The uncivilized races of men in all countries of the world; vol. 2 of 2 / Being a comprehensive account of their manners and customs, and of their physical, social, mental, moral and religious characteristics

by J. G. Wood

That “fine country,” as Livingstone calls it, is needed with its measureless riches for the world’s commerce and civilization. Its gigantic, wide-spreading curse is the slave-trade. Eastern and Central Africa still, over large portions of territory, is blighted with this “sum of all villanies.” Its history has darker shades than any human pencil can portray. Livingstone has told it, and startled the civilized world with the story of murders innumerable and horrors unutterable, of perpetual inter-tribal wars, instigated by the rapacious Arabs, so that captives, numerous and cheap, may be kidnapped or bought for the slave-markets of the coast.

This Mohammedan abomination is a standing, shameless affront to the civilization of the great Christian powers of the earth. Commerce, Humanity, Christianity, demand that it be blotted out. The progress that has been made but recently in this country and Great Britain, in respect to the doctrine of human rights and the claims of the African people, indicates the duty of these powerful nations to this long-benighted and sorely-stricken race. When this powerful barrier against commerce, industry, science, education, Christianity is removed, what will be the glory and grandeur of this great continent, with its numberless population “stretching out their hands unto God,” its uncivilized races transformed into Christian and prosperous peoples, ministering to the world’s advancement by the inexhaustible treasures with which the Creator has endowed their broad and beautiful land!

Exactly one year before the death of the most eminent explorer of the century, Dr. Livingstone, he finished, so his journal informs us, a letter to the New York Herald, in which he endeavors to enlist American enterprise and philanthropy in the suppression of the East Coast slave-trade of Africa. The last words of the letter are these: “All I can add in my loneliness is, may Heaven’s rich blessing come down on every one, American, English, or Turk, who will help to heal the open sore of the world.” No words could more perfectly represent the life and spirit of this missionary traveller; and these—his appeal to the American people—were chosen to be inscribed upon the tablet erected to his memory near his grave in Westminster Abbey.

Loving America, rejoicing in her triumph over slavery, grateful to her for rescuing him, when lost to the civilized world, by her brave and adventurous Stanley, he bequeathes his great life-work, the fervent aspiration of his heart, to her Christian zeal. And England, his own country, takes that memorable invocation and inscribes it as the most expressive memorial of the life and character of her noble son where he is laid to rest among the great and renowned ones of her history. Thus the devoted missionary, the world-known, world-honored explorer of the vast continent of Africa, to which he had given his long and laborious service, entrusts to Great Britain and America united, the accomplishment of the noble undertaking that absorbed and consecrated his life, viz.,

The Regeneration of Africa.

CHAPTER CLXXI.
CENTRAL ASIA.
THE KAKHYENS.

HIGHLANDERS OF WESTERN CHINA — PATRIARCHAL GOVERNMENT — TRIBUTE PAID TO THE CHIEF — ARCHITECTURE OF THE KAKHYENS — PERSONAL APPEARANCE — THEIR PRINCIPAL WEAPON — SERVILE LOT OF WOMEN — THE MEETWAY OR DIVINER — EXTRAORDINARY MANIFESTATIONS — FAVORABLE PREDICTIONS — SEVERE ORDEAL OF THE ASPIRANT TO THE POSITION OF MEETWAY — MARRIAGE CEREMONIES — COST OF A WIFE — PUNISHMENT FOR INFIDELITY — RITES ATTENDING BIRTH OF A CHILD — BURIAL RITES — SERVICES OF THE TOOMSA — THE DEATH-DANCE — A CRUEL CUSTOM — RELIGION OF THE KAKHYENS — THE VARIOUS NATS OR DEITIES — MORAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE KAKHYENS — THEIR KIDNAPPING — CHARITABLE EXPLANATION.

For many years the attention of the British Government has been directed to the consideration of an overland route to Western China. To avoid the long and perilous voyage by the Straits and the Indian Ocean seemed to be an object fraught with so many commercial advantages as to repay almost any endeavor to accomplish it. Accordingly in January, 1868, the government of India sent an expedition, under the command of Col. Edward B. Sladen, from the royal city of Mandalay, on the Irrawaddy, to explore the unknown country beyond. The narrative of the expedition, written by Dr. John Anderson, its medical officer and naturalist, has recently been given to the public. The only use our limits permit us to make of it, interesting though it is, is to introduce to our readers the Kakhyens, or the wild Highlanders of that distant and little known region of Western China.

The Kakhyens are a race of mountaineers inhabiting the hills that bound the Irrawaddy basin. They are probably cognate with the hill tribes of the Mishmees and Nagas. They call themselves Chingpaw, or “men,” and Kakhyens is their Burmese appellation.

Among this people the patriarchal government has universally prevailed. Each clan has its hereditary chief, assisted by pawmines, or lieutenants, who determine all questions about which the people are at variance. The youngest son is entitled to the office of chieftain; and if there be no sons, it descends to the youngest brother. The eldest sons inherit the rank of pawmine.