THE
ACEPHALI, HEL SHUAL, AND HEL ELKILLEB:
The Discovery of Africa not to be effected by the present System of solitary Travellers; but by a grand Plan, with a numerous Company; beginning with Commerce, as the natural Prelude to Discovery, the Fore-runner of Civilization, and a preliminary Step, indispensable to the Conversion of the native Negroes to Christianity.
The inhabitants of the snowy or upper regions of the Atlas live, during the months of November, December, January, February, and half of March, in caves or excavations in the mountains; the snow then disappears, and they begin to cultivate the earth.
I have repeatedly heard reports of the (Helel Killeb, [146]) dog-faced race; of the (Hel Shual,) tailed race; and of the race having one eye, [147] and that in the breast. It is extremely difficult to ascertain the origin of these reports, which are so involved in metaphor that the signification is not intelligible to Europeans; their existence is not doubted, however, in Africa. Of the Hel El Killeb some ignorant people affirm that the Almighty transformed one of the tribes of the Jews into these people, and that these are their descendants; others report them to be a mongrel breed, between the human and ape species; their strength is said to be very great. The Africans assert with considerable confidence, which is corroborated, that the Hel Shual have a tail half a cubit long; that they inhabit a district in the Desert at an immense distance south-east of Marocco; that the Hel El Killeb [148] are in a similar direction; that the latter are diminutive, being about two or three cubits [149] in height; that they exclaim bak, bak, bak, and that they have a few articulate sounds, which they mutually understand among themselves; that they are extremely swift of foot, and run as fast as horses. The Arimaspi of Herodotus are called by the Arabs Hel Ferdie, these are represented by the Arabs of the Desert as living at the foot of the lofty mountains of the Moon, near Abyssinia: the male and female are equally without hair on their head, having large chins and nostrils, like the ape species; they are said to have a language of their own; their costume is a jelabea, [150] and a belt, without shoes or head dress; their country is said to abound in gold. It is "a consummation devoutly to be wished," that our knowledge of Africa should increase so as to enable us to unravel the mystery of these doubtful reports, to ascertain the degree of credit that is due to these mysterious traditions. These desiderata, however, can hardly be expected, whilst the present injudicious plans for the discovery of Africa are persevered in. We must, if we desire to discover effectually the hidden recesses and reported wonders of this continent, adopt plans and schemes very different from any that have hitherto been suggested; we must adopt a grand system upon an extensive scale, a system directed and moved by a person competent to so great an undertaking. The head or director of such an expedition should be master of the general travelling and trafficking language of Africa, the modern Arabic: he should moreover be acquainted with the character of the people, their habits, modes of life, religious prejudices, and fanaticism. A grand plan, thus directed, could hardly fail to secure the command of the commerce of Africa to Great Britain. Then the discovery of the inmost recesses would follow the path of commerce, and that continent, which has baffled the researches of the moderns as well as of the ancients, would lay open its treasures to modern Europe, and civilisation would be the natural result. Then would be the period to attempt the conversion of the Negroes to Christianity; and the standard of peace and good will towards men might be successfully planted on the banks of the Nile El Kabeer, or Nile Assudan, the Great Nile, or Nile of Sudan, or Nigritia, commonly called the Niger.
Footnote 146:[ (return) ] Apollonius Rhodius calls these people [Greek: ημικυγες êmikuges] or half-dogs.
Footnote 147:[ (return) ] The ingenious author of Philosophic Researches concerning the Americans, speaking of a race which appear to resemble the Acephali of Herodotus, or the race of men having one eye, and that in their chest, says, "There is in Canibar a race of savages who have hardly any neck, and whose shoulders reach up to their ears. This monstrous appearance is artificial, and to give it to their children they put enormous weights upon their heads, so as to make the vertebræ of the neck enter, if we may so say, the channel bone, (clavicule.) These barbarians, from a distance, seem to have their mouth in the breast; and might well enough, in ignorant and enthusiastic travellers, serve to revive the fable of the Acephali, or men without heads." (See Larcher's Notes on Herodotus's Melpomene, cap. 191.)--Saint Augustin, whose veracity is scarcely to be doubted, declared in his thirty-third sermon, intituled "A ses Frères dans le Désert"--Avoir vu en Ethiopie des hommes et des femmes sans tête avec des grands yeux sur le poitrine.
Footnote 148:[ (return) ] We have heard of a pig-faced lady; if there is such a person, there might also be a pig-faced gentleman, and these might generate a pig-faced race; and if a pig-faced race, why not a dog-faced race?
Footnote 149:[ (return) ] Seven Cubits make four English yards.
Footnote 150:[ (return) ] The best description I can give of a jelabea is this: Take a large sack and cut a hole in the bottom, big enough to admit the head; then cut the two bottom corners off to admit the arms: this garment will then resemble the jelabea.