This tribe have some very singular customs in regard to birth and burial. “When a child is born,” says Mr. Stanley, “the father cuts the caul, and travels with it to the frontier of his district, and there deposits it under the ground; if the frontier be a stream, he buries it on the banks; then taking the root of a tree, he conveys it, on his return, and buries it at the threshold of his door. He then invites his friends to a feast that he has prepared. He kills an ox or half a dozen goats, and distributes pombe. The mother, when approaching childbirth, hastens to the woods, and is there attended by a female friend.

“After death the Wanyamwezi remove the body into the jungle, or, if a person of importance, bury it in a sitting posture, or on its side, as in Wagogo. On the march the body is merely thrown aside and left for a prey to the hyena, the cleanest scavenger of the forest. When death has taken away a member of a family, it is said by the relatives of the deceased, that the ‘Miringu has taken him or her,’ or, ‘He or she is lost,’ or, ‘It is God’s work.’”

Very few old men are seen in Central Africa. There are the evidences in every village of premature age, such as gray hair and bent forms. The Wanyamwezi seem to be diminishing in numbers. What with emigration to other tribes, the hardships of the life of travel and burden-bearing to which many of them are exposed, and the ravages of the slave wars in which their chiefs are engaged, this people is evidently dying out. It is a saddening spectacle, this decay and disappearance of one of the most intelligent and capable tribes of Africa.

It is the testimony of Stanley that “eight out of ten of the bleached skulls along the line of commerce in the interior are those of the unfortunate Wanyamwezi, who succumbed to the perils and privations attending the footsteps of every caravan. What a power in the land might not a philanthropic government make of these people! What a glorious testimony to the charity of civilization might they not become! What docile converts to the gospel truths through a practical missionary would they not make!”

CHAPTER CLXVI.
AFRICA—Continued.
UVINZA AND UHHA.

UVINZA, ITS LOCATION — MODE OF SALUTATION — GREAT MUTWARE OF KIMENYI — HIS EXTORTION — THE CARAVAN STOPPED — LONG PARLEY WITH CHIEF MIONVU — MIONVU’S SPEECH — STANLEY’S REPLY — MIONVU’S DEMAND FOR TRIBUTE — THE CHIEF INFLEXIBLE — STANLEY ENRAGED, BUT POWERLESS — CONSULTATION WITH HIS MEN — THEIR COUNSEL OF PEACE ADOPTED — ENORMOUS BONGA PAID — STANLEY’S STORES SADLY REDUCED — BOLD PLAN TO ESCAPE THE ROBBERS — ITS SUCCESS — LIVINGSTONE FOUND.

On the north of Unyanyembe is Uvinza, a rugged and somewhat mountainous country. Its numerous ravines and ridges, while imparting picturesqueness to the views, do not however contribute to its productiveness. It is but poorly watered, the banks of Malagarazi River being almost the only portion of great fertility. It has many salt pans, from which the people manufacture their salt. Crossing the Malagarazi, new customs and peculiarities greet the traveller. The method of salutation is singular and tiresome. As persons approach, they stretch out both hands to each other, uttering the words “Wake, wake!” They then seize each other by the elbows, and rubbing each other’s arms, say rapidly, “Wake, wake, waky, waky!” and finally terminate the tiresome formula with grunts of “Huh, huh!” as token of satisfaction. They dress in cloth when able to purchase it of the caravans; but if poor, they use “goat-skins, suspended by a knot fastened over the shoulder and falling over one side of their bodies.”

After many perils and delays Stanley entered the Uhha country. The boundary between Uvinza and Uhha, is a narrow, dry ditch. Numerous small villages could be seen, without the usual defence of a stockade, indicating that the people were living in quiet and without fear of marauders. Halting at Kawanga he soon learned from the chief that he was “the great Mutware of Kimenyi under the king, and therefore the tribute-gatherer for his Kiha majesty.” As an illustration of the African character and the difficulties of travelling in the interior, we give the narrative in Stanley’s own words:—

“He declared he was the only one in Kimenyi, an eastern division of Uhha, who could demand tribute, and that it would be very satisfactory to him and a saving of trouble to ourselves if we settled his claim of twelve doti of good cloth at once. We did not think it the best way of proceeding, however, knowing as we did the character of the native African; so we at once proceeded to diminish the demand, but after six hours’ hot argument the mutware only reduced it by two. This claim was then settled upon the understanding that we should be allowed to travel through Uhha, as far as Rusugi River, without being further mulcted.

“Leaving Kawanga early in the morning and continuing our march over the boundless plain we were marching westward, joyfully congratulating ourselves that within five days we should see that which I had come far from civilization and through so many difficulties to see, and were about passing a cluster of villages with all the confidence which men possess against whom no one has further claim or word to say, when I noticed two men darting from a group of natives, who were watching us, and running toward the head of the expedition, with the object, evidently, of preventing further progress.