Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/346

332 it is always with the palms forward, never with doubled fists or the fingers turned backward. A common position is to lean toward a post, with the hand holding to it away up, but only the forearm coming in contact with the post. The negro sedulously avoids touching a tree or the walls of his house with his naked body, for fear of soiling his anointed skin.

At the special audience we witnessed, a messenger was received, with a report of a military expedition. He was called Fingamaguha, or bone-gatherer, from his habit of fixing in his curly locks a bone from every fowl he killed. In saluting the chief he put on a sober expression, halted, drew his limbs up, bent his knee so as not quite to touch the ground, and clapped his hands three times. Before approaching the powerful Wama chiefs, the messenger must besmear his body and face with mud and roll in the dust. Among the East Coast negroes the usual salutation consists, besides the customary phrases, in extending the hand. The Wanjamuesi lightly press the palms together and then draw them quickly over one another till only the middle fingers touch, when those fingers are snapped upon the thumbs. The Wama, west of the Tanganyika, in saluting lay their weapons on the ground, bow to the earth, and rub their arms, breasts, and foreheads with dust.

Women show their respect for the stronger sex by stepping sidewise out of the road and turning their backs to the man; or else they pass, assuming a position of trying to creep under something. In saluting one another the Wanjamuesi women make a half turn and a straight courtesy.

The chief beckoned to the messenger by stretching his arm out, with the back of the hand up, and making a motion of drawing with his finger two or three times under the inner part of his hand, as if he would draw the man in. Fingamaguha enforced his affirmative answer to the first question asked him by moving his chin backward and forward and lifting his eyebrows. Answering no to another question, he raised his shoulders and dropped them instantly. In expressing doubt, the negro draws his shoulders slowly down and inclines his head to one side; but he is not acquainted with any such sign as that of shaking the head in negation.

Previous to calling upon the messenger to begin his report, the chief offered him a cup of pombe or beer. The brave received it, supporting his extended right hand with his left. This using of both hands in acceping a gift—even if it be as insignificant a thing as a needle—is a matter of politeness. It emphasizes the importance of the present.

After prostrating himself, Fingamaguha began his story, holding one hand in the other, and accompanying each