Kubera

“ Yes, I failed, Cobber said, the bitterness of complete defeat rankling in his heart. The man your people want for revenge is my chief. I cannot deliver him. I cannot!
When Cobber first came to our planet, the Great Kama's thoughts rang in his head, who welcomed him? Who crossed the barriers between our different forms of life? Who told Cobber the tragic history of our people? ”

“ The human remains of Kibuka, the war-god of the Baganda. If we cannot prove that the great god Mukasa himself was once a man, we have very tangible evidence that his brother the war-god Kibuka was so. For like the dead kings of Uganda, Kibuka was worshipped in a great conical hut resembling the huts which living people inhabit: like them, his spirit was supposed to enter from time to time into the body of his priest and to give oracles through him ”

“ South from Dembea is Kuara, a very mountainous province confining upon the Pagan blacks, or Shangalla, called Gongas and Guba, the Macrobii of the ancients. It is a very unwholesome province, but abounding in gold, not of its own produce, but that of its neighbourhood, these Pagans—Guba, Nuba, and Shangalla. Kuara signifies the sun, and Beja (that is Atbara, and the low parts of Sennaar, the country of the Shepherds, adjoining) signifies the moon, in the language of these Shangalla. ”

“ The Betta Curubaru, Buchanan continues, "live in poor huts near the villages, and the chief employment of the men is the cutting of timber, and making of baskets. With a sharp stick they also dig up spots of ground in the skirts of the forest, and sow them with rāgi (Eleusine Coracana) . The men watch at night the fields of the farmers, but they are not so dexterous at this as the Cad Curubaru. In this class, the Cutigas are women that prefer another man to their husband, or widows, who do not wish to relinquish carnal enjoyment. Their children are not considered as illegitimate." ”

“ What have the Free People to do with a man's cub?' Akela never even twitched his ears: all he said was: 'Look well, O Wolves! What have the Free People to do with the orders of any save the Free People? Look well!'
There was a chorus of deep growls, and a young wolf in his fourth year flung back Shere Khan's question to Akela: 'What have the Free People to do with a man's cub?' Now the Law of the Jungle lays down that if there is any dispute as to the right of a cub to be accepted by the Pack, he must be spoken for by at least two members of the Pack who are not his father and mother. ”

“ With his left hand he holds the patient’s wrist, and with his right drops from a leaf cup grains of rice on to the flame. As each grain drops, he calls out the name of different deities, and Kulbas, and, [339] whichever spirit is being named as a grain catches fire, is that causing the sickness. The Kudang is at once in communication with the deity or Kulba, who informs him what must be done for him, what sacrifice made before he will go away. There is, in some parts of the Saora country, another method by which a Kudang divines the cause of sickness. ”

“ Kuara was the native country of the Iteghè, or queen-regent, of Kasmati Eshté, Welled de l’Oul, Gueta, Eusebius, and Palambaras Mammo.
In the low country of Kuara, near to Sennaar, there is a settlement of Pagan blacks called Ganjar. They are mostly cavalry, and live entirely by hunting and plundering, the Arabs of Atbara and Fazuclo. ”

“ Kubbi duli may marry Kubbotha murriira, or Ippatha bilba. A man may have many wives of the names that are legally open to him, if he has the art or force to get them. But if he attempts to take one whose name is not allowed to one bearing his name in these rules, the tribe will kill him, or at least attack him with deadly purpose. The law is sacred; curses and spears fall upon him who dares to violate it.
From the above rules, it follows that generally the children of Kumbo are Kubbi and Kubbotha; those of Murri are Ippai and Ippatha; those of Kubbi are Kumbo and Budha ”

“ Where men like Wilson would reach for a gun to blast it, Cobber would reach out to it with understanding and friendship.
Be it a crystal that grew into pulsating life with every sun ray, or the flesh and blood of Earth, or the singing strings of Orion—it did not matter. Life alone made them brothers. It was this realization that enabled him to be a friend to Kama. It was this knowledge that made him feel the immensity of the tragic despair which engulfed his strange other-world companion.
Gingerly he adjusted the controls of the tank-car so that it would walk carefully through the village. ”

“ I should like to go and look after my people; they must all be wanting food."
"I shall go with you to show you your house. The tembe is in Kwihara, only an hour's walk from Tabora."
On leaving Kwikuru we crossed a low ridge, and soon saw Kwihara lying between two low ranges of hills, the northernmost of which was terminated westward by the round fortress-like hill of Zimbili. There was a cold glare of intense sunshine over the valley, probably the effect of an universal bleakness or an autumnal ripeness of the grass, unrelieved by any depth of colour to vary the universal sameness. ”

“ Hence it comes that it is held unwise to look behind when you hear a noise o’night in the bush; indeed, no cautious person, with sense in his head and strength in his legs, would dream of doing this unless caught off guard. In connection also with this turning the face being necessary to the working of the Fangaree charm, there is another charm that is worked under Kufong, according to several natives from its region—the hinterland of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ivory Coast—with whom I have associated when we have both been far from our respective homes away in South-West Africa. ”

“ Four stations lead from the Katonga River to Kibuga, the capital district of Uganda.
Kibuga is the residence of the great Mkámá or chief of Uganda. Concerning its population and peculiarities the Arabs must be allowed to tell their own tale. “Kibuga, the settlement, is not less than a day’s journey in length; the buildings are of cane and rattan. The sultan’s palace is at least a mile long, and the circular huts, neatly ranged in line, are surrounded by a strong fence which has only four gates. ”

“ The report of an unusually fine crop of kumera had often cost its cultivators and the whole tribe their lives. The news would spread about that Ngati so-and-so, living at so-and-so, had housed so many thousands of baskets of kumera. Exaggeration would multiply the truth by ten, the fertile land would be coveted, and very probably its owners, or rather its holders, would have to fight both for it and for their lives before the year was out. For this reason strangers were not welcome at the Maori harvest home. ”

“ In Nyasaland, Mr. Crawshay tells us, the Kudu is to be met with practically all over the Protectorate, especially in the rugged wooded highlands away from the haunts of men. In the Portuguese provinces on the coast, according to Peters, it appears to be likewise generally distributed. Proceeding to German East Africa, we find it also widely diffused there, extending westwards up to Lake Tanganyika, although, as Herr Matschie tells us, it is “nowhere common.” In British East Africa, Mr. F. J. Jackson informs us, the Kudu is [181] “a rare beast and only found in certain places.” ”

“ I am the great Cobra's daughter, and he made this garden for me to play in, and here I have played these many, many years all alone, for he lets me see no one, not even of our own subjects. I never saw any one before you. Speak, beautiful Prince—tell me how you came here, and who you are.' Seventee Bai answered, 'I am Seventee Rajah: have no fear—the stern Cobra is no more.' Then the Lady was joyful, when she heard that the Cobra who had tyrannised over her was dead, and she said her name was Hera Bai [the Diamond Lady] , and that she was possessor of all the treasures under the lake ”

“ Pollution is observed for ten days, and, on the eleventh day, sheep and fowls are killed, and a grand feast is given to the Kurumbas of the village. Before the feast commences, a leaf containing food is placed in a corner of the house, and worshipped. This is removed on the next morning,and placed over the roof, to be eaten by crows. If the deceased be a male, the glass bangles worn by his wife on her right arm are broken on the same day."
The patron saint of the Kurubas is Bīrappa or Bīradēvaru, and they will not ride on horses or ponies,as these are the vehicles of the god. ”

“ My Nāyakas do not recognise this temple, but have their place of worship in the heart of the jungle, where they make their puja (worship) under the direction of their own priest. The Nāyakas will not attend the funeral of a Kurumba; nor will they invite Kurumbas to the funeral of one of their own tribe. There is a marked variation in their modes of life. The Kurumba of this part lives in comparatively open country, in the belt of deciduous forest lying between the ghats proper and the foot of the Nīlgiri plateau. ”

“ This overscrupulous vigilance turned out to be unnecessary, for rumors of his approach had set the city agog with delight; and every morning a band of converts and refugees had posted themselves on a hill to watch his arrival. On this morning one of them, catching sight of the travelers as they trudged toward Koba, raised the rapturous shout: “Ho! he has come! he whom we have been looking for has come!” The marvelous news flew from tongue to tongue, and everybody rushed forth to Koba to greet the majestic guest. Even the children cried out: “Here is the Prophet! He is come! ”

“ The great men of Kupang stick the heads of those they have killed on poles; and set them on the tops of their houses; and these they esteem above all their other riches. The inferior sort bring the heads of those they kill into houses made for that purpose; of which there was one at the Indian village near the fort Concordia, almost full of heads, as I was told. ”

“ Kabba itself is much the same as any of the smaller towns in the Protectorate in appearance; a collection of clay-built thatched houses, clustered closely together, seeming to cling affectionately to the rocky hill-side above—the Ju-ju Hill, deeply reverenced, dearly loved, and jealously guarded by all. There is the usual crowded market, with low, dark booths or shelters lining the streets, where the ladies of commercial pursuits display the invariable collection of coloured cotton cloths, beads, miscellaneous food-stuffs, spices and capsicums. ”

“ It is too good to be true. One can hardly believe that such an attractive spot can be cursed with malignant attributes. Yet what is true of the East Africa Protectorate is even more true of Uganda. The contrast between appearance and reality is more striking and more harsh. Behind its glittering mask Entebbe wears a sinister aspect. These smiling islands which adorn and diversify the scenery of the lake supported a few years ago a large population. To-day they are desolate. Every white man seems to feel a sense of undefinable oppression. A cut will not heal ”

“ It is easy to see how this belief in the magical powers of the Kurumbas may have arisen, or, more probably, how its existence may have been maintained. The slopes of the hills on which the Kurumbas live are extremely malarious, and it must often have happened that a visit to a Kurumba village was followed by an attack of fever of a severe kind. We probably have here a good example of a vicious circle. Whenever two tribes of different degrees of culture live near one another, the members of the lower usually acquire the reputation of being sorcerers. ”

“ Somewhere south of the Great Thirst of the Sotik a river called the Narossara. Back of the river were high mountains, and down the river were benches dropping off by thousands of feet to the barren country of Lake Magahdi. Over some of this country ranged the Greater Kudu, easily the prize buck of East Africa. We intended to try for a Greater Kudu.
People laughed at us. The beast is extremely rare; it ranges over a wide area; it inhabits the thickest sort of cover in a sheer mountainous country; its senses are wonderfully acute ”

“ O Kifura! he is a slave and a prisoner, it is true; but even slaves and prisoners have feelings, and die like other men; and this man is a white man. Now when Kifura comes to-night to his home, people at the dance will say there is no chief like Kifura, who has brought a white man to Kitaka; and words will go to all that Kifura has a white man at Kitaka, and people will come from all places to see him, and say that Kifura is indeed a big chief. ”

“ In this table, the wide gap which separates the domesticated Kurubas of the Mysore Province and the adjacent Bellary district from the conspicuously platyrhine and short-statured Kurumbas and other jungle tribes, stands out prominently before any one who is accustomed to deal on a large scale with bodies and noses. ”

“ In some of the Cameroon languages it is lokoko, ngoko, ngok, and on the Congo it is nkogo, nsusu. On the Zambezi it is nkuku; so also throughout the tribes of Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika, and most dialects of South Africa. ↑ From this statement are excepted those tongues classified as “semi-Bantu.” In some languages of the Lower Niger and of the Gold Coast the word for “fowl” is generally traceable to a root kuba. This form kuba also enters the Cameroon region, where it exists alongside of -koko. Kuba may have arisen independently, or have been derived from the Bantu kuku. ”