THE JUNGLE FOLK OF AFRICA

BY
ROBERT H. MILLIGAN

The Jungle Folk of Africa

Illustrated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50

“As one reads, the mystery and terror of the jungle seem to penetrate his soul, yet he reads on reluctant to lay down a book so grimly fascinating.”—Presbyterian.

Fetish Folk of West Africa

Illustrated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50

“Mr. Milligan has written interestingly and vividly of the people among whom he labored, telling of their ways and habits, repeating some of their legends and beliefs and pointing out their failings as well as their good qualities.”—N. Y. Sun.

CANOE OF A CHIEF ON THE CAMERON RIVER. ([See page 354])

The Jungle Folk of Africa

By
ROBERT H. MILLIGAN

ILLUSTRATED

New York Chicago Toronto
Fleming H. Revell Company
London and Edinburgh

Copyright, 1908, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

Second Edition

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Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.
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PREFACE

“In the realm of the unknown, Africa is the absolute,” said Victor Hugo. Since the time of Hugo the civilized world has become better acquainted with African geography; but the Africans themselves are still a people unknown.

A certain noted missionary, while on furlough in America, after delivering a masterly and brilliant lecture on Africa to an audience of coloured people, gave an opportunity for persons in the audience to ask him questions pertaining to the subject. He was rather abashed when an elderly negro, who had been deeply interested in the lecture, called out: “Say, Mistah S., is they any colo’ed folks ovah thah?” Most people know that there are a goodly number of “colo’ed folks” in Africa; but the knowledge of the majority extends only to the colour of the skin. And if in this book I endeavour to make the Africans known as they really are, it is because I believe that they are worth knowing.

In the generation that has passed since the books of Du Chaillu were the delight of boys—old boys and young—the African has received but scant sympathy in literature. Du Chaillu had the mind of a scientist and the heart of a poet. He never understated the degradation of the African nor exaggerated his virtues, but he recognized in him the raw material out of which manhood is made. He realized that the African, like ourselves, is not a finality, but a possibility—“the tadpole of an archangel,” as genius has phrased it. But, then, Du Chaillu lived among the Africans long enough to speak their language, to forget the colour of their skin, and to know them, mind and heart, as no passing traveller or casual observer can possibly know them.

In more recent books the African is usually and uniformly presented as physically ugly, mentally stupid, morally repulsive, and never interesting. This is by no means my opinion of the African. Kipling’s characterization, “half child, half devil,” is very apt. But what in the world is more interesting than children—except devils?

This book is an attempt to exhibit the human nature of the African, to the end that he may be regarded not merely as a being endowed with an immortal soul and a candidate for salvation, but as a man whose present life is calculated to awaken our interest and sympathy; a man with something like our own capacity for joy and sorrow, and to whom pleasure and pain are very real; who bleeds when he is pricked and who laughs when he is amused; a man essentially like ourselves, but whose beliefs and whose circumstances are so remote from any likeness to our own that as we enter the realm in which he lives and moves and has his being we seem to have been transported upon the magic carpet of the Arabian fable, away from reality into a world of imagination—a wonderland, where things happen without a cause and nature has no stability, where the stone that falls downwards to-day may fall upwards to-morrow, where a person may change himself into a leopard and birds wear foliage for feathers, where rocks and trees speak with articulate voice and animals moralize as men—a world running at random and haphazard, where everything operates except reason and where credulity is only equalled by incredulity. Elsewhere it is the unexpected that happens: in Africa it is the unexpected that we expect.

A knowledge of the jungle folk of Africa will include some acquaintance with their jungle home, their daily life, their work, their amusements, their social customs, their folk-lore, their religion, and, among the rest, it will include their response to missionary effort. Of these several subjects, those which receive scant treatment in this book will be more fully presented in a second book on Africa, which is now in course of preparation.

I have avoided generalizations and abstractions, in the belief that the concrete and the personal would be not only more interesting but also more informing. This book is, therefore, in the main, a narration of the particular incidents of my own experience and observation during seven years in Africa; incidents, many of which, at their occurrence, moved me either to laughter or to tears, and sometimes both in alternation. For, nowhere else in the world does tragedy so often end in comedy, and comedy in tragedy.

I am indebted to Mr. Harry D. Salveter for his kindness in furnishing me with many photographic illustrations, including the best of my collection.

Robert H. Milligan.

New York.

CONTENTS

I
The Voyage [19]
Dreadful alternatives—A pork and cabbage saint—The outfit—A parting pain—Canary Islands—The change to the tropics—Sierra Leone—The native yell—Deck passengers—A meal of potato-peelings—Liberia—Shipboard conversation—A shrewd decision.
II
The Coast [36]
Wet and dry seasons—The climate—The trader—Old Calabar—The crocodile—The most beautiful place in West Africa—The ugliest place in the world—Mount Cameroon—A ride on a mule—Landing in the surf.
III
Bush Travel [55]
Where no white man had been—The greatest forest in the world—The caravan—Outfit—African roads—Bridges—The worst of the road—Blessings in disguise—The art of walking—The arrival in camp—The misery of morning—Rubber stomachs.
IV
Bush Perils [73]
The road at the worst—Tired out—A palaver with the carriers—Elephants—A caravan astray—A long night—A borrowed shirt—The sullen forest—Accident the constant factor—A last journey—Advantage of breakfast before daylight.
V
The Camp-Fire [89]
The camp—African mimics—The lemur’s cry—Legend of the snail—The chimpanzee and the ungrateful man—A fable of the turtle—Why the leopard walks alone—A “true” story—A magic fight—Discovering a thief—A spirit who spreads disease—A shadow-slayer—A witch discovered—Lying awake at night.
VI
A Home in the Bush [107]
Efulen—The “white animal” performs—Africa no solitude—The mail—The first fever—Yearning for a shirt—A vivid account of my funeral—The first house—Cooks and cooking—The medical layman—Mrs. Laffin’s visit.
VII
The Bush People [131]
The Bulu tribe—“Better-looking than white people”—Dress—Ornamentation—A sociable queen—The white man’s origin—Our fetishes—A magic letter—Buying and selling—Chief Abesula.
VIII
After a Year [148]
Killed by mistake—A woman stolen—A passion for clothes—The Batanga church—Expectoration a fine art—Romantic career of a nightshirt—Bekalida—Keli, the incorrigible—Death of Dr. Good.
IX
The Kruboys [170]
The Kru tribe—The “real thing”—Kru English—The Kruboy’s superstition—The ship’s officers—Dressing with much assistance—Loading mahogany—The Kruboy and the surf—The white man out of his element.
X
White and Black [195]
St. Paul de Loanda—Canine passengers—Portuguese slavery—An American problem—A health-change—Boma—Belgian atrocities—Matadi—Stanley—What I heard at Matadi—The apathy of the nations.
XI
The Fang [217]
Gaboon—The village—The house—The door—The kiss unpopular, and no wonder—Marriage customs—A woman tortured—An elder brother—Immoral customs—The Gorilla Society—War—A troublesome sister—A blessing that resembled a curse—A strange war-custom—Music—Dancing—Story of the elephant and the gorilla—Fable of the sun and moon.
XII
Fetishes [249]
The conception of God—Dreams—Ancestor-worship—The conception of nature—The fetish proper—A wonderful medicine-chest—Various fetishes—A case of discipline—Witchcraft—A convicted witch—Wives and witchcraft—The white man and witchcraft.
XIII
A Boat Crew [273]
The Evangeline—Makuba—An un-dress ball—Ndong Koni—A saint that lied—Capsized and rescued—A dying slave—Dressed in a table-cloth—Flogging a chief—A story of true love.
XIV
A School [302]
The language difficulty—Lacked nothing but the essentials—The late M. de la R.—One of Macbeth’s witches—Death of Nduna—Bojedi—More candid than kind—The racial weakness—A royal romance—Marriage ceremonies—A penitent—A fall.
XV
A Little Scholar [329]
A health-change—The brightest of his class—Rotten Elephant—Very sick—An object of wonder—Mount Teneriffe—Adventure with a stage-coach—Adventure with a donkey—The crisis—The Ashantee war—A burial at sea.
XVI
A Church [354]
Reality versus romance in missions—Arrival of the steamer—Adventure in a canoe—An Apollo Belvidere in ebony—A sensational call to worship—A white man’s foot—A prayer that caused a panic—Not wickedness, but worms—The right hand, or the left?—“Dawn of the Morning”—M’abune Jésu—Keeping the Sabbath—The harvest—The Jesuits—A building not made with hands—“O’er crag and torrent.”

ILLUSTRATIONS

Facing Page
Canoe of a Chief on the Cameroon River[title]
Mount Teneriffe, Canary Islands[24]
Mission House at Batanga[52]
Rev. A. C. Good, Ph. D.[55]
Little Frances Born in Africa[86]
A Group of Admiring Natives[110]
An Improved Mission House at Efulen[118]
The Passion For Clothes[131]
The Old Church at Batanga[154]
Pastors and Elders of the Batanga Church[160]
The Debarkation of a Deck Passenger[181]
Man and Wife[224]
Two Men Dancing[224]
Ndong Koni[236]
Makuba, Captain of the Boat Crew[276]
Bojedi, Teacher of Fang School[314]
Three Fang Boys[378]