Even without counting his comrades’ performances in the same kind, Sabatele’s route-map is not an isolated phenomenon; on the contrary, whole volumes have already been written on the subject of cartography among the primitive races. Yet this unpretending little sketch is by no means without psychological interest. We are accustomed to look at every map from the south, considering the top of it as the north. All my native maps are oriented in the opposite direction—they look at the region represented as if from the north and place the south at the top of the map.
MAKONDE WOMAN IN HOLIDAY ATTIRE
This is likewise the case in the original of the one here reproduced, which I have turned round through 180 degrees, merely in order to bring it into agreement with our maps. The distances between the various places are wrong, as already remarked, but otherwise it is wonderfully correct, considered as the work of an entirely untrained man.
The last of the native drawings reproduced is a combination of landscape-painting and topographical diagram—in it Salim Matola has represented the mountains of his home at Masasi (p. [65]). None of my attempts to photograph this range were successful. When, in my excursions, I reached a spot far enough off to see it as a whole, it was even betting that the air would be too hazy; and when near enough to see any of the hills well, I was too near to get a good view of all.
Salim has therefore supplied this want, and by no means unskilfully. It is true that the native hunter on the top of Chironji, and his gun, are both out of all proportion to the height of the mountain itself, and the vegetation also errs in relative size (though not in character), but everything else is right:—the series of gigantic peaks—Mkwera, Masasi, Mtandi, Chironji, is given in the proper order, and, on the left, the smaller outlying knobs of Mkomahindo, Kitututu and Nambele. The steepness of the individual mountains is well rendered, as also the rounded dome-shape of their tops;—perhaps it would not be too much to say that Salim has tried, by parallel and concentric strokes, to indicate the structure of the gneiss.
The early rains appear to follow me wherever I go. At Newala they began at the end of September; at Nchichira, a few weeks later, and here at Mahuta they set in with considerable violence at the end of October. Fortunately I was able, before they began, to enjoy the natives even to excess. The Makonde have for the last few weeks, been celebrating a veritable series of popular festivals on a small scale, on the fine large arena within the boma enclosure. As these festivities were quite spontaneous, I was able to feel assured of their genuinely native character. More than once I saw the stilt-dancers, with their gigantic strides, rigid, masked faces and waving draperies, stalking through the crowd. One afternoon, a dancer, cleverly disguised as a monkey, earned universal applause by his excellent imitation of the animal’s movements and gestures. The African is fond of laughing—perhaps because he knows that this reflex movement displays his magnificent teeth very becomingly, but on this occasion the gambols and somersaults of the mimic furnished a sufficient excuse for the echoing volleys of mirth.
MAKONDE HAMLET NEAR MAHUTA
