The Satires of A. Persius Flaccus Part 9

Aku, or Yoruba Horse

The Aku or Yoruba, is a small, well-built, generally sprightly animal, equal in size to the largest American-Indian pony. They are great travelers, and very enduring, and when broke to the shafts or traces will be excellent in harness as family hackneys.

Bornou, or Soudan Horse

The Bornou, a n.o.ble horse, from twelve to seventeen hands high, finely proportioned and symmetrically beautiful, and the type of the description of the sire of the great first English blood horse, G.o.dolphin, is exceedingly high-spirited, and fleet in the race or chase.

These n.o.ble animals abound in all this part of Africa; are bred in Bornou, where great attention is paid to the rearing of them, from whence they are taken by the Ishmaelitish traders, in exchange for their commodities, to Arabia; from thence they are sent to Europe as their own production; just as, a few years since, and probably up to the present day, mules were reared in great numbers in Mexico, purchased by Ohio and Kentucky muleteers, who sold them in the eastern and northern States of America, where for years the people supposed and really believed that they were bred in the western States, from whence they were purported to come. The fine Bornou, known as the Arabian horse, is a native of Africa, and raised in great numbers. Denham and Clapperton, as long ago as thirty-five or forty years, wrote, after visiting that part of Africa, "It is said that Bornou can muster fifteen thousand Shonaas in the field mounted. They are the greatest breeders of cattle in the country, and annually supply Soudan with from two to three thousand horses." These animals are used for riding, and well exercised, as the smallest boys are great riders, every day dashing at fearful speed along the roads and over the plains.

Game; Quadrupeds

Game is also very plentiful. Deer, antelopes, wild hogs, hedge hogs, porcupines, armadillos, squirrels, hares and rabbits, racc.o.o.ns and opossums, are among the most common quadruped game.

Wild Fowl

Wild turkey, wild ducks of various kinds, wild pigeons, ocpara (a very fine quail, much larger, fatter and plumper than the American pheasant), and the wild Guinea fowl, are among the most common biped game.

Markets, and Domestic Habits of the People

The markets are also worthy of note, and by their regular establishment and arrangement indicate to a certain extent the self-governing element and organized condition of the people. Every town has its regular market-place or general bazaar, and everything to be had in the town may be found, in more or less quant.i.ties, in these market-places. In describing the large cities through which Mr. Campbell my colleague, and I pa.s.sed, and those through which I pa.s.sed alone (none of which were under seventy thousand of a population) there were numerous smaller places of various sizes, from very small villages of one hundred to two thousand inhabitants, which were not mentioned in the enumerated towns.

Of these market-places I may mention that Illorin has five, the area of the largest comprising about ten acres, and the general market of Abbeokuta comprising more than twelve altogether, whilst that of Ijaye contains fully twenty acres or more, in which, like the markets generally, everything may be obtained. These markets are systematically regulated and orderly arranged, there being parts and places for everything, and "everything in their places," with officially appointed and excellent managing market-masters. The cattle department of the Abbeokuta and Ijaye markets, as well as Illorin are particularly attractive, there being as many as eight hundred sheep at one time in either of the two former, and horses and mules, as well as sheep and goats exhibited in the latter. When approaching the city of Ibaddan, I saw at a brook, where they had been let out of their cages or coops to drink and wash themselves, as many as three thousand pigeons and squabs going to the Ibaddan market.

The following description of the Illorin market, extracted from "Bowen's Central Africa," is truthful as far as it goes, and will give a general idea of markets in the great cities of Africa:

The most attractive object next to the curious old town itself--and it is always old--is the market.... Here the women sit and chat all day, from early morn till nine o'clock at night, to sell their various merchandise. Some of the sheds however, are occupied by barbers, who shave people's heads and faces; and by leather dressers, who make charms like Jewish phylacteries, and bridle reins, shoes, sandals, &c.; and by dozens and scores of men, who earn an honest living by dressing calabashes, and ornamenting them with various neat engravings.[6] ... The princ.i.p.al market hour, and proper time to see all the wonders, is in the evening.... As the shades of evening deepen, if the weather allow the market to continue and there is no moon, every woman lights her little lamp, and presently the market presents, to the distant observer, the beautiful appearance of innumerable stars.

The commodities sold in market are too tedious to mention, even if all could be remembered. Besides home productions, there are frequently imported articles from the four quarters of the globe.

Various kinds of meat, fowls, sheep, goats, dogs, rats, tortoises, eggs, fish, snails, yams, Indian corn, Guinea corn, sweet potatoes, sugar-cane, ground peas, onions, pepper, various vegetables, palm-nuts, oil, tree-b.u.t.ter, seeds, fruits, firewood, cotton in the seeds, spun cotton, domestic cloth, imported cloth, as calico, shirting, velvets, &c., gun-powder, guns, flints, knives, swords, paper, raw silk, Turkey-red thread, needles, ready-made clothing, as trowsers, caps, breeches shirts without sleeves, baskets, brooms, and no one knows what all.

This description was given by Mr. Bowen in his (in many respects) admirable work, published in 1857, after a missionary residence and tour of seven years, from 1850 to the time of writing, among the people of whom he wrote.

Native Houses and Cities

The houses are built of unburnt clay which hardens in the sun, covered with a beautiful thatch-long, peculiar gra.s.s--exhibiting only the walls to the streets, the doors all opening inside of these walls, which are entered by a gate or large doorway; the streets generally irregular and narrow, but frequently agreeably relieved by wider ones, or large, open s.p.a.ces or parks shaded with trees; all presenting a scene so romantic and antiquated in appearance, that you cannot resist the a.s.sociation with Babylon, Nineveh, Tyre, and Thebais. The buildings are heavy and substantial for their kind, many of which are very extensive. These towns and cities are all entrenched and walled; extending entirely around them; that of Abbeokuta with the new addition being twenty-seven miles, though the population is less by forty thousand than Ibaddan, which embraces about twenty-three miles.

Conjugal and Filial Affection. Activity of Children

Great affection exists between husband and wife, the women being mostly restricted to household work, trading, and gathering in the fields, and aiding in carrying, whilst the men princ.i.p.ally do the digging, planting, chopping, and other hard work. The children are also pa.s.sionately beloved by their parents, sometimes with too much indulgence. They are very active, and every day some of them of all sizes may be seen dashing along a road or over a plain at fearful speed on horseback. They are great vaulters and ankle-springers, and boys may frequently be seen to spring from the ground whirling twice--turning _two_ summersets--before lighting on their feet.

Population of Monrovia and the State

It may not be out of place here to add, that the population of the capital of Liberia is certainly not above three thousand, though they claim for it five thousand. And what has been said of the lack and seeming paucity of public improvement may be much extenuated when it is considered that the entire population of settlers only number at present some 15,000 souls; the native population being 250,000, or 300,000, as now incorporated.

Canine and Feline

As the enquiry has been frequently made of me as to "whether there are really dogs and cats in Africa," and if so, "whether they are like other dogs and cats"; and since a very intelligent American clergyman said to me that he had read it somewhere as a fact in natural history, that dogs in Africa could not bark; I simply here inform the curious enquirer, that there are dogs and cats plentifully in Africa, which "look like other dogs and cats," and a.s.sure them that the dogs bark, eat, and _bite_, just like "other dogs."

Slavery

A word about slavery. It is simply preposterous to talk about slavery, as that term is understood, either being legalized or existing in this part of Africa. It is nonsense. The system is a patriarchal one, there being no actual difference, socially, between the slave (called by their protector _son or daughter_) and the children of the person with whom they live. Such persons intermarry, and frequently become the heads of state: indeed, generally so, as I do not remember at present a king or chief with whom I became acquainted whose entire members of the household, from the lowest domestic to the highest official, did not sustain this relation to him, they calling him _baba_ or "father," and he treating them as children. And where this is not the case, it either arises from some innovation among them or those exceptional cases of despotism to be found in every country. Indeed, the term "slave" is unknown to them, only as it has been introduced among them by whites from Europe and America. So far from abject slavery, not even the old feudal system, as known to exist until comparatively recent in enlightened and Christian Europe, exists in this part of Africa.

Criminals and prisoners of war are _legally sold_ into slavery among themselves, just as was the custom in almost every civilized country in the world till very lately, when nothing but advanced intelligence and progressive Christianity among the people put a stop to it. There is no place, however, but Illorin, a _bona fide_ Mohammedan kingdom, where we ever witnessed any exhibition of these facts.

How Slaves Are Obtained

Slaves are abducted by marauding, kidnapping, depraved natives, who, like the organized bands and gangs of robbers in Europe and America, go through the country thieving and stealing helpless women and children, and men who may be overpowered by numbers. Whole villages in this way sometimes fall victims to these human monsters, especially when the strong young men are out in the fields at work, the old of both s.e.xes in such cases being put to death, whilst the young are hurried through some private way down to the slave factories usually kept by Europeans (generally Portuguese and Spaniards) and Americans, on some secluded part of the coast. And in no instances are the parents and relatives known to sell their own children or people into slavery, except, indeed, in cases of base depravity, and except such miserable despots as the kings of Dahomi and Ashantee; neither are the heads of countries known to sell their own people; but like the marauding kidnapper, obtain them by war on others.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] Lagos is an exception to this, the market commencing early in the day, and closing at night.

IX

DISEASES OF THIS PART OF AFRICA, TREATMENT, HYGIENE, ALIMENT

Diseases, Face of the Country, Spring Water

The diseases in this part of Africa are still more simple than those of Liberia; and even the _native fever_, for known causes, generally is much less severe. In Liberia, and all that part of Africa, the entire country (except the cleared farms in the republic and the limited rice-fields of the natives) is a dense, heavy-wooded, _primitive_ forest, rank with the growth and putrified vegetation of a thousand ages. But the entire Aku country, throughout the second plateau, presents a very different phase. Here, one is struck with the beautiful clear country which continually spreads out in every direction around; and (except the thickets or forests left as defences, ambuscades, and arbors of rest, rugged hilltops, and gullies), there is nothing but recent timber to be found growing on the lands. Timber in Africa is reproduced very speedily; hence may be found in some parts designedly left very heavy timber; but the greatest unbroken forest through which we pa.s.sed at any one time, of this description, never exceeded, I think, ten miles. All the spring (shallow wells generally) and other living water, as perennial streams, is both good-tasted, and if the constant use of running stream water be a fair test, I would decide as wholesome.

There are some good springs in Africa, and good water doubtless may everywhere be obtained by digging suitable wells.

To Keep Water Cool. Kind of Vessels

Drinking water in the tropics should always be kept in large vessels of crockery ware (usually termed "stone" and "earthen ware") and smaller bottle or decanter-shaped jugs or vessels for table convenience. If earthen or crockery ware cannot be obtained for table use, by all means use gla.s.s bottles--the more globular, or balloon-shaped, the better.

Cool Water

To make and keep water cool in any crockery or gla.s.s vessel, wrap around it a cloth or any kind, but especially _woolen_--flannel or blanket being the best--which keep simply _wet_, and the water in the vessel, by _evaporation_ from the _cloth_, can be made or kept almost ice cool.

To Keep the Cloth Wet. Apparatus