A Mnguru, showing Keloids down centre of Chest
The African knows nothing of tatuing proper, and the introduction of colouring matter under the skin is hardly known. For the coloured designs of Polynesia is substituted the raised scar. The process is very rough and usually consists in making cuts which heal and leave ‘proud flesh’ (keloid) behind. Dr. Kerr Cross says: ‘The tissues of the negro seem to have a tendency to take on a keloid growth. That is to say, the cicatricial tissue grows large. If a native gets a cut, it becomes like a tumour or a new growth. If he has been vaccinated, the mark rises up like a two-shilling piece. If he tatus (i.e. scars) himself, the surface becomes a series of little growths protruding above the general level of the skin.’ But in case the natural tendency should not be enough, the operator sometimes assists nature by pinching the lips of the cut away from each other. Some tatu-marks (mpini, konde) are not raised much above the level of the skin; they have a smooth surface and a dark-blue colour, which blends well with the skin, and is produced by rubbing in charcoal or wood-ash, and sometimes gunpowder. Formerly the various scars always indicated the tribe to which a person belonged, and the children were marked with the mother’s pattern; now the tribal marks are no longer strictly kept to. The distinctive Yao tatu (called mapalamba) was two rows of small cuts across the temples. Some have stars in dark blue on the chest and elsewhere. I have seen them on Yaos, but do not know if they are distinctive. The Nyanja women used to score long lines over shoulders, chest, and back. The Lomwe tribes have various patterns—one a crescent, turned downwards, just between the eyebrows, others a series of from three to six crescents in the same position. The Alolo have a mark on each side of the chest, consisting of a crescent turned up, and two short, vertical cuts below it. The Makua make a line of cuts above the eyes, deep enough to form ‘little pouches’ in which they keep snuff, as I hear from Mr. J. Reid. Some tribes add dots all over the forehead, and some, on the Zambezi, raise a line of small lumps down the middle of the forehead. I have seen Yao women whose chests and shoulders seemed to be covered with small marks like those left by ordinary vaccination; and some seem to have the whole body more or less covered. Besides marks intended for decoration, there are those caused by a favourite method of treatment for various kinds of indisposition, viz., to make a cut and rub in the juice of a herb, or some other form of ‘medicine’; and I remember a poor girl, evidently suffering from a bad attack of influenza, who had just had a series of these cuts made all down the inside of her arm.
I was once present at a discussion between a number of young people (this kind of debate is called mákani, and is a recognised fireside amusement) on the question whether ‘it is better to make holes in one’s lips, like the Yaos, or in one’s ears, like the Angoni.’ The pelele, which was referred to, was a Nyanja decoration, but is now seen more frequently amongst Yao women. The upper lip is bored and a bit of grass-stalk inserted into the hole, which at first is scarcely larger than would be made by a stout darning-needle. After this has been worn for some time—I have often seen girls of ten or twelve with it—a slightly thicker one is inserted, and that, in time, again exchanged for a thicker, till at last the hole is large enough to admit a small plug of ivory, say a quarter of an inch across. The plug becomes larger and larger, till a ring is substituted for it, which also grows in size, with the wearer’s advance in years, till you see matrons wearing one like an ordinary napkin-ring. It seemed to me, however, that there was a tendency to stop short at the earlier stages, as I remember quite elderly women, with only a moderate plug. The Alolo women, not content with the pelele, wear a brass nail, two or three inches long, in the lower lip as well. Certainly, as far as personal preference went, I was inclined to side with the Angoni in the mákani above alluded to.
The favourite ear ornaments are a kind of conical stud, ornamented in patterns with beads. They are quite small, and do not distend the lobe of the ear much. I think they are considered by natives to be a speciality of the Angoni. I have once or twice seen young warriors wearing in their ears ornaments about the length of one’s finger, which may have been very diminutive tusks of the bush-pig (nguluwe), or perhaps the teeth of some other animal. Both sexes have the ears bored. I have seen girls who had only recently had it done, wearing a flower stuck in the hole.
A style of ornament for the ear which I have only met with once was that of a woman at Mlanje, from Matapwiri’s (on the Portuguese border), who had her ears pierced with a series of holes in the outer edge of the cartilage, and loops of white beads strung through them. She probably belonged to the Alolo, or some other tribe of Makua. Some Yao and Makua women wear a stud (chipini) of lead or some other metal in the side of the nose.
As to the teeth, it was a standing wonder to me that the way they were treated did not ruin them entirely; but it does not seem as if chipped teeth decayed any more readily than whole ones. Naturally, as most travellers have reported, natives usually have splendid teeth; though Dr. Fülleborn, in his observations on tribes at the north end of Lake Nyasa, says he found a considerable percentage of people with decayed teeth. I have come across one or two cases of toothache myself, but should say that, on the whole, there is no need to revise the general opinion.
The Yaos chip the edge of the four upper front teeth into saw-like points. This is usually done to boys and girls at about fifteen or sixteen. I never saw the operation performed, but fancy that a mallet and chisel are the instruments used. They are brought up to face the prospect, I suppose, and seem to contemplate it with more equanimity than most of us do going to the dentist. The Mambwe (on the Nyasa Tanganyika plateau) have the two middle teeth of the lower jaw removed. One of them told M. Foà that they were knocked out with an axe, adding ‘it is very quickly done!’
A triangular gap between the two upper front teeth is made by different tribes—the Anyika[6] of North-west Nyasa being one. I have a note of a man whose teeth had been chipped in this way, and whom I understand to have been a Yao; but, as he had gone to Zanzibar early in life (‘I do not know how—probably through slavery,’ said my English-speaking informant), there may have been some irregularity about his teeth.
Some of the Makua tribes file each separate tooth to a point (as shown in the fourth example of our illustration); this is also done by the Basenga, and, I believe, other tribes near the Luangwa. The Batonga knock out the upper front teeth—or did so, in Livingstone’s time. ‘When questioned respecting the origin of this practice, the Batoka reply that their object is to be like oxen, and those who retain their teeth they consider to resemble zebras.’ As the Batonga venerate the ox and detest the zebra, we have here, what is absent elsewhere, some sort of a clue to a connection between this custom and the people’s religious beliefs. Livingstone further points out that the knocking out of the teeth is of the nature of a solemn ceremony, without which no young people can be considered grown up.