The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

230 SOUTH AND E.VST AFEIC.V.bushmen. Beiug unable to till the land for want of water and through fear of theneighbouring Zulus, they are obliged to live almost exclusively on the produce ofthe chase. They pursue the game by the trail, like hounds, and when they havewoimded an animal they follow it up unflaggingly for days together, sleeping atnight near the drops of blood so as not to lose the track. They .study the starryskies and consult the flight of the vulture in order to take part with it in thecarrion feast. They also show great skill in constructing pitfalls, and despite theedicts forbidding all the Tongas from hunting the elephant, they contrive to planta sharp stake concealed by the foliage across the path of the huge pachyderm.The wounded animal, overcome by the acute pain, is unable to advance farther andfalls an easy prey to his enemies.North of the Sabi the Tonga tribes, being under the more direct control of theZulus, arc reduced to the condition of abject slaves. Such are the Ma-Ndandasand 5Ia-Ndowas, who appear to have been formerly a very powerful people, butwho arc now fain to conceal themselves in the bush, clothed iu long robes madefrom the bark of the baobab. Still farther north, and not far from the Manicauplands, dwell the Ki-Tevi (Gwa-Tevi or Aba-Tevi), probably descendants of theQuiteve people mentioned by the Dominican friar, De Santos, as a large nationforming the central nucleus of the Monomotapa empire. The traditional ceremoniousformalities observed at the court of the TJmgoni king appear to have been ingreat part inherited from the Quiteve sovereign. Amongst these natives arescattered some groups of Ba-Lempas, who practise circumcision, and who are saidby Mauch to resemble the Jews in their features and social customs.Most of themare distinguished by red eyes and fiery eyebrows, like the Polish Jews. Theydwell in separate villages, living by usuiy and a retail barter trade. They alsomanufacture the Iron wire required for the elaborate headdresses of some of thesxirroundiug tribes.The Banyans.Perhajjs the most important section of the population, not only here, but m allthe Portuguese East African possessions, are the Hindu traders collective!)- knownas Banyans, or Banians, who have almost monopolised the export traffic of thisseaboard for many generations. "Attracted from India more than half a centurybefore Clive laid the foundations of the Eastern British Empire, by an edict ofthe Portuguese Viceroy, Conde de Alvor, which gave to a Banyan Company in1686 an exclusive monopoly of the trade between DIu and Mozambique, theBanyans, strengthened afterwai-ds by the Battlas and other Hindu sects, graduallyincreased in number and in influence, imtil at this day, despite the loss of allmonopolies, they are In sole possession of the trade of the coast.Others there are,wholesale European merchants, at the chief centres of trade ; but they alone areto be found in every accessible port and river of the coast, bartering Europeanmanufactures for native produce, and thus, by searching out new markets andcreating trade, stimulating the industiy of the natives." Beyond the trade monopoly, they were formerly granted extensive and pecu-