in- 
 volved, it gives rise to law, statesmanship, diplomacy, art, 
 philosophy and idealism, all of which afford more expansion 
 to morals, and employ higher faculties than any kind of 
 mere economic activity. Economic activity is a necessary 
 foundation, but it is in itself not a guarantee of high devel- 
 opment along other lines, but is often an obstacle to it. In- 
 deed, it leads naturally to a corrupting materialism unless 
 checked by a counteracting development in the domain of 
 morals. The Hebrews, with the simplest economic develop- 
 ment, gave the world its greatest moral precepts. Eco- 
 
 ' " Anthropogeographie," Vol. I, p. 447. 
 
4i8 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 nomic enterprises usually look only to proximate ends, while 
 the most distant ends come within the purview of the 
 philosopher, moralist, patriot and prophet. Their vision 
 overlooks all time and all humanity. " Your cotton-spin- 
 ning and thrice-miraculous mechanism," says Carlyle, 
 " what is this too, by itself, but a larger kind of Animalism ? 
 Spiders can spin. Beavers can build and show contrivance ; 
 the Ant lays up accumulation of capital, and has, for ought 
 I know, a Bank of Antland. If there is no soul in man 
 higher than all that, did it reach to sailing on cloud-rack 
 and spinning sea-sand ; then I say, man is but an animal, a 
 more cunning kind of brute : he has no soul, but only a suc- 
 cedaneum for salt." It is to be remembered that Midas 
 longed for gold and got a pair of ears. Herein sociology 
 justifies the voices of all the ancient and modern seers and 
 prophets, showing that economic prosperity is not a guar- 
 antee of intellectual or moral progress, but an ever present 
 menace to either, unless kept in the subordinate rank to 
 which it belongs. This is not to deny that economic activ- 
 ity, up to a certain point, may promote mind and morals. 
 In the millet zone the people are interested mostly in 
 material things, those of the cattle zone are somewhat more 
 interested in education, morality, statecraft, and social and 
 domestic felicity. 
 
 Effect Upon the Negro of European Civilization — In- 
 fluence of the Slave-Traders. — From the day of the first visits 
 of the white man in the Sudan to the present, there has 
 been very little change in the intellectual characteristics of 
 the natives, but a very decided change, in their moral char- 
 acteristics. The earliest European traders along the African 
 coast were slave-hunters, representing men of the lowest 
 type. They robbed and cheated and violated the most 
 solemn treaties. In both their commercial and private life 
 they set bad examples. Mr. Town testified before a com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons that contact with the 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL ZONE 419 
 
 Eu ropean had improved the African in roguery .* The traders 
 who located at and about the European settlements prac- 
 ticed polygamy in a worse form than the natives, sometimes 
 keeping extensive harems of black wenches. They kept 
 great supplies of rum and wines and for the most part were 
 revelers and drunkards.^ They even went about like the 
 natives almost naked. It is related of Rev. John Newton, 
 an English clergyman, but ex-slave trader, that when he was 
 seventy-nine years old and was having his boots put on one 
 morning by a servant, he remarked, " Sir, I had not this 
 trouble in Africa, for I had no shoes. Sir, when I rose in the 
 morning and shook myself like a dog I was dressed," * 
 However low the morals of the African may have been 
 originally they were made all the worse by contact with the 
 slave traders. 
 
 Influence of Missionaries — Individual Examples of Uplift. 
 — Since the abolition of the external slave trade it is difficult 
 to say whether the influence of the white man's contact 
 with the Negro has been beneficial or otherwise. On the 
 one hand, the missionaries can undoubtedly point to some 
 good results. They " point with pride to the story of strong 
 and purified characters, such as the Rev. Thomas J. Mar- 
 shall, of Porto Novo, who was born in one of the blackest 
 spots in darkest Africa, became an honored minister of a 
 native church and has been instrumental in leading a whole 
 people into the knowledge and practice of Christianity. 
 There is the Rev. Jacob B. Anaman, a native minister of the 
 Gold Coast who has been made a Fellow of the Royal 
 Geographical Society. There is Sir Samuel Lewis, Mayor 
 of Freetown, a native of Sierra Leone, who in 1893 was ap- 
 pointed a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. 
 
 ' Abstract of Evidence before Select Committee of House of Commons, 1790-91, 
 p. 18. 
 
 •Joe Hawkins, pp. 151-155-158. 
 
 • Williams, " Liverpool Privateers," London, 1897, p. 524. 
 
420 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 George and whom the Queen of Great Britain has recently 
 distinguished by the Order of Knighthood, who is the first 
 pure Negro in West Africa — indeed in the world — on whom 
 such honor has been conferred. He is a convert of the 
 Wesleyan Methodist Mission and an exemplary follower of 
 Christ. The story of Bishop Crowther has become a house- 
 hold word in mission annals. On February ii, 1897, at 
 Cline Town, Sierra Leone, was laid the foundation stone of 
 a memorial church which is to bear his name. The story of 
 how the slave boy became the Bishop of the Niger is a 
 romance of modern missions. Following in his footsteps 
 we have at the present moment Bishop Phillips and Oluwole, 
 two excellent and worthy natives connected with the Church 
 Missionary Society." ^ 
 
 Now, of these remarkable and truly good men, two 
 things are to be said : First, all of them whose photographs 
 the writer has examined, show the physiognomy of mulattoes 
 in whom Caucasian features are strongly marked. Second, 
 all of them have had advantages which are impossible to 
 any considerable number of native Africans. They have 
 been raised in close personal touch with a few rare mission- 
 aries whose characters have been stamped upon their pupils, 
 just as the good slave masters in America stamped their 
 personalities upon their domestic servants; and some of 
 these celebrated Africans have been educated in an European 
 environment. If the missionary work in Africa were, upon 
 the whole, a pronounced failure and if the natives as a 
 whole were ever so conspicuously degenerating, there 
 would still be plenty of individual examples of success of 
 the kind just mentioned ; and therefore they are not to be 
 accepted as significant of the general result. 
 
 Impotence of Leaders Developed Artificially by a Race 
 of a Different Stage of Culture. — It is highly questionable 
 whether any race can be elevated through leaders developed 
 
 ' Dennis, Vol. 2, p. 17. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL ZONE 421 
 
 artificially by means of education and training imparted by 
 a race that belongs to a different stage of culture. Leaders 
 so developed, not owing what they are to their own race, 
 are prone to stand aloof from it and to excite its hostility.' 
 
 They are not in Sympathy with Their Own Race. — 
 Instead of acquiring the missionary spirit, many of the con- 
 verted natives, with their smattering of knowledge, consider 
 themselves much above their fellows, become vain, pride- 
 swollen and exhibit a contempt for the unconverted and 
 uninitiated. For example, Keane says that the civilized 
 Liberians have made no perceptible progress in extending 
 the blessings of their civilization, but display " a supreme 
 contempt for the stinking 'bush-niggers,' as they call the 
 surrounding aborigines." ^ 
 
 "The most extraordinary thing," says Hazzledine, "is 
 the way the natives of Africa treat each other. The Kru- 
 men treat the black deck passengers like a brutal railway 
 porter will treat sheep. . . . One has only to watch the 
 face of the superior educated native, who has learned to 
 pray and to sit in a deck-chair, to see him draw the hem of 
 his stinking old frock-coat away from the touch of the 
 ignorant and comparatively naked laborer, who has as yet 
 no soul above merriment, or to catch the sneer of supreme 
 contempt on the face of his superior little kiddies, disgust- 
 ingly genteel in their pink machine-sewn frocks — one has 
 only to see this motley crowd to realize how much the actual 
 presence of the white man is needed in Africa. It may be 
 that the white races have preyed upon the black ones in the 
 past, but never so much as the black races have preyed 
 upon one another." ' 
 
 They Leave the Masses Untouched.— When the civilized 
 
 ' The reader should not confound the case of the Africans with that of the 
 Japanese whose leaders have been developed in their native environment and 
 through whose leaders the race has been able to assimilate Western culture. 
 
 « " Man : Past and Present," p. 53. ' P. 128. 
 
422 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Negro is left to himself or returns to live in the midst of his 
 kin, he generally reverts to his original state. " But," says 
 Miss Kingsley, " I need hardly assure you it is not the in- 
 variable custom and there have been in the past and there 
 are now living denizens of Europeanized Africans in West 
 Africa, ministers, lawyers and doctors who would no more 
 want to take off their store clothing and go cannibalizing 
 and howling about the bush than you would. Nevertheless, 
 the African who turns into a Europeanized man is the ex- 
 ception that proves the rule and whose isolated conduct 
 misleads the white man, inducing him to go on on this old 
 line, dazzled by the performance of one in a hundred thou- 
 sand ; we seem blind to the inertia of the great mass, that 
 great mass that we have to deal with to-day in a state 
 practically unaltered by the white work of four hundred 
 years' duration." ' Says Reinsch, " To take a Tagalog and 
 make of him an American is the naive impulse of inexperi- 
 ence. For though isolated individuals may adopt the best 
 thought of a higher civilization, we need but think of the 
 Negro valedictorians in our universities and of the men like 
 Maharajah Dhuleep Singh — they cannot hold out against 
 the social influences of their race, nor can they impart to it 
 their acquired civilization." ^ 
 
 Effective Leaders Must Arise Spontaneously. — The only 
 way that leaders can arise that will uplift the masses is by 
 such elevation of the whole population that the exceptional 
 few will spring spontaneously out of the general culture level. 
 Then there will be a leadership that is in sympathy with and 
 that arouses the enthusiasm of the masses. 
 
 Mistake of Missionaries in Attacking First the Psycho- 
 logical Life of the People, with Resulting Moral Degeneracy. — 
 The missionaries make the mistake of beginning with the 
 people's psychological life, seeking to overthrow all native 
 
 'Article " Life in West Africa," in British Africa, London, 1901, Vol. 2, p. 377. 
 "P. 26. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL ZONE 423 
 
 beliefs and substituting for them the teachings of the com- 
 mon school and university, and the abstract doctrines of a 
 highly developed phase of Christianity. The weakness of 
 this policy lies in the fact that the psychological life of a peo- 
 ple is the flower of their moral life and develops out of their 
 economic, familial and political traditions and institutions. 
 A backward race cannot, with profit, assimilate the intel- 
 lectual acquisitions of a higher race until it has undergone 
 a preparatory evolution in its moral life and in its social and 
 political institutions, and any attempt to force such assimila- 
 tion must be either futile or demoralizing. 
 
 " Modern science is agreed," says Reinsch, " that in- 
 herited psychological elements — the constitution of the 
 mind — are the most persistent phenomena of which we 
 have any knowledge. New ideas may be poured into the 
 consciousness, may even be understood by the rational 
 faculties, but they will leave no trace upon the mental con- 
 stitution and upon the real spring of action. The most con- 
 clusive proof of this is found in the psychology of those 
 races which have come, through the chance of history, under 
 the control of different conquerors. Through numberless 
 generations under the most varied historical conditions and 
 environments, the descendants of the race will continue to 
 develop similar psychological traits. Thus parts of the 
 Malay race have been for centuries under the rule of three 
 different European peoples ; nevertheless the Filipinos with 
 their Spanish instruction, the Javans trained under the 
 Dutch colonial system, and the Malays of the mainland who 
 have been under English tutelage, all display identical 
 characteristics and have the same intellectual constitution 
 which the earliest explorers noted in their day. In the 
 same way we may trace among the Negroes of the United 
 States, of Hayti, and of Martinique, the same psychological 
 tendencies which are found among their distant relatives in 
 the African forests. The actual experience of colonizing 
 
424 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 nations and the results of scientific investigation leave 
 room for but one opinion upon the policy of assimilation, 
 that it rests upon a purely ideological basis and runs counter 
 to the scientific laws of psychic development.' ... It 
 has been abundantly experienced that when the ordinary 
 members of a backward race are dissociated from the or- 
 ganism to which they belong and are brought into direct 
 contact with a higher society, they will usually lose their 
 native morale and adopt only the dangerous and even 
 vicious sides of the advanced civilization." ^ 
 
 The one fact to be made clear in this connection is that 
 the sudden unsettling of the psychological life of any people, 
 before their economic familial and political institutions have 
 been modified, is a dangerous performance which exactly 
 reverses the natural process. In the history of the Hebrews 
 the sudden changes wrought successively in the psycholog- 
 ical life of the people by contact with Babylon and Assyria, 
 brought about periods of moral degeneracy ; and history is 
 full of examples of a similar kind. 
 
 In order to understand more specifically how this de- 
 generacy is accomplished it is only necessary to observe the 
 results of the sudden psychological overturning which has 
 taken place in Africa. 
 
 Literary Education not Given in Its Proper Order of 
 Time — The educational policy of the missionaries has been 
 exactly the reverse of that which conduces to intellectual 
 and moral improvement. The same may be said of the 
 educational policy of colonial governments in general where 
 they have attempted to introduce a general system of edu- 
 cation. The usual educational policy has for its first object 
 to give the natives a literary education and to have them 
 assimilate as rapidly as possible European ideas, especially 
 those which cultivate a spirit of antagonism to native insti- 
 tutions and beliefs, and a contempt for native traditions. 
 
 ' Pp. 20-22. s P. 29. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL ZONE 425 
 
 The young African is led to " improve the perspiring hour" 
 by learning the " height of Chimborazo, the cost of paper- 
 ing a room, leaving out the fireplace," and all the intricacies 
 of Scotch theology.' " The instruction given by the mis- 
 sions," says Reinsch, " is generally too scholastic, and 
 travelers are most severe in their judgment of the mis- 
 sionary-made man. Dressed in European clothes and dis- 
 playing with pride a smattering of English education, the 
 ' civilized ' natives love to swagger about in the coast 
 towns, despising manual work and the customs of their 
 race. They have stripped off the restraints of their native 
 religions and are far from having adopted the morals of 
 Christianity."^ . . . "In South Africa, in Central 
 Africa and in Jamaica the Negro population has been very 
 anxious to pursue literary studies, but by the testimony of 
 all observers, the results have not been conducive to real 
 social improvement." ' The kind of instruction imparted 
 " ordinarily leads to a dangerous half-education implying a 
 well-trained memory but an undeveloped judgment, to- 
 gether with an overweening self-confidence and vanity." * 
 
 Religious Teachers Lay too Much Emphasis upon 
 Creeds and Ceremonials. — The Christian religion, as inter- 
 preted to the Negroes, lays too much stress upon creeds 
 and ceremonies and not enough upon character building. 
 When the Negroes are induced to give up those practices 
 which have had the sanction of their religion and conscience, 
 they continue practices which have no sanction and they ac- 
 quire new traits and habits which unsettle their moral life 
 and standards. They easily get the idea that baptisms, 
 sacraments, prayers, songs, church going and passive ac- 
 
 'Nevinson, " The Slavery of To-day," Harper's Monthly, Kyx^s\., 1905, p. 349. 
 » Pp. 51-52. 'P. 49- 
 
 * P. 50. " It is the unanimous testimony of observers in Jamaica," says 
 Reinsch, " where a system of universal education has been established for some time, 
 that the native population, originally not over fond of manual labor, is becoming en- 
 tirely disinclined to work, and is longing for an easy life in town." — P. 50. 
 
426 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 ceptance of some theological doctrine are the only essential 
 elements in religion and they have a corresponding indif- 
 ference to their every-day acts. Mr. Ellis who has lived 
 many years among the Negroes and has studied their life 
 more thoroughly than any other man, says, " The unedu- 
 cated Negroes of our colonies, for instance, who have been 
 nominally Christians for some three generations, practically 
 believe that the commission of grave moral offenses and 
 even crimes, will not in the least affect their prospects of 
 future salvation provided they go to church or chapel regu- 
 larly and, in fact, pay their god all that ceremonial homage 
 and lip-service which is, in their view, the essence of re- 
 ligion." ^ 
 
 And Destroy Native Faith and Belief. — In the next place, 
 the gospel as taught by missionaries, while failing to furnish 
 a guide for conduct, undermines the native beliefs which do 
 have some restraining influence. The Sudan Negroes are 
 at that stage of development where fear is the chief element 
 of religion and almost the only motive capable of control- 
 ling their conduct. The idea of a god of love and forgive- 
 ness of sins is foreign to African traditions and does not 
 appeal to the Negroes as it does to people who stand at a 
 higher level of culture.^ A very peculiar and important 
 trait of the Negroes, heretofore entirely overlooked, but 
 repeatedly observed by Ellis, is that they do not concern 
 themselves about any god that is exalted to a very great 
 distance above them.^ Among the Negroes of the Sudan 
 the gods that are far off are not worshiped at all while those 
 near at hand, and ever ready to inflict immediate punish- 
 ment, command the most respect and obedience. The 
 Christian God is represented as being too far away ; and 
 since the punishment which he inflicts will not be visited 
 upon the Negroes until after their death, they do not think 
 
 • " Yoruba Speaking Peoples," p. 294. 
 
 2 Ellis, " Tshi Speaking Peoples," p. 27. s ji,ici_^ p. ,8. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL ZONE 427 
 
 much of the consequences of their conduct. They have not 
 the necessary foresight for such remote calculations. The 
 native religion has the merit of furnishing deities that are 
 believed in, understood and feared, and they act so power- 
 fully upon the Negroes that they seldom violate their own 
 moral code. Now, it is very evident that if faith in their 
 native religion is destroyed and another religion substituted 
 which they do not comprehend and which they interpret 
 to be mere conformity to ceremony and routine, their moral 
 character will not only fail to develop to a higher plane but 
 sink to a much lower one. And that is precisely the result 
 of much missionary preaching. " All the trouble that the 
 missionaries give themselves," says Foa, " in performing 
 their task of philanthropy, unfortunately has for result to 
 make half educated hypocrites much more to be avoided 
 than the ignorant Negro." ' Mr. Harris who lived ten years 
 at Sierra Leone said that all the Christianized Negroes that 
 he employed were given to stealing ; that there was no 
 negro worse than a converted Negro and that the young 
 blacks raised in the missions were simply the worst of all 
 when they returned into the midst of the natives.^ " A 
 Sierra Leone native," says Brackenbury, " is great on going 
 to church and has his mouth full of sacred quotations but he 
 is generally as specious a knave as ever breathed," ' In an 
 European environment, says Foa, the bad characteristics 
 of the blacks tend to disappear but " on the African coast, 
 among themselves, the blacks use the knowledge given by 
 the missionaries only to bring out their bad characteristics. 
 With this limited education, the black becomes much more 
 dangerous. He has preserved all of his bad qualities under 
 an appearance of varnish which an elementary instruction 
 gives him. He uses what he has learned in order to deceive 
 better and lie better." * Staudinger observed that the edu- 
 
 ' p. 118. 'Quoted by Hovelacque, p. 451. 
 
 sp. 336. «P. 117. 
 
428 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 cated natives are often the greatest thieves and cheats ^ and 
 it has been long recognized that the interior Negroes 
 farthest removed from European contact are the most indus- 
 trious, friendly and hospitable.^ 
 
 And Ignore Social Laws. — ^The bad effects of missionary 
 work are not due to any deficiency in the Christian religion 
 per se but to the manner in which it is interpreted and the 
 blindness of the missionaries to the fact that the regener- 
 ation of a backward race necessitates a knowledge of social 
 laws and an appreciation of the merits and deficiencies of 
 the social stage to which the race belongs. 
 
 Error of Teaching False Social and Political Doctrines 
 and Inspiring False Hopes. — A final and fatal error of the 
 missionaries is in teaching false- social and political doctrines 
 and holding out false hopes. To teach the Negro that he is 
 the equal of the white man is to teach what every man of 
 science knows to be untrue, and to teach him that he has a 
 natural right to all the privileges enjoyed by the white man 
 is also to teach what is untrue, and more than that, such 
 privileges have never been exercised by any Negro race 
 in the presence of a white civilization. So long as the 
 Negro blood has in it a reversional tendency which through 
 inter-mixture with the white would lower the quality of the 
 latter, there can be no law or obligation, divine or secular, 
 that would justify an intermixture leading to that result 
 Therefore to the untruth of such teaching is added the bane- 
 ful influence of inculcating a false hope : the result is that those 
 Negroes who have been benefitted by contact with civiliza- 
 tion are deprived of a wholesome attitude of obligation and 
 gratitude to the white race for having lifted them out of the 
 depths of savagery, and are made to hate the white man for 
 denying him what the missionary has promised. The ridicu- 
 lous pretensions and demands of the masses excite the counter- 
 antagonism of the white man and precipitate a racial con- 
 
 » p. 5. » Waitz, Vol. 2, p. 8o. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL ZONE 429 
 
 flict, which builds up psychological characteristics in the 
 Negro that only militate against his survival in the struggle 
 for existence. 
 
 Mistakes in Polonial Policies, (a) Ruthless Destruction 
 of Native Institutions. — So far as governmental policies are 
 concerned the mistakes are manifold. In districts where the 
 white men constitute only a fraction of the population it is un- 
 wise to root out native institutions and substitute those of 
 civilized Europe. Each European nation seems to be 
 ambitious for the people of its African colonies to assimilate 
 the language, education, customs and political frame-work 
 of the home country. 
 
 Now it may be laid down as a sociological law that the 
 institutions of any race are bound up organically and in- 
 separably with its psychological characteristics, i. e., its 
 traditions, beliefs and moral and religious standards ; and 
 that any sudden overthrow of its institutions brings about 
 at the same time a dissolution of its moral foundation. 
 This is even true of the most highly civilized races, as for 
 example, the moral disintegration following the French 
 Revolution. Therefore, however desirable it may be, from 
 a theoretical point of view, to modify native institutions, 
 only evil can result unless the modification is accomplished 
 through a gradual evolutionary process. " Experience seems 
 to show," says Reinsch, " that even those institutions which 
 are by us considered the very foundation of good govern- 
 ment may have harmful results when introduced into an- 
 other society." ' " The most striking example of this," he 
 adds, " is found in the experience of Great Britain in 
 India. The English are not an assimilating race. They 
 have always had clearly in mind the economic purposes of 
 expansion, and have allowed the political missionary spirit 
 comparatively little sway. They have not been filled with 
 the desire of transforming native societies. Still they have 
 
 >p. 15. 
 
430 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 introduced certain institutional reforms, which to them 
 seemed absolutely essential and not attended with any risk. 
 Thus, who would not agree that the impartial enforcement 
 of contracts, the system of judicial appeals, representative 
 government, the institution of the jury system, a free press, 
 and liberal education are things about the usefulness of 
 which among us there can be no two opinions? The 
 British introduced these institutions into India, with the 
 best of intentions, and yet with such results that their op- 
 ponents can now plausibly argue that they must have been 
 animated with the sinister purpose of disrupting and un- 
 dermining Indian society. The most unforeseen conse- 
 quences have resulted. Through the rigid enforcement of 
 contract the vast agricultural debtor class has been gradually 
 enslaved to the money lenders and is being ousted from its 
 ancestral holdings. As the government upholds the 
 principle of freedom of contract and will not fix the price of 
 grain in times of shortage, the calculating native capitalist 
 is enabled to hold his stock of food for higher prices regard- 
 less of the fact that people may be dying of famine by the 
 thousand in the neighborhood. The scientific system of 
 appeals favors the machinations of unscrupulous native 
 pleaders, who gain a livelihood by stirring up litigation 
 and making the most of judicial delays, with the result that 
 the confidence of the Indian population in the justice and 
 efificiency of the law has been impaired. The granting of 
 representative government in municipalities has led to the 
 sharp accentuation of religious and racial animosities and 
 has especially increased the bitter feeling between Moham- 
 medans and Hindus, the former of whom oppose strongly 
 any system of representation based upon numbers. The 
 same result has been brought about by the creation of a free 
 press, which uses its freedom not only for the purpose of 
 constant agitation against the British, but also to stir up 
 and perpetuate the feeling of mutual hatred between the 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL ZONE 431 
 
 various great religions of India. The jury system has un- 
 dermined the confidence of the natives in the justice of the 
 British, because no white jury can be found to condemn 
 a white man for the murder of a native." ' European in- 
 dividualistic institutions are suited neither to the African 
 climate nor people and any attempt to introduce them except 
 by a very gradual process can have only evil conse- 
 quences. 
 
 In districts where the white population is considerable 
 the introduction of European laws and institutions is in- 
 evitable, but fortunately by the time that the white popula- 
 tion reaches to any considerable number, the natives will 
 have had time to undergo a preparatory training. In the 
 Sudan, however, the white population nowhere amounts to 
 more than an insignificant fraction of the total, and the 
 natives are therefore least prepared to adjust themselves to 
 a civilized regime. 
 
 {b) The African Cannot be Advanced Along the Lines 0/ 
 European Culture. — ^The Sudan Negroes need to undergo a 
 transition stage before they can come in contact with 
 Western ideas, institutions and modes of life without ruinous 
 consequences. Hovelacque says wisely that " what one can 
 assure from acquired experience is that to pretend to impose 
 upon a black people the European civilization is a pure 
 aberration. A black said one day to some white travellers 
 that the white civilization was good for the whites but bad 
 for the blacks. No utterance was ever more sensible." ' 
 Ellis says of the Negro that " any endeavor to force upon 
 him our artificial conditions of existence must fail, for racial 
 character cannot be suddenly transformed ; and even if it 
 were possible to impose our civilization upon him it would 
 not be lasting, for the various transitional stages be- 
 tween his position and ours would have been want- 
 ing."' 
 
 • Pp. 15-17. ' P. 4S9- ' " Ewe Speaking Peoples," p. 12. 
 
432 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Colonial policies are not primarily conceived or applied 
 in the interest of the natives but in the interest of European 
 exploiters, and indeed, as pointed out by Reinsch, the spirit 
 of our age is not in general directed to the organization and 
 development of the psychic life of mankind but to " the 
 mastery over the forces of nature."^ So far as Africa is 
 concerned the policy is that of an " exhaustive barbarian 
 exploitation." ^ It is no wonder then that the results of 
 European contact in some localities have been injurious 
 rather than beneficial to the natives. 
 
 {c) Both Sociological and Anatomical Obstacles. — ^The 
 reader will observe that the obstacles to infusing European civ- 
 ilization into the Negro, as thus far pointed out, arise from the 
 peculiarities of his psychology, and acquired characteristics 
 as outwardly manifested. It now remains to explain that 
 the unfavorable way in which he responds to civilization is 
 due to a cause that is organic or anatomical. His brain is 
 so constituted that its sensori-motor activities predominate 
 over his idio-motor activities, i. e., his passions and natural 
 impulses are exceptionally potent and his inhibiting power 
 exceptionally feeble. Therefore contact with civilization 
 multiplies the excitations of his passions and appetites by 
 reason of offering a greater range and quantity of objects 
 of desire ; and to restrain himself from gratifying his in- 
 tensified cravings calls for an inhibiting power beyond the 
 strength of his present faculties. The abolition of polygamy 
 does not, in the least, remove his sexual incontinence, but 
 only makes it more capricious. He covets a thousand new 
 objects introduced by civilization and has an irresistible im- 
 pulse to steal what he cannot buy. Therefore it is evident 
 that the mental constitution of the Negro is adapted only 
 to a particular climate and stage of culture and any im- 
 provement in his psychic nature can be effected only by 
 very slow and easy transitions. It is necessary to bear in 
 
 ' Reinsch, p. 9. » IbiJ,, p. 31. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL ZONE 433 
 
 mind, however, that the anatomical obstacle is not the 
 same in all of the zones. 
 
 (d) Testimony of Sir Samuel Baker Respecting the In- 
 fluence of the Negro's Contact With Civilization. — In further 
 support of all that has been said of the influence of civiliza- 
 tion upon the Sudan Negro, the writer wishes to add the tes- 
 timony of Sir Samuel Baker and Miss Mary Kingsley, both 
 of whom studied the Negro in his native surroundings. 
 " The black man," says Baker, " is a curious anomaly, the 
 good and bad points of human nature bursting forth with- 
 out any arrangement, like the flowers and thorns of his own 
 wilderness. A creature of impulse, seldom actuated by re- 
 flection, the black man astounds by his complete obtuse- 
 ness, and as suddenly confounds you by an unexpected ex- 
 hibition of sympathy. From long experience with African 
 savages, I think it is absurd to condemn the negro hi toto, 
 as it is preposterous to compare his intellectual capacity 
 with that of the white man. It is unfortunately the fashion 
 for one party to uphold the Negro as a superior being, while 
 the other denies him the common powers of reason. So 
 great a difference of opinion has ever existed upon the in- 
 trinsic value of the Negro, that the very perplexity of the 
 question is a proof that he is altogether a distinct variety. 
 So long as it is generally considered that the Negro and the 
 white man are to be governed by the same laws and guided 
 by the same management, so long will the former remain a 
 thorn in the side of every community to which he may un- 
 happily belong. When the horse and the ass shall be found 
 to match in double harness, the white man and the African 
 black will pull together under the same regime. It is the 
 grand error of equalizing that which is unequal, that has 
 lowered the Negro character, and made the black man a re- 
 proach. . . . 
 
 " In the great system of creation that divided races and 
 subdivided them according to mysterious laws apportioning 
 
434 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 special qualities to each, the varieties of the human race ex- 
 hibit certain characters and qualifications which adapt them 
 for specific localities. . . . 
 
 " The history of the Negro has proved the correctness of 
 this theory. In no instance has he evinced other than a ret- 
 rogression when once freed from restraint. Like a horse 
 without harness, he runs wild, but, if harnessed, no animal is 
 more useful. Unfortunately this is contrary to public opinion 
 in England, where the vox populi assumes the right of dicta- 
 tion upon matters and men in which it has had no experi- 
 ence. The English insist upon their own weights and 
 measures as the scales for human excellence, and it has been 
 directed by the multitude, inexperienced in the Negro per- 
 sonally, that he has been a badly treated brother ; that he is 
 a worthy member of the human family, placed in an inferior 
 position through the prejudice and ignorance of the white 
 man, with whom he should be upon equality. 
 
 " The Negro has been, and still is, thoroughly misunder- 
 stood. However severely we may condemn the horrible 
 system of slavery, the results of emancipation have proved 
 that the Negro does not appreciate the blessings of freedom, 
 nor does he show the slightest feeling of gratitude to the 
 hand that broke the rivets of his fetters. His narrow mind 
 cannot embrace that feeling of pure philanthropy that 
 first prompted England to declare herself against slavery 
 and he only regards the anti-slavery movement as a proof 
 of his own importance. In his limited horizon he is himself 
 the important object, and as a sequel to his self-conceit, he 
 imagines that the whole world is at issue concerning the 
 black man. The Negro, therefore, being the important 
 question, must be an important person, and he conducts 
 himself accordingly — he is far too great a man to work. 
 Upon this point his natural character exhibits itself most 
 determinately. Accordingly, he resists any attempt at 
 coercion ; being free, his first impulse is to claim an 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL ZONE 435 
 
 equality with those whom he lately served, and to usurp a 
 dignity with absurd pretensions, that must inevitably insure 
 the disgust of the white community. Ill will, thus en- 
 gendered, a hatred and jealousy is established between the 
 two races, combined with the errors that in such conditions 
 must arise upon both sides. The final question remains. 
 Why was the Negro first introduced into our colonies — and 
 to America ? 
 
 " The sun is the great arbitrator between the white and 
 the black man. There are productions necessary to civilized 
 countries, that can alone be cultivated in tropical climates 
 where the white man cannot live if exposed to labor in the 
 sun. Thus, such fertile countries as the West Indies and 
 portions of America being without a native population, the 
 Negro was originally imported as a slave to fulfil the condi- 
 tions of a laborer. In his own country he was a wild 
 savage, and enslaved his brother man ; he thus became a 
 victim to his own system ; to the institution of slavery that is 
 indigenous to the soil of Africa, and that has not been taught 
 to the African by the white man, as is currently reported, 
 but that has ever been the peculiar characteristic of African 
 tribes. In his state of slavery the Negro was compelled to 
 work, and, through his labor, every country prospered where 
 he had been introduced. He was suddenly freed, and from 
 that moment he refused to work, and instead of being a use- 
 ful member of society, he not only became a useless burden 
 to the community, but a plotter and intriguer, imbued with 
 a deadly hatred of the white man who had generously 
 declared him free. 
 
 " Now, as the Negro was originally imported as a 
 laborer, but now refuses to labor, it is evident that he is a 
 lamentable failure. Either he must be compelled to work, by 
 some stringent law against vagrancy, or these beautiful 
 countries that prospered under the conditions of Negro 
 forced industry must yield to ruin under Negro freedom and 
 
436 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 idle independence. For an example of the results, look to 
 St. Domingo.^ 
 
 " Under peculiar guidance, and subject to a certain 
 restraint, the Negro may be an important and most useful 
 being ; but if treated as an Englishman, he will affect the 
 vices but none of the virtues of civilization, and his natural 
 good qualities will be lost in his attempt to become a ' white 
 man.' " ^ 
 
 {e) Testimony of Miss Kingsley. — Now note the almost 
 identical opinions of Miss Kingsley : " I preface my remarks 
 by stating that I have profound personal esteem for several 
 missionaries, naturally, for it is impossible to know such men 
 and women as Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Kemp, of the Gold 
 Coast, Mme. and M. Jacot, and Mme. and M. Forget, and 
 M. Gacon, and Dr. Nassau, of Gaboon, and many others with- 
 out recognizing at once the beauty of their natures and the 
 nobility of their intentions. Indeed, taken as a whole, the 
 missionaries must be regarded as superbly brave, noble- 
 minded men who go and risk their own lives, and often those 
 of their wives and children, and definitely sacrifice their 
 personal comfort and safety to do what, from their point of 
 view, is their simple duty ; but it is their methods of working 
 that have produced in Africa the results which all truly in- 
 terested in West Africa must deplore ; and one is bound to 
 make an admission that goes against one's insular prej- 
 udice — that the Protestant English missionaries have had 
 most to do with rendering the African useless. 
 
 " The bad effects that have arisen from their teaching 
 have come primarily from the failure of the missionary to 
 recognize the difference between the African and themselves 
 
 ' In referring to the refusal of the Negro to work Sir Samuel Baker had in mind 
 the Negroes of the tropical countries only. The Negroes of the United States had 
 just emerged from slavery and it was then too early to form an opinion as to how 
 they were using their freedom. In the temperate zone the Negroes cannot live upon 
 the spontaneous products of nature. They must work or starve. 
 ' Vol. I, p. 294. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL ZONE 437 
 
 as being a difference not of degree but of kind. I am aware 
 that they are supported in this idea by several eminent 
 ethnologists ; but still there are a large number of anatom- 
 ical facts that point the other way, and a far larger number 
 still relating to mental attributes, and I feel certain that a 
 black man is no more an undeveloped white man than a 
 rabbit is an undeveloped hare ; and the mental difference 
 between the two races is very similar to that between men 
 and women among ourselves. . . . The missionary to 
 the African has done what my father found him doing to 
 the Polynesians — ' regarding the native minds as so many 
 jugs only requiring to be emptied of the stuff which is in 
 them and refilled with the particular form of dogma he is 
 engaged in teaching, in order to make them the equals of 
 the white races.' This form of procedure works in very 
 various ways. It eliminates those parts of the native fetish 
 that were a wholesome restraint on the African. . . . 
 Those Africans who are the chief mainstay of missionary 
 reports and who afford such material for the scoffer thereat 
 have merely had the restraint of fear removed from their 
 minds in the mission schools without the greater restraint of 
 love being put in its place. 
 
 " The missionary-made man is the curse of the Coast, 
 and you find him in European clothes and without, all the 
 way down from Sierra Leone to Loanda. The pagans 
 despise him, the whites hate him, still he thinks enough of 
 himself to keep him comfortable. His conceit is marvelous, 
 nothing equals it except perhaps that of the individual rife 
 among us which the Saturday Review once aptly described 
 as ' the suburban agnostic ' ; and the missionary man is very 
 much like the suburban agnostic in his religious method. 
 After a period of mission-school life he returns to his coun- 
 try-fashion, and deals with the fetish connected with it very 
 much in the same way as the suburban agnostic deals with 
 his religion, i. e., he removes from it all the inconvenient 
 
438 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 portions. ' Shouldn't wonder if there might be something in 
 the idea of the immortality of the soul, and a future heaven, 
 you know — but as for hell, my dear sir, that's rank super- 
 stition, no one believes in it now, and as for Sabbath keep- 
 ing and food restrictions — what utter rubbish for enlight- 
 ened people ! ' So the backsliding African deals with his 
 country-fashion ideas ; he eliminates from them the idea of 
 immediate retribution, etc., and keeps the polygamy and 
 the dances, and all the lazy, hazy-minded native ways. The 
 education he has received at the mission school in reading 
 and writing fits him for a commercial career and as every 
 African is a born trader he embarks on it, and there are 
 pretty goings on ! On the West Coast he frequently sets up 
 in business for himself ; on the Southwest Coast he usually 
 becomes a sub-trader to one of the great English, French or 
 German firms. On both Coasts he gets himself disliked, 
 and brings down opprobrium on all blaek traders, expressed 
 in language more powerful than select. This wholesale 
 denunciation of black traders is unfair, because there are 
 many perfectly straight trading natives ; still the majority are 
 recruited from missionary school failures, and are utterly 
 bad. 
 
 " The two things to which the missionary himself 
 ascribes his want of success are polygamy and the liquor 
 traffic. Now polygamy is like most other subjects, a diffi- 
 cult thing to form a just opinion on, if before forming the 
 opinion you make a careful study of the facts bearing on 
 the case. It is therefore advisable, if you wish to produce 
 an opinion generally acceptable in civilized circles, to follow 
 the usual recipe for making opinions — ^just take a prejudice 
 of your own, and fix it up with the so-called opinion of that 
 class of people who go in for that sort of prejudice too. I 
 have got myself so entangled with the facts that I cannot 
 follow this plan, and therefore am compelled to think 
 polygamy for the African is not an unmixed evil ; and that 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL ZONE 439 
 
 at the present culture-level of the African it is not to be 
 eradicated. . . . 
 
 " As regards the drink traffic — no one seems inclined to 
 speak the truth about it in West Africa ; and what I say I 
 must be understood to say only about West Africa, because 
 I do not like to form opinions without having had oppor- 
 tunities for personal observation, and the only part of 
 Africa I have had these opportunities in has been from 
 Sierra Leone to Angola. . . . 
 
 " I do not say every missionary on the West Coast who 
 makes untrue statements on this subject is an original liar ; 
 he is usually only following his leaders and repeating their 
 observations without going into the evidence around him ; 
 and the missionary public in England and Scotland are 
 largely to blame for their perpetual thirst for thrilling details 
 of the amount of Baptisms and Experiences among the 
 people they pay other people to risk their lives to convert, 
 or for thrilling details of the difficulties these said mission- 
 aries have to contend with. As for the general public who 
 swallow the statements, I think they are prone, from the 
 evidence of the evils they see around them directly arising 
 from drink, to accept as true — without bothering themselves 
 with calm investigation — statements of a like effect regard- 
 ing other people. I have no hesitation in saying that in 
 the whole of West Africa, in one week, there is not one- 
 quarter the amount of drunkenness you can see any Satur- 
 day night you choose in a couple of hours in the Vauxhall 
 Road ; and you will not find in a whole year's investigation 
 on the Coast, one seventieth part of the evil, degradation, 
 and premature decay you can see any afternoon you choose 
 to take a walk in the more densely populated parts of any 
 of our own towns. I own the whole affair is no business of 
 mine ; for I have no financial interest in the liquor traffic 
 whatever. But I hate the preying upon emotional sympathy 
 by misrepresentation, and I grieve to see thousands of 
 
440 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 pounds wasted that are bitterly needed by our own cold, 
 starving children. I do not regard the money wasted 
 because it goes to the African but because such an immense 
 percentage of it does no good and much harm to him." ' 
 Miss Kingsley goes on to say that owing to the extreme 
 dampness of the Niger region, the moderate use of gin is 
 not deleterious and that it is a substitute for the native 
 palm-wine and other intoxicants which are in several ways 
 very injurious to health and which the natives drink if they 
 cannot get gin.^ 
 
 " You may say — Well 1 if it is not the polygamy and 
 not the drink that makes the West African as useless as he 
 now is as a developer, or a means of developing the coun- 
 try, whati is it ? In my opinion it is the sort of instruction 
 he has received, not that this instruction is necessarily bad 
 in itself, but from being unsuited to the sort of man to 
 whom it has been given. It has the tendency to develop 
 his emotionalism, his sloth, and his vanity, and it has no 
 tendency to develop those parts of his character which are 
 in a rudimentary state and much want it ; thereby throwing 
 the whole character of the man out of gear." ^ 
 
 " There will be as there are now, and as there were in the 
 past, individual Africans who will rise to a high level of 
 culture, but that will be all for a very long period. To say 
 that the African race will never advance beyond its present 
 culture-level, is saying too much, in spite of the mass of 
 evidence supporting this view, but I am certain he will never 
 advance above it in the line of European culture. The 
 country he lives in is unfitted for it, and the nature of the 
 man himself is all against it — the truth is the West Coast 
 mind has got a great deal too much superstition about it, 
 and too little of anything else. Our own methods of in- 
 struction have not been of any real help to the African be- 
 cause what he wants teaching is how to work. Bishop In- 
 ' P. 664. 2 p. 667. « p. 669. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL ZONE 441 
 
 gram would have been able to write a more cheerful book 
 than his " Sierra Leone after 100 Years," if the Sierra Leo- 
 nians had had a thorough grounding in the technical cul- 
 ture, suited to the requirements of their country, instead of 
 the ruinous instruction they have been given, at the cost of 
 millions of money and hundreds of good, if ill-advised, 
 white men's lives. For it is possible for a West African 
 native to be made by European culture into a very good sort 
 of man, not the same sort of man that a white man is, but a 
 man a white man can shake hands with and associate with 
 without any loss of self-respect. It is by no means neces- 
 sary, however, that the African should have any white cul- 
 ture at all to become a decent member of society at large. 
 Quite the other way about, for the percentage of honorable 
 ajid reliable man among the Bushmen is higher than among 
 the educated men." ' 
 
 Views almost exactly in line with those held by Sir 
 Samuel Baker and Miss Kingsley are given by the distin- 
 guished German scholar. Dr. Friedrich Ratzel, in his " An- 
 thropogeographie." ^ 
 
 1 p. 680. 
 
 ' " Phenomena of contact of a higher and a lower culture. 
 
 " Upon the latter soil one may think that the European innovations are sown, 
 but their contact, their implanting remains not an external process. The human 
 comes to men not without arousing, exciting and calling forth wants and creating 
 ideas. Most frequently there follows the abandonment of the old customs and eager 
 adoption of the new : old standards decline and new ones are only gradually created. 
 We can characterize this condition of unrest as fermentation : it is an inner process of 
 decomposition brought about by external attack, in which disintegration and renova- 
 tion are united but in such a way that the former is first effective, upon whose soil 
 covered by debris the other then prepares its field. There might not be found a 
 single exception to the general rule that natural people rapidly decline in contact 
 with a higher culture in order again later and slowly to rise, if they arc able to make 
 use of the new culture. The question is then only whether there is sufficient time 
 for them to carry this movement to the end. The well known dying out of natural 
 people is rendered so sad just because it takes place through cultural decline, and 
 where the improving, ascending movement has set in it is often checked and made 
 futile by this falling off in numbers. Evil influences hasten this course but the best 
 purpose has not been often able to arrest it. In North America and Australia there 
 
442 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Unfavorable Results May be Due to Temporary Reaction 
 Except as to Negroes of the Banana Zone. — May it not be that 
 the present backward tendency of the Sudan Negroes rep- 
 resents only a natural and temporary disorganization inci- 
 dent to a too sudden introduction of civilized ideas and cus- 
 toms ? It is certainly a fact, true of the white race, that any 
 revolutionary change of ideas and institutions, is followed by 
 a period of moral retrogression and then a period of favorable 
 reaction. May it not be that the Negro is passing through 
 
 are numerous examples of the fact that since the beginning of regular support on the part 
 of the government greater dependence accompanied by greater poverty, has gained 
 more ground. In Siberia the abandonment of the nomadic wandering for the bless- 
 ings of settled life has only hastened the retrogression. The missions have often 
 been able to prepare only a slight check against this retrogression just because they 
 level and democratize the original structure of society before they have scattered their 
 seed. In the face of these facts Mallory 's phrase adopted by Gerland cannot be con- 
 firmed ; to vpit, when the population disappears in the face of a civilization it is dissi- 
 pated not by culture but by the barbarism of the whites. 
 
 " The higher culture generally acts injuriously, as a matter of course, without 
 any purpose to do so, when it cripples the native desire to create, and the native im- 
 petus to work of a people standing upon a lower and especially upon a different eco- 
 nomic basis. What culture and Christianity wishes for the best, destroys the ex- 
 change system of the economic foundation. Apparent progress as the building of 
 wooden houses, the introduction of metals, of European articles of clothing and the 
 like, is not always progress in the economic life of the natives. Trade hastens the 
 time of the transition and at the same time sweeps away the poor against their will. 
 On that account the Tunguses of Middendorf with good reason complained that the 
 traders visited them in their fixed quarters instead of confining themselves to the 
 markets. Almost as a rule the best hunters and many owners of herds of cattle in 
 that country are involved in debts. The dwindling of the once flourishing flocks of 
 cattle of the Kirghis and their impoverishment through the purchasing of grain and 
 the frequent famines are attributed likewise to the trade. Also they have lost in 
 land. The trade not only brings useful things but floods the simple people with 
 commodities for which they grasp as children after sweetmeats ; brandy, opium, to- 
 bacco, betel, and with improved weapons which make their wars bloody and in a 
 manifold sense more costly. Things that had value lose in value and apparently 
 worthless things gained are rapaciously used up and destroyed. The Australians 
 complained that the Europeans exterminated their game, burned down the reeds with 
 which they built their huts and mowed down the grass upon which they slept. 
 
 " The loosening brought about by influences so foreign and new in the whole 
 social structure of a people is certainly very noticeable. In Polynesia, where the pop- 
 ulation of a single island, of a single community and of a single tribe were in close 
 
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE CAMEL ZONE 443 
 
 the first of these transition periods preparatory to a re- 
 awakening ? The view of the writer is that this may be true 
 of the Negroes of some portions of Africa or America but not 
 of those of the banana region, for the reason that they have 
 not the fundamental intellectual or moral strength to react 
 from the decomposition which the clash with civilization has 
 
 contact, the rapid change of religion, customs and usages has brought about a dis- 
 turbing influence which, of course, we can scarcely picture to ourselves. It was just 
 in the first decades after the missionary work became known in Hawaii that one of 
 the worst influences of civilization upon the people was observed, to wit, the loosen- 
 ing of the poor class of the population from their condition of dependency (serfdom) 
 to the chiefs who forced them to work and gave them nourishment in return for it. 
 
 " An interesting example of the profound alterations which the influence of cul- 
 ture produces in the life and welfare of natural people is the description which Cap- 
 tain Wilkes gives of his visit to the chief of Lahania upon the island of Maui. He 
 found him, who was a natural son of Kameahmea I, standing with his wife in his 
 permanent dwelling place, a small grass hut. The chief spoke of improvements 
 which he would willingly bring about in his dwelling but the means to do so failed 
 him, as he said. No doubt his income from tapa and other native products was con- 
 siderable, but the value of these articles had fallen since the intervention of Euro- 
 pean trade, to such a degree that the chief who had to represent his dignity by 
 nourishing a clientele of beggars was almost as poor as anyof his subjects. On account 
 of the retrogression or stagnation of the population the erection of great public build- 
 ings in Micronesia has been likewise arrested, and for that reason a source of stimu- 
 lation to the employment of the imagination and the hands has dried up; the people 
 produce less than formerly, their originality has died out, and they are in an ethno- 
 logical sense being impoverished. 
 
 " Just in so far as this loosening of the inner cohesion of the people of this stage 
 renders it difficult for them to retain the advantage of the higher culture we hold the 
 question of Quatrefages as justified ; whether a high culture does not carry with it 
 something that cannot be brought into harmony with the existence of subordinate 
 races ? The chief reason for this seems to be that the culture is not taken up in its 
 proper connection and in its totality. The evil of culture lies in its halfness. It does 
 not ripen upon this soil. In all mission fields the observation has been made that 
 those who accept the European customs entirely, as well as those who live in original, 
 unbounded savagery, suffer less than those straying here and there and vacillating 
 between the settlements of the whites and their own hunting grounds. Kerry 
 Nicholls, the latest visitor to free Maoriland, on the North Island of New Zealand, 
 found the younger generation among the free Maori physically deteriorated in com- 
 parison with the powerful statures of the older. He found an immoderate use of to- 
 bacco, and attributed the decline from 56,000 in 1859 to 44,000 essentially to the 
 half wild and half civilized life." — Vol. 2, pp. 349-352. 
 
444 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 produced. No signs of reaction have been noticed within 
 the last four centuries. 
 
 The presence of uniformed officers, maxim guns, mis- 
 sionaries and traders, here and there, may stop many savage 
 practices and upon the surface there may be the appearance 
 of an uplift. Many artificial restraints may be imposed by 
 means of coercion, but if past policies continue to be carried 
 out, the fundamental moral nature of the masses will remain 
 disorganized. The only noticeable change will be the devel- 
 opment of intellectual and moral, characteristics which will 
 make the Negroes more and more criminal and less and less 
 able to survive in the struggle for existence. Even if the 
 white race should never be able to populate this zone, the 
 blacks will gradually die out from the effects of the disrupt- 
 ing of the native institutions which formerly saved them. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 SOLUTION OF THE NEGRO PROBLEM IN THE 
 
 SUDAN 
 
 Political Stability the First Essential. — If the question now 
 be asked, What general principles should govern the 
 Europeans in their African colonies, the answer is as fol- 
 lows : First the natives should be developed, as far as pos- 
 sible, by a process of evolution similar to that experienced 
 by every civilized nation. In the progress from savagery to 
 civilization the Western races have gone through a period 
 of struggle for territory, for the establishment of definite 
 boundary lines and the maintenance of peace. Then a 
 period of economic development, the training of people to 
 habits of industry, to skill in the arts of production, trade and 
 commerce, and the practice of economy and saving. Now, 
 upon these two foundation stones, — political stabiUty and in- 
 dustrial competence — the whole superstructure of civilization 
 has been built, — education, science, philosophy and art. If 
 it be said that religious and moral forces lie behind all this 
 evolution, the writer will not object, except to add that re- 
 ligion and morals are not forces independent of and apart 
 from the political, economic and general social activities of a 
 people, but are involved equally in all of them and are the 
 motives which give rise to them. There can be no religion 
 or morality aside from these activities and the notion that 
 they can be imparted in the abstract is an erroneous one. 
 They can only become a real force by developing as an 
 organic element in all lines of activity, and the general order 
 of development is as above stated. 
 
 The Africans have been subjected to a line of treatment 
 exactly opposite to that which every race must undergo in 
 
 445 
 
446 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 its progress from savagery to civilization. First the mis- 
 sionary arrives upon the scene and attempts to change the 
 psychological life of the people by imparting literary educa- 
 tion and cramming the Negro brain with the highly ab- 
 stract doctrines and philosophy of Christianity, but leaving 
 his industrial life untouched. Next come the colonial 
 officials with their brass buttons, red trousers and other gew- 
 gaws, who make some effort to maintain peace and protect 
 commerce but upset native institutions and issue formal 
 proclamations of emancipation to a people who have not 
 learned the first principle of economic independence and 
 who interpret the proclamation to mean that no one need 
 work if he does not wish to. Then having set the natives 
 free and created a labor famine, these same champions of 
 emancipation turn around and reenslave the natives under 
 the disguise of penal labor contracts and a variety of other 
 cunning subterfuges. Finally, when the psychological life 
 of the people is disorganized, the native institutions over- 
 thrown, the economic life paralyzed and the labor problem 
 reaches an acute stage, the missionaries and brass-buttoned 
 colonial officials awake to the need of introducing technical 
 and industrial schools and attempting to do something by 
 way of giving to the native societies some kind of industrial 
 foundation — all of which is putting the horse behind the 
 cart, and its stupidity is only equaled by its absurdity. 
 
 The first duty of European governments is to suppress 
 intertribal warfare and aid the natives in defining their 
 national boundaries and maintaining peace. Instead of this 
 the Europeans have been busy in defacing native political 
 divisions and substituting for them arbitrary administrative 
 districts fashioned after European models. The result is to 
 destroy the national existence and also the national pride of 
 the natives and to deprive them of any opportunity to learn 
 the art of government. The only wise policy is to leave the 
 native government and officials as far as possible undis- 
 
NEGRO PROBLEM IN THE SUDAN 447 
 
 turbed and to aid them in the administration of public 
 affairs, especially in revising the criminal code and dispens- 
 ing justice. Mr. Williams of Lagos said at a banquet in 
 London that the " English law was too highly developed 
 and subtle to be understood by the bulk of his countrymen : 
 therefore any development of the native laws and customs 
 to meet present day needs should be carried out gradually."' 
 Again he said, " Their own laws and customs were the best 
 for them and they should be allowed to grow on these 
 lines." ^ As a safeguard to the rights and interests of Eu- 
 ropean residents, it is proper that a veto power be vested in 
 the colonial governor. 
 
 Economic Renovation. — Following the establishment of 
 peace and order, the next object of colonial governments 
 should be to place the economic life of the people upon a 
 more substantial basis. To this end the institution of 
 slavery should be left intact and only modified as the 
 natives reach the point of volunteering to work in such 
 number as to meet the demands for labor. 
 
 Educational Needs. — The Negroes should be educated 
 in mechanical, industrial and agricultural arts by daily 
 practice and experiment and not by the theoretical process. 
 There should be no book-learning until the demand for it is 
 such that the natives begin to organize schools on their own 
 account. Theoretical teaching should be limited to impart- 
 ing practical information on the subject of sanitation. 
 When the natives have gained for themselves a solid 
 economic footing, i. e., have learned to work with regularity, 
 to maintain themselves in comfort and to accumulate some- 
 thing, then a system of literary and general education can 
 be introduced that may do some good, and not, as it has 
 done in the past, disqualify the people for industrial pur- 
 suits, and destroy their native morale. The Negroes of 
 America, especially in the Southern United States, were put 
 
 " African World, November 4, 1905, p. $86. ' Ihid., p. 538. 
 
448 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 through a course of training which corresponded more 
 nearly to the natural evolution of things than the training 
 which the black people have received in any other part of 
 the world. First of all, they were trained to habits of 
 industry and instructed in a variety of trades and crafts. 
 The white man concerned himself very little about the re- 
 ligion of the Negroes except the practical side of it, and 
 made almost no efiEort to eradicate, but rather humored, 
 their superstitions, many of which exercised a wholesome 
 restraint ; but he insisted by precept and by the lash, upon 
 their conformity to the moral code, i. e., taught them to 
 respect property rights, to give up polygamy, to tell the 
 truth and be courteous and obedient. Thus when the time 
 came for them to enter the schools and colleges they had 
 already gone through a period of training which gave them 
 an industrial and moral foundation that saved them from 
 many of the disintegrating effects, so conspicuous in Africa, 
 where education is begun too soon at the wrong end. This 
 order of development was purely accidental but it was 
 fortunate and the American Negroes owe to it whatever 
 progress they have made or hope still to make. 
 
 As for university education, that may be encouraged 
 for the few, mostly mulattoes, who may aspire to something 
 exceptional ; and it would produce only good results if the 
 motive to hate the white man and to turn against their own 
 race, could be eliminated from the Negroes in the way al- 
 ready indicated. 
 
 Changes Should be Gradual and Accomplished Through 
 Native Leaders. — It is very evident that the economic, moral 
 and intellectual development of the African can be brought 
 about only by a gradual modification of native character 
 and institutions through the instrumentality of native lead- 
 ers, /. e., chiefs, princes, magistrates, medicine men, etc., 
 who are the main supports of the existing structure and the 
 natural moulders of the characters of the masses. Every race 
 
NEGRO PROBLEM IN THE SUDAN 449 
 
 has its natural and spontaneous leaders and can be influ- 
 enced for the better only through them and never in oppo- 
 sition to them, even in the case of conquest, unless the con- 
 querors and conquered are on practically the same level of 
 culture. Usually the missionaries set themselves in opposi- 
 tion to the native authorities, especially the conjurer, who is 
 often the most intelligent and influential man of the com- 
 munity ; and they depend upon the personal influence that 
 they exert upon a miscellaneous crowd of natives, mostly 
 boys and girls gathered here and there, and placed, by a 
 system of education, at a great distance from the com- 
 monalty. This method can never succeed. 
 
 Suggestions to Missionaries. — Missionaries should not 
 seek to make any radical change in the institutions and 
 traditional conceptions of the people, but address themselves 
 to quickening and building up those common and funda- 
 mental precepts and practices which lie at the foundation of 
 character and institutions and which alone can modify either 
 with beneficial results. They should leave to native teachers 
 and leaders the general education of the masses and the 
 direction of their social and political institutions. This was 
 the general policy of the greatest of modern missionaries, 
 David Livingstone. 
 
 The missionaries would see a different result from their 
 work if they would recognize the truth that God is in all re- 
 ligions and reveals himself to all men according to their 
 capacity for light. If, instead of attempting to overthrow 
 suddenly and completely as an abomination, all that the 
 Negro believes, the missionaries would see the fact that the 
 Negro has in his religion something of that Divine Spirit 
 which is the basis of all morality and which has carried the 
 white race through its stages of evolution, and if they 
 would seek to train the intelligence and habits of the Negro 
 BO that his religion would gradually and spontaneously 
 modify itself, the tendency would be to strengthen his moral 
 
450 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 character rather than to disorganize it. The great fault of 
 missionary effort everywhere is that it measures its success 
 by the rapidity with which it demolishes native faith and 
 beliefs, and minimizes the essential and final thing by which 
 all men are to be judged ; to wit, conduct.' 
 
 The very notable sociological study of missions by 
 Dr. Dennis ^ gives hope of some improvement in missionary 
 methods and results, although it lends too much sanction to 
 a ruthless destruction of native faiths and beliefs.* Many 
 African superstitions are not only as harmless as a child's 
 belief in Santa Claus, but beautiful and temporarily bene- 
 ficial in cultivating the poetic faculties and even in promot- 
 ing good conduct. The belief in spirits has not been incom- 
 patible with the progress of civilization and Christianity 
 among the whites, but may have been in many ways, not 
 yet known to us, necessary and valuable. The wise mis- 
 sionary, therefore, will begin his work by attending to the 
 native's daily life, especially to his sanitary needs (which by 
 the way are emphasized by Christ),* and attacking first 
 and gradually those fictions only which have an injurious 
 effect upon conduct. 
 
 The missionary methods employed by Christ were pre- 
 cisely those here recommended and those which harmonize 
 with the general evolutionary process. Christ did not be- 
 gin his ministry by attacking the traditional philosophy or 
 political institutions of his age, nor by recommending a 
 system of literary education. When a certain man asked 
 what he should do to inherit eternal life Christ did not reply 
 as the modern missionary or evangelist would do, by say- 
 ing, you must first give up all traditional beliefs and accept 
 without quibble such and such doctrines ; but he simply 
 told the man he must regulate his conduct so that he should 
 
 ' Matthew 12 : 50 ; 25 : 1-46. 
 
 *" Christian Missions and Social Progress." 'Vol. I, p. 319. 
 
 < Matthew 25 : 35-41- 
 
NEGRO PROBLEM IN THE SUDAN 451 
 
 obey the social obligations, of a good citizen and learn to 
 love his fellow men/ Christ declared that he did not come 
 to destroy the law or the prophets. He did not advise men 
 to tear down the institutions under which they were living 
 but to render to Caesar the tribute that was due him. In- 
 stead of preaching metaphysical doctrines and plotting 
 against the state, he first gathered around him a few fish- 
 ermen and went about among the common people, visiting 
 and helping the sick, and giving simple practical talks on 
 the most commonplace and elementary virtues, about which 
 there could be the least division of opinion.^ What he at- 
 tacked was not the old doctrines of the priests and prophets 
 but the old morality of " an eye for an eye and a tooth for 
 a tooth," and the evil life of the scribes and Pharisees.' He 
 said, "The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: all 
 therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe 
 and do ; but do not ye after their works." He spoke many 
 parables emphasizing the duties and obligations of daily 
 life, especially enjoining that men be industrious, frugal,* 
 make use of their talents," bear good fruit " and serve it to 
 those who need it.' The missionary idea is shown clearly 
 by Christ in his parable of the " leaven which a woman 
 took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was 
 leavened," and that of the mustard seed, " Which indeed is 
 the least of all seeds, but when it is grown, it is the greatest 
 among herbs, and becometh a tree so that the birds of the 
 air come and lodge in the branches thereof." ' 
 
 The Christianity of Christ is the inculcation of a prin- 
 ciple of life which regenerates and gradually develops as a 
 little seed and bears fruit in a ripening of the whole eco- 
 nomic, social, political and philosophic powers of the human 
 race. Its simplicity and freedom from confusing and dis- 
 
 • Matthew 20 : t6-2l. ' For example, the Sermon on the Mount. 
 
 'Matthew, chapter 23. * Ibid., 25 : 1-13. ^ Ibid., 25 : 14-23. 
 
 « Ibid., 13 : 23. ' Ibid., 20 : 27 ; 19 : 21. » Ibid., 13 : 32. 
 
452 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 tracting dogmas explain why it took root among the people 
 and revolutionized Western civilization. In this connec- 
 tion it would be well to say that the recent complaint of the 
 decline of Christianity is due alone to the fact that the 
 teachings of Christ have been departed from and buried 
 under the weight of twenty centuries of accumulated dog- 
 mas, creeds and obligatory confessions. The best people 
 of our age are becoming weary of sectarian competition 
 and antagonisms, like the competition and antagonisms 
 already discredited in the commercial world, and of the 
 wrangle and jangle and divisions over philosophical ques- 
 tions, which were never mentioned or thought of by Christ, 
 but developed only in the metaphysical schools of Rome 
 and Western Europe centuries after his death. 
 
 The reason of the success of Mohammedanism among 
 the blacks is that it does not effect a radical modification of 
 native institutions. The Mussulman does not, as the Chris- 
 tian missionary, attempt, as the first thing, to antagonize 
 old doctrines and infuse new ones, but he begins by living 
 among the natives, working and trading among them. He 
 is unobtrusive and tolerant and thus the natives convert 
 themselves by imitation.' Whatever other objections may 
 be raised against Mohammedanism the truth of Sevin's 
 statement cannot be questioned, to wit, that it is certainly a 
 step towards civilization.^ For the present the extension of 
 Mohammedanism among fetich tribes ought not to be dis- 
 couraged for that would probably alienate the people.^ The 
 Negroes of the Sudan can be converted to Christianity 
 most effectively and speedily by a general improvement of 
 their political, economic and social life as above outlined, 
 relegating to the background such secondary matters, as 
 the doctrines of the Trinity, Apostolic Succession, Predes- 
 tination, Baptism, Final Perseverance of the Saints, and 
 
 ' Chapiseau, pp. 164, 165 ; Jackson, " Morocco," p. 300. 
 
 'P. 219- ^ Chapiseau, p. 167. 
 
NEGRO PROBLEM IN THE SUDAN 453 
 
 Transubstantiation, about which Christians differ so widely 
 among themselves. 
 
 Need of Racial Pride and Solidarity. — The most essential 
 thing for missionaries is to avoid teaching the false phi- 
 losophy of the equality of all races and the doctrine of ab- 
 stract rights. The races of mankind are not equal nor 
 capable of adjusting themselves to the same institutions. 
 The Negroes should be taught that they will have a right to 
 enjoy all of the political and social privileges of the white 
 race only when they lift their race to the level of the white 
 race. Then the educated Negroes instead of turning away 
 from their race with the curled lip of disdain, will turn 
 towards it with a helping hand. They will then have a 
 motive to build up race pride and solidarity which will 
 make for peace, happiness and progress. Instead of teach- 
 ing the Negro to ape the white man, teach him the danger 
 of it and the necessity of developing his inhibiting power 
 by a simplicity of life which curbs luxury and the cravings 
 that destroy. A seed sown in the tropical zone cannot de- 
 velop into the same plant, flower or fruit as the same seed 
 sown in the temperate zone. It can be recognized as the 
 same species but the product of the two zones will be very 
 different. Each zone will impart a peculiar form, color and 
 flavor. So it is with the implanting of an idea, Christian 
 or other, into different races of men. Each race can come 
 to its highest realization, not by imitating another, but by 
 taking pride in what is natural and peculiar to itself. Hence 
 while all races should have a common civilization each 
 should retain its individuality. 
 
 Elimination of Political and Racial Conflict by Native 
 Representation in Legislation. — It is essential to the welfare 
 of both races that the white race should maintain political 
 control of Africa and prevent a menacing increase of Negro 
 voters. In all local legislative bodies the natives should be 
 represented by their own race in the proportion of, say, one- 
 
454 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 third of the total number of representatives. Thus political 
 and racial conflict would be eliminated and a door of op- 
 portunity opened to the natives to enter politics and to 
 render service to their race. This policy should continue 
 until such time in the distant future as the masses of the 
 blacks shall have developed that mastery of self which shall 
 place them upon a moral equality with the whites. A share 
 in the government of this kind would be a valuable school- 
 ing for the race and would be better in every way than the 
 political equality which they possess only theoretically 
 in America, and which practically excludes them from all 
 halls of legislation and renders them only so many dice 
 and trump-cards for white demagogues. 
 
 But what the Africans need as much as a wise colonial 
 policy is the influence of example in the personnel of Euro- 
 pean administrators and entrepreneurs. Sevin says, 
 " L'Afrique a surtout besoin d'honnStes gens dans I'accep- 
 tion la plus rigoureuse du mot." ^ 
 
 The carrying out of the policies just outlined might 
 not at all insure the survival of the Negro races in the zone 
 of the banana but would bring about the conditions most 
 favorable to their peace, happiness and moral and intel- 
 lectual advancement. 
 
 The same general policies should apply to the people 
 of the millet and cattle zones where the possibilities of 
 progress are somewhat greater. The natives of the millet 
 zone have industrious habits and talents for trade and 
 handicrafts which promise well for them under British rule ; 
 and in the cattle zone, the people, especially the Fellatahs 
 and Kanuris have a relatively high order of intellectual 
 capacity, a spirit of pride and independence and an indus- 
 trial adaptability which argue well for their future, if the 
 past mistakes in dealing with the Negro are not continued 
 and thus bring to naught these bright prospects. In many 
 
 ' p. 229. 
 
NEGRO PROBLEM IN THE SUDAN 455 
 
 localities the Negroes have some good naturEil qualities and 
 under proper control are capable of becoming useful pro- 
 ducers and developing into a race that should command 
 respect. The chief reason that the Negro race has fallen so 
 low in the world's estimation is simply because it has been 
 theoretically treated as the equal of the white race, and 
 consequently, while assimilating all of the vices of the white 
 man, it has fallen under the condemnation of the white 
 man's high standards. 
 
 A Final Word.— As a final word the writer wishes to say 
 that it is difficult for him or any one accustomed to civilized 
 surroundings, to do justice to the savage. The books deal- 
 ing with him have so generally emphasized and exagger- 
 ated his vices and bestiality that the civilized reader has 
 come to regard all of the characteristics, ideas and institu- 
 tions of the savage as wholly bad, whereas they represent 
 only the inevitable conditions of a stage of development 
 through which the human race has had to pass. It is there- 
 fore no more rational to despise the savage than to despise 
 the seedling because it has not yet become a plant with 
 fruit and flower. If the Sudan Negroes are far behind the 
 other races of the world, it is in a measure due to an adverse 
 environment, which in the economy of nature, was hardly 
 intended to do more than carry them through a preliminary 
 stage of development. In some measure they are censur- 
 able for their backwardness, since races, as individuals, have 
 teleological power — i. e., a certain freedom to choose and 
 carve out their destiny. But the teleological power of the 
 Sudan natives is relatively feeble and their responsibility is 
 therefore not the same as that of civilized people. 
 
List of the Principal Books Referred to 
 in the Text 
 
 AdansoN: " Voyage to Senegal," London, 1759. 
 Africanus, Leo : " Geographical Historie of Africa," London, 
 
 1600. 
 Allen and Thomson : " Exploration to the Niger," London, 
 
 1848. 
 Andersson : " Explorations and Discoveries in Southwest 
 
 Africa," Philadelphia, 1856. 
 Atkins : " A Voyage to Guinea, Brazil and the West 
 
 Indies," London, 1735. 
 
 Baines : " Exploration in the Southwest Africa," London, 
 
 1864. 
 Baker: "The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile," 
 
 London, 1866. 
 Baldwin : " Fragments in Philosophy and Science," New 
 
 York, 1902. 
 Baldwin : " Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental 
 
 Development," New York, 1898. 
 Barth, Heinrich : " Travels and Discoveries in the North 
 
 and Central Africa," New York, 1859. 
 Barth, Paul : " Die Philosophic der Geschichte als Sociol- 
 
 ogie," Leipzig, 1897. 
 Benezet: "Historical Account of Guinea," Philadelphia, 
 
 1772. 
 Binger : " Du Niger au Golfe," Paris, 1892. 
 Blake : " History of Slavery and the Slave Trade," Colum- 
 bus, O., 1857. 
 Bouche : " La C6te des Esclaves et Le Dahomey," Paris, 
 
 1885. 
 
 4S7 
 
458 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Bowen : " Missionary Labor in Africa," Charleston, 1857. 
 
 Brackenbury : " The Ashanti War," Edinburgh and Lon- 
 don, 1874. 
 
 Bryce : " Impressions of South Africa," New York, 1900. 
 
 Buckle : " History of Civilization in England," Vol. i. 
 
 Burrows : " Land of the Pigmies," New York, Crowell & 
 Company. 
 
 Buxton : " The African Slave Trade," Philadelphia, 1839. 
 
 Canot : ' Twenty Years of an African Slaver," edited by 
 
 Mayor, New York, 1854. 
 Campbell : " A Pilgrimage to Me Motherland," New York, 
 
 1861. 
 Casati : " Ten Years in Equatoria and the Return with 
 
 Emin Pasha," London and New York, 1891. 
 Chapiseau : " Au Pays de L'Esclavage," Paris, 1900. 
 Clapperton : " Journey to Kouka and Sackatoo," Boston, 
 
 1826. 
 Clapperton : " Second Expedition into the Interior of 
 
 Africa," Philadelphia, 1829. 
 Clark : " The African Slave Trade," Boston, i860. 
 
 Darwin : " Descent of Man," New York. 
 
 Decle : " Three Years in Savage Africa," London, 1898. 
 
 Denham : " Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in North- 
 ern and Central Africa," Boston, 1826. 
 
 Dennis : " A Sociological Study of Missions," N. Y., 1903-^. 
 
 Deniker : " The Races of Man," London, 1900. 
 
 Drake : " Revelations of a Slave Smuggler," New York, 
 i860. 
 
 Du Chaillu : " My Apingi Kingdom," New York, 1871. 
 
 Duncan : "Travels in Western Africa," London, 1847. 
 
 Ellis : " The Ewe Speaking Peoples," London, 1890. 
 Ellis : " The Tshi Speaking Peoples," London, 1887. 
 Ellis : "The Yoruba Speaking Peoples," London, 1894. 
 Ely : " Outlines of Economics," New York, 1893. 
 Ely : " Elements of Political Economy," New York, 1901 • 
 
BOOKS REFERRED TO IN TEXT 459 
 
 Falcombridge : " Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast 
 
 of Africa," London, 1787. 
 Farini : " Huit Mois au Kalahari," Paris, 1887. 
 Featherman : " Social History of the Races of Mankind, 
 
 Nigritians, etc.," London, 1887. 
 Foa : " Le Dahomey," Paris, 1895. 
 Forbes : " Dahomy and the Dahomans," London, 1851. 
 Freeman : "Visit to Ashanti, Dahomi, etc.," London, 1844. 
 Geil : " A Yankee in Pigmy Land," New York, 1905. 
 Giddings : " Principles of Sociology," New York, 1896. 
 Crosse : " Beginnings of Art," New York, 1897. 
 Gumplowicz : " Outlines of Sociology," Philadelphia, 1899. 
 Gurney : " Myers and Podrose : Phantasms of the Living," 
 
 London, 1886. 
 
 Haeckel : " The Evolution of Man," New York, 1897. 
 Hawkins, Joseph : " Voyage to the Coast of Africa," Troy, 
 
 1797. 
 Hazzledine : " The White Man in Nigeria," London, 1904. 
 Hovelacque : " Les Negres de L'Afrique Sus-Equatoriale," 
 
 Paris, 1889. 
 
 James : " Principles of Psychology," New York, 1904. 
 Janet : " The Mental State of Hystericals," New York and 
 
 London, 1901. 
 Jastrow : " Fact and Fable in Psychology," Boston and 
 
 New York, 1900. 
 Journal of an African Cruiser, by an Ofificer of the U. S. 
 
 Navy, New York, 1845. 
 
 Kay : " Travels and Researches in Caffaria," New York, 
 
 1834. 
 Keane : " Man : Past and Present," Cambridge, 1899. 
 Keane : " The Boer States," London, 1900. 
 Kelbe: "Voyage en Afrique," Paris, 1842. 
 Kingsley : " Travels in West Africa," London, 1900. 
 Kingsley : " West African Studies," London, 1901. 
 
46o THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Lander, Richard and John : " Expedition to Niger," 
 
 New York, 1858. 
 Lasnet, et al : " Une Mission au Senegal," Paris, 1900. 
 Letourneau : " Sociology," London, 1893. 
 Livingstone : " Missionary Travels and Researches in South 
 
 Africa," New York, 1858. 
 Lorin : " L'Afrique au XX Siecle," 1901. 
 
 Mackenzie: "Ten Years North of the Orange River, 
 
 1859-69," Edinburgh," 1871. 
 Mason : " Telepathy and The Subliminal Self," New York, 
 
 1897. 
 Markham : " Hawkins' Voyages (Sir Thomas)," London, 
 
 1878. 
 Moffat : " Missionary Labors and Scenes in Southern 
 
 Africa," London, 1842. 
 Montesquieu : " The Spirit of Laws," London, 1773. 
 Myers : " Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily 
 
 Death," New York and Bombay, 1903. 
 
 NiEBOER : " Slavery as an Industrial System," The Hague, 
 1900. 
 
 Ogilby : " Africa," London, 1670. 
 
 Osier: "The Principles and Practice of Medicine," New 
 York. 
 
 Park : " Life and Travels " of. New York, 1858. 
 Post : " Ueber die Aufgaben einer AUgemeinen Rechtswis- 
 senschaft," Leipzig, 1891. 
 
 Post : " Entwicklungs geschichte des Familienrechts," 
 Leipzig, 1889. 
 
 Preville: " Soceites Africaines," Paris, 1894. 
 Quatrefages : " The Pygmies," New York, 1895. 
 
 Ratzel : " The History of Mankind," London, 1897. 
 Ratzel : " Anthropogeographie," Stuttgart, 1891. 
 
BOOKS REFERRED TO IN TEXT 461 
 
 Reclus : " The Earth and its Inhabitants," New York, 1892. 
 Reinsch : " Colonial Administration," New York, 1905. 
 Ribot: "The Psychology of the Emotions," London, 1897. 
 Robinson : " Nigeria," London, 1900. 
 Rohlfs : " Raise von Mittelmeer noch dem Tschad-See und 
 
 Golf von Guinea," Leipzig, 1875. 
 Romer : " Kaloolah or Adventures," New York, 1850. 
 Ross: "Social Control," New York, 1901. 
 
 Sevin : " Afrique et Africains," Paris, 1892. 
 
 Schopenhauer : " Essays ; Saunders' Translation," New 
 York. 
 
 Schweinfurth : " The Heart of Africa," New York, 1874. 
 
 Shaw (Lady Lugard) : " A Tropical Dependency," London, 
 1905. 
 
 Small and Vincent : " Introduction to the Study of Sociol- 
 ogy," American Book Co., 1894. 
 
 Small : " Significance of Sociology for Ethics," Chicago, 
 1902. 
 
 Spencer : " Principles of Sociology," 3 Vols., New York, 1883. 
 
 Spencer : " Principles of Psychology," 2 Vols., New York, 
 
 1893- 
 
 Spilsbury : " Voyage to West Coast of Africa," London, 
 1807. 
 
 Stanford : " Compendium of Geography and Travel, Africa," 
 Vol. I, London, 1901. Edited by A. H. Keane. 
 
 Stanley : " Coomassie and Magdala," New York, 1874. 
 
 Stanley : "In Darkest Africa," New York, 1890. 
 
 Stanley: "Through the Dark Continent," New York, 1878 
 and 1879. 
 
 Staudinger : " Im Herzen der Haussa Lander," Oldenburg 
 and Leipzig, 1891. 
 
 Stuhlmann : " Mit Emin Pasha ins Herz von Afrika," Ber- 
 lin, 1894. 
 
 Theal : " The Beginning of South African History," Lon- 
 don, 1902. 
 Tylor: "Anthropology," New York, 1904. 
 
462 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Waitz : " Anthropologic der Naturvolker," Leipzig, i860. 
 Ward : " Pure Sociology," New York, 1903. 
 Ward : "The Psychic Factors of Civilization," Boston, 1901. 
 Ward : " Dynamic Sociology," New York, 1898. 
 Wissmann : " Meine Zweite Durchquerung Aquatorial Afri- 
 kas," Frankfurt, 1890. 
 
Brief Account of the Discovery of Africa, with 
 
 Biographical Sketches of the Principal 
 
 Explorers Mentioned in this Book 
 
 In the earliest historic times when civilization centred 
 around the Mediterranean, Africa, known then as Libya, 
 was one of the three great divisions of the earth, of which 
 Europe and Asia were the other two. Whether the Libyan 
 or Hamitic peoples of Africa were or were not autochthonous 
 is a problem for the settlement of which no sufficient data 
 exists. The knowledge possessed by the ancients of the 
 continent as a whole can be briefly stated. The rulers of 
 Egypt, as subsequently those of Carthage, attempted to 
 extend their influence towards the south and west ; but the 
 physical and climatic conditions and the savage tribes en- 
 countered presented an effective bar to extended progress at 
 that time. An inscription assigned to the period of the 
 Eleventh (Theban) Dynasty tells of a voyage made by the 
 command of one of the rulers of that dynasty to the land of 
 Punt, probably Somaliland. Recent discoveries also seem 
 to increase the credibility of traditions which assigned the 
 biblical lands of Ophir to the eastern coast of Africa. 
 About thirty centuries ago the enterprising Phoenicians 
 planted Utica (iioo B. c), Carthage (826 B. c.) and other 
 colonies along the Mediterranean coast, and the Greeks, be- 
 ginning in the eighth century, planted colonies in Cyrenaica 
 and points east of Carthage. 
 
 The known explorations of the Dark Continent may be 
 said to begin with the famous voyage made by Phoenicians 
 about 600 B. C, an account of which is preserved by 
 
 463 
 
464 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 Herodotus. There is no reason for doubting the general 
 accuracy of the account which describes the voyage as 
 made by command of Necho, king of Egypt, who had just 
 completed a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea. The ex- 
 pedition sailed down the Red Sea and along the coast of 
 Africa, until the sun for many weeks " rose on their right 
 hand." After a long absence the explorers returned to Egypt 
 through the Pillars of Hercules, so that they must have cir- 
 cumnavigated the continent. A hundred years later, also 
 according to Herodotus, a Persian of noble birth, Sataspes, 
 started, with a Carthaginian crew, down the west coast of 
 Africa, but was compelled to turn back. It is doubtful if he 
 went far beyond the Phoenician settlements, which begin- 
 ning at Gades, just without the Pillars of Hercules, already 
 extended well down the coast of Morocco, along which 
 Hanno, about 450 B. c, planted a series of colonies. The 
 Madeira and Canary Islands were probably within the scope 
 of the seagoing trade of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians. 
 The Carthaginian traders trafficked by sea with the Gold 
 Coast and by land along the caravan routes which com- 
 municated with the flourishing regions of Upper Egypt and 
 the Niger. It is probable that almost contemporaneously 
 with the Phoenician settlements in Northern Africa, Arabs 
 entered the country South of the Zanzibar, and, going in- 
 land, found and worked the gold mines which have been 
 recently rediscovered. The Greeks began to colonize 
 Northern Africa in the seventh century, B. C. After the 
 conquest and destruction of Carthage by Rome (146 B. C) 
 all Northern Africa was gradually drawn into the growing 
 empire ; but Rome's interest lay in the known and or- 
 ganized regions, upon which she strengthened the hold of 
 civilization, ignoring all that lay beyond her well defined 
 boundaries, a policy which was accentuated as the empire 
 tended towards decay. 
 
 Christianity was introduced into Africa in the earliest 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 465 
 
 days and the North African Church was a recognized 
 division of the Christian Church in the second century. 
 But the church was destined to have a short Hfe. Under- 
 mined by formalism and apathy, it fell beneath the Moham- 
 medan onslaught in the seventh century. During the 
 Germanic invasions, the Vandals grasped the African 
 provinces and in the early mediaeval period much that had 
 been known to Ptolemy and the geographers who preceded 
 him was forgotten. . . . What Europe was forgetting, 
 the Arabs, in the advance of the Mohammedan power, re- 
 discovered. From Arabia the new faith spread rapidly 
 westward along the southern shores of the Mediterranean 
 and inland across the desert. It took such deep root in 
 Northern Africa that the Christian religion which in many 
 places was then well established, has never been able to 
 regain a real foothold among the native races. 
 
 If traditions may be believed Norman vessels from 
 Dieppe visited the Gold Coast as early as 1364 and in 1413 
 the Normans built a fort at Elmina. There is neither 
 inherent improbability in this story nor satisfactory evidence 
 to prove it, but it is probable that Norman voyagers found 
 their way to the West African coast at a very early period. 
 
 The real opening of Africa to the knowledge of the 
 modern world began with Prince Henry of Portugal, called 
 the Navigator. In 1415, he participated in the victorious 
 campaign of Portugal against the Moorish citadel of Ceuta 
 and his interest was awakened by the enigma of the un- 
 known continent. On his return he devoted himself to the 
 task of sending expedition after expedition down the African 
 coast to determine the extent of the continent, and to find if 
 possible a way to the east around it. These expeditions 
 crept farther and farther southward until Vasco de Gama 
 rounded the Cape of Good Hope and sailed as far as India.* 
 
 In the fifteenth century Leo Africanus made important 
 
 • " New International Encylopaedia," Vol. I, pp. 180-1. 
 
466 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 discoveries in Northern and Central Africa. He was bom 
 at Granada, Spain, about 1485, of Moorish parents who 
 emigrated to Fez in Morocco after the capture of Granada 
 by the Spaniards. At sixteen he accompanied an uncle on 
 an embassy to Timbuctu and afterwards traveled through 
 several countries of North Central Africa, penetrating Bornu 
 to Nubia, descending the Nile and extending his explora- 
 tions into Persia. Returning from Constantinople by sea 
 in 15 1 7 he was captured by corsairs and taken to Rome 
 where he became a Christian, was patronized by Pope Leo X 
 whose name he took, his original name being Al Hassan Ibu 
 Mohammed. His great work, the " Description of Africa," 
 was written in Arabic and published in 1550.' 
 
 Among the modern Explorers the following are those 
 most prominently mentioned in this volume and whose lives 
 and works awaken the most universal interest. 
 
 Baker, Sir Samuel White, was equipped in 1869 
 by the Khedive of Egypt at the request of the Prince of 
 Wales to suppress the slave trade in the Upper Nile regions. 
 He was constituted pasha and governor of Central Africa 
 for four years, and was commanded to annex the countries 
 he visited, to open up navigation and to establish military 
 and trade stations at intervals throughout the region, with 
 Gondokoro as the base of operations. He arrived at 
 Khartum in 1870 with six steel steamers built in sections, 
 1,600 native troops, and a corps of artisans, and vast quantities 
 of goods for trading purposes. His journey up the Nile was 
 impeded by the drifting vegetation or sudd through which 
 he had to cut channels with swords. He was attacked by 
 crocodiles, wild beasts and every species of tropical insect, 
 but most of all by the Arab slave traders, particularly one 
 Abow Saood, the greatest slave-trader of Central Africa, a 
 representative of the house of Agad & Co., of Khartum, 
 
 ' " Universal Cyclopaedia and Atlas," Vol. 7, p. 151. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 467 
 
 who stirred up the natives to make war on him. Finally, 
 however, on April 15, 1870, Baker reached Gondokoro, a 
 distance of 1,409 miles from Khartum. With his forces re- 
 duced to 600, having sent back to Khartum the wounded 
 and sick and some women and children to the number of 
 one thousand, he pushed on to Masinda, the capital of 
 Unyoro. Here his forces' were greatly depleted by an up- 
 rising of the natives and he won the day only after a fierce 
 fight and the total destruction of the town. Baker's further 
 career in Africa was marked by numerous and dramatic 
 incidents. He returned to Khartum June 29, 1873, and pro- 
 ceeded then to Cairo, where he was received with numerous 
 marks of honor by the Khedive. The results of the expe- 
 dition were of immediate and great importance to the future 
 of Central Africa. The infamous slave-hunter, Abow Saood, 
 was subsequently removed to Cairo in chains. The occu- 
 pation of the equatorial provinces was continued by the 
 Khedive who appointed Colonel Gordon to command.* 
 
 Barth, Heinrich, was bom at Hamburg in 1821, 
 educated at the University of Berlin and spent the rest of 
 his life in travel and exploration, except the last few years, 
 during which he was professor of geography in the uni- 
 versity from which he had graduated. He made his first 
 trip to North Africa in 1845, visiting Tunis, Tripoli, Ben- 
 ghazi and Cyrenaica, and traveled down the valley of the 
 Nile. In 1849 he visited Africa again, spending five years 
 in explorations in the Sudan. He died in 1865.^ 
 
 BiNGER, Captain Louis Gustave, native of France, 
 born in 1856, explored the whole region from the Senegal 
 to the Ivory Coast in an expedition, 1887-89. Starting 
 from Bamaku he traveled southeastward through Sikaso, 
 
 ' <« Encyclop:edia Britannica," American Supplement, Vol. i, p. 6l. 
 ' Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 401. 
 
468 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 capital of Tieba to the famous town of Kong which he was 
 the first European to enter, thence north to Wakara in the 
 Dafina district, crossing the upper course of the Comoe and 
 Black Volta, thence through the wasted Gurunsi country to 
 Wagadugu, capital of the flat Mossi country. After making 
 a complete circuit of the Gold Coast he followed the Akba 
 River due south to Grand Bassam.^ 
 
 Du Chaillu, Paul Belloni, a French traveler, natu- 
 ralized as a citizen of the United States, was bom in Paris, 
 July 31, 1835. He was the son of a French merchant of 
 Equatorial Africa, trading near the mouth of the River 
 Gaboon. Having become familiar in his youth with the 
 neighboring tribes young Du Chaillu undertook an explor- 
 ing expedition at the age of twenty into the interior of the 
 country. He made important discoveries and added greatly 
 to our knowledge of the Dark Continent. He was one of 
 the first travelers to describe the gorilla of which he collected 
 a number of specimens. He also collected many previously 
 unknown birds. As a result of his extensive explorations 
 he published the following works : " Explorations and Ad- 
 ventures in Equatorial Africa," 1861 ; " A Journey to 
 Ashango Land," 1867; "Wild Life Under the Equator," 
 1869 ; " Lost in the Jungle," 1869 ; " My Apingi Kingdom," 
 1870; "Stories of the Gorilla Country," 1868; "The 
 Country of the Dwarfs," 1871, and "Western Africa," 1874. 
 
 Clapperton, Hugh, native of Dumfriesshire, Eng- 
 land, commissioned by the British government to accom- 
 pany Dr. Oudney and Colonel Denham to make an ex- 
 ploration of Northern Africa. Setting out in 1822 they 
 passed through Tripoli, then crossed the desert by way of 
 Murzuk to Kouka, the capital of Bornu. Clapperton and 
 Denham thence traveled westward to investigate the course 
 
 • Stanford, Vol. i, p. 270. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 469 
 
 of the Niger, but Oudney died on the way and Clapperton 
 returned to Kouka where he joined Denham and returned 
 with him to England.' In 1825 Clapperton was sent with 
 another expedition to Africa. He was accompanied by 
 Captain Pierce, Mr. Dickson, Dr. Morrison and Richard 
 Lander, the latter acting as Clapperton's servant. He 
 landed at Badagry in the Bight of Benin and proceeded in- 
 land. Captain Pierce and Dr. Morrison soon perished from 
 the effects of the bad climate. In 1826 Clapperton reached 
 Katunga, the capital of Yariba, thence crossed the Niger at 
 Broussa where later Mungo Park met his untimely fate. In 
 July he arrived at Kano, a city which he had visited on his 
 previous journey. Leaving Lander at Kano he proceeded 
 alone to Sokoto (Sackatoo), intending to go as far as 
 Timbuctu. The sultan, however, detained him at Sokoto, 
 where he died from a climatic disease in April, 1827. An 
 account of his travels was published by Lander.^ 
 
 Duncan, Major, was a member of the British Niger 
 Expedition of 1841, which resulted in failure and a melan- 
 choly loss of life. In 1845-46 he made a trip to the interior 
 of Dahomi and added considerably to our geographical 
 knowledge of that region. In another expedition in the 
 same region, for the purpose of advancing northward to 
 Timbuctu he met an untimely death.' 
 
 Emin, Pasha (1840-92), was bom in Prussia of Jewish 
 parents, his real name being Edward Schnitzer. He studied 
 in Breslau, Berlin and Konigsberg, taking his degree in 
 medicine. In 1864 he went to Turkey and served as a 
 surgeon in the Turkish army and in 1875 he removed to 
 Egypt and became a surgeon in the army of the Sudan 
 under General Gordon. In 1878 he was appointed governor 
 
 '" Encyclopaedia Britannica," Vol. 5, p. 802. * Ihid. 
 
 s Ibid., Vol. I, p. 246. 
 
470 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 of the equatorial provinces in southern Sudan. He person- 
 ally conducted exploring expeditions and secured valuable 
 collections of botanical and zoological specimens. 
 
 After the revolt of the Dervishes under Mahdi in 1881 he 
 was completely cut off from Egypt and the rest of the world, 
 but was able to maintain himself and keep his provinces 
 under control. While still isolated from the civilized world 
 he was made a Pasha by the Egyptian Government in 1887. 
 In the following year he was rescued by an expedition led 
 by Henry M. Stanley who tried in vain to induce Emin to 
 return with him to Egypt, but the Pasha would not leave his 
 people to whom he was devoted. In the following year, 
 however, influenced by representatives of the Dervishes, the 
 provinces rose in revolt and Emin was deposed and im- 
 prisoned. On being released he reluctantly returned to 
 Egypt and resigned his office. In 1890 he entered the serv- 
 ice of the German East African Company and followed Dr. 
 Stuhlmann on an expedition to Central Africa. It was while 
 engaged in this work, which he prosecuted with heroic 
 energy, in spite of almost extinct eyesight, that he was as- 
 sassinated by two Arabs.' 
 
 Gordon, Charles George (1833-85), familiarly 
 known as Chinese Gordon and Gordon Pasha was bom at 
 Woolwich, educated at Taunton and the Royal Military 
 Academy. Among the many events of his life it may be 
 mentioned that he served through the Crimean War : in 
 i860 he joined the Anglo-French forces in China and was 
 present at the capture of Peking. He made expeditions into 
 the interior of China and on account of various services the 
 Chinese Emperor conferred upon him the highest Chinese 
 military title. In 1874 he was sent by Ismail Pasha to es- 
 tablish authority in Egypt in the Upper Nile basin and was 
 appointed governor of the Equatorial Provinces. Sub- 
 
 1 " The New International Encyclopaedia," Vol. 6, p. 694. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 471 
 
 sequently he was created a Pasha and in 1877 the Khedive 
 appointed him Governor of the Sudan. His administration 
 was marked by wonderful energy and activity in establish- 
 ing communications, developing natural resources and sup- 
 pressing rebellion and slavery. The deposition of Ismail in 
 1879 led to his resignation. 
 
 When later Hicks Pasha's army had been overwhelmed 
 by the forces of the Mahdi and the Gladstone Government 
 had insisted on the Khedive's abandonment of the Sudan, 
 Gordon was commissioned to effect the withdrawal of the 
 scattered garrisons and the evacuation of the country. He 
 arrived at Khartum in 1884 and after being beleaguered 
 there and meeting with many reverses and much treachery, 
 the city finally was captured and the heroic commander 
 slain.' 
 
 KiNGSLEY, Mary H., daughter of George Henry Kings- 
 ley and niece of Charles Kingsley, was born in London, 1862. 
 When a mere girl she became interested in science and later 
 studied Darwin, Huxley, Lubbock and other scientists. In 
 1893 she went to Saint Paul de Loanda, in Portuguese West 
 Africa, to study biology and returned the next year after en- 
 countering many difficulties and traveling through parts of 
 the country known only to the natives. In the latter part of 
 1896 she returned to Africa for the purpose of exploring the 
 lower Niger region and studying its flora. In the elephant 
 and gorilla countries she had several narrow escapes, travel- 
 ing frequently up the rivers and through the bush with only 
 native attendants. She traveled through the Niger Coast 
 Protectorate, Cameroon and Gaboon. The results of her 
 journeys were published in the exceedingly interesting 
 "Travels in West Africa," 1897, and "West African 
 Studies," 1899. Early in 1900 she went to South Africa 
 and was attached to the military hospital at Simons Town, 
 
 • " The New International Encyclopaedia," Vol. 8, p. 526. 
 
472 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 where, after nursing sick Boer prisoners, she fell ill and died 
 June 3, 1900.' 
 
 Lander, Richard (1804-1834) and John (1807-1839), 
 his brother were natives of Cornwall, England. Richard 
 accompanied Clapperton on his second expedition and upon 
 the latter's death at Sokoto, 1827, returned to England and 
 published an account of the expedition. 
 
 In 1830 the British Government sent him to explore the 
 course of the Niger, his brother John joining him as an un- 
 salaried volunteer. They landed at Badagry and traveled 
 inland to Boosa on the Niger and thence, as far up the river 
 as Yaoorie. They then descended the river to its mouth 
 proving that it discharged into the Delta of the Gulf of 
 Guinea. They published a narrative of their travels in 1832 
 and the same year Richard was sent out by some Liverpool 
 merchants for the purpose of opening up trade in the Niger 
 and founding a commercial settlement at the junction of the 
 Benue with the main river. After making several success- 
 ful journeys he was on his way up the river in January, 1834, 
 when on the 20th, the party were attacked by natives and 
 Lander was wounded. He died of his wounds at Fernando 
 Po, February 6? 
 
 Livingstone, David (1813-1873), was bom in Lanark- 
 shire, Scotland, of poor but self-respecting parents, typical 
 examples of all that is best among the humbler families of 
 his country. At the age of twenty-three years, after having 
 worked a long time in a neighboring cotton-mill, he began 
 his college education, which among other things, included 
 courses in medicine, theology and natural science. After 
 receiving his medical degree he volunteered for missionary 
 service and was sent to Africa in 1840 and proceeded direct 
 
 ' " The New International Encyclopsedia," Vol. lo, p. 713. 
 ^" Encyclopaedia Biitannica," Vol. 14, p. 272. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 473 
 
 to Kuruman the missionary station 700 miles north of Algoa 
 Bay, established by Moffat thirty years before. 
 
 The policy of Livingstone was to open up new mission- 
 ary fields here and there and leave the details to be worked 
 in by the native agents. His first station was in the Mabotsa 
 valley on one of the sources of the Limpopo, 200 miles 
 northeast of Kuruman. It was here that he was attacked 
 by a lion which crushed his left arm and nearly put an 
 end to his career. The arm was imperfectly set and became 
 a source of trouble to him throughout his life and was the 
 means of identifying his body after his death. To a house 
 mainly built by himself at Mabotsa, Livingstone in 1844, 
 brought home his wife, Mary Moffat, the daughter of mis- 
 sionary Moffat of Kuruman. 
 
 Among Livingstone's most notable achievements it may 
 be mentioned that he was the first white man to visit Lake 
 Ngame, the first to cross the Kalahari Desert. He explored 
 the Zambesi River, discovering the great Victoria Falls. He 
 explored Lake Nyassa and later Lake Tanganyika in the 
 effort to find the Nile sources. " No single explorer," says 
 the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," " has ever done so much for 
 African geography as Livingstone during his thirty years' 
 work. His travels covered one-third of the Continent, ex- 
 tending from the Cape to near the equator and from the At- 
 lantic to the Indian Ocean." 
 
 Not less important than his geographical discoveries 
 and missionar)' pioneering were his efforts in behalf of the 
 suppression of the slave-trade. It was chiefly through his 
 description of its operations that the conscience of the 
 civilized world was awakened to its horrors and that the 
 European governments were spurred to take active measures 
 for its suppression throughout Africa. 
 
 After the death of his wife in 1862 he returned to Eng- 
 land, hoping to remain there the remainder of his life, but 
 was prevailed upon three years later to undertake another 
 
474 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 expedition, partly for geographical researches and partly for 
 the purpose of suppressing the slave trade. He landed at 
 the mouth of the Rovuma in March, 1866, and with a 
 company of about twenty-five natives and a supply of 
 camels, buffaloes, mules and donkeys, started for the interior. 
 This imposing outfit melted away to four or five boys. 
 Rounding the south end of Lake Nyassa, he advanced to- 
 wards the south end of Tanganyika. On December the 
 15th, he lost the last of his animals, four goats, and in the 
 following January his medicine chest was stolen. Fever and 
 other climatic diseases now attacked him, against which he 
 had no medicines to combat. Nevertheless he dragged him- 
 self along, reaching Lake Moero and then the Lualaba River 
 which he believed was the upper part of the Nile. In July 
 he returned eastward and discovered Lake Bangweola. 
 Proceeding then up the west coast of Tanganyika he reached 
 Ujiji, " a ruckle of bones." Some supplies had been for- 
 warded to him at that point but the natives to whom they 
 were intrusted made way with them. Undaunted, however, 
 he recrossed Tanganyika and marched back to the Lualaba 
 where he remained four months vainly trying to get a canoe 
 to take him over to the west shore. Discouraged now and 
 physically exhausted, he made his way back to Ujiji. Five 
 days after his arrival there he was cheered and inspired with 
 new life and completely set up again by the timely arrival of 
 Henry M. Stanley, who had been sent out by James Gordon 
 Bennet of the New York Herald to find the apparentiy lost 
 missionary. Stanley's sojourn with Livingstone was almost 
 the only bright episode of these last sad years. With 
 Stanley, Livingstone explored the north end of Tanganyika 
 and then started eastward for Unyanyembe where Stanley 
 provided Livingstone with an ample supply of goods and 
 bade him farewell. 
 
 Livingstone now set out for Lake Bangweola proceeding 
 along the east side of Tanganyika. The journey was 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 475 
 
 through swamps and under an endless downpour of rain 
 and the brave missionary was again attacked by disease. 
 By the middle of April he had to be carried on a litter, and 
 early on the morning of May ist the boys found " the great 
 master," as they called him, kneeling by the side of his 
 bed, dead. His faithful men preserved his body in the sun 
 as well as they could, and wrapping it carefully up, carried 
 it and all his papers, instruments and other things across 
 Africa to Zanzibar. It was borne to England with all honor 
 and on April 18, 1874, was deposited in Westminster Abbey 
 amid tokens of mourning and admiration such as England 
 accords only to her greatest sons. It will be a long time be- 
 fore the tradition of his sojourn dies out among the African 
 people who almost without exception regarded him as a 
 superior being. His treatment of them was always tender, 
 gentle and gentlemanly. Personally Livingstone was a 
 pure and tender-hearted man, full of humanity and sym- 
 pathy and as simple-minded as a child. The motto of his 
 life was the advice he gave to some school-children in Scot- 
 land, — " Fear God and work hard." ' 
 
 Moffat, Robert (i 795-1883), was bom in Scotland 
 of humble parentage. He learned the craft of gardening 
 but in 1 8 14 offered himself to the London Missionary So- 
 ciety which two years later sent him to South Africa. After 
 spending a year in Namaqualand, he married Miss Mary 
 Smith, of Cape Town, " a remarkable woman and most 
 helpful wife." In 1820 he and his wife left Cape Town 
 and settled among the Bechuana tribes lying to the west of 
 the Vasd River. He made frequent journeys to the neigh- 
 boring regions, as far north as the Matabele country. He 
 translated the whole Bible into the Bechuana language. 
 While solicitous to turn the people to Christian belief he 
 was the first to take a broad view of the missionary function 
 
 • " EncylcofKcdia Britannica," Vol. 14, p. 720. 
 
476 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 and to realize the importance of inducing the savage to 
 adopt the arts of civilization. He himself was a builder, 
 carpenter, smith, gardener and farmer, all in one and by pre- 
 cept and example succeeded in turning a horde of blood- 
 thirsty savages into a " people appreciating and cultivating 
 the arts and habits of civilized life, with a written language 
 of their own." It was largely due to him that the work of 
 Livingstone, his son-in-law, took the direction which it did. 
 In 1870 Moffat returned finally to his native land where he 
 died August 9, 1883.' 
 
 Park, Mungo (1771-1806?), was a native of Selkirk- 
 shire, Scotland. He was sent out by the African Associa- 
 tion in 1795 to explore the Niger. He set out from the 
 River Gambia and proceeded into the interior reaching the 
 Niger at Segu. He returned to England in December, 
 1796, with the distinction of being the first European to 
 reach the well nigh fabulous waters of the Niger. He pub- 
 lished an account of his travels in 1799. He married a 
 daughter of his old master, Mr. Anderson, and commenced 
 practice as a country doctor. 
 
 In 1805 he accepted Lord Hobart's proposal that he 
 should take command of another Niger expedition. In 
 May of that year he reached Pisania (on the Gambia) and 
 advanced with his caravan to the Niger — but the bad sea- 
 son caused nearly all of his men to die by the time he had 
 reached Sansanding. Then he set sail down the river with 
 the resolution to find the termination of the river or perish 
 in the attempt. When he reached as far as Boussa he was 
 attacked by some natives and drowned in the effort to 
 escape.^ 
 
 ROHLFS, Friedrich Gerhard, was bom at Vegesack, 
 Germany, April 14, 1831. After studying medicine he went 
 
 1" Encyclopaedia Britannica," Vol. i6, p. 543. "^ Ibid., Vol. 18, p. 278. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 477 
 
 to Algeria as a surgeon in the French army. In i860 he 
 passed to Morocco and in the disguise of a Mohammedan 
 was the first European to enter the oasis Tafilet. On his 
 return journey he was severely wounded. In 1863 he 
 crossed the Atlas Mountains, visited the oasis Tuat and re- 
 turned by the way of Rhadames and Tripoli. In a third 
 expedition, in 1866, he reached Lake Chad and crossed 
 through the Sudan to the Niger and Guinea Coast. Later 
 he went on exploring journeys to Abyssinia, the Libyan 
 desert and again traversed the Sahara.' 
 
 SCHWEINFURTH, GEORGE AUGUST, was bom at Riga, 
 Germany, September 29, 1836. Educated there and at the 
 University of Heidelberg, he devoted himself to the study 
 of botany and made scientific excursions in Russia, France 
 and Italy. In 1863 he visited Central Africa by way of 
 Khartum and returned thence in 1866 with rich collections 
 of natural history. With the approval of the Berlin 
 Academy, he started again to Africa in 1869 with the escort 
 of an ivory trader and the favor of the governor general 
 of Sudan. He explored the country of the Dinkas, Bongos, 
 Niam-Niam and Monbuttu and discovered the Akkas, a 
 pygmy race. In 1873-74 he explored the great oasis in the 
 Libyan desert and was appointed by the Khedive director 
 of the museum of natural history at Cairo. In 1876-78 he 
 explored the country between the Nile and the Red Sea and 
 in 1 88 1 took part in an expedition to the island of Socotra.^ 
 
 Stanley, Henry Morton, was bom near Denbigh, 
 Wales, in 1840. His name was then John Rawlands and at 
 the age of three he was sent to the poorhouse at St. Asaph 
 where he stayed till he was thirteen. He was then em- 
 ployed as a teacher at Mold, Flintshire, but a year later 
 
 I " Encyclopaedia Britanniea," American Supplement, Vol. 5, p. 174. 
 » Ibid., p. 238. 
 
478 THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 shipped as a cabin-boy to New Orleans. There a merchant 
 named Stanley gave him employment and eventually 
 adopted him. But the merchant died intestate and his 
 property passed to other heirs. Thereafter Stanley led a 
 roving life among Indians and California miners until the 
 civil war broke out. He enlisted in the Confederate army, 
 but being soon taken prisoner, offered to take service on 
 the other side. He was sent to the iron-clad Ticonderoga 
 and there became acting ensign. At the close of the war 
 he went to Crete as correspondent for the New York 
 Herald, but soon left and traveled in Turkey and Asia 
 Minor. In 1869 Mr. James Gordon Bennett the proprietor 
 of the Herald sent him to Central Africa to search for 
 Livingstone who had been reported killed in 1866, but 
 whom Mr. Bennett believed to be still alive. Arriving at 
 Zanzibar, he set out for the interior, February, 187 1, with a 
 company of 192 men, divided into five caravans. In the 
 middle of April he met an Arab chief, bound eastward, who 
 informed him that Livingstone was at Ujiji. After many 
 difificulties and hardships Stanley reached Ujiji November 
 10, 187 1, where he found Livingstone and remained with 
 him for four months. Livingstone refused to return to 
 Europe as his work of exploration was not yet completed. 
 Having discovered Livingstone, which was the only object 
 of his journey, Stanley returned to England and wrote his 
 book, " How I Found Livingstone." 
 
 In his next famous expedition in 1874 Stanley, starting 
 again from Zanzibar, turned off to Victoria Lake which he 
 thoroughly explored, then made his way to Ujiji, crossed to 
 the Lualaba River and there embarking, proved its identity 
 with the Congo by sailing down that mighty stream to the 
 Atlantic Ocean. He reached the coast in August, 1877, 
 after perils far surpassing those of his first famous expedi- 
 tion. His second heroic enterprise and the wonderful 
 geographical discoveries which were then accomplished are 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 479 
 
 narrated in "The Dark Continent." He went again to 
 Africa in 1879 under the auspices of the African International 
 Association, of which the king of Belgium was the chief 
 patron, to explore the basin of the Congo River. In the 
 course of four years Stanley had established trading stations 
 along the river, for a distance of 1,400 miles and founded a 
 government for the region.' 
 
 In 1886 Stanley was placed at the head of an expedi- 
 tion for the relief of Emin Pasha, governor of the Equatorial 
 Province of Egyptian Sudan. In March, 1887, he ascended 
 the Congo to the Aruwimi and followed this tributary to its 
 headwaters. Then he struck out through the equatorial 
 wilderness in the direction of the Albert Nyanza and 
 reached there December of the same year. Out of 389 men 
 who had set out with him only 1 74 were left and they were 
 little more than skeletons. In April of the following year 
 he met Emin Pasha on the shores of the lake. Stanley re- 
 turned home by way of Zanzibar, thus completing his 
 second journey across the Dark Continent. 
 
 Stanley was married to the artist Dorothy Tennant in 
 1890. He became a naturalized citizen of Great Britain, 
 entered Parliament and received the knighthood of the Bath.^ 
 
 StUHLMANN, Franz, was bom in Hamburg, 1863. 
 After receiving his education he went to East Africa and 
 during the revolt of the Arabs in 1890 entered the German 
 corps of defense as lieutenant and was severely wounded at 
 Mlembule. Recovering from this, he joined the expedition 
 of Emin Pasha to the lake region and was sent to Lake 
 Victoria. He returned to Germany with valuable carto- 
 graphic material and rich collections to which he added 
 copiously on another trip to German East Africa undertaken 
 in 1893-94 by order of the government.* 
 
 •" Encyclopiedia Brit.innica," American Supplement, Vol. 5, p. 374. 
 
 '"The New Internationa! Encyclopsedia," Vol. 16, p. 137. ^ Jtid., p. 279, 
 
48o THE NEGRO RACES 
 
 WiSSMANN, Hermann von, a native of Germany, born 
 in 1853. He entered the army and in 1880 accompanied 
 Dr. Pogge, in the service of the German African Society, on 
 an expedition into Central Africa. Setting out from Saint 
 Paul de Loanda on the West Coast, they reached Nyangwe 
 in April, 1882. Thence Pogge returned to the coast but 
 Wissmann kept on eastward and reached Zanzibar. In 
 1883-85 he explored the region of the Kassai River and 
 other parts of the Congo Basin for the Belgian Government 
 and in 1886-87 traveled from Lubuku on the Congo to 
 Mozambique by way of Nyangwe and Lake Tanganyika and 
 Nyassa. In 1889-90, as Imperial commissioner, he sup- 
 pressed the Arab uprising under Bushiri in German East 
 Africa. In 1895-96 he was Governor of German East 
 Africa.' 
 
 1 "New International EncyclopEedia," Vol. 17, p. 815. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Aboriginal Negroes, (See Negro) 
 Absolutism, (See Forms of Government) 
 Abstract Ideas, among the Pygmies, i8 ; 
 
 among the Nigritians, 361, 401, 408 
 Activity, effect of, upon physiognomy, 
 84 ; upon the sire of the brain, 356, 
 408; upon the faculties of the brain, 
 357, 400 ; upon religion, 18, 309, 319, 
 (See Struggle for Existence) 
 Adaptation, of population to environ- 
 ment, 6, 78; of the white man to 
 the African climate, 73, 131 
 Adultery, 136, 149, 155 ; not disgrace- 
 ful, 136, 149; only an offense if com- 
 mitted with a married woman, 136, 
 149; of Amazons, 136; penalty for, 
 ■38> 179 > influenced by economic 
 conditions, 137, 155 
 ^Esthetic Judgment, relation of, to brain 
 
 development, 358 
 ^Esthetic Life, of the Pygmies, 16; of 
 the Bushmen, 42-44 ; of the Hotten 
 tots, 57 ; of the Nigritians in the ba 
 nana zone, 326; in the millet zone 
 337 ; in the cattle zone, 345 ; in the 
 camel zone, 350 ; of the Fellatahs, 
 345 ; influence of climate upon, 45 
 generalizations respecting the, 350 
 Affection, relation of, to period of con 
 tact between parents and children, 
 38, 55 ; between husbands and wives, 
 35, 140, 144, 152, 385, 404; between 
 parents and children, 14, 36, 55, 140, 
 142, 143, 144, 153, 159, 386; excep 
 tional cases of, 143, 159 ; familial, 
 more marked in the cattle zone, 159, 
 410 ; of slaves for masters, 19 ; mourn- 
 ing customs as indicative of, 144 
 Africa, geography of, 49, 65 
 Aged, disregard for the, 36, 55, 143 
 Aggression, motives for, 166, 199, 217 
 Aggressive Power, of the States in the 
 banana zone, 167, 172, 174 ; in the 
 millet zone, 200 ; in the cattle zone, 
 217-218 ; in the camel zone, 234 
 Air, effect of dry, upon social develop- 
 ment, 129, 218, 417 
 Altitude, effect of, upon color of skin, 
 eyes and hair, 220 
 
 Altruism, origin of, 389, 391 j the result 
 of constructive activities, 391 ; mani- 
 festations of, among the Negritos, 19 ; 
 among the Nigritians, 342, 404, 410; 
 lack of, 386 
 
 Ambition, (See Aspiration) 
 
 American people, compared to the Afri- 
 cans in mental and moral attainments, 
 129 
 
 Anarchy, among Bushmen, 39 
 
 Ancestor Worship, among the Hotten- 
 tots, 58 ; among the Nigritians, 161, 
 163, 270 
 
 Anger, a higher feeling than fear, 379 
 
 Animal Legends, of the Bushmen, 44 ; 
 of the Hottentots, 57 ; of the Nigri- 
 tians, 344 
 
 Animals, treatment of, 18, 39; care of, 
 influences human character, 406, (See 
 Fauna) 
 
 Animal Worship, of the Bushmen, 46 ; 
 of the Nigritians, 290, 306,316 
 
 Animism, (See Fetichism) 
 
 Arabs, intermixture of, with the Negro, 
 83, 157, 223 ; theatre of action of, in 
 the Sudan, 78 ; have contempt for 
 agriculture, 119; conquest of Africa 
 by the, 219 
 
 Architecture, effect of climate upon, 150, 
 334 ; effect of, upon family life, 139, 
 
 150 
 
 Aristocracy, bad influence of, in tropical 
 countries, 138, 181, 214; value of, 
 182 ; strength of, in the small king- 
 doms, 189, (See Forms of Govern- 
 ment) 
 
 Army, of the Dahomans, 170 ; of the 
 Ashantis, 173; of the Hausas, 202 ; of 
 the Mandingos, 202 ; of the Yorubas, 
 202 ; of the Kanuris, 222-223 ; of the 
 Fellatahs, 221 ; slaves in the, 231 ; 
 baneful effect of employing Negroes 
 in the Fellatah, 231, (See Mihtary 
 Strength) 
 
 Art, influence of climate upon, 44-45, 
 150, 334; popular idea of, 326; rela- 
 tion of, to beauty, 35 1 ; contribution 
 of, to progress, 35 1 ; as a criterion of 
 culture, 353 ; relation of, to science. 
 
 481 
 
482 
 
 INDEX 
 
 353; relation of, to morals, 57, 351 ; 
 
 ideal and abstract, 354 ; tends to be 
 
 superseded by science, 327 
 Ashantis, description of the, 81; history 
 
 of the, 172 ; sundry discussion of the, 
 
 94, 137. 172. 185, 243, 245, 258 
 Aspiration, conditions favoring, 123 
 Association, of parents and children, 14, 
 
 55, 148; influence of, upon originality, 
 
 370 ; influence of, upon art, 350, 354, 
 
 (See Integration) 
 Attention, faculty of, 362 ; influences that 
 
 control the, 363 
 Attorneys, Negro, 209 
 
 Bakek, on the influence of civilization 
 upon the Negro, 432 
 
 Baldvi'in, on the relation of religion to 
 morality, 323 
 
 Banana Zone, definition and description 
 of the, 90 
 
 Bantus, compared to Hottentots, 57, 60 
 
 Bean, on the character of the Negro 
 brain, 356 
 
 Beauty, love of, 44, 326 ; nature and 
 origin of, 350; influence of, upon 
 progress, 35 1 ; relation of, to art, 35 1 ; 
 relation of, to morals, 351 
 
 Beggars, in the millet zone, 106 
 
 Begging, a Negro trait, 397 
 
 Berbers, supposed ancestors of the Fel- 
 latahs, 219; conflict with the Arabs, 
 219 ; independence of their women, 
 55, 161 ; amalgamation of the, with 
 the Negroes, 157 ; their women averse 
 to marrying Negroes, 157 
 
 Boers, exterminate the Bushmen, 47 ; 
 demoralize the Hottentots, 61 
 
 Border States, resistance of, as a factor 
 of political expansion, 171, 173, 218 
 
 Bornu, struggle against the Fellatahs, 
 222; sundry discussion of, 226, 252, 
 312 
 
 Brain, of the Negro and Caucasian com- 
 pared, 356, 363, 367, 433 ; influences 
 the form and size of the head, 356, 
 401 ; relation of the constitution of the 
 brain to will-power, reason, inhibition, 
 357-358, and to feelings and passions, 
 359, and to ethical and aesthetic judg- 
 ment, 358 ; of the American Negro, 
 356 ; complexity of the brain convo- 
 lutions, 359; development of, influ- 
 enced by climate, 360 ; affected by the 
 character of the blood, 360 ; constitu- 
 tion of the Negro brain as an obstacle 
 to the assimilation of civilization, 432 
 
 Bryce, on the future of the Hottentots, 62 
 Buckle, on the relation of wealth to po- 
 litical power, 237 
 Burial customs, 15, 38, 253, (See Mourn- 
 ing Customs) 
 Burying alive, 36, 144 ; origin of, 144 
 Bushmen, general discussion of the, 22; 
 influence of civilization upon the, 47 ; 
 outlook for the, 48 
 
 Camels, introduced from the East, 127 
 
 Camel Zone, description and definition 
 of the, 126 
 
 Cannibalism, in the banana zone, 93, 
 187, 244 
 
 Capital, relation of, to slavery, 53 ; rela- 
 tion of, to the sale of children by 
 parents, 54 ; relation of, to the family 
 life, 35, 54, 154, 155, 156 
 
 Capture of Women, (See Raiding) 
 
 Cattle, of the Fellatahs, 116; of the 
 Dinkas, 117 ; not good for food unless 
 fattened, 118; prospects of exporting, 
 121; as money, 125, 154; not eaten 
 unless they die a natural death, 128 
 
 Cattle Zone, description and definition 
 of the, 116 
 
 Caucasian, mixed with the Fellatahs, 79 ; 
 compared to the Negro, 37, 141, 356, 
 
 363, 367. 384, 433. 436 
 
 Cavalry, power of, among the Fellatahs, 
 219, the Kanuris, 223, the Yorubas, 
 171, the Hausas, 201, (See Army) 
 
 Ceremonies, Customs and the Spectacu- 
 lar, in the several zones, 143, 239; 
 relation of, to political and economic 
 inequality, 254, and to intellectual 
 culture, 255 
 
 Character and Intelligence, as influenc- 
 ing the form of government, 176, 203, 
 225 ; as affecting political stability, 
 213, 229, the human countenance, 87, 
 the temper, and general physiognomy, 
 87-88 
 
 Characteristics, (See Psychological Char- 
 acteristics) 
 
 Charms, Omens and Signs, 17, 18, 268, 
 283, 303, (See Magic : Religion) 
 
 Chastity, ideas concerning, 135, 136, 
 149, 155 ; effect of climate upon, 135 ; 
 effect of superstition upon, 137 ; effect 
 of economic conditions upon, 137, 155 
 
 Children, sale of, by parents, 14, 36, 54, 
 142, 154 ; development of, in propor- 
 tion to the prolongation of infancy, 38, 
 55 ; disregard of, for parents, 15, 36, 
 55, 143; naming of, 54, 144; belong 
 
INDEX 
 
 483 
 
 to the mother, 144 ; number per fam- 
 ily, 14, 142 ; ceremonies of, in pres- 
 ence of parents, 242 ; precocity of, 36, 
 360 ; cost of rearing, affects the pur- 
 chase price as wives, 54, 154; early 
 betrothal of, 14, 54 ; welcomed into 
 the world by parents, 54, 143 ; work 
 of, 142 ; punishment of, 142 ; abandon 
 parents, 36, 55 ; abandoned by parents, 
 36 ; the play of, 14 ; bom to slaves, 
 146 
 
 Christianity, essence of, 451; the best 
 method of converting the Negro to, 
 452; bad effects of, upon the Negro, 
 436 
 
 Civilization, effect of, upon the Pygmies, 
 20, the Bushmen, 48, the Hottentots, 
 61, and Nigritians, 418, 431 ; possi- 
 bility of native, 415 ; effect of, upon 
 the lower races generally, 441 
 
 Class, development of, 98, 175 
 
 Class control, 175, 237, 242, 247 
 
 Climate, effect of, upon the white man 
 in the Sudan, 72 ; upon the physiog- 
 nomy of the Negro, 5, 85 ; upon 
 economic development, 6, 90, 115, 
 129; upon chastity, 135; upon men- 
 tal growth, 360, 412; upon mental 
 faculties, 59, 360 ; upon family life, 
 134, 142; upon revenge, 236; upon 
 the distribution of wealth and political 
 power, 176, 237 ; upon religion, 59, 
 319; upon courage, 91, 395; upon 
 human sacrifices, 306, 317, (See En- 
 vironment) 
 
 Coercion, the evolution of, 237, (See 
 Slavery) 
 
 Colonial Policies, criticism of, 130, 429, 
 446 
 
 Colonization of the white man in Africa, 
 
 73. '3' 
 
 Common Ties, as factors of political 
 stability, 182, 188, 214, 229, 235 
 
 Communication, facility of, as affecting 
 the form of government, 175, 203 
 
 Communism, absence of, in African so- 
 cieties, 56, 132, 151, (See Individual- 
 ism) 
 
 Conception, faculty of, 361, 401, 408 
 
 Conflict, a cause of integration, 15, 165, 
 183; social value of, 214, (See Inte- 
 gration : Struggle for Existence) 
 , Conscience, as a means of control, 61, 
 237, 399 
 
 Consciousness of kind, 183 
 
 Continence, relation of, to idealism, 398 
 
 Control, origin of, 253; through cus- 
 
 toms, 242, 296; by fetichmen, 58; by 
 priests, 59, 292, 308 ; by conscience, 
 238 ; religious, 58, 266 ; political, 56, 
 17s, 185, 189 ; of Africa by the white 
 man, 438 
 
 Conviction, faculty of, 399 
 
 Co5peration, factors determining the ex- 
 tent of, 170, 173, 201, 218, 234 
 
 Cotton, cultivation of, 103 ; export of, 
 104-105 ; competition of African, with 
 American, 105 ; manufacturing of, in 
 the Sudan, 131 
 
 Courage, of the Bushmen, 46; of the 
 Hottentots, 60 ; of the Nigritians, 395, 
 411 ; conditions favoring the develop- 
 ment of, 396, 406 
 
 Courtship, 14, 35, 134, 154 
 
 Crime, tribal and family responsibility 
 for, 179, 187, (See Punishment) 
 
 Cruelty, instances of, 39, 140, 152, 232, 
 
 274, 387. 390 
 Culture, internal and external aspects of, 
 
 44, 87, 253-256, 399; comparison of, 
 
 in the several zones, 115, 129, 415, 
 
 (See Civilization) 
 Customs, public, of Dahomi, 244, 274, 
 
 (See Ceremonies) 
 
 Dahomans, history of the, 167; their 
 physiognomy, 81 ; their family life, 
 133, 144 ; their political life, 167, 171, 
 177, 183; their ceremonious life, 241- 
 249 ; their religion, 267-295 
 
 Dancing, of the Pygmies, 16 ; of the 
 Bushmen, 42 ; of the Hottentots, 57 ; 
 of the Nigritians, 331, 340, 348; 
 origin of, 332 ; social value of, 35 1 ; 
 at funerals, 145 
 
 Darwin, on the evolution of the brain, 
 
 356. 358 
 Death, (See Spirits: Future Life) 
 Deception, a Negro trait, 390 
 Decorations, of the person, 16, 41, 57, 
 
 327. 329. 337. 338. 34S 
 Deformations, of the person, 327, 320, 
 
 338 
 
 Degeneracy of the Fellatahs, 232 
 
 Democracy, conditions favoring, 1 76, 
 (See Forms of Government) 
 
 Demolins, on the persistence of the 
 hunting instinct, 33 ; on the influence 
 of occupation upon physiognomy, 85 
 
 Deserts, influence of, upon the human 
 mind, 87, and upon social develop- 
 ment, 128, 161 
 
 Despotism, conditions favoring, 176, (See 
 Forms of Government) 
 
484 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Determination, faculty of, 399 
 
 Differentiation, factors of, 175 
 
 Dinkas, cattle of the, 117 ; economy of 
 the, 124; family life of the, 159-160 
 
 Discipline, value of, 405 
 
 Disease, ideas concerning, 261 ; treat- 
 ment of, (See Spirits : Witch Doctor) 
 
 Divination, relation of, to foresight, 17, 
 
 59. 304 
 
 Division of labor, 12, 55, 97, no, 122, 
 174 
 
 Divorce, 140 
 
 Double personality, idea of, 258, 263 
 
 Drama, origin of the, 45, 333, 348 ; con- 
 tribution of the, to culture, 334, 352; 
 examples of the, 341 
 
 Dreams, ideas concerning, 258, 263 
 
 Dress, of the Negritos, 16, 26, 51 ; of 
 the Nigritians, 330, 339, 346; of the 
 Fellatahs, 348, (See Decorations) 
 
 Drummond, on the origin of stringed 
 instruments, 43 ; on the relation of 
 individual development to the pro- 
 longation of infancy, 38 
 
 Drunkenness, (See Intemperance) 
 
 Dryness of Climate, (See Air : Temper- 
 ature) 
 
 Dwellings, (See Homes : Architecture) 
 
 Dynamic forces, 400 
 
 Economic Conditions, effect of, upon 
 sexual morality, 35, 155 ; upon the 
 family, 14, 35, 54, 147, 148, 154, 156, 
 161 ; and upon the human physiog- 
 nomy, 85, 86 
 
 Economic Life, of the Negritos, 6-13, 
 28, 51-53; of the Nigritians in the 
 banana zone, 90, of the millet zone, 
 102, of the cattle zone, 116, of the 
 camel zone, 126, of the Fellatahs, 116, 
 118, 122; generalizations concerning 
 the, 129 
 
 Economic Progress, as related to moral 
 progress, 417, 445, and to psycholog- 
 ical progress, 418 
 
 Economic Resources, as factors of po- 
 litical expansion, 169, 200, 218 
 
 Economic Stages, 132 
 
 Economic Status, of the Nigritians com- 
 pared to their moral status, 130 
 
 Education, effect of, upon the Negroes, 
 425, 437 ; effect of, upon the natives 
 of Jamaica, 425 ; must be given in its 
 proper order of time, 424, 447 ; should 
 be preceded by economic training, 
 447 ; the kind of, needed in Africa, 
 447 
 
 Ely, on the division of labor. III ; on 
 slavery, in 
 
 Emancipation of slaves in the several 
 zones, loi ; premature, 446 
 
 English, lack of ceremony among the, 
 255 ; women, compared to African, in 
 energy, 1 34 ; aristocracy, influenced 
 by climate, 182 
 
 Environment, effect of, upon religion, 
 59. 309. 415 ; "PO" physiognomy, 5, 
 78, 84, 88 ; upon the imagination, 
 319 ; upon reason, 319, 412; upon the 
 temper, 88; upon economic develop- 
 ment, 6, 12, 33, 59, 106, 116; upon 
 political development, 38, 165-168- 
 169; upon family life, 134, 135, 142, 
 155 ; upon art, 16, 44, 150, 334 ; 
 upon love of nature, 336, (See 
 Climate : Land : Water : Air : Tem- 
 perature: Flora: Fauna) 
 
 Etiquette, (See Ceremonies) 
 
 Europeanized Negroes, character of, 427, 
 437 ; display contempt for their ov^n 
 race, 421 
 
 Evolution, favored by slavery, III ; of 
 the priest, 286 ; of religion, 257 ; of 
 the physical man, 84; of the family, 
 161 ; of the judiciary, 178, 208, 236 ; 
 of coercion and freedom, 238 ; of con- 
 trol, 238 ; of reason, 374 ; of morals, 
 319 ; of music, 16, 42, 43, 352, (See 
 Origin) 
 
 Exports, from the Sudan, 96 ; from the 
 Sahara, 128 ; prospects of exporting 
 African cattle, 121, and cotton, 103 
 
 Eyes, color of, affected by light and al- 
 titude, 86, 220 
 
 Faith, faculty of, 399 
 
 Familial Ceremonies, 241, 250, 252 
 
 Family, support of the, 139, 151, 158, 
 161 ; stages of the, 161 
 
 Family Life, of the Pygmies, 14; of the 
 Bushmen, 35 ; of the Hottentots, 54 ; 
 of the Nigritians in the banana zone, 
 133 ; of the millet zone, 147 ; of the 
 cattle zone, 154; of the camel zone, 
 161 ; of the Fellatahs, 154, 157, 158; 
 generalizations respecting, 162 
 
 Family Status, as a factor of political 
 stability, 183, 188, 214,229; effect of, 
 upon revenge, 236 ; upon ceremonies, 
 242; upon affection, 35, 36, 37, 55, 
 140 
 
 Farini, on the future of the Bushmen, 
 48 ; on the fidelity of a Pygmy, 19 
 
 Fashions, change of, 370, 410 
 
INDEX 
 
 485 
 
 Fauna, of the forest, 7 ; of the Kalahara 
 Desert, 24; of the Sahara, 127; of 
 the South African steppe, 50 ; of the 
 Sudan, 73, 105 ; effect of the, upon the 
 character of the social organization, 7, 
 91, 154, 165, (See Horse) 
 
 Fear, effect of, upon religion, 18, 59, 
 318; upon iEsthetic life, 336, 349, 
 355 ; as an aid to self-preservation, 
 379 ; relation of, to revenge, 397 ; as 
 a means of restraint should not be re; 
 moved until other means are de- 
 veloped, 426 
 
 Feelings, sensitiveness of, depends upon 
 nervous development, 380; complex- 
 ity of, in higher and lower types of 
 men, 381 ; number of, 381 ; supremacy 
 of, in the lower types of men, 382, 
 408 ; fundamental, 379 ; restraint of, 
 in the cattle zone, 410 
 
 Fellalahs, history of the, 197, 218; 
 origin of the, 79 ; physiognomy of 
 the, 79, 86 ; distribution of the, 65, 
 79; economic life of the, 116, 118; 
 political life of the, 226-227 ; family 
 life of the, 155-159; religion of the, 
 312 ; art of the, 345-346 ; ceremonies 
 of the, 252 ; psychological character- 
 istics of the, 412; degeneracy of the, 
 232 ; slave raiding by the, 124; effect 
 of iheir rule over the Nigritians, 230 ; 
 aversion of their women to marrymg 
 Nigritians, 157 ; slaves among the, 
 122; outlook for the, 231,454; sup- 
 press industrial activities by their 
 wars, 108 ; often show contempt for 
 agriculture, 1 18 
 
 Fetchism, definition of, 18, 287 ; transi- 
 tion of, to polytheism, 311, (See Re- 
 ligion) 
 
 Fiske, on the relation of individual de- 
 velopment to the prolongation of in- 
 fancy, 38 
 
 Flora, of the Kalahara Desert, 23 ; of 
 the Sahara, 127; of the Sudan, 68; 
 effect of the, upon mind, 87 ; upon 
 economic development, 6, 90, 116; 
 and upon political development, 16, 
 165, 196, 218 
 
 Folklore, (See Animal Legends) 
 
 Food, of the Negritos, 10, 28, 31, 51 ; of 
 the Nigritians, 103, 118, 127-128; 
 effect of, upon physiognomy, 84 ; 
 upon mental and physical energy, 
 417 ; upon moral character, 93 
 
 Food Problem, of the Nigritians in the 
 banana zone, 92 ; in the millet zone. 
 
 106 ; in the cattle zone, 124 ; in the 
 camel zone, 128 
 
 Foot, form of the human, affected by 
 habits and environment, 85 
 
 Foresight, among the Negritos, 13,46, 
 59; among tlie Nigritians, lOi, 106, 
 124, 128, 376, 402, 409,414; of the 
 Fellatahs, 124; conditions favoring, 
 106 ; conditions opposing, 376 
 
 Forests, effect of, upon density of popu- 
 lation, 15 ; upon economic conditions, 
 97; upon political conditions, i6, 166, 
 172, 174, 185; upon mind, 18; upon 
 physiognomy, 86 ; produce impotent 
 men, 417 
 
 Forms of Government, determining fac- 
 tors of the, in the several zones, 175, 
 185, 189, 203, 226, 235 
 
 French Revolution, climate as a factor of 
 the, 182; effect of the, 429 
 
 Fulbes, (See Fellatahs) 
 
 Functions of the family, 146 
 
 Future Life, ideas of the, among the 
 Negritos, 17, 45, 58 ; among the Ni- 
 gritians, 259, 294, 308; among the 
 Fellatahs, 235 
 
 Geil, on the effects of civilization upon 
 the Pygmies, 20 
 
 Generalization, (See Abstract Ideas) 
 
 Generalizations, respecting the economic 
 life, 129; the family life, 161; the 
 political life, 236 ; the ceremonial life, 
 253; the religious life, 318; the 
 aesthetic life, 350 ; the psychological 
 life, 414 
 
 Genius, as related to insanity, 369 
 
 Giddings, on the effect of evolution upon 
 physiognomy, 84; on secret societies, 
 191 ; on consciousness of kind, 183; 
 on the effect of contact of unlike 
 units, 129 
 
 Girls, early marriages of, 14, 35, 54, 
 133^.134, 148, 385 ; amount of freedom 
 df, in selection of husbands, 14, 134, 
 148, 154, 161, (See Children) 
 
 Gods, activity of heathen, varies in- 
 versely with human activity, 319 
 
 Grandchildren, not known among Bush- 
 men, 38 
 
 Grandparents,mfluenceof,37,55, 148,153 
 
 Greeks, beauty of the ancient, ex- 
 plained, 85 
 
 Gumplowicz, on the evolution of the 
 family, 161 ; on the transition from 
 the matriarchate to the patriarchate, 
 162 
 
486 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Gurney, on the phantasms of the living, 
 263 
 
 Habits, influence of, upon physiognomy, 
 
 86 
 Haeckel, on the evolution of the brain, 
 
 358 
 
 Hair, color of, affected by climate, 86 
 
 Hamitic Race, 79 
 
 Happiness, dependence of upon morals, 
 382 
 
 Hausas, description of the, 83 ; sundry 
 discussion of the, 151, 152, 171, 201, 
 204, 208, 209, 402, 403, 414 
 
 Hawaiians, injurious effects of civiliza- 
 tion upon the, 442 
 
 Hebrews, relation of their moral to their 
 economic development, 417 ; pro- 
 fessional mourners among the, 404; 
 effect of sudden changes in their 
 psychological life, 424 
 
 Homes, of the Negritos, II, 26, 52; of 
 the Nigritians, 138, 150, 157, 161 ; of 
 the Fellatahs, 157 
 
 Horse, introduced from the East, 74 ; a 
 factor of political expansion, 201, 202, 
 218, 219 
 
 Hottentots, general discussion of the, 49 ; 
 influence of civilization upon the, 61 ; 
 outlook for the, 61 
 
 Houses, influence of, upon the status of 
 the family, 139, (See Homes) 
 
 Hovelacque, on the civilization of the 
 Negro, 431 
 
 Humidity of the air, effect of the, upon 
 courage, 395 ; upon energy, 91 ; upon 
 physiognomy, 86 
 
 Humor, of the Negro, 378 
 
 Hunting life, fascination of the, 34 ; 
 traits developed by the, 34, 392 ; ef- 
 fect of, upon mental development, 18 
 
 Husbands, consideration of, for their 
 Vfives, 34, 144, 152 ; supported by 
 their wives in the banana zone, 139 ; 
 help to support the family in the millet 
 and cattle zones, 152, 158 ; live with 
 their wives in Hausaland, 152; live 
 apart from their wives in the banana 
 and millet zones, 144, 151 
 
 Idealism, origin of, 45, 397 ; as a sub- 
 stitute for coercion, 399 ; lack of, 397 
 India, effects of British policy in, 431 
 Idols, absence of, among the Negritos, 
 17, 46, 59 ; found among the Nigritians, 
 174, 266, 291, 307, 317 ; relation of, 
 to climate, 319 
 
 Illegitimate children, as well cared for 
 as the legitimate, 137; increased by 
 the high price of wives, 155 ; treat- 
 ment of, by the Dinkas, 155 
 
 Imagination, reminiscent, 367 ; construc- 
 tive, 368 ; influence of nature upon 
 the, 18, 59, 319 ; of the Negro, de- 
 ficient in constructive power, 368 ; re- 
 lation of, to morals, 369 ; decline of 
 the, among civilized people, connected 
 with decline of poetry, 368 
 
 Imitation, a characteristic of the Negro, 
 370 ; of the white race by the Negro 
 not advisable, 453; in art, influenced 
 by feeling and imagination, 349 
 
 Immolation, (See Sacrifices) 
 
 Improvidence, leads to slavery, 107 
 
 Incest, 14 
 
 Incontinence of the passions, 46, 60, 
 136, 149, 155 ; destroys sentiment, 
 140 
 
 Indians of America, failure to transform, 
 
 34 
 
 Individualism, of the Negritos, 8, 14, 
 56 ; of the Nigritians, 125, 132, 139, 
 144, 146, 151, 152 
 
 Indolence, of the Negritos, 60 ; of the 
 Nigritians, 106, 151, 366, 376; of 
 women favors polygamy, 134; influ- 
 ence of, upon political conditions, 176, 
 181, 396; upon sexual morality, 136; 
 upon human sacrifices, 396 ; upon 
 slavery, 98, 396 
 
 Inequality, effect of, upon ceremonies, 
 254 ; upon political conditions, 175 
 
 Infanticide, 36, 54, 144, 269 
 
 Inhibition, lack of, among Negroes, 383, 
 399, 403, 432 ; negative character of, 
 
 399 
 Instinct, to torture, 389 ; to save life, 
 
 389 
 
 Institutions, bound up with psychological 
 characteristics, 429; European, in- 
 jurious to lower races, 429 
 
 Integration, factors of, 165, 196,216,334 
 
 Intemperance, 403, 438, 442 
 
 Interdependence, influences the de- 
 velopment of sympathy, 390; and 
 courage, 396 
 
 Intermarriage, of Nigritians and Fella- 
 tahs, 82, 83, 231 ; of Nigritians and 
 Berbers, 80-82; of Nigritians and 
 Arabs, 8l, 83 
 
 Invasion, as a factor of integration, 165, 
 196, 216 
 
 James, on double consciousness, 264 ; on 
 
INDEX 
 
 487 
 
 the reasoning Acuity, 373, 376; on 
 
 the gradual ascent of the mind, 416 ; 
 
 on the faculty of attention, 365 
 Jolofs, sundry discussion of the, 80, 118, 
 
 120, 226, 313, 314, 409, 410, 411 
 Judicial proceedings, 179, 187, 190, 207, 
 
 227,232, 236, 271 
 
 Kano, great trade and manufacturing 
 
 centre, 108 
 Kanuris, description of the, 83 ; history 
 
 of the, 223 ; political and social life 
 
 of the, 154, 156, 157-159, 223, 227, 
 
 229, 312, 346-347-349. 409. 414. 454 
 Keane, on the future of the Hottentots, 61 
 Kidnapping, 144, (See Raiding) 
 Kingdoms, early, of the Sudan, 164; 
 
 recent, of the Sudan, 165, 196, 216 
 Kingsley, on the effects of missionary 
 
 work in Africa, 436 ; on the difference 
 
 between the white and black man, 
 
 436 ; on the effect of education upon 
 
 the Negro, 440, 441 
 Kirghis, injurious effects of civilization 
 
 upon the, 442 
 Knowledge, relation of, to morals, 46 ; 
 
 and to religion, 324 
 Krumen, celebrated as laborers, 151; 
 
 sundry discussion of the, 80, 147, 151, 
 
 153, 406 
 Kuka, great trade and manufacturing 
 
 centre, 120, 121 
 
 Labor, intensity of, in the several zones, 
 112, 123; monotonous, unfits man for 
 freedom, 123; availability of African, 
 61, 130, 131, 132, 435, 446; value of 
 mental stimulation to, 123 
 
 Land, effect of alienating, 61, 130 ; 
 ownership of, necessary to progress, 
 1 30; masses and divisions of, as af- 
 fecting race types, 78 ; relation of 
 free, to slavery, 53, iii, 122; effect 
 of, upon political integration, 172 ; 
 productiveness of, as influencing the 
 form of government, 177 ; and as af- 
 fecting economic development, 91, 
 102, 127 
 
 Language, as a basis of political unity, 
 
 195 
 
 Laveleye, Emile de, on the relation of 
 culture to wants, 256 
 
 Lawyers, African, 209, 210 
 
 Leaders, impotence of, when developed 
 by an alien race, 420 ; Europeanized 
 Negro, not in sympathy with their 
 own race, 421 ; need of native, 449 
 
 Leadership, basis of, 15, 39, 55, 195 
 
 Legislation, among (he Pygmies, 15 ; 
 among the Hottentots, 56 ; among the 
 Nigritians, 177, 186, 207, 226 
 
 Liberians, opinions concerning the, 421, 
 440 
 
 Liberty, evolution of, 237-238 
 
 Licentiousness, among the Nigritians, 
 136, 268, 294 
 
 Light, effect of, upon physiognomy, 5, 
 86 
 
 Literature, influence of climate and 
 mode of life upon, 45 
 
 Livingstone, on life in the Kalahari 
 Desert, 23 
 
 Love, feeling of, in the Negro and Cau- 
 casian contrasted, 145 
 
 Lugard, Lady, (See Sliaw) 
 
 Luxury, enervation of, 256 
 
 Lying trait, origin of the, 392 
 
 Mackenzib, on the influence of the 
 white man upon the Bushmen, 48 
 
 Magic, as a method of political defense, 
 174; in judicial proceedings, 187, 
 192, (See Religion: Witch-doctors) 
 
 Mandingos, sundry discussion of the, 80, 
 112, 149, 150, 153, 202, 205, 209, 250 
 
 Manners, (See Ceremonies) 
 
 Maoris, injurious effects of civilization 
 upon the, 442 
 
 Marriage, by purchase or by giving 
 presents, 14, 35, 133, 155, 157-158 ; 
 by service, 148, 155 ; by capture, 148; 
 trial, 156; early favors polygamy, 
 135; bond of, 134, 140, 385; cere- 
 mony of, 134 ; between freemen and 
 slaves rare, 148 ; romantic, in the cat- 
 tle zone, 154; age of, 14, 35, 54, 133, 
 134, 148, 155, i6i 
 
 Mason, on double personality, 262 
 
 Matriarchate, prevalence of the, 153 ; 
 transition of the, to the patriarchate, 
 162; not favorable to political stabil- 
 ity. '95 
 
 McLennan, on the evolution of the fam- 
 ily, 161 
 
 Medical Schools, 281 
 
 Memory, faculty of, 366 
 
 Mental and moral character, (See 
 Psychological Characteristics) 
 
 Mental and Physical Energy, 366, 401, 
 409 
 
 Meteorological Phenomena, effect of, 
 upon mind, 18, 59, 257 
 
 Migrations, from steppe regions, 220 ; 
 the phenomena of, 220, 223 
 
488 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Military life, effect of, upon the family, 
 140, 147 ; and upon the form of gov- 
 ernment, 177, 185 
 
 Military strength, as a factor of expan- 
 sion, 170, 173, 201, 218 
 
 Millet zone, description and definition of 
 the, 102 
 
 Mind, of man as distinguished from that 
 of the animal, 371, 400; gradual as- 
 cent of the, 415 
 
 Minstrels, 17, 334, 342 
 
 Missionaries, influence of, 419, 436, 441 ; 
 mistakes of, 422 ; impart the wrong 
 kind of education, 424 ; lay too much 
 stress upon creed and ceremony, 425 ; 
 destroy native faith and belief, 423, 
 426, 441, 449 ; ignore social laws, 
 428; teach false doctrines, 428; sug- 
 gestions to, 449 
 
 Missionary work, among the Pygmies, 
 20 ; among the Bushmen, 47 ; among 
 the Hottentots, 61 ; among the Nigri- 
 tians, 419, 436, 446 ; not to be judged 
 by a few isolated examples, 420; 
 leaves the masses untouched, 421 ; as 
 exemplified by Christ, 450 ; of the 
 Mohammedans, 452 
 
 Modesty, no word for, in the Tshi lan- 
 guage, 137 ; conspicuous in the millet 
 and cattle zones, 149, 156, 403 
 
 Mohammedans, missionary work of the, 
 312, 318 ; effect of their religion upon 
 the character of the Negro, 309, 403 ; 
 effect of their {religion upon political 
 expansion, 200, 217, 221 
 
 Money of the Sudan, 96, 109, 121, 125, 
 128 
 
 Mongolian, compared to the Negro, 
 
 384 
 
 Monogamy, 14, 35, 156 
 
 Monotheism, 319 
 
 Montesquieu, on the effect of climate 
 upon chastity, 135 ; and upon po- 
 lygamy, 135 ; on the effect of soils 
 upon the form of government, 177 
 
 Moral development, related to intel- 
 lectual development, 365, 370 ; re- 
 lated to the religious development, 
 319; may overcome the unfavorable 
 influences of environment, 136 
 
 Morality, related to religion, 60, 319 ; 
 to knowledge, 46, 324 ; to economic 
 progress, 417 ; dependent upon 
 idealism, 399 
 
 Morgan, on the evolution of the family, 
 l6i 
 
 Mortality of white men in Africa, 72 
 
 Motives, governing intellectual activities, 
 363, 369, 375 ; of political defense, 
 166; of political aggression, 166 
 Mourning customs, 15, 38, 144 
 Music, (See Art : ^Esthetic Life) 
 Musical instruments, (See Esthetic 
 
 Life) 
 Myers, on double personality, 263 
 Mythology, origin of, 44, 310 
 
 National boundaries, as factors of po- 
 litical expansion, 168, 172, 200 
 
 National resources, as factors of integra- 
 tion, 165, 196, 216 
 
 Nature, worship, 58, 305 ; aspects of, 
 affecting the human mind, 87; love 
 
 of. 336, 354 
 Negro, the aboriginal, in Africa, 6, 26, 
 87 ; types of the, 78 ; high economic 
 and low moral status of the, 130 ; 
 progress of the, must not be along 
 European lines, 431, 440; effect of 
 civilization upon the, 48, 61, 130, 431, 
 436 ; progress of the, should be slow, 
 
 432, 448 ; favorable situation of the, 
 in America, 442, 447 ; and Caucasian 
 not fitted for the same regime, 433 ; 
 and Caucasian compared in love of 
 parents for children, 37, 141, 386; 
 and in physical and moral courage, 
 396 ; and in mental constitution, 356, 
 436 ; and in respect to sensitiveness of 
 feelings, 381; ability of the, to de- 
 velop independent of other races, 415 ; 
 culture of the, varies in the several 
 zones, 415 ; culture of the, limited by 
 environment, 415 ; effect of treating 
 the, as the equal of the white man, 
 
 433. 435 
 
 Negro Problem in Africa, solution of 
 the, 445 
 
 Negro Traits, that of lying, 18, 60, 392, 
 406 ; of stealing, 18, 46, 60, 394, 406, 
 411; of vanity, 395; of cruelty to 
 their fellows, 180, 244, 274,376; of 
 indolence, 60, 376; of incontinence, 
 60, 136, 149, 385,432; of sycophancy, 
 247, 25 1 ; of using cutlery as weapons, 
 170, 223, 235 ; of despising an infe- 
 rior, 383 ; of worshiping a superior, 19, 
 247> 383 ; of making a display at 
 funerals, 145, 251 ; of begging, 106, 
 397; of improvidence, 106, in, 113, 
 376 ; of permitting the women to 
 support the men, 97, 139, 151 ; of 
 fidelity, 19, 60 ; of hospitality, 390, 
 405, 411 ; of cruelty to animals, 390; 
 
INDEX 
 
 489 
 
 of deception, 393 ; of cowardice, 395 ; 
 
 of arrogance, 434; of compassion, 342, 
 
 404, 410, 433 
 Nieboer, on the conditions favorable and 
 
 unfavorable to slavery, 12, 53, 98, 122 
 Nigritians, distribution of the, 81 ; types 
 
 of the, 81 
 
 Oligarchy, (See Forms of Govern- 
 ment) 
 
 Omens, (See Charms) 
 
 Ordeal, the beginning of judicial evolu- 
 tion, 236; imposition of the, 187, 271 
 
 Order of succession to power, as a factor 
 of political stability, 183, 188, 194, 
 214, 229, 236 
 
 Origin, of merry-making at funerals, 
 145 ; of ceremonies, 239, 240 ; of 
 spirit-beliefs, 257 ; of lying and steal- 
 ing, 392, 394; of burying people 
 alive, 144; of the patriarchate, 162; 
 of reasoning, 284, 374 ; of polytheism, 
 57, 294-295 ; of placing food upon 
 graves, 295 ; of household gods, 58, 
 306 ; of gods and priests, 286 ; of 
 mythology, 44, 310; of trade, 95 ; of 
 tattooing, 327 ; of dancing, 332 ; of 
 the drama, 45, 333, 348 ; of idealism, 
 397 ; of altruism, 389, 393 ; of stringed 
 instruments, 16 43, ; of the moral 
 sense, 320 ; of medical science, 282, 
 284 
 
 Originality, relation of, to the grouping 
 of population, 370 
 
 Orphans, 146 
 
 Osier, on the form and faculties of the 
 brain, 359 
 
 Outlook, for the Negritos, 21, 48, 61 ; 
 for the Nigritians, in the banana zone, 
 131, 444, 454 ; in the millet and cattle 
 zones, 132, 454; for the Fellatahs, 
 231. 4S4 
 
 Parental influence, 37, 55, 141, 153 
 
 Passions, overbear the will, 383 ; in- 
 fluence of, upon the temper, 384; 
 supremacy of, 46, 60, 382, (See Li- 
 centiousness) 
 
 Pastoral life, effect of, upon economic 
 and mental development, 116, 128, 
 154,412; upon the human physiog- 
 nomy, 86; upon the status of women, 
 55, 140, 154; upon the transition 
 from the niatriarchale to the patri- 
 archate, 162, 163, (Sec Steppe) 
 
 Pastoral people, eft'ect of their contact 
 
 upon agricultural people, 215, 417 ; 
 opponents of culture, 108, 413 
 
 Patriarchal regime, imperfect among the 
 Hottentots, 56 ; absence of among the 
 Nigritians a serious weakness, 1 95 
 
 Patriarchate, 153, 161 
 
 Perception, faculty of, 360 
 
 Personality, idea of, among the Nigri- 
 tians, 258 ; idea of double, among 
 civilized people, 262; idea of triple, 
 among the Nigritians, 296 
 
 Physiognomy, influence of environment 
 upon, 5, 84 ; influence of occupation 
 upon, 85 ; influence of intelligence 
 upon, 88 ; influence of character upon, 
 88 
 
 Plants, endowed with souls, 264 
 
 Play of children, 14 ; in relation to the 
 beginnings of the drama, 334 
 
 Political life, of the Negritos, 15, 38, 56; 
 of the Nigritians in the banana zone, 
 164; in the millet zone, 196; in the 
 cattle zone, 216 ; in the camel zone, 
 234; of the Fellatahs, 218; general 
 considerations respecting, 236 
 
 Political revolutions, effect of, 424, 429 
 
 Political stability, elements of, 181, 188, 
 213, 229, 235 
 
 Polygamy, conditions favoring, 134, 
 438 ; as a stage in family evolution, 
 162; conditions opposing, 35,54, 148, 
 156, 161 
 
 Polytheism, origin of, 57, 294-295 
 
 Population, influenced by natural re- 
 sources, 15, 196; effect of, upon 
 economic development, 1 15 ; upon 
 political expansion, 15, 169, 172, 200, 
 203, 218; density of, affects art, 350, 
 354 ; and invention and imitation, 
 350 ; and sympathy, 414 
 
 Prayer, among the Negritos, 17; among 
 the Nigritians, 310, 313; among the 
 Fellatahs, 312 
 
 Preville, on the influence of the size of 
 the family upon architecture, 139 
 
 Priestesses, dress of, 249 ; schools of, 
 293; as public prostitutes, 137, 
 292 
 
 Priests, dress of, 247 ; absence of, among 
 the Pygmies and Bushmen, 46 ; of the 
 Hottentots, 59 ; of the Nigritians, 292 ; 
 as teachers among the Fellatahs, 409 ; 
 functions of the, 292, 317 ; influence 
 of climate upon, 308 
 
 Primogeniture, 56, 144 
 
 Progress, relation of moral to intellec- 
 tual, 365, 370; relation of moral to 
 
490 
 
 INDEX 
 
 economic, 417 ; stages of, 445 ; disad- 
 vantages of rapid, 424, 429, 431 
 
 Promiscuity, as a stage in the evolution 
 of the family, 161 
 
 Property, as affecting the solidity of the 
 family, 146, 162 
 
 Proverbs, native, 45, 361, 402 
 
 Psychological characteristics, of the Ne- 
 gritos, 18, 46, 59 ; of the Nigritians, 
 145, 356; of the Fellatahs, 412; gen- 
 eralizations respecting, 414 
 
 Psychological life, dangers of sudden un- 
 settling of the, 424 
 
 Puberty, effect of, upon mental develop- 
 ment, 360 
 
 Punishment of criminals, 179, 187, 208, 
 211, 227 
 
 Purchase of women, (See Women : 
 Wives) 
 
 Pygmies, general discussion of, 3 ; influ- 
 ence of civilization upon the, 20; out- 
 look for the, 21 
 
 Race conflict, value of, 215; effect of, 
 20, 47, 61, 230, 231 
 
 Race mixture, effect of, 129, 231, 415, 
 417, 428 
 
 Race pride, 446, 453 
 
 Races of the Sudan, 65, 78 
 
 Race solidarity, lack of among the Ne- 
 groes, 453 
 
 Raiding, to obtain women and slaves, 
 
 , III, 114, 124, 133, 169, 198, 200, 
 212; to obtain tribute, 199, 212, 213, 
 233, to obtain booty, 15, 39, 60, 165, 
 198 
 
 Railroads, 97, no 
 
 Rain regions, effect of, upon the color of 
 the human skin, 5 ; effect of, upon ar- 
 chitecture, 139; effect of, upon family 
 life, 139 
 
 Rape, of children, 137 ; condemnation 
 of, 138 
 
 Ratzel, on the influence of the slave 
 trade, 94 ; on the effect of forest and 
 steppe regions upon man, 6, 417 ; on 
 the status of the Negro, 130; on the 
 effect of contact of a higher and lower 
 culture, 441 ; on the effect of race 
 mixture, 231 
 
 Reasoning, of the Negro and white man 
 compared, 37 1 ; influenced by morals, 
 375 ; beginning of, 374 ; in animals, 
 
 371 
 Reincarnation, 18, 259, 262, 303 
 Reinsch, on the white man's policy in 
 
 Africa, 431 ; on the persistence of 
 
 psychological characteristics in a race, 
 423 ; on the influence of missionary 
 education upon the Negro, 422, 425 ; 
 on the influence of European institu- 
 tions upon the people of India, 429 
 
 Religion, of the Negritos, 17, 45, 57 ; of 
 the Nigritians, 257 ; of the Fellatahs, 
 312; as a factor of social stability, 
 182, 214, 229, 230; effect of upon 
 forms of government, 225 ; upon fam- 
 ily life, 149 ; relation of, to morality, 
 60, 319, 445; to idealism, 322; influ- 
 enced by environment, 18, 318, 319; 
 influenced by knowledge, 324, (See 
 Spirits : Idols : Priests) 
 
 Religious ceremonies, 248, 299 
 
 Revenge, as a judicial process, 39, 236 ; 
 relation of, to family status, 236 ; to 
 indolence, 396 ; to fear, 397 
 
 Revenue, 180, 188, 211, 228, 233 
 
 Reverence, moral value of, 182, (See 
 Aged) 
 
 Reversion to savagery, 231, 433 
 
 Revolutions, (See Political) 
 
 Ribot, on the elementary human feel- 
 ings, 381 ; on the relation of religion 
 to morals, 319 
 
 Rohlfs, on the future of the Fellatahs, 
 232 
 
 Ross, on idealism, 399 
 
 Ruling classes, (See Aristocracy) 
 
 Sacrifices, human, 245, 273, 274, 275, 
 287, 288, 290, 291, 306, 316; animal, 
 59, 266, 268, 278, 288, 306, 317 
 
 Schools, native, 313, 409 
 
 Schopenhauer, on the influence of cul- 
 ture and environment upon the phys- 
 iognomy, 87-88 
 
 Schweinfurth, on the influence of en- 
 vironment upon the human figure, 85 
 
 Science, development of, 282, 284; 
 tends to supersede art, 327 ; compared 
 to art, 353 
 
 Sculpture, (See /Esthetic Life) 
 
 Secret societies, 190, 21 1 
 
 Seduction, penalty for, 136 
 
 Self-control, (See Inhibition) 
 
 Self-respect, conditions favoring, 406; 
 lack of, 397 
 
 Semitic Race, tainted with Negro blood, 
 
 '57 
 Sensuality (See Licentiousness) 
 Shaw (Lady Lugard), on the early em- 
 pires of Africa, 164; on the degener- 
 acy of the Fellatahs, 232 
 Sidis, on double personality, 264 
 
INDEX 
 
 491 
 
 Signs, (See Charms) 
 
 Skin, color of, afiected by climate, 6, 86 
 
 Slave raiding, (See Raiding) 
 
 Slavery, as influenced by the hunting 
 life, 12; and by life dependent upon 
 spontaneous products, 98; as influ- 
 enced by the agricultural life, 1 1 1 ; 
 by the pastoral life, 53, 122, 128; 
 origin of, 98 ; relation of, to free land, 
 53, 98, III, 122; relation of, to capi- 
 tal, 98 ; among savage and civilized 
 people contrasted, 99, 100, loi ; as a 
 stage in economic evolution, 1 1 1 ; in- 
 creasing hardships of, lead to freedom, 
 123 ; abolition of, 101 ; advantages 
 of, 169 
 
 Slaves, general status of, 99, 112, 122, 
 161; export of, 122; manner of ob- 
 taining, 99, III, 114, 124; cases of 
 their unwillingness to accept freedom, 
 14, 99 ; lack of aspiration of, in the 
 banana zone, 99, loi ; use of, for 
 food, 100 ; sacrificed to the gods, 100 ; 
 proportion of, to freemen, 99, 112; 
 appointed to office, 112; marriage of, 
 112, 113, 114; disposition of, to run 
 away, 1 14 ; for sale at the markets, 
 121; in the army, 122; intensity of 
 the labor of, 99, 149 ; aspire to 
 freedom in the millet and cattle zones, 
 99, 123, 124; basis of political power, 
 169; export duty on, 180; tribute in, 
 228, 233 ; own and inherit property, 
 99, 112; protection of, from ill-treat- 
 ment, 112; lot of the contrasted in 
 the several zones, 114, 122; taught to 
 read and write, 409 
 
 Slave trade, formerly protected by 
 geographical conditions, 67 ; caused 
 industrial decline, 94, 108 ; effect of 
 the, upon the family life of the Negro, 
 144; upon criminal laws, 180; pro- 
 moted war, 199, 222; expansion of 
 the, contemporaneous witli the polit- 
 ical expansion of Dahomi and Ashanti, 
 168, 172, 173; arrest of the, 96 
 
 Slave traders, pay tax to the kings, 181 ; 
 corrupt tlie morals of the natives, 418 
 
 Small, on the functions of the family, 
 146 ; on the importance of studying 
 the social structure and functions, (See 
 Preface to this book) 
 
 Social evolution, order of, 445 
 
 Socialization, function of in the family, 
 146 
 
 Sociology, scope and method, (See 
 Preface) 
 
 Sokoto, a trade and manufacturing cen- 
 tre, 120 
 
 Sorcerers, (See Witch-doctors) 
 
 Specialization, (See Division of Labor) 
 
 Spectacular, regal, 243 ; palatial, 246, 
 25 1 ; in dress, 246 ; relation of, to 
 culture, 255 
 
 Spencer, on the complexity of the human 
 feelings, 381 ; on the effect of diet 
 upon the human figure, 84 ; on the 
 effect of activity upon the physiog- 
 nomy, 84 ; on the connection between 
 tyranny and ceremony, 234 ; on the 
 relation of religion to morals, 319 ; on 
 ceremonial control, 253 ; on the value 
 of music, 352; on the origin of the 
 drama, 334 ; on the rapidity of the 
 growth of simple organisms, 360 ; on 
 the imagination of the savage, 367 
 
 Spirits, origin of, 257 ; prevalence of, 
 17, 45, 58, 257, 296; in economic 
 activities, 266, 296, 314; in family 
 affairs, 268, 297, 314 ; in political 
 affairs, 270, 298, 314 ; in judicial 
 affairs, 271, 299, 314; as policemen 
 and detectives, 270, 289, 299; in 
 diplomatic affairs, 272 ; as military 
 strategists, 274 ; as causes of disease, 
 45, 59, 261, 276, 287, 300; belief in, 
 among civilized people, 362, 282 
 
 Stanford, on the cultural possibilities of 
 the Negro, 414 
 
 Stature, influenced by environment and 
 habits, 84 
 
 Stealing, origin of, 394 ; prevalence of, 
 7,46,394,411 
 
 Steppe regions, political influence of, 
 217, 223, 225; social influence of, 
 154, 162; produce mighty men and 
 states, 417 
 
 Stimulation, value of mental, 44, loi, 
 '23>-363. 369. 37S; internal and ex- 
 ternal aspects of, 45, 238, (See 
 Motives) 
 
 Struggle for existence, effect of the, upon 
 economic development, 92, 124; 
 effect of, upon slavery, 12, 107 ; upon 
 mental development, 18; upon moral 
 development, 92 ; upon the chastity 
 of women, 135, 155 ; upon political 
 power, 93 ; upon the form of govern- 
 ment, 177 ; upon religion, 18, 309, 
 319; upon art, 445; upon idealism, 
 45. 398 ; upon the form of the family, 
 114. 134. '47. "48, 156 
 
 Sublime, sense of tile, absent among the 
 Negroes, 354 
 
492 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Sudan, limits and description of tlie, 65, 
 
 Suffering, effect of, upon idealism, 398 ; 
 
 and upon moral development, 405 ; 
 
 pleasure of Negro in inflicting, 388 
 Superstition,, definition of, 25 1 ; value of, 
 
 427,450; effect of, upon the family, 
 
 147, ( See Religion : Charms) 
 Survival, (See Outlook) 
 Sycophancy, 247, 250, 252 
 Systems of administration, 177, 186, 189, 
 
 207, 226 
 
 Taboo, 239 
 
 Tahitians, beauty of the attributed to 
 occupation, 85 
 
 Tattooing, 42, 57, 327, 337 
 
 Teachers, native, 313 
 
 Teleological power, 455 
 
 Telepathy, mental, 262 
 
 Temper, influenced by natural and social 
 conditions, 87, 384, 404 
 
 Temperature, effect of, upon habits, 134; 
 upon industry, 1 29 ; upon mind, 59 ; 
 upon art, 44, (See Climate) 
 
 Temples, as places of prostitution, 137, 
 268 
 
 Theal, on the effects of civilization upon 
 the Bushmen, 48 
 
 Theft, (See Stealing) 
 
 Thomas, on the gaming instinct in man, 
 34, 112, 124 
 
 Tibbus, sundry discussion of the, 83, 
 126, 161, 234, 253, 318, 350, 414 
 
 Timbuctu, a trade centre, 120 
 
 Totem, 17, 163 
 
 Trade, origin of, 95 ; influence of 
 European, upon the Negro, 108 ; and 
 upon other natural races, 44a ; a sub- 
 stitute for robbery, 95, (See Economic 
 Life) 
 
 Traditions, absence of, among the Negri- 
 tos, 13, 47 ; value of, 55, 59 ; narra- 
 tors of, 333, 349 
 
 Trophies, 246 
 
 Twins, superstition regarding, 268 ; 
 treatment of, 54, 269 
 
 Tylor, on the convolutions of the brain, 
 359 ; on the origin of stringed instru- 
 ments, 43 
 
 UNrpoRMixy of phenomena, as effecting 
 mind, 87 
 
 Vanity, a Negro trait, 395 
 
 Variety of phenomena, effect of, upon 
 
 mental and social development, 129, 
 
 412 
 Vegetarian argument refuted, 94 
 Vincent, on the functions of the family, 
 
 146 
 
 Wage earners, arise from monopoly of 
 land and capital, 53, 122 
 
 Waitz, on the culture of the Americans 
 and Africans compared, 129 ; on the 
 lot of slaves among savage and civi- 
 lized people compared, 101 
 
 Wants, effect of, upon culture, 256 
 
 War, as determinative of the form of 
 government, 177, 204, 225 ; influence 
 of, upon the family life, 140, 147 ; as 
 a factor in the transition from the ma- 
 triarchate to the patriarchate, 163, 
 (See Army) 
 
 Ward, on the evolution of man's sensi- 
 tive nature, 380; on the deceptive 
 trait in man, 392 
 
 Water, quantity and distribution of, as 
 affecting political and economic de- 
 velopment, 127, 166, 172, 174, 196, 
 200, 218 
 
 Wealth, relation of, to political power, 
 
 175, 236 ; and to form of government, 
 
 176, 203 ; movable, a weak basis for 
 political power, 236 
 
 Wit, faculty of, absent among the Ne- 
 groes, 377 
 
 Witch-Doctors, among the Negritos, 45, 
 58; among the Nigritians, 261, 317; 
 scope and methods of the, 45, 59, 261, 
 276, 279, 283, 314; fees of the, 281 ; 
 schools for, 281 ; transition of, to 
 priests, 286 ; qualifications of, 281 ; 
 duties and responsibilities of, 302 ; in- 
 fluence of climate, upon, 317 
 
 Wives of the king entice men to commit 
 adultery, 181 ; means of obtaining, 14, 
 35. 52. 133. 147. 154. 155 ; number 
 of, possessed by kings, priests and 
 common people, 135 ; abjection of, 
 140, 152, 159, 250; cost of, 35, 133, 
 147, 154 ; paid for in iron, 147 ; in 
 cattle, 54, 154 ; in labor, 148 ; treat- 
 ment of, 35, 140, 152, 154, 158, 430; 
 lack of jealousy among, 134, 135 ; 
 choose substitute husbands, 135 ; fond 
 of intrigues, 136, 137 ; live apart from 
 their husbands, 54, 139, 144, 151- 
 152 ; own individual property, 146, 
 151 ; provided with a dowry among 
 the Fellatahs, 1 54 ; support the fam- 
 
INDEX 
 
 493 
 
 'lyt 97. 139. 151 ; bequeathed as 
 property, 153 
 Women, work performed by, 12, 55, 97, 
 no, 148, 151,410; proportion of, to 
 men, 133, 147, 154; as property, 134, 
 iS3i '59; indolence of, favors po- 
 lygamy, 135, 148; liberty of, in the 
 northern zones, 158, 161 ; as soldiers, 
 168, 170; secret societies among. 
 
 192 ; status of, affected by economic 
 and political conditions, 55, 140 
 
 YoRUBAs, sundry discussion of the, 81, 
 170, 202, 204, 208, 211, 212, 250, 251, 
 402, 406 
 
 Youth, supremacy of, in the hunting life, 
 39 
 
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