Niam-Niam

“ The bearing of the Niam-niam is always chivalrous as becomes a people devoted to war and to the chase, exhibiting a very strong contrast to the unpolished nonchalance of the Bongo, the Mittoo, and even of the finicking Arabians. ”

“ The people are great believers in magic. The best shots, when they have killed an unusual number of antelopes or buffaloes, are credited with having charmed roots in their possession. The Niam-Niam country is important as being the water-shed between the Nile and the rivers which run westward into the Congo, the Welle79 being the largest, which runs nearly parallel with the recently discovered Aruwimi. The Niam-Niam are great ivory traders and take copper, cloth, or trinkets at a cheap figure for this valuable ware. ”

“ After a while we reached a second brook beside the farmsteads [Pg 459] of Kulenjo, which are the first settlements of the Niam-niam subject to the immediate control of Aboo Sammat. The possessions of each separate Niam-niam are parted from each other, just in the same way as the territories of the different tribes, by desolate intervals void of any residents whatever, nominally for the purpose of security, so that the inhabitants may by placing out a watch easily guard against any sudden attack. ”

“ It was indeed a period of transition from the age of tradition to that of positive knowledge, but I have no hesitation in asserting that these Niam-niam, apart from some specialities which will always appertain to the human race so long as it hangs unconsciously upon the breast of its great mother Nature, are men of like passions with ourselves, equally subject to the same sentiments of grief and joy. I have interchanged with them many a jest, and I have participated in their child-like sports, enlivened by the animating beating of their war-drums or by the simple strains of their mandolins. ”

“ No regular towns or villages exist throughout the Niam-niam country. The huts, grouped into little hamlets, are scattered about the cultivated districts, which are separated from one another by large tracts of wilderness many miles in extent. The residence of a prince differs in no respect from that of ordinary subjects, except in the larger number of huts provided for himself and his wives. The hareem collectively is called a “bodimoh.” [5]
Niam-niam Granary. ”

“ Birds are very fond of it, and so approved is it as a bait that I not unfrequently found it growing beside the huts, where it was planted for this particular purpose.
NIAM-NIAM HANDICRAFT.
The handicraft of the Niam-niam exhibits itself chiefly in ironwork, pottery, wood carving, domestic architecture, and basket-work; of leather-dressing they know no more than others in this part of Central Africa. Their earthenware vessels may be described as of blameless symmetry. They make water-flasks of an enormous size, and manufacture pretty little drinking-cups. ”

“ On their shoulders they also carry a sort of pouch filled with provisions, for, acting up to his reputation as a large eater, the Niam-Niam never stirs away from his home without a stock of eatables. That portion of the body which is uncovered is ornamented by a variety of tattooed patterns, and sometimes, in addition, by necklets of wood or iron, or formed from the teeth of animals. The head is bare, except in the case of the chiefs, who, in spite of the heat, wear a species of fur hood. ”

“ At length towards noon we arrived at the head-quarters of the chieftain, a residence which, in the language of the country, is called his “mbanga.”
I found myself at once encircled by the natives, who came streaming in to see for themselves the white man of whom [Pg 440] already they had heard so much. It was my own first opportunity of seeing the Niam-niam in the reality of their natural life. As became a people with whom hunting is a prominent feature in their pursuits, they were girded with skins. ”

“ And so Oisín said to Niam, "Let me, for a short while, return to the land of Erinn, that I may see there my friends and kin and tell them of the glory and joy that are mine in the Land of Youth." But Niam wept and laid her white arms about his neck, entreating him to think no more of the sad world where all men live and move under a canopy of death, and where summer is slain by winter, and youth by old age, and where love itself, if it die not by falsehood and wrong, perishes many a time of too complete a joy. ”

“ The body of the Niam-niam is ordinarily inclined to be fat, but it does not commonly exhibit much muscular strength. The average height does not exceed that of Europeans, a stature of 5 feet 101⁄2 inches being the tallest that I measured. The upper part of the figure is long in proportion to the legs, and this peculiarity gives a strange character to their movements, although it does not impede their agility in their war dances.
The skin in colour is in no way remarkable. Like that of the Bongo, it may be compared to the dull hue of a cake of chocolate. ”

“ Notwithstanding the general warlike spirit displayed by the Niam-niam, it is a very singular fact that the chieftains very rarely lead their own people into actual engagement, but are accustomed, in anxious suspense, to linger about the environs of the “mbanga,” ready, in the event of tidings of defeat, to decamp with their wives and treasures into the most inaccessible swamps, or to betake themselves for concealment to the long grass of the steppes. ”

“ Niam-niam, however, are not employed as bearers upon the expeditions, and upon the whole are less oppressed and are treated with more consideration than the Bongo. At present they can hardly comprehend their state of subjection, and this indefinite feeling is fostered at first by leniency on the part of the oppressors, that they may smooth the way for severer measures in the future.
The power of any native chiefs among such a people of unsettled habits and unpliant temper as the Niam-niam—​a people delighting in the chase—​is necessarily at present very limited ”

“ Their ugliness does not, however, prevent their being loved, since in no other part of Africa can such good husbands be found as the Niam-Niam, who, notwithstanding that polygamy is in vogue amongst them, as amongst all the contiguous tribes, have a real affection for their wives. It must also be recorded that the women are remarkable for their modesty, and on this point we may be allowed to call Schweinfurth to witness. "The social position of the Niam-Niam women," says the German traveller, "differs materially from what is found amongst other heathen negroes in Africa. ”

“ Schweinfurth’s journey into Niam-Niam was through a prairie land covered with the tallest grasses he had yet seen in Africa. The people are given to cattle-raising and the chase. They are not of stalwart size, and their color is dark-brown rather than black. What they lack in stature they make up in athletic qualities. They took a keen interest in showing the traveler their sights, and in the evening regaled his camp with music, dispensed by a grotesque singer, who accompanied his attenuated voice with a local guitar of thin, jingling sound. ”

“ An expert Niam-niam, by jumping up for a moment, can protect his feet from the flying missiles of his adversary. Bows and arrows, which, as handled by the Bongo, give them a certain advantage, are not in common use among the Niam-niam, who possess a peculiar weapon of attack in their singular knives, that have blades like sickles. The Monbuttoo, who are far more skilful smiths than the Niam-niam, supply them with most of these weapons, receiving [Pg 10] in return a heavy kind of lance, that is adapted for the elephant and buffalo chase. ”

“ Further to the east in the African continent, the Niam-Niam and the neighboring tribes illustrate the endless variety of form of which the ordeal is susceptible. These savages resort to various kinds of divination which are equally employed as a guidance for the future in all important undertakings, and as means to discover the guilt or the innocence of those accused of crime. The principal of these is the borru, in which two polished pieces of damma wood are rubbed together, after being moistened with a few drops of water. If they glide easily on each other the sign is favorable ”

“ The name Niam-niam [2] is borrowed from the dialect of the Dinka, and means “eaters,” or rather “great eaters,” manifestly betokening a reference to the cannibal propensities of the people. This designation has been so universally incorporated into the Arabic of the Soudan, that it seems unadvisable to substitute for it the word “Zandey,” the name by which the people are known amongst themselves. ”

“ Amongst the hundreds of Bongo and Mittoo, with whom the Dinka were associated as drovers, these creatures stood out like beings of another world; here were genuine, unmistakeable Niam-niam, neither circumcised nor crop-headed, such as other travellers have seen either in Khartoom or in the Seribas; here they were, presenting all the features of wildness which the most vivid Oriental imagination could conceive; a people of a marked and most distinct nationality, and that in Africa and amongst Africans is saying much. ”

“ Although I had repeatedly been astonished at witnessing the war-dances of the Niam-niam, I confess that my amazement was greater than ever when I looked upon the exhibition which the Pygmy afforded. In spite of his large, bloated belly and short bandy legs—​in spite of his age, which, by the way, was considerable—​Adimokoo’s agility was perfectly marvellous, and I could not help wondering whether cranes would ever be likely to contend with such creatures. ”

“ No traveller could possibly find himself for the first time surrounded by a group of true Niam-niam without being almost forced to confess that all he had hitherto witnessed amongst the various races of Africa was comparatively tame and uninteresting, so remarkable is the aspect of this savage people. ”

“ I should congratulate a company that could get a party of refractory bearers to accomplish more than a dozen leagues a day, where they would have to cross a dozen brooks and marshes, many of them taking half an hour to accomplish. Not a word, moreover, does he utter about the strange people who reside to the south of the Niam-niam. At Indimma, the population is a very intermingled race, the Niam-niam scarcely making up one-half, and in Keefa’s region scarcely making up a minority. ”

“ The comparison might be suggested that just as [Pg 2] at the present day, in civilised Europe, questions concerning the descent of men from apes form a subject of ordinary conversation, so at that time in the Soudan did the Niam-niam (under the supposition that they were graced with tails) serve as common ground for all ideas that pertained to the origin of man. ”

“ The entire region was rich in corn, especially in sorghum. Several hundred bearers laden with it arrived during my stay at the Seriba, and I took the opportunity of laying in a stock for myself; it is difficult to obtain sorghum in the Niam-niam countries, and it was long since I had had grain of such a superior quality.
All the Niam-niam of whom I was able to make inquiries assured me that the natives of Mundo are a distinct people, differing from themselves both in habits and in dialect ”

“ The offering was duly laid at Mohammed’s feet as a tribute, betokening the respect and friendship of the behnky. Throughout the whole of Central Africa the skin of the leopard is deemed a suitable adornment for persons of princely rank, and nowhere is it more readily admitted amongst the insignia of royalty than with the Niam-niam. ”

“ TUHAMY’S SERIBA.
Our arrival made no little stir among the natives, who had received no intelligence of the presence of a white man in that part of the country, and at first they were inclined to suspect that we must have come with hostile intentions. My Niam-niam, however, soon reassured them, and induced them to provide us with guides for our route. They led us out in an easterly direction, passing through a country that was fairly cultivated, and along which the numbers of guinea-fowl were so large that they kept me fully employed during the march. ”

“ To the west of these tribes, in the basin of the Ubangi-Welle, we find a compact group of several peoples who, under various names, have however a certain family likeness in their physical type, manners and customs, and language. These are, in the first place, the Niam-Niam or Zandeh, who with their congeners the Banja dwell to the north of the Welle. They extend beyond the ridge which divides this river from the White Nile, in the upper valleys of the Sere, the Jubé, and other tributaries of the great river. ”

“ The prolonged intercourse that has existed between the two people has done a great deal towards obliterating the nationality and peculiar customs of the Sehre and to assimilate them to the Niam-niam; but to a large extent they retain their own dialect, which, as might be expected, has many points of resemblance with the Zandey. Many of the Sehre are quite accustomed to the Zandey tongue and speak it fluently. The long hair is precisely like what is found among the Niam-niam, and the mode of arranging it in tufts and twists is identical. Their complexion is a dark chocolate colour. ”

“ In hunting, the Niam-niam employ very much the same contrivances of traps, pits, and snares as the Bongo; but their battues for securing the larger animals are conducted both more systematically and on a more extensive scale.
In close proximity to each separate group of hamlets, and more frequently than not at the threshold of the abodes of the local chieftains known as the “borrumbanga,” or “chief court,” there is always a huge wooden kettledrum, made of a hollow stem mounted upon four feet. ”