The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

22 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA.Tlio Bundas, and especiallj^ the Nanos or Ilighlauders, are generally fine menwitli proud bearing and frank expression. Amongst them persons are oftenfound with blue eyes, a trait which is not at all appreciated bj^ the natives. Inmost of the tribes the women are tattooed with designs representing flowers andarabesques. They go bare-headed, whereas the men fold a sort of turban roundtheir hair, or else part it into a multitude of ringlets decked with little clay ballsin imitation of coral. Like those of most other African tribes, the Bunda solas,or chiefs, add to their usual dress the skin of a panther or of some other rapaciousbeast, this spoil of the chase being regarded as an emblem of the terror by whichroyalty should ever be su.rrounded.Some of the tribes practise circumcision, a rite unknown in others, or reservedfor the chiefs alone, who submit to the operation before assuming the panther'sskin. The Bundas are for the most part highly intelligent, under the directionof Europeans rapidly acquiring a knowledge of letters, writing, and music. lu afew months they learn to speak Portuguese correctly, and also make excellentartisans. Each community has its blacksmith and armourer, its carpenter,weaver, potter, all of whom assist at the public gatherings, according to a wellestablished order of precedence. But the Bundas distinguish themselves aboveall as traders. All the business affairs of the Portuguese with the interior aretransacted by them, and they not unfrequently excel their teachers in commercialability. The Bundas of the inland plateaux, whom Livingstone speaks ofunder the collective name of Mambari, accompany the traders' caravans far intothe interior of the continent. Owing to their long journeys through the bushcountry, they are also commonly known as Pombeiros, from the native wordpoinbe, answering to our scrub or brushwood. Some of these caravans at one timecomprised as many as three thousand persons, and were occasionally transformedto bands of armed marauders. Many of these inland Bundas were in the habit ofsending their children to the coast towns for the purpose of receiving a Europeaneducation.The Bunda territor^^ is divided into a number of chieftaincies, some of whichcomprise a considerable population ; but each village constitutes an independentcommunity in the enjoyment of self-government in all matters of purely localinterest. The citizens, however, do not take part in the deliberations on afooting of equality, for there are numerous privileged classes, some by hereditaryright, others through the royal favour, while over one-half of the whole populationare enslaved. The slave element is sujjplied bj^ captives in war, by distresscompelling freemen to sell themselves and families, and by debts which are oftenpaid by the loss of liberty. The expenses of funeral banquets have even at timesbeen liquidated by selling the very children of the deceased. On the other hand,nearly all the slaves marry free women, in order thus to lighten the bui'den ofservitude and to ensure the emancipation of their children, who always take thesocial position of their mothers. When a slave becomes in this waj' related to achief, his life is considered as of equal value to that of a free man. His body, likethat of other Bundas, is consulted bv the wizards, in order to ascertain whether