THE BABISA AND BABEMBA.
APPEARANCE OF THE BABISA — MODE OF SALUTATION — COWARDICE AND FALSEHOOD — THE RAIN DANCE — THEIR IMPLEMENTS — THEIR FOOD — THEIR SUSPICION — SLAVE TRADE — DEGRADED CONDITION — LOCALITY OF THE BABEMBA — ROMANTIC SCENERY — LAWSUIT BEFORE THE CHIEF — NSAMA’S TERRITORY — A BRAVE AND SUCCESSFUL WARRIOR — HIS BREACH OF PUBLIC LAW — HIS PUNISHMENT BY THE ARABS — PEACE-MAKING — MARRIAGE OF HIS DAUGHTER — BRIEF HONEYMOON — CASEMBÉ’S TOWN — LIVINGSTONE’S RECEPTION — APPEARANCE OF CASEMBÉ — HIS BARBAROUS PUNISHMENTS — UNDERGROUND HOUSES IN RUA — SINGULAR SUPERSTITIONS — CASEMBÉ’S JUST DECISION — THE UNFAITHFUL WIFE SOLD AS A SLAVE — HATRED OF THE SLAVE TRADER — BELIEF IN A LIFE AFTER DEATH — APPEARANCE OF THE BABEMBA — THE TYPICAL NEGRO.
The territory occupied by The Babisa is the district northwest of Lake Nyassa, lying between the parallels 10° and 12° south latitude.
Moanzabamba was the founder of this tribe. The singular plaits of hair which are worn as a head-dress, and look like large ears, was the curious style originating with this chief.
This tribe resembles in many respects the Bushmen or Hottentots. Their roving habits indicate Bushman blood. They have round, bullet-shaped heads, short, pug noses, and an upward slant of the eyes. The mode of salutation among the men is to lie down upon the back, and while clapping the hands make a disagreeable, half-kissing sound with the lips.
They are destitute of courage, yet possess considerable craft and prefer to tell falsehoods rather than the truth. They seem to be more inclined to answer questions by misstatements than to give correct replies.
Their want of valor subjects them to frequent invasions of the Mazitu. In order to escape starvation in consequence of the plundering raids of their enemies, they cultivate small patches, some ten yards in diameter, at wide intervals in the forest. They plant millet and pumpkins, as it is difficult for the Mazitu to carry off these. The Babisa dismantle their huts and take the thatch to their gardens, where they live till the harvest is over. This exposure of the framework to the rains and sun helps to destroy the vermin that may always be found in the dwellings of this tribe. When the party is a strong one they build their sheds so as to form a circle and have but one opening. The ridgepole, or rather a series of ridgepoles, constitutes one long shed with no partitions in the roof-shaped hut. The women have a dance called the rain-dance in which their faces are smeared with meal, and they carry axes and endeavor to imitate the male voice in their singing.
Their implements of husbandry are exceedingly rude. The hoe they use is made of wood in a kind of V shape, or it is a branch with another springing out of it, about an inch in diameter at the sharp point. With this they claw the soil after the seed has been scattered. Their food consists principally of wild fruits, leaves, roots, and mushrooms. Of the latter they choose some five or six kinds and reject the others. One species grows to some six inches in diameter, is pure white with a blush of brown in the centre, and is very palatable when roasted. The natives readily distinguish the good from the poisonous. One trait very prominent in the character of the Babisa is their distrust. Full of suspicion they demand payment in advance for what they sell. Their distrust of all others develops into dishonesty in themselves; to use Livingstone’s words, “They give nothing to each other for nothing.” If this enlargement of mind be produced by commerce, commend me to the untrading African. Like the Makoa, this tribe possess a very dull sense of delicacy and politeness. Some tribes, like the Babemba, will retire when food is presented to any one.
They are engaged in the slave trade, and its effects are seen in the depopulation of their country, their neglect of husbandry, on account of the raids they fear, and their consequent poverty and almost starvation. Famine and famine prices everywhere obtain, and the people do not see that their own roving and slaving habits are the cause of their being so degraded and reduced to the condition of dependents of the Babemba. They are, as Livingstone briefly says, “a miserable, lying lot of serfs.”