University of Virginia Library

NEGROES.
LOANGO-NEGROES.

I have chosen the Bafiotos, or negroes of Loango—a people of Central Africa—as representatives of the Blacks, as they are a fair type, somewhat above the majority of their neighbors; and because I am enabled to follow closely the excellent description of their traditions and customs by Dr. Peschuel-Loesche in the Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie for 1878 (Inidiscretes aus Loango, p. 17). Menstruation seems to begin with the thirteenth, more rarely the twelfth year, and the cleanliness of the people does not permit an interruption of the daily bath, even during the continuance of the monthly flow. The idea of uncleanliness during the period, and during child-bed, prevails among the Loango women, as among most of their neighbors; and while menstruating a female must not approach or enter the huts of men. Woman, among the Loangos, ranks higher than among most African tribes, and instead of the long, pendent, breast which the negroes ordinarily cultivate, the Bafioto woman prides herself upon a firm mamma, and binds or straps the breast in case it threatens to drag; hence a Loango woman does not develop a long breast, and is never seen, like many of her black sisters, carrying on her back a suckling child, which is nursing the breast thrown over the shoulder.

They are a moral people; religious ceremonies, continuing many days, accompany the appearance of menstruation in the girl; for days she is isolated; strict laws govern the act of cohabitation, and the seduction of a maiden is looked upon as a misfortune which has befallen the entire land. They delight in children; hence abortion, as may be supposed, rarely occurs among this people, although sometimes practiced by elderly females of immoral character, who dread confinement; and they effect it by eating freely of red pepper, and by kneading and compressing the abdomen.

Twins and triplets are not killed; deformed children are quickly put aside; such as have only slight deformities are sometimes permitted to live; but even a mother's love cannot

save them in case that popular feeling should be such as to consider them, for some reason or other, as possessed of any witchcraft.

It depends merely upon an accidental combination of circumstances whether an ill-formed child is doomed as a "ndodschi'' (deformed bearer of misfortune), or simply as a "muana-mu-bi'' (ugly, bad child); no fault is found with the mother. This superstition may go so far as to accuse a still unborn child; the mother is then given a poison bark, which is used in the official test ordeals, in the firm belief that the "ndodschi,'' if such a one exists, will be rendered harmless by being aborted—in case the mother should die in the ordeal her guilt is thus proven.

The pregnant women is not forbidden to cohabit; she avoids garments of a red color, wearing white or blue, or simple native bark-fiber; she drinks no more rum lest the child should be marked, but this superstition is rapidly losing ground.[1] Charms favorable to women are erected in the hut, and worn upon the body—wise women, "ngangas'' and neighbors are of course consulted.

The act of parturition is not difficult as a rule, and within a few hours the mother is enabled to again take up her accustomed work. Skilled assistance of any kind is unknown—men are not permitted to be about. In difficult cases the neighboring huts, with a feeling of delicacy, are cleared; the children sent out of the village, and the assistants raise their voices in order to drown the lamentations of the patient in the general noise. Confinement takes place whilst the patient is standing, leaning against the wall, or kneeling, inclined forward, resting upon her arms, because the desired head-presentation is supposed to come about most readily in this position. The child is caught upon a bit of cloth or matting, that it may not touch the ground. If labor is retarded, the patient seeks her couch, casts herself down prone upon her stomach, and thus seeks to further labor by mechanical pressure. If expulsion is not furthered by these means, the assembled

women take charge of the case, especially if a primipara; arms and legs are seized, whilst some old woman, who squats down, takes the head of the patient upon her lap, presses a gag firmly upon mouth and nose in order to choke the sufferer, so that finally the child is forced out amid the spasmodic convulsions that follow. These means rarely fail—better ones at least are not known. Rupture of the perineum is not unfrequent. If a woman is overtaken with labor pains away from friends and help, she prevents at least that the child should fall to the ground and carries it home well covered.

The placenta is wrapt up and buried—secrecy of their labors seems to be entirely due to the prevalent feeling of modesty. The navel string is measured off to the double length of the first joint of the thumb, or to the knee, and is then cut, not with a knife, but with a sharp edge of a leaf-stalk of the oil palm. The assistants then seat themselves. about a fire which has been lighted in the hut, and pass the new born babe from lap to lap, whilst with well-warmed hands the navel string is compressed and its drying off thus greatly hastened. This object is attained within twenty-four hours; the parched and deadened remnant is thrust off with the thumb nail and cast into the fire, lest it should become food for the rats. If this should be devoured by them the child grows up wicked. Until the cord has been separated from the body and has been burnt, no male, not even the father, is admitted to the hut.

During the first days the child is not given the breast— the qualities of the colostrum seem recognized; at least this is called "tschida fuenna,'' and the milk later "tschiali.'' In order to further the flow of milk the young mother drinks hot water for many months, and washes herself with a decoction of the leaf of the castor-bean plant. The genitals are cleansed and rubbed with bunches of these same leaves, well soaked in water, until all secretions cease.

The young mother takes frequent baths in some secluded spot, not too far from her hut; she seats herself in a slight

excavation in the ground, which has been lined with mats, and whilst her assistants or friends are pouring hot and cold water alternately over her body, she is thoroughly kneaded and rubbed—massage. The child, especially in case that it should perspire, is bathed several times a day in cold water, into which charms have been dipped. The new born child remains within the hut for two or four months. The father and other men can only see it after the navel string has separated from the body, and even then only if they have not cohabited during the preceding night. The negroes themselves assign the suspicion of their wives as a reason for this exclusion, because they wish to retain control of them and prevent them from becoming dissolute, as mothers are prohibited from sexual intercourse during the period of lactation. This period averages twelve or fourteen months, but varies greatly, as some wean their children when the first teeth appear; others when they begin to talk. No Loango mother trusts her child to the care of another; they nurse the child just as civilized mothers do; they even hold down the breast with the fingers in the same manner. The breast is only given at certain times, no other food being offered in the intervals. The child seizes a part of the areola in addition to the entire nipple.

During the first months, while the child is carefully confined to the hut in which it was born, the mother goes out at will attending to her duties; but the homes of the men she dare not enter, not even that of her husband, whose visits she, however, receives, as the father loves to fondle his baby; later, the mother carries her baby in a cloth tied to her back, and even sometimes quite a large child is carried astraddle of her hips, a position in which the father is proud to carry about even his good-sized offspring. The Loango mother is very fond of her child, and it is no wonder, when we consider the attractive, oddly humorous, jolly appearance of the little negroes. Whilst the children are confined to the hut, two names are given them—a boy is called Nsau (elephant), a girl, Mputa (lovey, chickey). Their first appearance outside of the hut gives rise to a holiday;

the mother, in festive garments, receives the villagers and their congratulations, whilst seated in front of her hut with her child upon her arms. A name is given the newcomer with a kind of baptism by some relative, usually the uncle, and, if we may so express it, citizenship is thereby extended to him.