FOOTNOTES
[1] Sir H. H. Johnston, British Central Africa, p. 355.
[2] Sir H. H. Johnston.
[3] Livingstone, The Zambezi and its Tributaries, p. 198.
[4] Du Zambèze au Congo Français, p. 106.
[5] See Moffat’s Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa.
[6] Sir H. H. Johnston includes the Anyika among the Batumbuka, but Dr. Elmslie says that the latter ‘have their teeth pointed.’
[7] Sir H. H. Johnston.
[8] This idea was suggested to me some years ago by Miss J. E. Harrison.
[9] Yao form of the name Anyanja.
[10] It has been derived from a word meaning ‘to nourish,’ but the above seems more probable.
[11] This is the principal tree used for making bark-cloth. Livingstone says, ‘It is a sacred tree all over Africa and India’; and I learn from M. Auguste Chevalier that it is found in every village of Senegal and French Guinea, and looked on as ‘a fetich tree.’
[12] Like the Zulu isanusi, who is a person of nervous, hysterical temperament to begin with, and goes through a course of training calculated to develop any ‘psychic’ gifts he or she may possess.
[13] ‘They have the firmest belief possible in ghosts, and will tell long circumstantial stories about the “spooks” they have seen—prosaic stories usually connected with daylight, as where a woman declares that while winnowing or pounding corn in the noontide, she looked out in the courtyard and saw the spirit of So-and-So passing along, looking exactly as though he were alive.’—Sir H. H. Johnston, British Central Africa, p. 449.
[14] ‘Among the tribes in the neighbourhood of Tanganyika ... a carved image of a human being ... is set up in or near the village, and thus becomes the village idol to which all prayers and sacrifices are directed.’—Life and Work in British Central Africa, June-July 1900.
[15] See [note at end of chapter].
[16] MS. communication.
[17] Popularly current as the feminine of mzungu (‘white man’); it has spread up the Shiré from the Portuguese settlements. People not acquainted with the word address you as mai (‘mother’), or mfumu (‘chief’—common gender).
[18] The Wahima or Wahuma, the nomadic pastoral race believed to be akin to the Abyssinians, whose blood predominates in the royal houses of Uganda and Unyoro.
[19] See [Chapter IV.]
[20] I am not sure that these are usual, except where they are likely to be needed for shooting.
[21] This is the same as the Nyanja word adzukulu.
[22] Baba = ‘father.’
[23] This is not usually done except on ceremonial occasions, or in case of great need, when fire can be procured in no other way. A fire is kept up through the night, and there are sure to be at least some embers in the morning, which can be blown into flame; or, if it should have gone out in one hut, they can nearly always fetch fire from another.
[24] The ‘undertakers,’ or adzukulu.
[25] The mapondera is paid for his services after the conclusion of the trial, and those who recover, and so turn out to have been falsely accused, are entitled to liberal compensation. This has to be paid by the heir.
[26] Literally ‘playing’—the word is used both for games and dances.
[27] Dictionary, s.v. Masewera.
[28] I have never been able to discover any other meaning but this for chinguli, which, moreover, I have never heard in any other connection. The usual word for this kind of top is nguli, or nanguli; chi being the augmentative prefix. Another version says rather vaguely that ‘he cut out a tree,’ and made his sister go into it. Evidently the function of the chinguli is the same as that of the magic carpet in the Arabian Nights. In the Fiote story of ‘Ngomba’s Balloon,’ given by Mr. Dennett, a basket of some sort seems to be endowed with magical powers. The song should be read phonetically (giving the vowels their German or Italian value), with the accents as marked: the e in nde, nde, nde (a meaningless refrain) is like that in our word ‘end.’
[29] Chants et Contes des Baronga, pp. 70-71.
[30] Each of these clans appears to have a mwiko with regard to some animal, but the subject has not yet been sufficiently investigated.
[31] According to one authority, the unit is the mzinda, which comprises all the villages having the same unyago or nkole. Others merely translate mzinda, ‘head village,’ or ‘capital’; but it seems to be the capital not of the Rundo but of the sub-chief.
[32] Livingstone, Zambezi, p. 198.
[33] ‘The chief may often have less influence than powerful head-men, and we have known cases where he contented himself with grumbling when his head-men acted contrary to his desire; and in many criminal trials he is eclipsed by the sorcerers and pounders of poison’ (Africana, i. 155).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS MADE USE OF IN THE FOREGOING PAGES
Livingstone, David, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambezi and its Tributaries, and of the Discovery of Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864. London, John Murray, 1865. (Original unabridged edition.)
Rowley, Rev. Henry, Story of the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa. London, 1866.
Macdonald, Rev. Duff, Africana, 2 vols. London, Simpkin, Marshall and Co., 1882.
Johnston, Sir H. H., K.C.B., British Central Africa. London, Methuen, 1897.
Scott, Rev. D. C., Cyclopædic Dictionary of the Mang’anja Language. Edinburgh, Blackwood, 1892.
Barnes, Rev. H. B. (U.M.C.A.), Nyanja-English Vocabulary. London, S.P.C.K., 1902.
Occasional Papers for Nyasaland (Likoma, 1893), afterwards The Nyasa News (Likoma, 1893-95). This periodical contains a large amount of exceedingly valuable information. Some use has also been made of two other magazines—Life and Work in Central Africa (Blantyre), and The Aurora (Livingstonia Mission, Bandawe).