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Title
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Róźne / LUD 1958/59 t.45
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Description
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LUD 1958-59 t.45, s.567-663
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Date
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1960
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Format
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application/pdf
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application/pdf
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Identifier
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oai:cyfrowaetnografia.pl:165
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Language
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pol
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Publisher
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Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze
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Relation
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oai:cyfrowaetnografia.pl:publication:190
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Text
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ó
R
ż
N
E
Jan Czekanowski
ETHNIC STRUCTURE
OF AFRICA AND ITS LATEST FEATURES
The African continent forms a perifery overflown by migration waves
from Eurasia. Due to its geographic specifity this continent is also a zo:'!e
with not very transformed
r~lics of various component parts of African
population
brought by those waves. A genetic synthesis of the actual
many-coloured eThnic picture of the African continent ought to be therefore
based upon information
concerning
the consecutive
migration
layers.
Unfortunately
historical written sources can give us only data about
the three last big expansions standing out against a linguistic background,
which have transformed
the ethnic conditions in Africa. They cast light
upon the question of invasions of Indoeuropean, Semitic and partly Hamitic folks to .!Iuch an extent that we are able to understand
the matter of
the transmigrations
of the indigenous population in connection withabove
mentioned catastrophes. As to the old layers of African population which
were the result of migration processes in the remote past, not illustrated
by information
coming from historical sources, we must, if we want to
study tho.!!e layers, rely upon the results of ethnographic,
anthropologic
and linguistic investigations which in the neare.!!t future will be probably
in a very modest degree, supplemented
by archaeologic
achievements.
This concerns above all the immence territory of the very differentiated
Negro formation together with the South-Eastern
zone of Hamitic expansion.
The synthetic summary of investigation results concerning the material
culture of African folks given by Bernhard Ankermann enabled not only
a general identification
of the main complexes of culture which bare
testimony of migration processes in· the past reconstructed
on this base,
but made also possible to compare those complexes with the achievements
of anthropology and partly even with the results of linguistic investigation5.
It is a schematic review of the history of the African population with
a range including the past from the pluvial era up to the European
diluvium; the above author gives also in his work a description of the
Asiatic and European invasions confirmed by historical sources. Due to
the remaining relics of the remote past the reconstruction
of the history
of the African population can prove to be quite a success.
i
,
572
573
The European colonial expansion differs from the former invasions
because a comparatively
small quantity of newcomers from European lands
has invaded the whole African continent and organized the exploitation
of this natural resources in such an extent as never before.
At the present time we witness the beginning of a process when the
waves of the invasion which have flooded the African continent begin
to slide off leaving there the native population.
Stefan
Łysik
AFRICAN PYGMIES
AND THE PROBLEM
OF THEIR LANGUAGE
Pygmies, i. e. dwarfish tribes living somewhere in distant lands had
been already mentioned by ancient writers. Egyptian sources from about
4 thousand years ago tell us about some divine dwarf-dancers,
which
were brought to the capital Memphis from virgin rorests of Central
Africa. Writers of ancient Greece and Rome like Herodotus and Homer,
later Ktesias, Pliny and others, following the example of Egyptians dropped
also hints of little known dwarfs-pygmies
in their works, locating the
dwellings of those tribes somewhere
at the peripheries
of the antIque
world. Then during the whole medieval era, up to the modern times
nothing has been heard of them. We know about this folk only that
what had been quoted by ancient writers.
That is why these antique
items of information have been considered to be fairy-tales.
In 1870, the explorer Schweinfurth,
and before him, du Chaillu, discovered in the woods of Central Africa roving tribes of dwarfs, the exintence
of which in the world was unknown till then. Because of their resemblance
to Negroes, they have been named in the French manner NegrilIaes, i. e.
small Negroes. The scientific world took great interest in that discovery.
The scholars were captivated
by the small stature of this folk. They
soon became keen on other tribes of dwarfish height living in other continents, especially in Asia. It appeared that many a dwarfish tribe was
known there for scores and even hundreds of years to some nations, like
Arabs, Spaniards and later to Englishmen. These nations knew the Aet;"!
dwarfs of the Philippine Islands, the Semand dwarfs of the Peninsula of
Malaya and the Andamans of the Archipelago. The Spaniards have given
all these dwarfish tribes a common name "Negritaes" oar small Nogr02s.
The French scientist, A. de Quatrefages
thought they were descendants
of the ancient pygmies, mentioned by the antique writers and he proposed
therefore
to call the Asiatic Negritoes and the African Negrilloes -
Pygmies. Beside the common name, all these dwarfish folks were suppos'?d
to belong to one single Pigmy race and culture and according to palaeontologists' opinions of those days they were considered to stay, because of their
dwarfish undeveloped
form, at the beginning of some evolutional
chain
and in that way the Pigmy race ought to be the oldest one, out of which
all other races developed later. This opinion was mainly propagated
by
the Swiss Kollmann and after him for some time by W. Schmidt and other
scientists who were also willing to ascribe all these Pygmies to one homogenous culture, the oldest in the world. Thus, the Pigmies became a very
important problem in the history of mankind evolution.
This problem became more complicated in time because of more d~teiled inv€stigations performed with dwarf groups scientifically little known
or quite unknown and because of fudher
discoveries of dwarfish groups
in the world, e. g. on the Hebrides, New Guinea and in other places.
The problem was in some way darkened
by Emil Schmidt, who in
1905, disregarding
other specific, racial and cultural
features
proposed
to class in the Pigmy group all dwarfish
tribes whose height did not
exceed 150 em. Further
complication
of the Pygmy problem
arose in
connection with their native language because more minute investigations
on the Pygmies revealed that although all the dwarfish tribes, considered
to be Pygmies, distinctly differed from their tall neighbours
in so far
that they owed a specific, very primitive culture and some dwarfish racial
features, but in the question of language were rather similar to them. They
spoke the language of their neighbours which were different in racial and
cultural respects, or used some relics of a littee known language. Only
the Bushmen and Andamans which were at that time still considered to
by Pygmies, used in everyday life their native language. Probably this
lack of a native language convinced some scientists to deny the pygmies
to have any kind of historical independence
and to consider them to be
a degenerated race.
The best answer to that lot of difficulties in solving the Pygmy problem
has perhaps given the same W. Schmidt, who since 1910 encouraged by
all means the scientists in the world to begin immediately with a thorough
investigation in order to settle the Pigmy question in the history of mankind
evolution. He helped to organize after the first world war several scientific
expeditions to various dwarfish tribes. It was by that time probably tile
most valuable contribution
to the researches and discussion about Pigmies.
There was a lot of exploreres. The first scientifically
trained explorer in
this line was our Jan Czekanowski,
who investigated
the Pigmies and
Pigmoid tribes in Africa in 1907/8. Among other Pigmy investigators
cif
great merit were Vanoverbergh,
Schumacher,
Gusinde and others, and
first of all Paul Schebesta, who has be2'n making scientific researches
concerning all the Pigmies in the world for se,'eral decades. In 6 expedi-
575
574
tions which
roughly the
For some
complicated
he made between 1922 and 1955 he tried to investigate
dwarfish tribes in different places of Asia and Africa.
time past he has been inten~ively working to solve
linguistic problems of the Pygmies.
thovery
The last word in science after lasting investigations
is as follow~:
in has been definitely stated that all the dwarfish tribes in Asia, Africa
and Oceania greatly
differ in anthropologic,
ethnologic,
linguistic
and
religious respect~. Thus, it can be no question of a genefic link between
African and Asiatic Pygmies. The most authentic
Pygmies proved to be
the dwarfish tribes in Central Africa, particularly
the Bambuti who are
living in a complex mass, in woods on the Ituri banks, in Belgian-Congo.
Only those dwarfish tribes in Central Africa have the right to be called
"Pygmies" and 'noother
folk in the world has such r1gh t. The refusa,l of
granting thi~ term to some other dwarfish tribes in Africa, Oceania and especially to the Asiatic dwarfs - Negritaes, doesn't of course mean the cancellation of their great significance in the history of mankind development.
The linguistic aspect of the question amounts to that: the Negritaes,
L e. the tribes Aeta of the Philippine
Islands and the Semang of the
Malaya have probably
lost their native language.
The Aeta are using
today dialects of their tall neighbour~, the Semang have kept the ancient
languages of the Australasian
linguistic group, The Andamans nave saved
their native language.
As to the authentic
Pygmies, to whom, according to latest opinions
of the majority of specialists in this line, belong the Bambuti tribes in
Central Africa, - despite all pretences, they pos~ess their native language,
although in a relic state. Their own language has been superlaid by more
modern Negro dialects. In this way their language became a substratum
uf
the three linguistic Negro - Bambuti groups from the Ituri basin, viz. one
Pigmy - Bantu group and two groups of Pigmy - Sudan languages. Thus,
those are the languages actually spoken by Bambuti Pigmies a~ well as
by their Negro neighbours
living with the former in a special form of
community, which the in. estigators call symbiosis. These three groups of
languages correspond to the division of Bambuti Pigmies into three groups:
Basua Efa and Aka. In all tho~e languages,' especially in those spoken
by B;mbuti, many grammatical,
lexical and phonetical
relics of the old
Pygmy language can be found.
Paul Schebesta
is among the investigators
of the Pigmy problem
rather the only specialist in the world who has a very big comparative
linguistic material concerning this folk, collected during his expeditions
to their land which lasted many years. Only he can tell something definite
about their language. He has just annouced the publication
of the third
volume about the Bambuti
Pigmies which will exclU5ively deal with
the question of the Pigmy language.
Waclaw Korabiewicz
MA WIA BIG ARTISTS
In 1947 when I went to work at the King George's Vth Museum in
Dar-es-sal~am,
Tanganyika,
I found there a very original mask, a similar
one I have seen in no European museum. Slightly larger than life size it
was carved from a single piece of very light wood. The nose was flat,
lips large and fleshy, teeth bared and cut out individually.
The whole
face was covered with scar~ and tattooing stuck on with wax. Tfie most
original things about the mask, however, were the half-closed
eyelids
and its real negro's hair. The eyelids made it appear a death mask. The
inside of the mask was hollowed out and the opening of the neck large
enough to enable the mask to be placed over the head of a óoy or youth.
Naturally,
I tried to discover the origin of this mask. Unfortunately,
the only reference in the Museum's book5 recorded it as being the gift
of a priest from the Mission at Lindi. The donor was since long dead, and
except that nobody knew anything else. There was nothing to be done
but to go to Lindi, and this I did, but all I achieved was to discover that
none of the missionaries working there had ever seen a mask like that.
They, however, suggested me to go to Nanyanga, which I -dId.
A long and exhau~ting pilgrimage began from place to place in search
of traces of the mask. In the territories
of The Wamwere, Makua and
Makonde (Tanganyika)
I found several interesting
masks, but they were
all flat, covering only the front of the face and already described and
illustrated
in Karl Weule's excellent book N a t i veL
ife in East
A f l' i c a. I was on the point of giving up the search when, in Kitangari,
not far from the Mozambique boundary,
I was brought a splendid old
mask of the same kind as that in Dar-es-Salaam,
though arti5tically even
more interesting. Unfortunately,
I was not able to discover where it came
from, but it looked as though it had been made by the Mawia, that Is
a branch of the Makonde tribe living on the far side of the River Ruwuma,
in Portuguese Mozambique. I, therefore, crossed the frontier and with the
help of the local authorities
wenf from village to village asking. about
the mask. As before, no one had even heard of it, and I was almost beginning to believę that thi5 might be the case, since such a conscientious
searcher as Karl Weule had never found one.
After two weeks of being sent from chief to chief, from mission te
mission, I was making my way back to my point of departure
when
a strange coincidence struck me: I was passing the entrance to a path
leading into the bush and realized that I had already passed two others
577
576
like it. It was not the path itself, for there were lots of narrow paths like
that one, but the decorative way in which all three entrances were ornamented. It was only when I was passing these symbols for the third time
that I became properly aware of them and felt that I wanted to see what
lay beyond. I turned down that third path, but my porters warned me
then that one was not allowed to go that way without permission of the
chief. I decided, therefore,
to put a distance between myself and those
inconvenient
witnesse~ and sent the porters ahead, and followed them at
some space. As I had expected, I soon came to a fourth path similarly
marked and turning into it ran down it for a hundred yards or so. The path
led in a zigzag to a small clearing, on one side of which was a baobab and
on the ground, in the shade of this was a ring of large, flat stones and
in the centre of this ring ~ome ashes of a bonfire. At the other side of the
clearing, rather withdrawn,
and hidden, stood a tiny hut. Its low roof
almost descended to the ground. It had no windows or door, only one
opening.
Without
he~itation
I crawled
inside and stood up. It was
dark. I could feel a roof just above my head. Cautiously, I felt over it with
hands. There seemed bo be a shelf. I thrust my hand in and found three
objets wrapped in rags. Pulling down one of these I was delighted
to
feel that it contained a mask. At that moment I noticed in a strip of light
a line of bare feet in front of me. I was surrounded
by Negroes. Still clutching my prize, I crawled out into the light. In front of me stood at
least fifty old men. Gravely, though with reluctance,
they gazed into my
face.
I unwrapped
the mask. It was identical with that in the Museum at
Dar-es-Salaam.
I told the men that I would buy the mask. paying whatever
they asked. Out of respect for the Wazungu they did not protest and
accepted the money I gave them. "But", said"the eldest of the men, "Ewana
Mkubwa cannot have the midimo mask here and now. We will move to
the road and a little further
on, in the bush. Bwana must not show
it to anyone, or there will be awful trouble".
"All right, but I want to buy the other two as well".
"We have no others, only this one". IndignaJnt at such a lie I crawled
back into the hut, and ~treched out my hand for the other masks. The
shelf was empty. The masks had vanished.
Rather crestfallen,
I crawled out again. It would be useless to insist.
I had let myself be led up the garden path. After a while, when I was
outside the areaof the secret repository, they brought me the mask as they
had promised, carefully packed in a basket and covered with leaves and
rags.
That is how I discovered the great secret of the Mawia tribe. Within
a short time I had been down a dozen or more wch paths ornamented
with magical signs, which are called "Mpolo", and found scores of inte·-
resting masks which none of the local missionaries
had ever seen, nor
had Karl Weule.
That was in 1947. A couple of years later, it was possible to find
a standardized
type of mask (yellow) being offered for sale in Tanganyika
territory
by Mawia labourers
doing seasonal work on the sisal farms.
Later, when I visited Mozambique for the third time in 1953, I found that
a great change had taken place: some Europeans
near the frontier
had
organized
a regular trade in figures and masks which they shipped to
America. The Negroes, tempted by the profits, forgot all about their tabu.
The magical signs at the mouths of the paths had gone, gone were the
birds on strings, the little hedges, and any Mpolo I found gave the
impression of being abandoned and neglected. As it was I didn't find in any
shop or in private ownership such black masks, and I am convinced that
the really interesting,
fine specimens so farfound
are those I managed
to get for the Museums of Tanganyika,
New York and Poland.
In, iew . of the fact that so many of the customs of the Mawia' are
dying out and of all t.he sad changes I found on my recent visit, I felt
that I had to put on record all that I knew of them.
First, I wish to draw attention to a mistake in Wieschhoff's
B i b l i 0g l' a p h y a f N e g l' a A f l' i c a, published
by the American
Oriental
Society. Nothing appears under Makonde, but under "K" is the name
Konde followed immediately,
as though they were synonyms, by names
in brackets, Makonde, Ngonde, Wakonde, Wamakonde,
Wamgonde, Wankonde and Wanyankiuzu.
We must remember that the change of Wa into
Ba in Negro languages
denotes the plural,
but not always
and not
everywhere.
For example, the group of substantives
beginning with Ma
(Makonde) or N (Ngonde) do not change in the plural. Thus the names
given by Wieschhoff (p. 262), Warnakonde, Wangonde, are incorrectly
formed. The Nkonde tribe, or the Wankonde, does not exist. Wieschhoff has
erroneously
included under the common designation
"Kand e", two tribes
that have nothing to do with each other, the Ngonde, from the shores of
Lake Nyasa (blood relatives:
Nyankiuzu)
and the Makonde
from the
River Ruwuma (blood relatives:
Mawia).
I suggest that all tribes listed on page 262 under Konde, and those on
page 458 under Wamawia, should be regrouped and listed under "Makonde"
(Mawia) and "Ngonde" (Nyakyuza), respectively.
The great l\,jakonde C:wells at the lewer banks of the Ruwuma rLTer,
viz. in the district of Nevala on the Tanganyika
side, and in those of
lVIociboa and Dos Makondes on the Mozambique side.
The Ruwuma is thus a natural barrier which divides the Makonde into
two separate
branches,
each having completely
different
conditions
of
life, the first under German administration
and the second under Portuguese. The 120 miles coastal strip of the Ruwuma river inhabited by fi537
"Lud"
t
LXV
578
579
herm en of Swahili ongm adds further
to this division and as a result,
it is difficult
to find to-day
some common ethnological
features
in
these two branches.
There is reason to suspect that the Makonde people of Mozambique
used to be cannibals. Even now the neighbouring
tribes tell incredible
tales about them, based on their strange gastronomic
taste for monkey,
rat flesh and various worms. This has earned them the contemptuous
name
"Mawia" by which they are known to their neighbours. They are deeply hurt
by this and insist on calling themselves "Makonde" only.
The Mawia inhabit the territory
encircled by the Ruwuma river in
the North, the Indian Ocean in the East, the Mdalo and the Mriti rivers
in the South, and the Luienda river in the West. They are an agricultural
people, strongly attached to their land. They move seasonally to neighbouring
Tanganyika in order to earn money, and always with the idea of returning
soon. They are very orthodox in their customs and different from other
Bantu tribes. It is out of the question for a Mawia woman to marry
a stranger. The Mawia men used to protect their WiVES and daughters
from kidnapping by disfiguring them with horrlble ugly lip-plugs inserted
into the upper lips.
Most probably because of the disgusting nature of "their food and their
different ways, the Mawia have a reputation for being slovenly. In reality
they are cleaner than most of the Bantu tribes. Their villages are bu"lt
in the shape of a quadrangle around a large, well- kept yard in the middle
of which is a strong chicken cage erected on high poles in order to protect
it against. leopards. The interiors of their huts are spacious and clean.
Domestic animals are kept in separate pens. Their utensils are often beautifully ornamented, especially tht water jugs. Fundam'2ntally,
the Mawia are
aesthetes and artists. The roads and paths leading to their dwellings are
hedged and carefully clipped. Even flowers are sometimes cultivated, a very
unusual thing among Negroes,.-.·"
---
C A R V I N G. The Mawia have a special talent for carving. Like all
primitive races, they are lacking in creative initiative, and therefore repeat
the traditional
patterns inherited from their forefathers,
preserving
long
forgotten forms as a kind of a sculptural "Legend". Almost every village
has its great "Fundi" (Craftsmen) whose inherent talent local authorities
are now trying to warp by forcing them to follow European
or Indian
common patterns instead of encouraging them to cultivate a beatiful, austere primitive Negro art. They make the things of everyday use: cooking
vesse;s, 5::;00n5, waler-j'ugs
or pipes, clubs, drums, gun.powder containers
and finally ... MASKS.
M A SKS. These represent the highest form of artistic achievement
I
believe the earliest masks were true copies of the heads of slain enemies.
As a rule the eyelids are half closed, giving a peaceful expression to the
dead face. The masks ("Midimo") are objects of greatest secrecy, jealously,
guarded by tribal "taboo". No woman is allowed to see them. If she does,
she runs the risk of dying or at the very least of becoming barren. This
belief is deep, sincere and generally held, that is why the Mawia hide
their masks in special secret places called "Mpolo". However, when the
dancer appears at the Ngoma (dancing) wearing his mask, women may
look at it without hurt. It would appear that Mawia women really do
believe in the supernatural
origin of the dancers. This great mystery surrounding the Midimo represents
the cardinal, basic ritual of the Mawia
life. Mawia masks can be divided into two groups:
1) The standard masks.
The individual masks.
2)
s,
L T h e S t a n d a l' d M a s k
let us ::all them the "Helmet Masks",
are found in every, village, yellow in colour, with tribal tattooing and sharp
features hardly resembling those of living faces, rather knight's helmets.
II. T h e I n d i v i d u a l M a s k is usually
There are four sub- groups:
a unique, original
specimen.
a) m a s k s o f E u l' o p e a n f a c e s, painted black, as a rule with
a tendency to express malicious, satiric criticism.
b) m a s k s o f M o n g o l i a n f a c e s varying in colour, sometimes white, sometimes black, whose Eastern features most probably date
back to the days of trade relations between the Asania coast and China.
c) m a s k s o f H i n d u f a c e s, - practically
always yellow, with
coloured turbans of the Sikh Sect. This group has only appeared in recent
times.
d) m a s k s o f A f l' i c a n n a t i v e s with local tatuage.
Mawia
masks are seldom old, as it is customary
to destroy them every three
years. The older specimens are to be found on the left bank of the
Ruwuma river, in the area of the Tanganyika Makonde branch, where this
custom does not exit. All masks are made from "Ntone" wood, which is
porous and very soft, and thus easy to work. The wood is very light and
does not crack with the change of temperature
or humidity. For tbeir work
the Mawia use self-made tools such as:
a) small
handle.
knife,
sharpened
on both
sides set on a wooden
cylindrical
b) the same knife only curved flatly at the end, for scooping purposes.
c) a kind of file made of a long slab with parallel incisions on it.
d) pieces of glass from broken bottles to smooth the wood. The masks
are coloured with powdered fire-brick,
charcoal and white clay mixed
with ground nut oil, called "Karangi",
to make a paint. Real hair is
always glued to the cranium of the mask.
37 \.
580
The Midimo is shaped like a helmet and has a wide opening in the neck,
through which the dancer puts his head. It is very skilfully hollowed till
it is as thin as a sheet of paper. The carver very seldom drives his tool
through by mistake. Usually, all masks are tattooed, but this is done just
before the dance, at the very last moment. For this purpose Mawia artists
use beeswax which they mix with groundnut
oil and a little powdered
charcoal and ashes, spread and roll the mixture
between outstretched
palms into a maccaroni shape, then put it on the surface of the mask
forming lines and triangles in perfect imitation of the tribal tattoo. As
I have already mentioned,
the midimo are kept in secret places called
"Mpolo".
MPOLO. A narrow, tortuous path leads to the Mpolo, winding round
bushes and tree-trunks.
It turns off from the main road somewhere close
to a large village. The entrance is cleary marked, most likely in order to
warn the uninitiated.
On either side of the path a slender tree is planted and the two tops
are joined by a string on which dead, dried birds are threaded, looking
like coloured beads of a necklace. Underneath, on both sides there are low
miniature hedges (25 em. X 20 em.).
The entrance to the path is usually covered with clean yellow sand.
So did those "Mpolo" look in 1947, when I saw them for the first time.
When I revisited the place in 1954, the stringed birds were no longer there,
and the hedges were not so well kept. On the whole, the importance
of
Mpolo, as I noticed, seems to be dying out. And presumably
that of the
tribal Taboo will soon become a thing of the past.
The path leads to a baobab tree beneath which is a ring of flat stones.
On one side, somewhat hidden, stands a small hut with a low grass roof.
One is obliged to enter on all fours. Darkness reigns inside. The hut is not
high but allows one to draw. oneself up to full height. In doing sO,our
hands will find the shelr"c;ii:which the mysterious masks are kept carefully
wrapped in rags. Usually, there are several of them. wIth their ha·cks turned
to the light, and the faces hidden. The tendency to transmit traditional
forms to new generations is not only seen in lVIawian sculpture, but also and
even more strongly in the traditional
ritual dance of the "Renaissance
Knight".
RITUAL DANCER. Any newcomer from Europe will be greatly astonished at the sight of the Renaissance Knight who suddenly appears in
the midst of the Negro crowd. There cannot be the slightest doubt as to the
origin of the costume of that dancer. White tricot, coloured ruff round the
neck, chain armour made of twisted grass, puffed coloured trousers, and
instead of helmet- a Midimo on the head. He is a grotesque, ludicrous
caricature of a Knight of the time of Vasco de Gama.
Let us describe his clothes in detail: The tricot consists of two strips
581
of cheap white calico - ·one of which covers both arms, the other - bot;1
legs. The material is shaped to the arms using thorns as pins.
The ruff and trousers are made of cheap coloured calico. The chain
armour is plaited from twisted grass. A procession of young men led by
the Renaissance
Knight advances to the sounds of beating drums and
rhythmical
singing. The leader trips and stumbles and feels his way like
a blind man as for some unknown reason, the Midimo masks are made
without hol~s f~r the eyes, so the poor dancer has to look downward
through thc fissures between the teeth of the mask. Some friend pushes
him in t.he right direction.
R I T U A L D A N C E R. Every Saturday
and Sunday
a "Ngama"
(Dance) is held in one of the neighbouring
villages. Mawia are very
;;ociably and friendly
people and therefore
everyone attends, going in
procession led by their "Knights". At their destination, the guests gather
spontaneously
in separate groups according to the number of different
lVIpolos represented.
In the middle of each group, a free space is formed
with the Knight at one end and the band of drums at the other. After
a short period of waiting in silence an orchestra of small drums beaten
with switches starts up. Its high-pitched
music resembles the croaking
of frogs. It is a special ritual tune not to be found anywhere else. Each
Knight spreads his arms then as if they were wings, crooks his fingers,
and bends his knees, in this grotesque attitude he begins to run, to shake
and to jump. Flapping his arms and kicking out with his legs, he turm
round at breathless speed and finally reaches the first row of the drums,
exhausted
where he falls into the arms of his guardian friend, who offers
him a ch~ir. The moment he has finished his dance the crowd with raised
hands points at the Knight and shouts imprecations, the wording of which
unfortunately
I have not been able to discover, since everyone gave a different interpretation.
It seems to me that tradition has preserved
only
the original gestures, and not the words. Nowadays, as far as I could
discover
they curse their personal enemies. On the whole, this ritual
costume' and dance seem to have been copied blindly from that of their
forefathers,
while the costume is an accurate copy of the dress of some
Portuguese conqueror of Vasco de Gama's day. The mask itself with its
idea of being put over the head is derived from the knight's helmet, but
the dance is satirical and jeering.
There are other similar dances, but in these no Knight takes part. To
the beating of small drums, now at a much slower tempo, rows of young
men march in a swaying step, with swinging arms, moving like clumsy
apes. When they reach the drum, they halt, to give the musicians time
to withdraw
a little, and, that done, the theatrical
show takes place.
Unf0rtunately
I had no opportunity
to study these performances
carefully.
I remember only one.
582
583
T H E A T R I C A L S H O W. Leopard Hunting.
Through
the legs of
the spectators standing in a wide circle crawls a very old man, his neck
and back co. ered with a leopard skin. He has to be a great
F d'"
(specialist). With his belly flat on the ground, he crawls alOng," a~~h;5
hIs gassy, .spotted spine, stiffens his muscles, and puts his whole childishly
gleeful heart into his acting. Soon after this come the archers each h Id'
a b'
t
l
'
a Inc,
mv,.. no a rea one but made on the 5,pot ,of a rough boweJ branch
an.d WIth arrows that are too long and have wads of cotton wool for
pOInts. Th: 2rchErs make a lot of noise. They approach the leopard, jurno
away agam, shout and run about without
accomplishing
anything,
Th~
leo~ard roars and charges furiously, So the comedy continues ad nauseam
untIl at last, a new figure, that of "Wazungu"
the masked Knight:
appe,ars .on t~e scene. He holds a real, antique flint-lock
in his hands.
Restmg It agamst his stomach he pulls the flint trigger. A terrible stunning
~oar drowns all other noise: the shouts of the people, the beating of the
~rums, and smoke blots e~erything
out. When the smoke clears, Wazungu
IS see.n on the ground wIth the furious leopard on top of him. Terrific
shoutmg, clapPing. of. hands and stamping
of feet eventually
scare the
leo;,>ard away. and, It ~mally disappears
between the legs of the spectators.
The poor Kmght IS lIfted up and carried away on men's shoulders. Then
the leopard rushes in again, but this time the brave archers kill him Wit~
spe~rs. The dramatic. story seems to be ended, but no! - Wazung appear's
a~all1, .healed from hIs w:mnds or may b·::,., . res',:ITected. ThrpaFl Ha l\pyrJ1e
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TOM XXXV,
MocKBa-JIeHl1Hrpa,l\,
1957 (BJW03U.M.epJłC 3auo'lt'f,-
566
Summaries
in English and Russian - Eugeniusz
Index of the XLII, XLIII, XLIV and XLV \'olumes
by O. G.)
List of illustrations.
13
35
70
II OT1.jeTbI >1 pel\eH31111
564
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CTaTbl1
crp.
519
544
activity
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Report
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(piotr
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Report
or JIABJIEHHE
494
517
531
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472
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570
of the L U D (made
613
660
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320
342
347
668
66
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50. 51 (Tao3ym
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368
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1957
KeJlbH
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