Insanity exists, though rarely, among blacks. I have only seen several natural born idiots, but I have been informed by the natives that they have violent madmen amongst them, whom they are obliged to tie up, and sometimes even kill; and I have been assured that some lunatics roam about wild and naked in the forest, living on roots, sometimes entering the towns when hard pressed by hunger, to pick up dirt and garbage, or pull up the mandioca roots in the plantations. This can only be in this part of the country, where the larger carnivora are scarce, or with the exception of the hyena, almost entirely absent.
CHAPTER IX.
CUSTOMS OF THE MUSSURONGO, AMBRIZ, AND MUSHICONGO NEGROES—MANDIOCA PLANT—ITS PREPARATIONS—CHILI PEPPER—BANANAS—RATS—WHITE ANT—NATIVE BEER—STRANGE SOUNDS.
The Mussurongo, Ambriz, and Mushicongo negroes have hardly any industrial or mechanical occupation; they weave no cloths of cotton or other fibre; their only manufactures being the few implements, baskets, pots, &c., required in their agriculture and household operations.
The reason for this want of industry, apart from the inherent laziness and utter dislike of the negroes for work of any kind, is to be found in their socialistic and conservative ideas and laws.
No man can be richer than his neighbour, nor must he acquire his riches by any other than the usual or established means of barter or trade of the natural products of the country, or of his plantations.
Should a native return to his town, after no matter how long an absence, with more than a moderate amount of cloth, beads, &c., as the result of his labour, he is immediately accused of witchcraft or “fetish,” and his property distributed among all, and is often fined as well.
I have already mentioned how the natives at Bembe, on receiving their pay, would squander it in riot before leaving for their towns, knowing that it would only be taken away from them, and so preferring to enjoy themselves with it first.
Some of the black traders on the coast, who acquire large values in the ivory trade, have to invest them in slaves, and even form towns consisting of their wives and slaves, and entirely maintained by them;—even these traders are constantly being accused of “fetish,” from which they have to clear themselves by heavy payments.
We have already seen how there are hardly any social distinctions among the negroes, and consequently no necessity for finer clothing, food, houses, &c.; it is even considered very mean for one black to eat or drink by himself. Any food or drink, however little, given to them, is always distributed amongst those present. The Portuguese convict whom I have described as owning the sugar-cane plantation at Quincollo, goes under the nickname among the blacks of “Fiadia,” or one who eats alone, from his having, when first starting a grog shop, lived in a hut apart, and as the blacks said “when he ate his dinner no other white man saw him, and what was over he kept for the next day.”
Nature favours the habits and customs of the blacks, removing all inducement to work by providing with a prodigal hand their few necessities, and exacting scarcely any exertion on their part in return. Their principal food or staff of life, the mandioca root, does not even require harvesting or storing. A knife or matchet, a hoe, a sleeping-mat, and a couple of pots and baskets, enable persons about to marry to begin life and rear a large family without the least misgiving for the future, or anxiety for the payment of rent, doctor’s and tailor’s bills, schooling, rates, or taxes.