DR. SCHWEINFURTH'S BOOK ON AFRICA.* (SECOND NOTICE.) THE first magnate

of the Niam-niam to whom Dr. Schweinfiirth paid his respects was Nganye, the resident prince of a beautiful park-like district. The natives regarded the white man curiously, but not inimically, and allowed him to take portraits of some among them, which are much less hideous than those of the Bongo. Nganye was very friendly, but wholly uninterested in his visitor, except as Aboo Sammat's friend. He did not ask a question concerning the traveller's native land or the object of his journey, nor, indeed, did any other African chieftain. The fruit- fulness of the soil in this remote region of the NV estern Nile is extreme, and the aspect of the country is thoroughly European. The arrangements of the huts are much the same throughout the land ; the following picture suffices for all :- "Two, or at most three, families reside close together. Generally from eight to twelve huts are clustered round one common open space, which is kept perfectly clean, and in the centre of which is reared a post, upon which the trophies of the chase are hung. Skulls of the rarest kind, splendid horns of antelopes and buffaloes, are attached to this standard, and it must be added, skulls of men and withered hands and feet ! Close in the rear of the huts, upon the level ground, were the magazines for corn ; behind these a circle of Bokko fig-trees, which are only found in cultivated spots, and the bark of which is

• The Heart of Africa: Three Years Travels and Adventures in the Unexplored Regions of Central Africa. From 1868 to 1871. By Dr. Georg Schweintiirth. Translated by Ellen E. Prewar. With an Introduction by Winwood Meade. London: Sampson Low, Marston, and Co.

prized far more than the handsomest of skins, as a material to make into clothing. Further in the background might be noticed a perfect enclosure of paradise figs; then, in wider circumference, the planta- tions of manioc and maize, and lastly, the outlying fields of eleusine, extending to the compound next beyond. The huts are embellished externally with black and white decorations, and have roofs rising upwards in two points; long poles project from the peaks alike of huts and of granaries, and on these are strung rows of great land-snails."

This picture is not lacking in a homely comfort, and only for the skulls and the hands and feet, might be regarded with envy by European peoples, especially as the climate is beautiful, and the women are well treated and highly considered. The affection of the Niam-niam for their wives is unparalleled among natives of so low a grade. A husband will spare no sacrifice to redeem an imprisoned wife, and the Nubians turn this fact to advantage in the ivory trade, as they are aware that whoever holds a female hostage can obtain almost any compensation from a Niam-niam.

The Niam-niam who accompanied his caravan called Dr. Schweinftirth " Mbarikpa," or "The Leaf-eater," in consequence of the marvellous accounts the interpreter gave them of the way in which he was accustomed to eat whatever he found growing ; dismissing his attendants and getting into a dense thicket, where he imagined he was unobserved, and where he would gather and devour enormous quantities of leaves, and come forth from the woods with an exhilarated and satiated expression, while they were all suffering from hunger. As they got on into the Niam-niam country the indirect evidence of cannibalism was toostrong to be over- looked, though it was sometimes disavowed. Skulls were fastened to memorial posts like presents on a Christmas-tree ; close to the huts, amongst the piles of refuse, were human bones which had beyond doubt been subjected to the hatchet or the knife ; and on all the beautiful trees hung skeleton or half-skeleton hands and feet. Here the chimpanzee appears for the first time ;—it is con- fined, in the interior, to the Niatn-niatn country,—and gives rise to an interesting digression on this curious animal, some of whose characteristics appear to be shared by an extraordinary tribe called the A-Banga, who have emigrated into the Niam-niara country. A day's halt on the march gave Dr. Schweinfiirth an opportunity of making a botanising trip to a rich wood where grew certain gigantic trees whose produce would have been inaccessible without the aid of some of this tribe. He especially

wished for the great globular fruit, larger than his head, of a Treculia, 80 feet high, and tells us how the A-Banga men procured

it for him, while he stood and stared at them with astonishment :—

" Thoy seemed to have all the nimbleness of monkeys. By taking hold of the boughs of the smaller trees, and bending them down side- ways, and tearing down the long rope-like creepers, they contrived to climb the tallest and the smoothest stems. Some of the trees were ten feet in diameter at the base, and had a bark without a wrinkle; not unfrequently they ran up to a height of forty feet without throwing out a single branch."

The A-Bangs were peculiarly impressed by the traveller's fire- producing powers, which inspired them with respectful awe, which did not yield to the discovery that he could impart to them a similar faculty by simply teaching them to strike lucifer-matches. Previous to its arrival in the hitherto unexplored kingdom of Monbuttoo, the caravan passed through some dreary swamps and some ancient forests, where the traveller remarked such wonderful masses of lichens as he had never before seen, and one of the most characteristic of the flora of the region. It is the Platycorium, which projects in couples, like elephants' ears, from the branches of the trees. In those ancient woods, however, he found nothing, on the whole, so wonderful as the world of white ants, assiduous in their industry, and so inexplicable in their work. "They construct their nests in a shape not dissimilar to wine-casks, out of countless leaves, which they cement together with a slimy clay, using a strong bough for the axis of the whole, so that the fabric is suspended at a giddy height. They partition their build- ings by means of wood-shavings and bits of bark, they make several stories, and set apatt nurseries and chambers for the young, and their structures have furnished the natives of Central Africa with the general design of all their basket-work.

The interest of the march, dignified by many incidents of camp- life, close observation of native manners and customs, and results of botanising expeditions, increases with Dr. Schweiufiirth's approach to that watershed of the Western Nile for which he was looking with eager and impatient expectation, which he was the first European, coming from the North, destined to traverse, and which he investigated with the utmost thoroughness, crossing every stream, and defining each upon his map. He tells us nothing fresh about the sources of the Nile, except that he has not kuud them, and the only passage in the work which seems to us inconsiderate, is one in which he discusses and dismisses Bruce's theory (vol. i., p. 113). But he has conclusively proved by his discovery of the Welle, which is the most important of his geo- graphical feats, that Dr. Livingstone was in error when he sug- gested the Luabala as a source of the Nile. He thus narrates his approach to the Welle :—

‘, The way to the river led us duo south, through groves of plantains. A march of two leagues brought us to its brink. Its dark flood rolled majestically to the west, in its general aspect suggesting a resemblance to the Blue Nile. It was a thrilling moment that can never fade from my memory. My sensations must have been like Mungo Park's, on the 20th of July, 1796, when he planted his foot upon the shore of the mysterious Niger, and answered once for all the groat geographical question of his day, as to whether its waters rolled to the east or to the west. Here, then, I was upon the very bank of the river, attesting the western flow of the water, about which the contradictions and incon- sistencies of the Nubians had kept up my unflagging interest ever since we set out from Khartoom. With what eagerness I yearned to catch the first glance of the waters of which the rippling sound, as they washed their stony banks, came through tho bushes to ray strained and listening ear. If the river should flow to the east, why then it solved the problem, hitherto inexplicable, of the fullness of the water in Lake Mwootan (Albert Nyanza); but if, as was far more likely, it should go towards the west, then beyond a doubt it was independent altogether of the Nile system. A moment more, and the question was set at rest. Westerly was the direction of the stream, which consequently did not belong to the Nile at all The Welle had all the tokens of being a mountain stream, of which the source was at no remote distance, and to a certainty was not in a latitude much to the south of that of the

spot where we were crossing The result of my inquiries is that to the south-west of Munza's country the land takes a decided rise, and the natives tell of certain detached groups of hills at no great dis- tance, which I take to be the western fringe of the 'Blue Mountains,' which Baker observed from the farther side of Lake Mwootan, and of which he reckoned that the height must be 8,000 feet."

Thus, Dr. Schweinfiirth establishes that the Welle, whose existence was announced by Barth under the name of the river of Kubanda, has no connection with the Gazelle, but is a tributary of the Shary, whose lower course Major Denham explored in 1824; and the reader, having followed him through his investigation of the entire of the Western Nile basin, and learned that therein the Nile sources do not lie, derives at least the satisfaction of anticipating many more records of exploration, before the often announced solution of the great problem of the ages shall be reached. The caravan encamped south of the river, and the "wonderful stranger" received ambassadors from King Munza, to whom he gave satisfactory explanations of the object of his visit to their country ; which was to be the limit of his operations for that year, but from whence, as it afterwards proved, he was forced to retrace his steps towards the north. The last day's march stands out prominently among the pictures of that memorable journey. The twelve miles which led to Munza's palace left an indelible impression of beauty upon the traveller's mind. It is difficult to realise the actual condition of the human beings who people such a scene as this :—

"The plaintain groves harmonised perfectly, so perfectly, with the clustering oil-palms, that nothing could surpass the perfection of the pic- ture, while the ferns that adorned the countless stems in the background of the landscape enhanced the charms of the tropical groves. A fresh and invigorating atmosphere contributed to the enjoyment of it all, refresh- ing water and grateful shade being never far away. In front of the native dwellings towered the splendid figs, of which the spreading crowns defied the passage of the burning sun. No less than twelve brooklets did we pass, some lying in depressions of 100 feet, and some sunk as much as 200 feet below the dummits of their boundary walls of verdant vegetation ; and there were two upheaved and rounded hills of gneiss, 300 feet high, along the flanks of which our path wound. On either hand there was an almost unbroken series of the idyllic homes of the people, who hurried to their gates, and offered us the choicest

products of their happy clime We reached a broad valley, circled by plantations, and shadowed by gigantic trees which had sur- vived the decay of the ancient wilderness ; through the loveliest part murmured a transparent brook. We chose a station clear of trees, and fixed our camp. In front was a sloping area, void of grass, enlivened with an endless multitude of huts, of which the roofs of some were like ordinary sheds, and those of others of a conical form. And there, sur- mounting all, with extensive courts, broad and imposing, unlike any- thing we had seen since we loft the edifices of Cairo, upreared itself the spacious pile of King Munza's dwelling."

Dr. Schweinftirth'e weather-beaten tent, with his own flag hoisted, occupied the middle of the long line of grass huts of the caravan, and he resolutely kept within its shelter for one clear day, in order to secure himself from interviews which would involve his exhibit- ing the incomprehensible whiteness of his skin to the natives ; and permitting them to convince themselves, by pulling it, that his long straight hair was really his own ; and also, that he might be rested and refreshed for the great occasion on which for the first time (for Piaggia did not get so far as Monbuttoo) a white man was to find himself in the presence of the most distinguished and powerful Prince of the "Great-eaters."

To the country of the Niam-niam the epithet "heart of Africa" , exactly applies. It lies between the fourth and sixth parallels of , north latitude, and a line drawn across the centre from east to west would correspond with the watershed between the basins of , the Nile and Tead. It covers an area of 48,000 square miles, and Dr. Schweinfiirth estimates the population at 2,000,000, founding his calculation upon the number of armed men at the disposal of the thirty-five independent chieftains through whose territory he travelled eastwards, and upon the corresponding reports of the fighting force in the western districts. " No traveller," says the author, "could possibly find himself for the first time surrounded by a group of true Niam-niam without being almost forced to confess that all he had hitherto witnessed amongst the various races of Africa was comparatively tame and uninteresting, so remarkable is the aspect of this savage people." And then he proceeds to give a description of them, their ceremonies, customs, industries, beliefs, and especially of their cannibalism, which, without the suspicions extravagance of M. Da Chaillu's stories of the Fans (between whom and the Monbuttoo Dr. Schweinfiirth considers there is a strong affinity), is more extraordinary, and far more contradictory in its strange- mixture of the admirable and the revolting. Their skins are chocolate-colour, their heads are broad and round, their eyes are- remarkably large, full, and widely apart ; the expression of their faces is a combination of "animal ferocity, warlike resolution, and ingenuous candour." No mutilation is practised by either sex, but the men file theirIncisor teeth to a point' for the purpose of griping the arm of an adversary in wrestling or in single combat. The men are mighty hunters, the women skilful agri- culturists. No cattle exist in the land ; the only domestic animals, are poultry and dogs, the flesh of the latter being esteemed one of their choicest delicacies by the Niam-niam. They are avowedly cannibals, making no secret of their savage craving; they string the- teeth of their victims round their necks, and adorn the stakes erected beside their dwellings with the skulls of the men whom they have eaten. Human fat is universally sold. No bodies are rejected as- unfit for food except those which have died from some loathsome cutaneous disease. In contrast to this horrid picture, we have an account of the ingenious and beautiful weapons, the finely shaped and flawless pottery, and the elaborate and dexterous wood-carving of these terrible people. They have several games of skill, and they love music as much as they love battles and elephant hunts._ The harmonies they elicit from the mandolin are of surprising beauty, and transport them with delight. They believe in omens and auguries, and are goblin-haunted, like the other Central- African races. Their beautiful forests are the abodes of evil agencies, the musical rustling of the leaves is the menacing dialogue of demons. The embellishment of their tobacco-pipes and the elaboration of their extraordinary head-dresses are their chief occupations of a harmless sort ; dreadful orgies and dances at every full moon are their principal social pleasures. The authority of their chiefs is supreme. Such are the people among whom Dr.. Schweinfiirth took up his abode in March, 1870, after an inter- view with the king, who with storehouses piled to the roofs with ivory, the hunting booty of a whole year, was impatiently awaiting the arrival of the caravan from Khartoum, whose chief, Moham- med, had visited him on two previous occasions, and with whom, he had pledged an eternal friendship in their respective blood.. From these people, amid scenes of such paradisaical beauty as the imagination can hardly take in, he was destined to prove the truth of things which even he, a scientific man familiar with marvels had mocked at, as fancies and fables of the ancients.