Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/293

INHABITANTS OP OAZAIAND. 229 whom they reBcmblc in physicul uppeuniiice, U8up;t'8, and jjcaceful temperament. I^e them, they show u decided preferenee for agriculture and stock-breeding, so far at least as permitted by their Umgoni masters, and also speak dialects showing inarke<l affinities to the Sesuto language. All these despised Tongas are gifted with a clear intellect and a passion for learning. Whenever they can escape from the tyranny of the Zulus, they imme- diately resume the cultivation of the land and their other industrial pursuits. Being entirely averse from the military spirit, they discuss all affairs of general interest in common, leaving the administration to a council of elders and petty chiefs. Their circular huts, formed of stakes connected by creepers, with all interstices filled in by clay, are generally higher and better conslructed than those of the southern Zulu Kafir peoples. The Chobi, that is, " Bowmen," occupy the southernmost di>trict8 in Gazaland. Those dwelling in the neighbourhood of the Limpopo along the coast dunes have all been reduced by the Zulus. But the northern Chobi, called also Mindongs by the Portuguese, have succeeded in safeguarding their independence, thanks to the support accorded them by the garrison of the town of Inharabane. These are the Boa Gente, or " good folks " spoken of by Vasco de Gama. This tribe disfigure themselves in a way which to Europeans seems absolutely repulsive. They raise three rows of warty excrescences on the face, one from the top of the forehead to the tip of the nose, the other two from ear to ear, forming two chains, which are brought round one by the upper lip the other by the chin. They seem, better entitled to the nume or Knob-noses even than their Transvaal neighbours. The costume of their women is a sort of bark toga. North-west of the Chobi the plains are occupied by the Ma-Kwakwa people, where territory may be traversed in all directions without obtaining a sight of a single village, so completely are their settlements concealed in the brushwood. For a stretch of about sixty miles, Richards came upon nothing but abandoned kraals. These unfortunate Ma-Kwakwas do not dare even to cultivate their little garden plots, such is their dread of sudden visits from their Zulu kinsmen and oppressors. But they carefully tend their wine- yielding palms, small trees from 5 to 10 feet high, which resemble cabbage stumps in appearance, but give a large supply of liquor. The Ma-Gwanzas, who dwell west and north-west of the Ma-Kwakwas, along the banks of the Limpopo and its affluents, are exempt from the visits of the Zulu soldiery, and are consequently a very numerous people. They own large well- cultivated gardens, and even herds of cattle in all the districts not infested by the tsetse fly. Their northern neighbours, the Ma-Longwas or Ma-Rongwis, dwell in bark huts of a rudimentary type. The district stretching still farther north in the direction of the Sabi delta is held by the Bila-Kulu tribe, while the far more numerous Illenga nation occupies at some distance inland from the coast the region of plains extending towards the interior between the Limpopo and Sabi valleys. Their country being mainly scrub, the Illengas might almost be called