Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa. David Livingstone
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Without such fangs escapes would be common; with such they are
rare.
"The natives of South Africa regard the 'Bucephalus Capensis'
as poisonous; but in their opinion we can not concur, as we
have not been able to discover the existence of any glands
manifestly organized for the secretion of poison. The fangs
are inclosed in a soft, pulpy sheath, the inner surface of
which is commonly coated with a thin glairy secretion. This
secretion possibly may have something acrid and irritating in
its qualities, which may, when it enters a wound, cause pain
and even swelling, but nothing of greater importance.
"The 'Bucephalus Capensis' is generally found on trees, to
which it resorts for the purpose of catching birds, upon which
it delights to feed. The presence of a specimen in a tree is
generally soon discovered by the birds of the neighborhood,
who collect around it and fly to and fro, uttering the most
piercing cries, until some one, more terror-struck than the
rest, actually scans its lips, and, almost without resistance,
becomes a meal for its enemy. During such a proceeding the
snake is generally observed with its head raised about ten or
twelve inches above the branch round which its body and tail
are entwined, with its mouth open and its neck inflated, as if
anxiously endeavoring to increase the terror which it would
almost appear it was aware would sooner or later bring within
its grasp some one of the feathered group.
"Whatever may be said in ridicule of fascination, it is
nevertheless true that birds, and even quadrupeds, are, under
certain circumstances, unable to retire from the presence of
certain of their enemies; and, what is even more
extraordinary, unable to resist the propensity to advance from
a situation of actual safety into one of the most imminent
danger. This I have often seen exemplified in the case of
birds and snakes; and I have heard of instances equally
curious, in which antelopes and other quadrupeds have been so
bewildered by the sudden appearance of crocodiles, and by the
grimaces and contortions they practiced, as to be unable to
fly or even move from the spot toward which they were
approaching to seize them."—Dr. Andrew Smith's "Reptilia".
In addition to these interesting statements of the most able
naturalist from whom I have taken this note, it may be added
that fire exercises a fascinating effect on some kinds of
toads. They may be seen rushing into it in the evenings
without ever starting back on feeling pain. Contact with the
hot embers rather increases the energy with which they strive
to gain the hottest parts, and they never cease their
struggles for the centre even when their juices are
coagulating and their limbs stiffening in the roasting heat.
Various insects, also, are thus fascinated; but the scorpions
may be seen coming away from the fire in fierce disgust, and
they are so irritated as to inflict at that time their most
painful stings.
Some of the Bayeiye we met at Sebituane's Ford pretended to be unaffected by the bite of serpents, and showed the feat of lacerating their arms with the teeth of such as are unfurnished with the poison-fangs. They also swallow the poison, by way of gaining notoriety; but Dr. Andrew Smith put the sincerity of such persons to the test by offering them the fangs of a really poisonous variety, and found they shrank from the experiment.
When we reached the Bamangwato, the chief, Sekomi, was particularly friendly, collected all his people to the religious services we held, and explained his reasons for compelling some Englishmen to pay him a horse. "They would not sell him any powder, though they had plenty; so he compelled them to give it and the horse for nothing. He would not deny the extortion to me; that would be 'boherehere' (swindling)." He thus thought extortion better than swindling. I could not detect any difference in the morality of the two transactions, but Sekomi's ideas of honesty are the lowest I have met with in any Bechuana chief, and this instance is mentioned as the only approach to demanding payment for leave to pass that I have met with in the south. In all other cases the difficulty has been to get a chief to give us men to show the way, and the payment has only been for guides. Englishmen have always very properly avoided giving that idea to the native mind which we shall hereafter find prove troublesome, that payment ought to be made for passage through a country.
All the Bechuana and Caffre tribes south of the Zambesi practice circumcision ('boguera'), but the rites observed are carefully concealed. The initiated alone can approach, but in this town I was once a spectator of the second part of the ceremony of the circumcision, called "sechu". Just at the dawn of day, a row of boys of nearly fourteen years of age stood naked in the kotla, each having a pair of sandals as a shield on his hands. Facing them stood the men of the town in a similar state of nudity, all armed with long thin wands, of a tough, strong, supple bush called moretloa ('Grewia flava'), and engaged in a dance named "koha", in which questions are put to the boys, as "Will you guard the chief well?" "Will you herd the cattle well?" and, while the latter give an affirmative response, the men rush forward to them, and each aims a full-weight blow at the back of one of the boys. Shielding himself with the sandals above his head, he causes the supple wand to descend and bend into his back, and every stroke inflicted thus makes the blood squirt out of a wound a foot or eighteen inches long. At the end of the dance, the boys' backs are seamed with wounds and weals, the scars of which remain through life. This is intended to harden the young soldiers, and prepare them for the rank of men. After this ceremony, and after killing a rhinoceros, they may marry a wife.
In the "koha" the same respect is shown to age as in many other of their customs. A younger man, rushing from the ranks to exercise his wand on the backs of the youths, may be himself the object of chastisement by the older, and, on the occasion referred to, Sekomi received a severe cut on the leg from one of his gray-haired people. On my joking with some of the young men on their want of courage, notwithstanding all the beatings of which they bore marks, and hinting that our soldiers were brave without suffering so much, one rose up and said, "Ask him if, when he and I were compelled by a lion to stop and make a fire, I did not lie down and sleep as well as himself." In other parts a challenge to try a race would have been given, and you may frequently see grown men adopting that means of testing superiority, like so many children.
The sechu is practiced by three tribes only. Boguera is observed by all the Bechuanas and Caffres, but not by the negro tribes beyond 20 Deg. south. The "boguera" is a civil rather than a religious rite. All the boys of an age between ten and fourteen or fifteen are selected to be the companions for life of one of the sons of the chief. They are taken out to some retired spot in the forest, and huts are erected for their accommodation; the old men go out and teach them to dance, initiating them, at the same time, into all the mysteries of African politics and government. Each one is expected to compose an oration in praise of himself, called a "leina" or name, and to be able to repeat it with sufficient fluency. A good deal of beating is required to bring them up to the required excellency in different matters, so that, when they return from the close seclusion in which they are kept, they