770 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Fig. 5. 



sides of which stood limbs of trees garnished with skulls and ante- 

 lopes' jaws, while near the idol lay a pot containing pieces of meat in 

 a brown sauce. The corner posts and the idol were painted with 

 white and red spots. 



Besides these fixed amulets are also to be reckoned in the category 

 of art- works smaller toys that are worn as ornaments. Among these 

 are some kinds to which superstition has attributed particular powers, 

 made of antelope-horn, snail-shells, and small turtle-shells, the hollow 

 parts of which are filled with a magic salve, made of coal-dust and 



palm-oil. One of the 

 most potent* amulets is 

 the pemha, a fine, white 

 clay resembling kaolin, 

 which is brought from 

 some distance, and 

 forms an article of 

 trade. It is used much 

 in the same manner as 

 the holy water of the 

 Roman Catholics, and 

 the expression " pem- 

 ba " has a similar signifi- 

 cance with our " good- 

 luck" or "blessing." The term to "give pemba" is used to designate 

 the application of the moistened substance to the arm or the breast. 

 Feeble or sickly persons or beggars, who wish to accomplish an object 

 with a higher personage, besmear their whole faces with it. A master, 

 hunting his runaway slaves, paints with it a white ring around his right 

 eye, in the belief that he will thereby be able to see more sharply. 



Although the negroes possess no real writing, they seem to have 

 the beginning of it in the shape of tally-sticks and proprietary marks. 

 Creditors and debtors are accustomed to note the number of objects 

 of value, pieces of cloth, etc., on sticks ; and traveling merchants and 

 porters perpetuate the number of their night-camps on their walking- 

 canes, on which important events are also emphasized by larger or dif- 

 ferently shaped marks. If a gourd of unusual size or beauty is grow- 

 ing anywhere, the owner of it cuts a peculiar mark on it, by the aid 

 of the mysterious influence attached to which he is able to keep it as 

 his own. Some of the best designed proprietary marks we observed 

 are represented in Fig. 6. 



The musical capacity of the negroes is higher than their aptitude 

 for imitative art. The most complicated trumpet-signals can not be 

 given more clearly and correctly than is done by the black soldiery of 

 Angola. The melodies of these Africans are very touching and reso- 

 nant. The antiphone of a large file of porters going out in the 

 morning was a real treat to my otherwise little appreciative ears. It 



