Adventure Magazine Cover — page 56: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

46 above the thick end of the muscle he has several brass rings bound around it. On his fingers are both copper and_ seed-bead rings, which gives him an excuse to flirt his hands in graceful gesture more often than is the native habit. Around his middle is a wonderful musi or mcyo with a fine pattern which has been carried out in a very workmanlike manner. His ankles have tied around them some tails either of umreundia or makrooti which from a distance look like civilized “spats.” In his hand he carries an intricately carved stick as he minces in his way to the eku hlenz. As to where the beads come from—these are bought in trade or barter by the natives who send five or six strong aba-fana to a trading station, two, three and sometimes five hundred miles away, at the same time procuring other things such as wire, salt, and so on. The journey may take two or three months, time not being a great factor in the native’s life. Thus a whole tribe may be wearing beads and woven copper and brass wire rings, though only a half dozen in the whole tribe have ever set eyes on any civilized person. In saying ‘‘tribes” it may interest.a few to know that some number from fifty thou- sand souls to two hundred and fifty thou- sand, and one village does not, as is mis- takenly thought, constitute a whole tribe, but only a small part. Some of these com- munities have approximately from fifteen hundred to five thousand persons, the head of the community being a petty chief, who is appointed by the zkosi (king), and whose word is law. He takes his orders from the king and only from him. - But to return to the village under con- sideration. The older men are busy skinning the game that was brought in early in the morning. The evil spirit must be feeling good—as only two heads of game were eaten up by ongonyama! Five or six fires are blazing, around which cooking of all kinds is continually going on. Little boys are in their element as they pick up hoofs around where the butchering is going on, or beg a scrap of meat and race back to a fire, there to break a stick, and, putting the meat on the splintered point, impatiently turn it around and around until it sizzles with the heat. Though half done, it is taken off the stick and blown upon as it is passed from left hand to right and back again rapidly to cool. Adventure Still hot it pops into the mouth. Saliva mixed with charcoal runs out of the corners of the mouth. The boy grimaces rapidly but chews on manfully, passing the morsel from one side of his mouth to the other. A gulp and he swallows it. A vacant stare comes over his face as the hot morsel burns its way down. A swallow or two, and he pats his stomach as the piece of meat evi- dently reaches its destination. On the other side of the fire a little girl, naked, sits on her haunches with a live brand of wood in her hands. She has been told to watch the ba-ka of some pumpkins and been given two ears of corn as her own. These two she is roasting by the fire, keeping an eye on the pumpkins, yet a more wary one on ber companions, who hover at the back of her, watching for a chance to snatch her corn away and eat it, but the live brand in her hand deters them. Already one of their number has felt the pain of a burn from that brand and one by one they leave her, baffled by her direct strategy, and she is able to eat her corn and tend the pumpkins in peace. ‘ZA from the. setting, the feast began. =S Because of the day’s great heat noth- ing is ever done ona big scale until late noon which is carried into the night. And so everybody began to eat. The children, with that peculiar physical make-up that is so common among native children—that is, the “bay windowness’”’ of their little stomachs— ate till they were tight as little brown foot- balls. They would go a little way off and dance this condition off and come back and eat some more. Their elders—the men—ate with gusto, ate with great appetite and heartily laughed loudly as they cracked the bones, getting marrow out of them. Thev told terrible and awful lies to each other, and the only being who believed these stories was the narrator himself. The food began to have its effect, for be it known the native does not eat meat very often, only about once a month, sometimes longer, all depending on how lucky the hunters have been in the chase. So, after a month’s abstinence from meat, they gorgec themselves. The older men became, as it V AS THE sun was about two hours - were, intoxicated by the fresh-killed game, and, after humming a favorite war sopg Conn DOOKS (© iin