Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

the cows, the sheep, the goats and other animals, not to speak of arms, of furniture, of grain, tobacco and pipes. But he that was white, not caring for sleep, arose so soon as he saw the two others buried in its embrace, and seizing upon the gold, the silver, and the most precious effects, fled with them for the country now inhabited by the Europeans. The Moor, upon awaking, perceived the larceny, and determined, on the spot, to follow the bad example. He appropriated the tapestries, with the other movables, placed them upon the backs of the horses and camels, and made off, in like manner, with the white. The Negro, who had the misfortune to be the last to awaken, was confounded at the treachery of his brothers. There remained to him but two pieces of cotton goods, some pipes, a little tobacco and the millet. After abandoning himself for a while to his grief, he took a pipe and thought no more of pursuit or vengeance; but, at the same time, resolved, as the best means of reprisal, to lose no occasion for stealing, in his turn. This resolution he never failed to keep so long as he lived, and his example has become the rule for his posterity; and, therefore, to this day, he has continued the same practice.— (Abrégé des Voyages, tom. 3, p. 137.)

Could Theophrastus or La Bruyere have sketched a picture of life more characteristic, or by any process exhibit more clearly and briefly the difference of races? How well is the vigilant, active white man, contrasted with the drowsy, slothful black man, while the copper-coloured race holds the intermediate ground between them. As the monkeys with them are also great thieves, the negroes believe them to be something of their own kind, of a race damned, and who could talk, no doubt, if their malignity did not tie up their tongues. One species, says Bosman, they call "petits hommes barbut, ou de monkeys, which signifies petits moines (little monks). Their skins are used for fetische." Park, speaking of the Mandingoes, says " three-fourths of the negroes are slaves, without any hope of ever ceasing to be otherwise." (Abrégé des Voyages, tom. 31, p. 16.) This concurs with the earliest account of them. They will rejoice, say

travellers, in the midst of death, and if they saw their country in flames they would not cease their dance or song. They are not capable of any sentiment of humanity or affection. Scarcely would one of them take the trouble to give another a drink of water if he were dying and asked for it. Their wives and children are the first to abandon them on such occasions. There are many negroes, we are told, who profess to believe in two gods; the one white, whom they call Jangu-mon, or the good man. They regard him as the special god of the Europeans. The other black, whom they call, after the Portuguese, demonio or devil, and whom they believe to be very bad, taking pleasure only in doing evil. They tremble at his name. He is their evil genius, a sort of Manicheism of good and evil!

Their ideas of creation are that God made the whites and the blacks, and that, after he had considered his work, he made them two presents, to wit: gold and the knowledge of the arts. The negroes having the first liberty of choosing, decided for the gold, and left to the whites the arts and the knowledge of writing and reading. God, they say, assented to the choice, but irritated at the folly and avarice of the blacks, declared that they should be forever the slaves of the whites. "This fable," says the author," has more of good sense than that we have just reported of the division between the three brothers, and would do honour to the most enlightened people.”—(Abrégé des Voyages, tom. 3, p. 155.)

The word Feitisso, or Fetiche, or Fetish, is Portuguese in origin, and signifies charm or amulet. In African, it is Bossum or Bosum, which means God. A chicken, a fish-bone, a stone, a feather, the skull of a monkey, the least bagatelle, becomes a Fetiche. Every negro has one upon his person, in his canoe, or in his cabin, and it passes as an heritage. They buy them at high prices from their priests. They are affixed to their doors, as a security to their houses against the intrusion of the devil and his imps, and against witchcraft. So, we have seen among superstitious negroes in America, old horse shoes nailed over doors with the same object. They have their public and private fetiches. They some

times become national deities. It is felony to kill a fetiche fish or bird, insect or reptile.

Left to themselves in infancy, they abandon themselves to continued idleness. Neglected by their families, they run in troops about the fields, or in their public places, and roll about and wallow in the dirt and mud like so many pigs. No connections, no relations in life, are sacred, or even respected. Neither that of father, nor mother, nor parent, nor child, nor husband, nor any other, beyond the authority which the king has over all, and the noble over his wives and slaves, and the man generally over the woman. Blood, as wine with us, is their favourite and most honoured drink. To inflict a wound, or even death, is an imperial luxury, and reserved for the nobility and princes. A common practice of the African, is to place his knees upon the breast of a captured enemy, and, after a gash with a knife, to tear out the lower jaw-bone while the victim is yet alive, and to suffer him thus to linger and die. An inhabitant of Commendo assured Barbot, that he himself had treated thus thirty-three men in one battle; and he dwelt with satanic pleasure upon the horrid mode in which he performed the operation. It was delightful to recount. They cut open pregnant women, and tear out the infants from their wombs. The child they crush to death by beating it with the head of its mother. They inflict mortal wounds upon inoffending people, in the wildest caprice, and catch the blood as it runs or spirts from the wound, and drink it in the presence of the victim, while yet alive and suffering. If they have no enemy upon whom they can thus indulge their diabolical passions, they turn their rage upon their own subjects, or even their own families. While Bosman paid a visit to a prince or king, named Auta, on the Gold Coast, amidst their amusements, a negro having touched a part of the dress of one of the king's wives, he killed him and took a long draught of his blood. A little before this performance, for a mere trifle, he cut off the hand of one of his wives, and, the better to enjoy his cruelty, made her comb his head with the other hand and dress his hair. They hate each other to such a degree that their battles are simple butcheries; and those

that survive, having no other mode left for glutting their vengeance, surfeit themselves by feasting upon the flesh of their dead enemies, and taking their skulls and jaw-bones to ornament their drums and portals, if such a word can be applied in connection with the dog-kennels which they inhabit. They have but one kind of industry-they are all chevaliers d'industrie. They all pick and steal, according to the obligation of the legend.

66

When the Portuguese settled on the African coast, the use of maize, or Indian corn, was not known to them. It was introduced, says La Harpe, on the Gold Coast by the Portuguese, from the Island of St. Thomas.—(Abrégé des Voyages, tom. 3, p. 181.) It has multiplied and is now one of their greatest blessings. It was spread all over the country in Snelgrave's time. The Portuguese called it milho-grande, or large millet; the Italians, Turkey corn; and the French, Spanish corn. The true millet, is the Portuguese milho-piqueno, or little millet; and this word piqueno is that from whence our negroes in America call their little children pickaninny. So their expression, " me no sabby,” (I do not know,) is from the Spanish, "yo no saber." In this country the men have wool and the sheep hair. They have herds of wives, and Bosman saw a negro who boasted of having more than two hundred. Another, with a sigh, complained that he had but seventy, having lost an equal number. But we will see, by and bye, that others had them by thousands. Armies are actually raised, composed entirely of sons, and sons and slaves. Sometimes a family is composed of two thousand members, not counting daughters, besides the dead. Their riches consist in the multitude of their wives and children. Reserving a few of the elder males, the rest of the children are sold as slaves. A common habit is to emasculate them in part, to diminish the breed and save food. The king of the small country of Juida alone, sold one thousand slaves in open market every month.-(p. 239.) Upon the death of the father, the eldest son inherits all his wives, whom he immediately receives as his own wives, his mother alone being excepted. She becomes, herself, a mistress, and is entitled to a separate house. Gaming is their great passion.

They will bet all they possess, and, after losing all their property, will bet their wives, their children, and finish even with themselves. They consider the white man's God too much elevated above them to be occupied with their wants, and that, therefore, he has entrusted them to the government of the Fetiche.-(p. 242.) Having some idea of the white man's God, they still think that their lot is to serve the devil; and they do so most ambitiously.

A serpent constitutes one of their greatest Fetiches. Temples are built in his honour. Should black or white happen to kill him, though by accident or mistake, the whole nation is enraged; and, if the offender be a negro, he is killed on the spot. If a white man, he escapes their fury only at the cost of a round penalty in money. Should the serpent take possession of your bed, you must give it up to him. So, also, of your table, though your dinner be upon it. Whole droves of hogs are knocked on the head as criminals, should they happen to eat up one of these reptile deities. At Sabi, they maintain the Cathedral Temple to this Serpent God; and the father, the fattest and largest of snakes, enjoys that distinction. The negro priests manage to turn a profitable penny by penances exacted of the superstitious; and tricks are played by them that might astonish even the Misses Fox, and other notable rapping geniuses of our times. We recommend to these geniuses particularly to read the full details given to us by our author, (in order to the improvement of their own arts,) to be found in Abrégé des Voyages, tom. 3, p. 255. Those who are initiated in the priesthood, are threatened with death if they reveal the secrets of their art and mysteries. A funny case of detection is mentioned, which the reader must look for in the original. The terror of the people, and a discreet fear of injuries which may be inflicted by him, gives to the high priest a power equal to that of their kings. He, too, has his table-turnings; spiritual rappings, celestial telegraphs, and a sufficiently credulous circle of believing citizens. Frequently, applications are made to the Fetiches for counsel or aid in emergencies. A present of rum and gold dust is very conciliatory. The priest, after a time, is wrought upon like a sibyl; shakes

« AnteriorContinuar »