Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/416

 882 SOUTH AND EAST AFKICA. from twelve thousand to fifteen thousand Negroes were annually exported from this place to the coast-towns of Arabia and the Persian Gulf. The immigrants from India include Parsees, Hindi Shiah Mohammedans, Khojas, and Bhoras, from Bombay and Surat, who are accompanied by their wives ; lastly, the ubiquitous Banyans. These last, who occupy a separate quarter of the capital, and who are also met in the seaports along the opposite coast, come almost exclusively from the peninsula of Cutch, where reside their employers and associates. They never bring their families with them, and are consequently always eager to return to their homes, where they can freely observe all the usages and religious rites of their native land. They yearly send to India the earnings of their trade, keeping nothing for themselves except the capital required to conduct their business transactions. Being extremely conscientious, they scrupulously observe all the practices handed down by religious tradition. They shave the head and beard, leaving only the moustache, the whiskers, and a little tuft of hair on the forehead. They wear a red turban and one or two lengths of cotton gracefully folded round the body. They are excessively frugal, restricting themselves entirely to a vegetarian diet of breadstuffs, milk, butter, cheese, fruits, and vegetables. All that has lived an animal life — beasts of the field, birds of the air, or fish — is absolutely prohibited. In order to be sure that no impure ingredients get mixed with their food, they send to India for their cooking butter, and themselves prepare the meal. Were a stranger but to touch their rice or wheat-meal, all would be polluted and thrown aside. The eatables are served on fresh broad leaves, and the water drawn from the spring or cistern in their own vessels, unsullied by the contact of a profane hand. The cow is their sucred animal, and on feast days for her is prepared a choice banquet of potatoes and maize. They never fail to burn their dead on the beach, a rite attended with much ceremony. First of all the skull is riveted with large nails, to prevent it from bursting with the heat ; then the body is stretched on a funeral pyre com- posed of as many blocks of wood as there are Banyans present to honour the dead. After cremation, the ashes are cast to the winds. Customs so entirely opposed to those of the Arabs and Swaheli, expose the Banyans to the jeers and laughter of their neighbours ; but they endure all uncomplainingly. But these mijd and resigned devotees quietly revenge them- selves by growing rich at the expense of the scoffers. Unlike the Arabs, however, they take no part in the slave-trade. It is always a good sign when the Banyans are observed to increase in numbers, and the Arabs to diminish, in the seaports along the coast. In the island itself the sale of Negroes is forbidden, but the slaves have not been emancipated, and the children still follow the social condition of their mother. The families of these captives are said generally speaking to be far from numerous.