The Discovery of the Source of the Nile | Page 9

grass is not too long; and antelopes,
of great variety in species and habits, are found wherever man will let
them alone and they can find water. The lion is, however, rarely
heard--much more seldom seen. Hyenas are numerous, and thievishly
inclined. Leopards, less common, are the terror of the villagers. Foxes
are not numerous, but frighten the black traveller by their ill-omened
bark. Hares, about half the size of English ones--there are no
rabbits--are widely spread, but not numerous; porcupines the same.
Wild cats, and animals of the ferret kind, destroy game. Monkeys of
various kinds and squirrels harbour in the trees, but are rarely seen.
Tortoises and snakes, in great variety, crawl over the ground, mostly
after the rains. Rats and lizards--there are but few mice--are very
abundant, and feed both in the fields and on the stores of the men.

The wily ostrich, bustard, and florikan affect all open places. The
guinea-fowl is the most numerous of all game-birds. Partridges come
next, but do not afford good sport; and quails are rare. Ducks and snipe
appear to love Africa less than any other country; and geese and storks
are only found where water most abounds. Vultures are uncommon;
hawks and crows much abound, as in all other countries; but little birds,
of every colour and note, are discoverable in great quantities near water
and by the villages. Huge snails and small ones, as well as fresh-water
shells, are very abundant, though the conchologist would find but little
variety to repay his labours; and insects, though innumerable, are best
sought for after the rains have set in.[FN#3]
The Wanguana or Freed Men
The Wa-n-guana, as their name implies, are men freed from slavery;
and as it is to these singular negroes acting as hired servants that I have
been chiefly indebted for opening this large section of Africa, a few
general remarks on their character cannot be out of place here.
Of course, having been born in Africa, and associated in childhood with
the untainted negroes, they retain all the superstitious notions of the
true aborigines, though somewhat modified, and even corrupted, by
that acquaintance with the outer world which sharpens their wits.
Most of these men were doubtless caught in wars, as may be seen every
day in Africa, made slaves of, and sold to the Arabs for a few yards of
common cloth, brass wire, or beads. They would then be taken to the
Zanzibar market, resold like horses to the highest bidder, and then kept
in bondage by their new masters, more like children of his family than
anything else. In this new position they were circumcised to make
Mussulmans of them, that their hands might be "clean" to slaughter
their master's cattle, and extend his creed; for the Arabs believe the day
must come when the tenets of Mohammed will be accepted by all men.
The slave in this new position finds himself much better off than he
ever was in his life before, with this exception, that as a slave he feels
himself much degraded in the social scale of society, and his family ties
are all cut off from him--probably his relations have all been killed in

the war in which he was captured. Still, after the first qualms have worn
off, we find him much attached to his master, who feeds him and finds
him in clothes in return for the menial services which he performs. In a
few years after capture, or when confidence has been gained by the
attachment shown by the slave, if the master is a trader in ivory, he will
intrust him with the charge of his stores, and send him all over the
interior of the continent to purchase for him both slaves and ivory; but
should the master die, according to the Mohammedan creed the slaves
ought to be freed. In Arabia this would be the case; but at Zanzibar it
more generally happens that the slave is willed to his successor.
The whole system of slaveholding by the Arabs in Africa, or rather on
the coast or at Zanzibar, is exceedingly strange; for the slaves, both in
individual physical strength and in numbers, are so superior to the Arab
foreigners, that if they chose to rebel, they might send the Arabs flying
out of the land. It happens, however, that they are spell-bound, not
knowing their strength any more than domestic animals, and they even
seem to consider that they would be dishonest if they ran away after
being purchased, and so brought pecuniary loss on their owners.
There are many positions into which the slave may get by the course of
events, and I shall give here, as a specimen, the ordinary case of one
who has been freed by the death of his