Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/390

 3ia SOUTH AND EAST AFBICA. of a formerly jjowerful tribe almost entirely exterminated by the Maviti. These Wunmeras were at one time very numerous, especially in the neighbourhood of the etmst near Kiloa. The Wangiudos or Wagindos (Wa-Ngindo, Wa-Gindo), who have replaced the Wamuems in the districts to the north and north-west of the terrace occupied bv the Makondos, are one of the many warlike tribes that have assumed the name of the Maviti. To keep up the fiction they have also adopted the dress, war-cry, weapons, and cu8ti»ras of tlioso formidable kinsmen of the Zulus. By some of their neighbours thoy are called Walihuhu (Wali-Huhu), a name formed in imitation of their battle cry. The Mahenges (Mu-IIenge), who dwell farther north in the Rutiji basin between L'ranga and Ruaha, also try to strike terror by the same <Io-ico, after having had themselves to tremble before thesfe fierce warriors. The Wanvakunyakos (Wa-Xyakanyaka) have been reduced by them to the condition uf sorls. The "Wazaramos. Tiie territory east of the Mahenges, in the Rufiji basin, belongs to the Wa- ndondos, or Wadondis (Wa-Ndonde, Wa-Dondi), who are conterminous with the Wazaramos (Wa-Zuramo) of the region comprised between the Rufiji, the lower Kingani, and the territory of the Swaheli, or " Coast People." The Wazaramos arc for the most part men of medium stature, but of rare physical strength. They are evidently of mixed origin, and present a corresponding variety of types. Some travellers have lx)en struck by the great number of albinos met in their country. Since the middle of the present century they have been frequently visited by Arab traders and Euroj>ean explorers; hence the accounts now received of their social usages differ greatly from those of the early observers. Through contact with the outer world their customs have been considerably modified, and they now wear the Arab dress, purchase arras, implements, and ornaments from the traders, and have discontinued many of their ferocious ances- tral practices. But in the more remote districts Wazaramos may still be seen whose features are slashed with deep gashes from ear to mouth, who wear no clothes except short skirts of foliage or grassy fibre, who by mixing clay with the hair build up head- dresses in the shape of a roof, and make use of poisoned arrows, which they keep in a carefully ornamented quiver. Cruel punishments for real or imaginary offences were by no means rare amongst the Wazaramos : they burnt the wizard with his wife and children, threw to the bush all infants whose teeth presented unydepartu'e from the normul disposition; at times twins shared the same fate, as well as all children bom on unpropitious days. Even those who had survived the dangers besetting their infancy were murdered if they ground their teeth in sleep, or had any other physical defect considered likely to bring misfortune on the family. On the other hand, the mother who lost her child through an accident or any illness, was held responsible for its death ; she was driven from