PSEUDO-SURGERY. MAKONDE WOMAN WITH TORN LIP ARTIFICIALLY JOINED
Alitengiri, too, yonder, looks serious. Death has been a frequent visitor to her house of late; indeed, she has lost so many of her relations that her shamba cannot be cultivated. She used to be very lively, and chattered away so quickly that the eye could scarcely follow the motion of her pelele, which was a very fine one, so large that her lip could scarcely support it. Now she looks greatly changed—is she ill? or has the pelele shrunk? But that is impossible. Let us ask what is the matter. She does not answer—not a word can be got out of her. But I soon observe what is wrong; her lip must have given way and she has mended it,—I had already noticed the strip of blue stuff pasted over it—and now she dare not speak or laugh, for fear of opening the wound afresh.
There is no doubt that the largest peleles to be found in the whole southern territory are those worn by the women of Mahuta and its neighbourhood. Blocks of seven and seven and a half centimetres in diameter and three to five centimetres in thickness are not uncommon. With the black or white discs, the size of half-a-crown, worn in the lobes of the ears which are stretched in a similar manner to the lip, this gleaming white ornament makes up a triad of decorations which as a whole is surely unique. They are not enough, however, for the Makonde woman,—her face and the greater part of her body are covered with keloids, which, at first sight, seem to present an astonishing variety of patterns. On examination, however, their component elements prove to be surprisingly few. The present-day native gives to these elements such names as thitopole (“a pigeon-trap”), chikorombwe (“a fish-spear”),[[68]] ceka, etc. The first of these patterns is a curve, which might stand for the bent twig of a pigeon-trap; the chikorombwe is more like a fir-tree; the teka is a chitopole with a central axis. Whether these patterns have any real relation to the bird-trap or the fish-spear, I cannot say, for the natives do not know; but one thing is certain, none of them can nowadays be considered as a genuine tribal mark. The novice is inclined to look on them as such, till taught better, as I was in a most compendious way by old Makachu. This venerable man is covered all over with the same sort of pattern as those displayed by the women, though some of his are much the worse for wear. I asked him why he was thus decorated, expecting to receive a long dissertation on tribal marks and similar institutions, and was somewhat taken aback when he merely said “Ninapenda”—(“Because I like it so”).
MAKONDE KELOIDS
This, in fact, seems to be the sole reason for the keloid decoration being applied at all, as well as for the choice of pattern in each individual case. At Newala, at Nchichira, and now, at Mahuta, I have photographed, or at least inspected several hundred persons with the result, so far as I can come to any conclusion at present, that it is impossible to discover from any of the patterns the nationality of the wearer. Each of these figures has been chosen on the same principle of “ninapenda.”
MATAMBWE AND MAKUA WOMAN, WITH KELOIDS
It is not to be denied that there are fashions even in this form of ornament. A new pattern is introduced from somewhere,—it finds acceptance, first with one mother, then with another, and so quickly spreads through a whole generation, who, of course, have to wear it through life, so that, in fact, it might be considered a sort of badge. Perhaps in former times the tribes in this part of the country placed a higher value on the art; but it is no longer possible to prove that this was so, and, in fact, the custom seems to be passing away under modern influences. It is a great amusement, not only to myself, but to the other parties concerned, when I suddenly ask a man or youth to take off his shirt and show me his torso. Elderly men have a perfect menagerie of antelopes, snakes, frogs, tortoises and other creatures, together with chikorombwe, chitopole and teka adorning their broad chests, while the rising generation can show little or nothing. The latter no longer think the fashion “good form”; they have their eye on the coast and its civilization, and if they scarify themselves at all, are content with the two vertical cuts on the temples in vogue among the Swahili. The Yaos and the Wangoni of Nchichira have already pretty generally adopted these cuts, and other tribes will go on doing so in an increasing degree, year by year.
