In their more palmy days their ornaments had probably been more elaborate; but I noticed that the lower classes wore bracelets and ankle-rings of gnu or giraffe-hide, and sometimes of iron wire. Their earrings, always simple in form, were mostly made of some better material. For clothing the men usually had nothing more than a bit of calico about the size of one’s hand, and only rarely was a skin of some small animal fastened round their loins; the women wore a short petticoat of tanned leather.
As servants the Manansas are to be preferred to any other of the South African tribes. I found them remarkably skilful in tracking game, their quiet, cautious method of proceeding often proving more effectual than greater dash and daring. As far also as my experience went, I must say that they are civil and beyond the average for honesty and fidelity. By the more powerful tribes they are regarded with great contempt, and laughed at as “the simpletons of the north,” but nothing worse seems to be alleged against them than their habitual courtesy and good-nature—qualities which, since the Matabele rule has spread from the Limpopo to the Zambesi—have become synonymous with hypocrisy and cowardice. Not content with murder and rapine, the savagery of the Matabele Zulus has gone far to stifle every noble impulse, and to cast mistrust over every friendly word.
Whenever the Manansas are being pursued, and find themselves cut off from every prospect of escape, they will stop, turn round, and advance towards their adversaries with the points of their assegais lowered, and as soon as they come near their conquerors they will lay down their weapons, squat upon the ground, and wait until the enemy has done his worst. During the time when Moshesh was the Bamangwato king, they could generally manage to appease him and stay his acts of oppression by gifts of ivory; but Moselikatze carried off their boys and a great number of their women, while the present Matabele despot commissioned his hordes to plunder everything upon which they could lay their hands. It is only when they have been put in charge of some white man whom the missionaries have introduced as a person of importance to be protected as far as the falls, that orders are given to refrain from robbery or violence. Such, for instance, was the case when Major S. was escorted through the district in 1875; the object of the king in such cases being that the traveller should have no tales of cruelty to tell “the great white queen” of England on his return.
I used to talk to a Manansa who was hired every year by one of the traders, and appeared to be above the level of his fellow-tribesmen in intelligence. Happening to say something about the cowardice imputed to his race, I saw him shake his head and smile. “No,” he replied, “we are not timid pallahs, nor ever have been; but we love our village life and our hunting; we catch our game in pits and not by arms; we give up our elephants’ tusks to the remorseless Matabele; we show them where to hunt the elephants; let them hunt as they will; we want not the blood of the beasts, much less do we thirst for the blood of men!”
It had been a Manansa custom, after the death of a king, for the men to meet together and conduct the heir to the royal residence; then they brought a handful of sand and small stones from the Zambesi, and a hammer; these they gave him as tokens of his sovereignty over the land and over water and iron, symbolizing industry and labour. At the same time they reminded him of the obligation that rested upon him that from the day of his accession to the throne he was to eat the flesh neither of the rhinoceros nor the hippopotamus, as these being “mischievous” animals, would be likely to impart their own evil qualities to him.
Even regarded as unassociated with the magnificence of the Victoria Falls, the Albert country, with its wooded rocks and grassy valleys, is undoubtedly one of the most attractive districts in the whole of South Africa. Intersected by the Zambesi, it is bounded by the sandy pool plateau on the south, and extends as far as the mouth of the Chobe on the west. Geologist, botanist, mineralogist, all alike must find it full of interest. Except the springbock, blessbock, and black gnu, all the larger kinds of mammalia are to be seen that Southern and Central Africa can show. Reptiles are numerous, and crocodiles haunt the banks and troubled waters of the remotest mountain streams. Insects of various sorts abound, the lepidoptera especially exhibiting new species. Let proper means be taken to exterminate the tsetse-fly, and to guard against the prevalence of summer fever, and the rich soil and mild climate of the valleys would be found amply to repay a liberal cultivation, and would yield a profitable return of tropical produce.
It was by a slightly different route that we made our way back to Panda ma Tenka. On the Matopa river our servants shot a wild pig; and a little further up the valley some of our people discovered a dead elephant. Their attention was caught by a disgusting smell, which they thought they recognized; and pushing into the bushes they found the carcase of a huge male elephant, dead from gunshot wounds. The adjacent flesh had been gnawed by lions, and one of the blacks declared that he saw a lion making off as we approached. Westbeech and Francis took possession of the ivory, leaving the carcase to the servants who had smelt it out. They cut off the feet, intending to carry them off as a dainty for their next meal, but the stench of them was so intolerable that we soon made them throw their tit-bit away. When cooked fresh the fleshy substance enclosed beneath the tough skin of the elephant’s foot is accounted as choice a morsel as a bear’s paw, but it is the only fragment of the brute that is in any way suited for human food.
So sore did my feet continue that it was with the greatest difficulty that I dragged myself along. The ladies, as they had done on the way out, walked the greater part of the distance between the falls and the Gashuma Flat; and apart from my own trouble, the whole of us were in perfect health when, on the 24th of September, we reached Panda ma Tenka. There I found two Matongas and a Manansa on the look-out for employment. I engaged them at once, and Westbeech and Francis did their best to assist me in procuring what was requisite for my start again to the Leshumo valley.
ENCOUNTER WITH A TIGER.