Mapuche

“ Every man knew that Mapumulo was one of the most densely-populated districts in Natal. It was a purely Native district in which the ancient superstitions, habits and customs of the Zulus were still generally observed. The country was open and picturesque, with water and pasture abundant. The climate, moreover, was as fresh and exhilarating as that at Nkandhla. Such troops, e.g. Mackay's, as had not as yet clashed with the enemy, betrayed irrepressible eagerness to do so as soon as possible. ”

“ Tatoosh Island, off Cape Flattery, where the Makah 144Indians live, derives its name from Tootootche, the Nootka name for the "thunder-bird." The Makahs originally came from the west coast of Vancouver's Island. They deem themselves much superior to the tribes of the interior, because they go out on the ocean. Their home being on the rocky coast islands, they naturally look to the water to secure their living. Their chief business is to hunt the whale, they being the only Indians who engage in this pursuit. ”

“ Mapanda’s is, indeed, a sorry place: not a tree to give one shade, only a store or two, built of that unsightly corrugated iron so much beloved by the early colonists of South Africa, and a few daub huts. It is a paradise only for those who arrive weary and worn from the interior, and for the sportsman, affording him a pied-à-terre in the very midst of the land where ‘the deer and the antelope roam.’ It has, however, certain points on which it justly prides itself. ”

“ The Makooa, or Makooana, as they are often called, comprise a people consisting of a number of very powerful tribes, lying behind Mosambique, which extend northward as far as Melinda, and southward to the mouth of the river Zambezi, while hordes of the same nation are to be found in a south-west direction, perhaps almost to the neighbourhood of the Kaffers, bordering on the Cape of Good Hope. A late traveller in that settlement, mentions them as a tribe of Kaffers, and says the name is derived from the Arabic language, signifying "workers in iron." ”

“ When a native of Macoushi goes in quest of feathered game, or other birds, he seldom carries his bow and arrows. It is the blow-pipe he then uses. This extraordinary tube of death is, perhaps, one of the greatest natural curiosities in Guiana. It is not found in the country of Macoushi. Those Indians tell you that it grows to the south-west of them, in the wilds which extend betwixt them and the Rio Negro. The reed must grow to an amazing length, as the part the Indians use is from ten to eleven feet long, and no tapering can be perceived in it, one end being as thick as the other. ”

“ Machu Picchu the place is called, and its discoverer identifies it with the Tampu-Tocco of Inca tradition. One of its most striking features is a wall with three great windows; it contains cave-made graves and temples; bones of the more recent dead indicate that those who last dwelt in it were priestesses and priests; and it gives evidence of long occupation. The more ancient stonework is the more beautiful in execution, seeming to hark back to the masterpieces of Megalithic civilization ”

“ The locality is unfit for agriculture, being rocky and sterile, with an annual rainfall of 122 inches. And the reserve was all they needed, for the Makahs are bold and skillful fishermen and sailors, accustomed to venture thirty to fifty miles out to sea in their large canoes, and take the whale and halibut, while inshore they hunt the seal and sea-otter, and catch the salmon. They are a more sturdy, brave, and enterprising race than the natives of the Sound, more resembling the northern Indians. ”

“ The country we pass through is very uniform, “playas” and “tierras disbarrancandas,” and bits of pampa land, alternating with each other. There are no “barbaros” hereabouts, and I should say the lands from Exaltacion to Trinidad would be very valuable for emigration; climate splendid, land of excellent quality for the production of crops of sugar-cane, rice, maize, plantains, and every other description of tropical produce, together with capital pampas for cattle rearing. The bag to-day was splendid—two cabeça secas, a very large stork, called a “bata,” four ducks, and a pava ”

“ The language differs considerably from that on the Zambesi, but it is of the same family. The people are Makonde, and are on friendly terms with the Mabiha, and the Makoa, who live south of the Rovuma. When taking a walk up the slopes of the north bank, we found a great variety of trees we had seen nowhere else. Those usually met with far inland seem here to approach the coast. African ebony, generally named _mpingu_, is abundant within eight miles of the sea; it attains a larger size, and has more of the interior black wood than usual. ”

“ Mapanda’s own village consists of only eight bamboo huts, built close to a tall palm-tree; in the centre of the huts is a raised platform, on which the grass-woven granaries of the community are kept. Beneath, in the shade, lay idle inhabitants, and from it were hung the grass petticoats and jangling beads which they use in their dances. I entered one of the huts on all-fours for inspection, and as I was engaged in so doing a terrified woman inside tore down the frail wall and made a hurried exit at the other side. ”

“ You are now within the borders of Macoushia, inhabited by a different tribe of people called Macoushi Indians, uncommonly dexterous in the use of the blow-pipe and famous for their skill in preparing the deadly vegetable- poison commonly called wourali.
It is from this country that those beautiful paroquets named kessi-kessi are procured. Here the crystal mountains are found; and here the three different species of the ara are seen in great abundance. Here too grows the tree from which the gum-elastic is got: it is large and as tall as any in the forest. ”

“ This village is peopled by the Canichana tribe of the Beni Indians, and is about a couple of leagues from the eastern bank of the Mamoré. There must be some slightly raised land, sufficiently elevated to form a watershed, a short distance from this bank of the great river, for the Machupa and other affluents of the Itenez run in a north-easterly direction, but the elevations are not of sufficient size to be seen as hills. ”

“ The Makoa are known by a cicatrice in the forehead shaped like the new moon with the horns turned downwards. The tribe possesses all the country west of Mosambique; and they will not allow any of the Portuguese to pass into their country more than two hours' distance from the fort. A hill some ten or twelve miles distant, called Pau, has been visited during the present generation only by one Portuguese and one English officer, and this visit was accomplished only by the influence of the private friendship of a chief for this Portuguese gentleman. ”

“ The only really tall man is old Makachu, the headman of the neighbouring village, and at the same time the chief of one of the two clans into which the Wangoni living here are divided. I measured Makachu and found his height to be a fraction under six feet. If this stature makes him look like Saul among his people, it is obvious how very poorly developed the rest of them must be. Indeed the old men of the tribe, as they drag themselves up to the baraza to talk to me, seem quite emaciated with chronic underfeeding; and the rising generation does not promise much better. ”

“ It will, however, serve to convince the reader of the superior intelligence of the Apache Indians as compared with nearly all other tribes of American savages, while it places them at the head of races purely nomadic.
Many of the African, Australian, North and South American tribes, and those who inhabit the Pacific Oceanica, together with several of Asia, cannot count beyond ten, but the Apaches count ten thousand with as much regularity as we do. They even make use of the decimal sequences. With us the number one has no correlative. ”

“ Ten Apaches will undertake a venture which will stagger the courage and nerve of a hundred Yurnas, Pimos or Navajoes, although the last mentioned tribe is an undoubted branch of the Apache race, as will be shown in a subsequent chapter. The cunning of the Apache is only equaled by his skill and the audacity with which he executes his projects, and every success is chuckled over with undissembled gusto by the whole tribe, the actors only assuming an unconcerned air, as if wholly disconnected with the matter. ”

“ The mighty boles lay like broken matches, across one another in all directions; a lamentable sight indeed to an economical European eye. With great difficulty we scrambled on; the ground became drier; here and there we stepped into heaps of ashes, and then a glance round revealed the true state of the case. Even here, it is man who will not leave nature in peace. The Makonde plateau, with its area of 6,000 square miles, might surely be expected to afford subsistence for a mere trifle of 80,000 or 90,000 natives with their simple wants. ”

“ The lands are beautifully hedged in by the line of forest trees. Man has set before him here the hedging and ditching of nature. This pampa looks like a great pasture-field, enclosed by the Mamoré ditch on the south, and the Securé on the north. ”

“ But, even if they also have another distinct and more primitive ancestry of their own, not associated with the Papuo-Melanesian types, or even with the pure Papuan types, found on the coast and in the plains, one would imagine that contact with these types would have caused the Mafulu people to learn something of the more advanced art which these other peoples display and that we should not have to record a sudden drop from artistic designs embodying curves and natural imitative art to a system confined to straight lines, zig-zags, and spots. ”

“ Richarte told us that they had been living here four years. It seems probable that, owing to its inaccessibility, the canyon had been unoccupied for several centuries, but with the completion of the new government road settlers began once more to occupy this region. In time somebody clambered up the precipices and found on the slopes of Machu Page 319Picchu, at an elevation of 9000 feet above the sea, an abundance of rich soil conveniently situated on artificial terraces, in a fine climate. ”

“ MAKONDE MAN WITH KELOID PATTERNS
Human heads, too, are found among these carvings, and are executed with the same skill in technique. Most of them have the hair dressed in a long pig-tail, and the face still more cicatrized than the Makonde; these, I learn, represent members of the Mavia tribe. I cannot discover whether they are the work of local artists, or of the Mavia themselves. The vendors either give no answer at all when asked or say, as all natives do when ignorant of the origin of an article, “mshenzi,” that is to say, “some unknown person away at the back of the bush.” ”

“ Machocha-El was set by the sun to watch the caves, and many inhabitants of the caves were killed by the sun, if they came out in the day time; they could only come out at night to seek for food. (Dangleria)
This either alludes to the great heat of the sun in Africa and the tropics, or to a dependance of the Lunar or Cave men upon the Solar men. Machocha has some affinities in the South American tribes; Machicuys of Tucumen, Machacalis of Brazil, Chaehas of Perou, Chanchones of Quixos &c.
24th Event. Some men having dared to come in the day time, were changed into stones by the sun ”

“ The Makombwé are certainly a magnificent race of men, hardy and active in their habits, and well fed, as the result of their brave exploits; every muscle is well developed, and though not so tall as some tribes, their figures are compact and finely proportioned: being a family occupation it has no doubt helped in the production of fine physical development. Though all the people among whom they sojourn would like the profits they secure by the flesh and curved tusks, and no game is preserved, I have met with no competitors to them except the Wayeiye of Lake Ngami and adjacent rivers. ”

“ So, having been joined by Taylor, the Native Commissioner, we rode off across the veldt towards the Matopos, some six miles distant from the fort. On arriving at Mapisa’s Kraal, a friendly chief, we off–saddled our horses (but never let our guns out of our hands, for even friendlies are not to be too blindly trusted) , and, taking two or three of his scouts with us, we climbed up into some koppies which commanded a view of the enemy’s position, and of the Matopos generally. Awful country, a weird, jumbled mass of grey granite boulders thickly interspersed with bush, and great jagged mountains. ”

“ He also promised to take us to the island of Mancagua, [3] which was eight leagues from this island. We set sail with the Indian, and when we reached Macagua I sent him and three others, who went with him to their village in a canoe, after giving them some clothes. He was quite well satisfied, according to his own words, and became our friend.
This Macagua, although small, was once a thickly-populated island. The Castilians who anchored there were wont to be kindly received. Now the island is greatly changed from former days, being quite depopulated—for it contains less than twenty Indians ”

“ The population seemed to consist chiefly of semi-civilised Indians, living as usual in half-finished mud hovels. The streets were irregularly laid out and overrun with weeds and bushes swarming with "mocuim," a very minute scarlet acarus, which sweeps off to one's clothes in passing, and attaching itself in great numbers to the skin causes a most disagreeable itching. The few whites and better class of mameluco residents live in more substantial dwellings, white-washed and tiled. ”