The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

The effect of this has been, that a book in the Vey tongue has been deciphered by an English scholar, and that several Vey natives, of both sexes can read and write. The alphabet itself is a _syllabarium_; _i.e._ there is a separate sign or letter, for the different _syllables_ of which a word consists--not for the different elementary sounds. The darker individuals of the group before us have furnished a text upon which a general sketch of the negro population of Western Africa has been the commentary. Let us now turn to the men of the lighter complexion, and the less prominent lips. They are _Fellatas_, _Fellatahs_, or _Falatiya_. Sometimes they are called _Fellatiya Arabs_; but they have nothing to do with the Arab of Arabia except so far as they are Mahometans in creed, and somewhat light-complexioned in respect to their colour. The metropolis of the Fellatas is Sakkatu, visited by Clapperton, from whom the following remarkable history is taken:--Towards the end of the last century a vast number of wandering pastoral tribes spread over that part of Central Africa, which is called _Sudania_--underwent a change in respect to the social and political organisation, which Prichard compares with that of the Arabs at the time of Mahomet. Many--but not all--of them embraced Mahometanism, and that with more than ordinary zeal and devotion. They visited the more civilised parts of Barbary, they performed pilgrimages to Mecca, they recognised in one of their sheiks, called Danfodio, a prophet with a mission, to preach, to convert, to conquer. Under his inspiration they attacked the pagan population of the countries around--Guber to the north, and Kubbi to the south, Zamfra, Kashna, and parts of the Houssa country to the east. Their war-cry was _Allah Akbar_; their robes and flags white, emblematic of their purity. Kano was conquered without a blow, so was Yaouri, so was the town of Eyo or Katunga on the Niger, so was part of the Nufi or Tapua country--even the frontier of Bornou was violated. Danfodio’s death, which took place in 1818, was preceded by fits of religious madness; not, however, before he had consolidated a great Fellatah kingdom, and become the terror to the states around. It was in vain that a portion of his conquests revolted. The present Sultan of Sakkatu, Mohammed Bello, is the most powerful prince of Africa, whether pagan or Mahometan. Most of these Fellatas are Mahometans, some retaining their original paganism; but whether pagan or Mahometan, they are still the same people. Their features are the same, their pastoral habits the same, their language the same. This is one of the most isolated tongues of Africa; with plenty of miscellaneous, but no very definite or special affinities. In _Borgho_, _i. e._ in the parts about Boussa, and Wawa, visited by Lander, there are two populations, one speaking a language akin to the _Yoruba_, one akin to the Fellatah; so that there Fellata offsets in Borgho. But here, according to Lander, they have been in the country from time immemorial. Here, too, they hold themselves as a separate people from the Fellatas of Sakkatu, dominant and powerful as that branch is, and respectable as would be the connexion. Such, at least, is Lander’s statement. Their name, too, undergoes a slight modification, and is _Filani_. They have neither idea nor tradition as to the origin--not at least the _Filani_ of Borgho. All this looks as if Borgho were the original country of the Fellata stock, the starting-point from which they spread themselves abroad, If so, their movement must have been from south to north. But we have yet to hear the whole of their history. Under the names of _Fula_, _Fulahs_, _Foule_ or _Peule_, they appear elsewhere. Where?--As far north as the Wolof (or Jolof) country--as far north as the parts between the Senegal and the desert--as far north as 17 N. L. Here between Galam and Kayor is a vast Fula district--the district of the Fulas of the Siratik. There on the south bank of the river lie the Fulas of Foutatorro, an elevated tract of land forming the watershed to the Senegal and the Gambia. Thirdly, far in the interior, on the high ground over which Park passed from the drainage of the Senegal to that of the Niger, is a Fula-_du_, or country of the Fulas, between Bambuk and Bambarra. Fourthly, there are the Fulas to the south of Bammakoo, in the parts called Wasselah, on the Niger itself. Fifthly, in 11 N. L., on the head-water of the Rio Grande, is the large kingdom of the Fouta-jallo Fulahs, of which Timbu is the metropolis, surrounded by dry and rocky deserts, and exposed mountain pastures, prolific with sheep, oxen, goats, and horses. Here, although the use of the plough is unknown, the occupants cultivate the soil, and exercise more than one of the mechanical arts. They forge iron and silver, weave, and tan, and support schools and mosques. To the south lies the Sulimana tribe, more or less akin to the Mandingoes. From these, Laing learnt, that the acquisition of the country about Tembu by the Fulas of Futa-jallo was an event of no great antiquity, having taken place about A.D. 1700. There are other Fula, Fellata, and Filani localities, but an enumeration of the foregoing has been sufficient. It shows the vast space of ground covered by the population so-called. It shows, too, the difficulty of ascertaining the original mother country. Indeed, upon the whole, this is a point upon which good writers are satisfied to suspend their judgment--no one having committed himself very decidedly to a preference for one district over another. The main facts lie in the superiority of their organisation over the ordinary negro, and their higher civilisation--this being chiefly due to their Mahometanism. There is no doubt as to either. Although, the particular shade of the particular colour which best suits the Fula is not a matter upon which authors write with unanimity; the testimony of all observers goes to the fact that, whether Filani or Fellata, Fellata or Fula, whether pagan or Mahometan, whether Sudanian or Senegambian, whether mountaineer or desert-born, the Fula is something different from the typical Negro. Sometimes his complexion is intermediate to that of the African and the Moor; sometimes he is described as being tawny, with soft hair, and lips by no means prominent: sometimes the skin is of a reddish-black, the countenances being regular. “The tribe of Fulas,” writes Golberry, “which under the name of Foules or Peuls, have peopled the borders of the Senegal between Podhon and Galam, are black with a tinge of red or copper colour; they are in general handsome and well-made; the women are handsome, but proud and indolent.” To the Fula-jallo Fulas the very definite and suggestive term “Red Peuls” has been applied; to which the name “Black Peuls” stands in opposition, this meaning the Fulas of the north bank of the lower Senegal. What is our inference from these discrepancies of description--what our inference from the points of agreement? Even this[42]--that the Fula complexion varies with the physical conditions of the Fula locality. In the high and exposed tracts of Fula-jallo it is the least, in the lower levels of the parts about lake Kayor, it is most like that of the negro. [42] For further details, see Prichard, _Researches, &c._, vol. ii. pp. 66-73, and 121-125. GROUP VIII. SOUTHERN AFRICA.--NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE CAPE.--PORT NATAL. A. ZULUS. (THE TALLER AND DARKER.) B. BUSHMEN. (THE SHORTER AND BROWNER.) A. The Zulu group is taken from life--from the men lately exhibited at St. George’s Hall. The story told is the search for some lost article. When this is the case, a _Fetish-man_, _medium-man_, _mystery-man_, or _conjuror_ (we may choose our name), is called in, and set upon the suspected parties, who sit round in a circle. The conjuror then works himself, like the Pythoness of the old oracles, into a state of rabid excitement, and keeps it up until he fixes upon the culprit. Nothing is less peculiar than this practice throughout Africa--throughout, indeed, most savage countries; nor is it without its value. Writing about the same practice on the Gold Coast, an author already quoted, after stating the “superstitious rites employed by the Fetish-men for the detection of crime,” adds, “and whether it is that these people really possess such powerful influence over their wretched dupes, as to frighten into confession of his guilt the perpetrator of crime, or whether it is that they manage by their numerous spies to obtain a clue sufficient in most cases to lead to the detection of the person, is more than I can venture to assert; but, be the means employed what they may, a Fetish-man will assuredly very often bring a crime home to the right person, even after the most patient investigation in the ordinary way has failed to elicit the slightest clue.” The Zulus come from the part about Port Natal. They are closely allied, in language, at least, to the Kaffres--the Kaffres of the Amakosa, Amaponda, Amatembu, and other tribes, but too well known to the Cape Colonist and the English tax-payer. They are similarly allied to the Bechuana tribes of the interior. The Bechuanas, however, are browner in colour, as is expected from their locality, which is high and dry. The Fingoes are also an allied population. The differences between the Proper Kaffres, the Bechuanas, the Fingoes, and the Zulus, lie within a small compass, so that the general likeness is pretty clear. But neither the differences nor the likenesses between the populations akin to the Kaffres end here. The word (the derivation of which has been given elsewhere) has two meanings. It means, in its more limited sense, the Kaffres of Caffraria, chiefly of the Amakosa tribe, the men who have given so much trouble to the colonists. But it also has a wider or more general signification, and in this case it serves as the designation of a large family of allied populations--and a very large family--one of the largest in Africa. The connecting link between its numerous branches is the language, of which the structure has (amongst others) the following characteristic peculiarities. Suppose that in English, instead of saying _M_an’s _d_og, we said _d_an _d_og, _S_un’s _b_eam--_b_un _b_eam, _F_ather’s _d_aughter--_d_ather _d_aughter, _D_aughter’s father--_f_aughter _f_ather; in such a case we should accommodate the sound of the word in the possessive case to that with which the word in the nominative case began. And if we did this, we should assuredly do something very remarkable in the way of speech. Now the Kaffre tongues _all_ do this. It is done by the Amakosa, the Zulu, the Fingo, the Bechuana. It is done by the languages on the _western_ coast as far as the Cameroons, _i.e._, to the north of the equator--by the languages of Benguela, Angola, Congo, Loango, and the Gaboon, &c. It is done by the languages on the _eastern_ coast as well; indeed, it was very probably done by the language of the Moegurras. It is done, so far as we know, by all the languages of the interior south of the equator--save and except those of the Hottentot class. It is certainly done by the languages of the Great Lake Ngami. The Kaffre division, then, is a large one; and it is based, chiefly, on similarity of language. In physical form, the range of difference is great. Some of the Kaffres are truly negro, others brown in colour, and with lips of moderate thickness. The Zulus before us certainly approach the negro. On the other hand, more than one good writer has enlarged upon the points of contrast; and such there certainly are, if we take the more extreme forms--the typical Kaffre and typical Negro. In the latter, for instance, the skin (as aforesaid) may be brown rather than black. Then the cheek-bones may project outwards; and where the cheek-bones so project beyond a certain limit, the chin appears to taper downwards, and the vertex upwards. When this becomes exaggerated, we hear of _lozenge-shaped_ skulls. Be this as it may, the breadth in the malar portion of the face is often a remarkable feature in the Kaffre physiognomy. This he has in common with the Hottentot. Sometimes, too, the eye is oblique; the opening generally narrow. An opinion often gives a better picture than a description. Kaffres, that have receded in the greatest degree from the negro type, have been so likened to the more southern Arabs, as to have engendered the hypothesis of an infusion of Arab blood. The manners of the Kaffres of the Cape are those of pastoral tribes under chieftains; tribes which, from their habits and social relations, are naturally active, locomotive, warlike, and jealous of encroachment. It would be strange indeed if the Kaffre life and Kaffre physiognomy had no peculiarities. However little in the way of physical influence we may attribute to the geography of a country, no man ignores them altogether. Now Kaffreland has very nearly a latitude of its own; inhabited lands similarly related to the southern tropic being found in South America and Australia only. And it has a soil still more exclusively South-African. We connect the idea of the _desert_ with that of sand; whilst _steppe_ is a term which is limited to the vast tracts of central Asia. Now the Kaffre, and still more the Hottentot, area, dry like the desert, and elevated like the steppe, is called a _karro_. Its soil is often a hard, cracked, and parched clay rather than a waste of sand, and it constitutes an argillaceous table-land. Their polity and manners, too, are peculiar. The head-man of the village settles disputes, his tribunal being in the open air. From him an appeal lies to a chief of higher power; and from him to some superior, higher still. In this way there is a long chain of feudal or semi-feudal dependency. The wife is the slave to the husband; and he _buys_ her in order that she should be so. The purchase implies a seller. This is always a member of another tribe. Hence the wish of a Kaffre is to see his wife the mother of many children, girls being more valuable than boys. Why a man should not sell his offspring to the members of his own tribe is uncertain. It is clear, however, that the practice of doing so makes marriage between even distant relations next to impossible. To guard against the chances of this, a rigid and suspicious system of restraint has been developed in cases of consanguinity; and relations must do all they can to avoid meeting. To sit in the same room, to meet on the same road, is undesirable. To converse is but just allowable, and then all who choose must hear what is said. So thorough, however, has been the isolation in many cases, that persons of different sexes have lived as near neighbours for many years without having conversed with each other; and such communication as there has been, has taken place through the medium of a third person. No gift will induce a Kaffre female to violate this law. B. The Bushmen, too, are taken from life, the two children being in England at the present time. Just as the Zulu belongs to the Kaffre, the Bushman belongs to the Hottentot family--the latter family being a large one; not so large, however, as the former. The present Hottentot districts, wholly surrounded by the Kaffre, lie on the _western_ rather than _eastern_ side of South Africa, and extend from the parts about Valvisch Bay to the Cape; the original population of the last-named locality having become well-nigh extinct. How has this extinction been effected? In two ways. By the European settlers of the colony---Dutch and English, English and Dutch; by the Kaffres, who have ever spread southwards. Before these encroachments had taken effect, there were Hottentot tribes on the eastern as well as the _western_ coast, on _both_ sides of South Africa. Now there are none, either on the side of the Pacific, or in the parts about the Cape itself--except (of course) so far as they are mixed up with the colonial population. The names (all or some) of the extinct branches of the Hottentot family are as follows:--