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.”
THE BABEMBA TRIBE.
Lobisa, Lobemba, Ulungu, and Itawa-Lunda are the names by which the portions of an elevated region between the parallels 11° and 8° S. and meridian 28° 53° Lon. E. are known. The altitude of this section of country is from four thousand to six thousand feet above the level of the sea. It is the water-shed between the Loangwa, a tributary of the river Zambesi, and several rivers which flow toward the north. It abounds in forest lands and is watered by numerous rivulets. The soil is remarkably fertile, yielding abundantly wherever cultivated. Lake Liemba, which lies in this basin, is, however, twenty-five hundred feet above the level of the sea. The land around this lake is very steep, the rocks in many instances running from a height of two thousand feet down to the surface of the lake. The tops, sides, and bottom of these cliffs are covered with wood and grass.
The scenery of this region is romantic and very beautiful. The Acasy, a stream about fifty feet wide, comes down the cliffs, forming cascades by leaping three hundred feet at a time, exciting the admiration and wonder of the traveller. Buffalos, elephants, and antelopes are found in great abundance on these slopes, and in the waters of the lake crocodiles, hippopotami, and fish of various kinds.
The lake is from fifteen to twenty miles broad and from forty to fifty long, sending out an arm some two miles wide toward Tanganyika, of which it may be only a branch. Groves of palm-oil and other trees may be found on the banks of the lake. These palm-trees are large and fruitful. Livingstone saw a cluster from one carried past the door of his hut that required two men to bear it. Though there are villages around this lake yet most of the natives live on two islands, where they raise goats, cultivate the soil, and catch fish.
Livingstone had an opportunity to hear a case tried in Lobemba, before the chief. An old man talked an hour, the chief all the while listening and maintaining a grave and dignified deportment. When the trial was finished he gave his decision in about five minutes. Thereupon the successful party went away lullilooing. The custom with the attorneys in such cases is to turn the back upon the chief or judge, then lie down upon the ground, clapping the hands. Saluting him in this way they then are prepared to make their appeal or argument.
The chief Nsama, a very old man when Livingstone saw him, had a good head and face and an enormous abdomen. He was so large and helpless his people had to carry him. Women were constantly in attendance pouring pombé into him.