[26]. The accents are reproduced from Dr. Weule’s transcript. The accent never in Yao falls on the last syllable but sometimes, in singing, the accent appears to be displaced, or possibly the rising intonation has been confused with the accent.—[Tr.]
[27]. A subsequent passage in which almost the same description is given must be taken with the above as somewhat qualifying it. It must be admitted that Dr. Weule’s statements, as they stand here, are certainly misleading, and convey an exaggerated impression of universal neglect and misery among African babies. It is true that there is much to be done, by women missionaries and others, in the way of inculcating sound hygienic principles (though not more, perhaps, than in London!)—but the appalling state of things described is by no means universal, and it must be remembered that the tribes of the Makonde plateau had been harassed by slavers and hunted from place to place even beyond the wont of Africans in general.—[Tr.]
[28]. This crowing serpent is well known by hearsay throughout Nyasaland. It is said to have a red crest and to have “killed very many people in the Angoni country” (Scott’s Dictionary, s.v., Kasongo). The natives who told me about it had never seen it themselves, but had heard about it from hunters; they described its habit of darting down from trees, and added that the said hunters circumvented it by making the foremost man of the party carry a pot full of fire (others say very hot gruel or scalding bran-mash) on his head, into which the snake descends and perishes. The Anyanja say ingolira koh—“It cries koh!” (they render the sound of a cock’s crow as kokololiko). Mr. Richard Crawshay assured me that the songo was a real and not a mythical snake; he had killed one—but it had no red crest, and he had not heard its voice. The late Bishop Maples, however, did, on one occasion, hear a “large snake with a serrated comb” crow like a cock while travelling between Masasi and the Rovuma in 1877.—[Tr.]
[29]. Apparently the same word as the Chinyanja chindapi, meaning either a proverb, a short story, or a riddle. The Rev. H. B. Barnes says that in a “riddle contest” the propounder of the enigma says “Chindapi!” and the rest of the company “Chijija” (let it come!) Similar formulas appear to be in use throughout Bantu Africa.—[Tr.]
[30]. Both words mean “this,” but are of different classes. “Ichi, ichi” (this, this), is a similar riddle recorded at Blantyre, to which the answer is “a shadow.” In fact, I am indebted to Dr. Weule for the explanation, having (no doubt through failing to notice the accompanying gestures) abandoned it as a hopeless puzzle.—[Tr.]
[31]. This riddle also I obtained at Blantyre, in the Chinyanja language, but from a Yao girl, thus: “Ambuye naona alikwenda m’njira natenga ufa” (“I saw my master walking on the road and he was carrying flour”).—[Tr.]
[32]. This is given, in a slightly different form, in Bishop Steere’s Collections for a Handbook of the Yao language (p. 105): “Apitako tusimanako” (“Where they pass, where we meet”).—[Tr.]
[32a]. This form shows that the name is really Nsulila, though the n is often not heard, and may be really dropped, in speaking.—[Tr.]
[33]. This is not necessarily implied by the use of Che or Ku. Every Yao uses these prefixes of himself and his neighbours; even small children are Kuluponje or Chendilijika, etc.—[Tr.]
[34]. One would expect chilwele chachijinji, but possibly there is some mistake in transcription.—[Tr.]