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The Exeter Times, 1892-3-31, Page 3Gate Diacoveries About Them and Their Sanoundings. xpliorers Forbidden to Enter the Caves in the IUDs or Knifing's. When Capt. Grant was descending the Nile, after Speke and he had surveyed the great Victoria Nyanza, he met some native travellers who said to hint: "The most remarkable country in Afriert Is way dawn in Katanga. It is the place where copper comes from, and there are great caves m the hills, so high that if we *ere riding through thorn on these camels we could not touch the roof with our spears; And people live in them. One of these eaves is 400 yards wide, and it took us from sunrise till noon to march through it, and we came out of the hill an the other side." It was thirty years ago that Capt. Grant heard this remarkable story. It is a curious tioineidence that during the very week of his death, last month, there came to Brus- sole the preliminary report of Lieut. Le Marinel announcing that he had visited the caves of Katanga and seen the people who inhabit them. He approached these hills, which rise about 5,000 feet above the sea, from the northwest Another explorer, Mr. Arnot, has visited them from the south, and both sides of these little mouutain ranges are found to be dotted with the mouths of caverns, the dark homes of some thousands of people. Le Marinel eagys those troglodytes are known as the 13ena-Kambaho. Many of their caves are not inhabited, but are simply places of refuge. The openings are so ()Awry= ntenure among the rooks or hi the underbruah that it is hardly passible to find them; but aeons of inhabited caves are scattered like ra,hInt warrens along the flanks of the hills and- can be seen from a distance, The peo- ple have been a thorn in the flesh of King Meiri, ono of the most powerful native rulers in Africa. The troglodytes alone among hits subjects have for years defied his tax gatherera. The King's army several times man:Med apinat them in vale. When their Mlle were invaded the people simply retreated inte the bowels of the earth. Interior passages calumet their caves, and they can come to the light a.gain far from the place where they vaniabed Jute the W.:saltness of their underground homes. Le Marinel says, however, that Msiri has at last thoroughly cowed his rebellious sub- jects. They pay him tribute now, though there is little for the texgatherers to colleet, because the Ring left them hardly a goat when he conquered them. * * * They are among the loftiest and coldest parte of tropical Africa. Water sometimes freezes in the night Le Marinel says the Beneart.bantho are the most fared - ems savages he ever met. They are afraid the secrete of their grottoes will be fathom- ed, and the explorer Was not permitted to enter them. Arnot had the same experience On the south side of the hills. Ho lingered in the neighborhood for days, fed the multi- tude on hippopotamia and .iutelope and won their friendship, but no bribe tempted them to admit him to • THEIR SPIITERILANZAN Ha was permitted only to peer in at the Openings, where the walls had the appear- ance ot pumice atone. No one yet knows how large they are. Arnot says, however, that one of the eaves has two menthe, the distance between the openings tieing five miles. Water flows from many of the open - bags, There is little doubt that they are natural caves produced by erosion, and some of themerhaps artifenally enlarged and conno1, &te .altered all over this rugged region live these natives, in the larg- est eaves used as the abode of num, herding les in their retreats, tilling millet fields he valleys below. They are always t to detect signs of danger, when, as a they vanish from view, the earth owing them up beyonathe ken of their Turning to the nerrtliorn part of tho map, we find two centees of trogloilytic habita- tions, not far from the Mediterranean eoast. It seems strange that within a short distance ni tho sea there are regions still unexplor- ed. It may be that the cave dwellinge which Capt. Lyons said he found fear days march etetheeard of Tripoli in 1821 no longer exist. At any iaie nothing bas been written of them for many years. But a little further west, in Tunis, only forty miles from the set, French soldiers discovered two years ago tho largest villages of 'ave dwellers known in modern times. They have since been visited by several explorers, including Mr. Hamy, the anthropologist. The people HO called the Matmatmas, and their two villages, in parallel valleys, contain about 4,000 people. You might enter one of these valleys, and not know until you were right upon the caves that a human being lived there, a part of the populace being off over the hills with their herds and the restbuaied underground with their pottery making and house duties. The caves are excavated in the limestone hills. Dwellings, stables, workshops, everything is under ground. The bare limestone walls of these subterran- ean rooms. aro marked with deep soratches, made by the pickaxes that dug them out. Near the ceiling shelves are excavated on which provisions are stored. They descend o the entrance by a short ladder in an al - est perpendicular shaft, upon which fronts e doorway, the only source of light and entilation. They inter their dead in Mild- ew trenches, almost, on the surface. It is a trange spectacle -the dead ompying the ace usually deseeted to the living, while he living bury thibuselves in veritable sep- lchres. These &ye dwellers area content - Id people. Their homes areevarmer in win. er and cooler in summer than those of their eighbors. Their, villages are hives of in- ustry, and although their manner of life is recent revelation, not a few articles of uropean origin have been found in their underground homes. , The great explorer, Nachtigal, introduc- ed us in 1869 to the troglodytes of the Sahara Desert. Tbey were known only by mane before Nachtigal, on • HIS PERILOUS JOURNEY. found them among their mountains of Tibesti. A remarkable race are these Tibeue, " The People of the Rocks." Their women are unequalled for beauty among the North African races. None of the diseases that have scourged their noithean neighbors is keown among them. It is a land of volcanic rock, of hot springs and jeysers and the natives say the sulphur they co'llect is their only riches. Several thousands of them live among these moun- bias in menial caves or between blooks of ja tones, under roofs of palms or acacia branches. The flash and milk of goats are Almost their sole food. They lead, however, anything but an idyllic existence. Their life is that or the fox surrounded by hunters. On three sides of them live mveterate enemies who covet their women and camels. Riley are the bravest of fighters and can eir own, hut they wage war on all the world, and the white race is hi the eats' gory a their enemies. The result is that we know very little of their country, Naohtiga.1 visited only its nerthern part. Their mountains are Happosed to run north and south about 300 miles, but the breadth of these ranges is not known, On the east no enemy affronts them ; for, looking to- ward Mecca they can see ouly the yellow sands of the Libyan Desert, the moss for. bidden and terrible waste in the world. One of the most remarkable stories that Joseph Thomson had to tell when he came home from his trip through Masailand was of the great Mount Egon, not far fro,u the north-east corner of Victoria Nyanza, and artificial caves, extraordinary in number, and vast in extent. These caves'he said, were cut out of every compact volcanic ag- glomerate near the BASE OF THE Alld they were occupied by whole villages with thew cattle. They were so big tha hundreds of people and large herds could live in them. Thomson believed that they were mines in some past age. The works were evidently too vast to ba achieved by the simphi savages who now inhabit them, and Tompson wondered what superior race could formerly have occupied this region. Thomi son's mpressions of these caves were somewhat modified by the studies of Messrs. Jackson and Gekge in 1889, six years after Thomson's visit. They famed inhabited caves •at an elevation of 7,5000 feet One of thed contained thirty largo huts. There were other cave villages fur- ther down the mountain as well as ita base. The later explorers believe that these are natural caves. They saw nothing to suggest that they could possibly be the work of man. They found evidence also that years ago the 'natives lived on the plaiu in ordinary vil- twee, using the cavea at times as a place of refuge from, their enemies, until filially they made them their permanent abode. re- markable mountain is Elgon, its top, even under the tropical sun, nearlyreaching the snow line, and its green sides indented with deep pockets -the homes othuudreds of hu- man beinga. Scattered over the western part of the Kalahari Desert ba South Africa are the famous Bushmen, who welconw the diacov- cry of a spacious Pave as ORO of the greatest earthly blessings. Very few of them live in hetes ; caves are the home they prefer; and when in their wanderings they fail to find caves, they enlarge holes DUG DT ANIMALS, into which they crawl. They live so far form the equator that they regard it as a m the fire that bas cooked their evening I luxury to go to sleep upon the warm. ashes fro meal. These wearable heck people may well compete with some of the native Australiena far the distinction of being at the bottom of the scale of humanity. The translation of the IMMO of Boers applied to theirs, means "inferior beings.' Thee° are all the ceve dwellere as yet known. in Africa. It is noteworthy that with tlae exceptien of the Mount Elgon natives, they are believed to be the abori- gines of the regions they inhabit. The reople in the big cave villages near the Mediterranean are of nearly pure Ber- ber stock '• the Tibbus aro Berber with some admixture of negro blood; and Rat- anga cave dwellers were certainly earlier possessors of the land they inhabit than the people who now lord it over them; and the Bushman are closely allied to the dwarf tribes of the equatorial regions who anthropologists believe were in possession long before the 'people with whom they now live, entered the country. There is little doubt that the northern troglodytes are among the descendants of the cave dwellers of whom Herodotus wrote. Only in Service. "Only in aerate() does any life truly com- pieta itself," says Bishop Brooks. Only in service. Manifestly here is lighe and guid. awe. The author writing his books, the merchant in his store, the editor in his office, the actor on the atage-each and all ID the countless multiplication of human relations, have in their hands, daily and hourly opportunities for this service, which is the higher meaning of existence. For iqstauce, in literature, used in its broad rinse to cover all grade and quality of writ- ing activities. It is not a vocation whose best result is fame, and when success is synonymous with more or less widespread notice and publioity. The deepest truth in that authorship is service, and when it is nob that, it is nothing; that fame, in its true sense, is incidental and not the supreme end of the work; that the author who is fine of soul does not shone to hear the echo of his own voice, but to convey the message that he has for tho world. A silly and sel- fish greed for personal fame, or its masquer- ade as publicity, is a pernicious element in the life of to -day; and the fault lies rooted ID the false social standard that does not recognize service as its ideal. The incident- al contracts of life, every day, every hour, offer these opportunities. One is responsible for the atmosphere be carries about with him, the unconscious influence that his pre- sence exerts. Nor is there any individual life too rudimentary to be unworthy the beat that can be given it. "Take the soul that needs God's help, and there isa day in which God and the divine life in God reveals it. Then there is no soul on earth that dare call itself too great, too splendid, too exalt- ed in its own intrinsic work, to give itself iu • absolute obedience and service to this other soul," said Bishop Brooks, in the great discourse to which reference has already been made, and deeply will the realization ef this profound truth make itself felt to everyone who tests it by personal experi- ence. ....11111414111111...- A Banquet of Rome Flesh. The Daily TelegraPh'sParis correspondent says :-Two hundred guests sat down on Sunday at the Cafe Veto= to an original repast consisting exclusively of horse flesh. M. Besancon, a prominent police official, presided at the banquet, and in the speech which he subsequently delivered stated that the consumption of horse flesh for human food had risen from 5873 kilos in 1872 to 21,567 kilos in 1891. .A philanthropic as well as a gastronomic end had been obtained by the innovation, for the value of dead horse flesh in good •condition had now gone up so that horse owners were now more careful of the well-being of their animals. The "Health of M. Decroix," chief veter- inary surgeon of the army, was then pro- posed, and a gold medal presented to M. Marius Tetard, secretary of the Committee of Horse Flesh. M. Geoffrey St Hilaire fits also spoke in praise of the memory of his father, who was one of the first men of eminence to eat horse flesh. Little Dick-" The school is closed be- cause so many children is sick. Mamma---" They will probably he all right again in a week or so." .Little Dick (hopefully)-" Perhaps' the reet of us'lllae sick then." OBSEQUIES OP KING ,TA -JA. filnuarkable SOolues of Sal -ago Grier - At a time when we read of the funeral rites of several great men who have been prombaently before the English people, it may be of interest to know something of the lase honors paid by his people to one who in his time received no small share of atten- tion both in his own -Country and here -the black King Ja-Je, of Opobo, West Africa. It will be remembered that he died rie Tim- ed& when returning to his owa mouthy, whither he had been permitted to go by the Government His people urgently asked for his body, which there was nauchthilioul- ty in obtaining, as he was buried in a place under Spanish jurisdiction, which does not permit the removal of the dead under a con- siderable interval. By the efforts and influ- ence of the Consul -General of the Oil Rivers Protectorate Major Macdonald, this rule was set aside, and the steamer Benin brought the King's remains to Opobo, The body was in four cases, two of wood, one of tin, and one of lead. As soon as it Was known the steamer had arrived, all the chiefs of the town and district came with their followers in THEIR BIG CANOES, attired in their best, and with streamers and flags flying from their boats. The outer case was removed from the coffin, which was wrapped in many folds of costly silk brocade and placed in a largo canoe with Ja-Jela brilliant State umbrella erected over ane guarded by two chiefs of his house. The big MOO then headed the crowd of others, and proceeded up the river. All native trade was stopped, and the last five weeks have been devoted to native " feasting, and dancing, numbers of fowls mid goats were killed for food. In the town and its neighborhood continued cannon fir- ing has gone ou day and night, about 500 kegs of gunpowder being consumed in this way. On Nov. 14 the final "great play" took Oleo, to which all the white residents on the river vrere invited. The town was de- oorated with numerous flags, the cannon and gun &jag kept up and native puede from tom-toms (drumehollowed out of tree trunks) and various strenge inatrumenta was render- ed with vigor. Ja-Ja, is buried within the courtyard of his palace, which atande in the centre of a neer° of small houses, and con- sists of a well-built wood house, having galleries fronted with glass. The wow con- taining the vault in which lies the coffin, was draped round with silk brocade and hung with rhotographs and pictures of the lete King, one large painting in oil being well exeouted. Ab one end of the room was A large mirror at the other end a broad eouch, on which reolbaed his wives, who have watched the body night and day since its arrival, One of the wives is said notto have wash - ail herself duce Ja-Ja was deported, three years ago, As A SION OF GRIEF. The vault is cemented over, and at its head a plate of food and a large jar of rum stood, the latter of which every day bad been poured over the grave. libel% treasure is buried with the body. Time was when the lives of even 100 Waves, openly sacrificed on each an occasion, that the spirit of the king might proceed on its journey with due state; but under the wise and firm government now existing this terrible custom had been a- bandoned. The funeral feast was laid in a largo room adjoining the one containing the vault ; and a long table, laid with white cloth, knives, forks, glasses, and (mirabile dieted) dinner napkins, supported a pro. fueion of food. A splendid roast, turkey was carved by the heed chief, who wise man, removed his most superfluous garment for the good work. There were roast and boil- ed meats, yams, "chop," and "fu -fu," which latter is a dough -like sub- stance made from pounded yam. The proper method of consuming this delicacy is to roll a piece into a ball the size of a hen's egg, dip it into palm-oil "chop," open the mouth wide, shut the eyes, and -there you are. It is wholesome, and, as Sam NN eller remarked, " wer3r filling." Large jars of "tombo," a native drink made from a species of palm tree, were hand- ed round. A hoimitable invitation to these good things was given by the chiefs, whose black followers crowded the sides of the room, and eagerly watched for portions of the feast handed them by their masters. When. eating Was done, then came the last coremony-that of smashing upon the table all the plates and dishes used. Adjourning to seats under a large tree in the courtyard, the chiefs and their gueata watched the "plays" commence, to the accompaniment of vigorous and startling native music. Men dressed in grotesque costumes decorated with bells and rattling nutshells, wearing headpieces of bullocks' horns and goats' hair, danced about, some on foot and others on stilts; processions of young men carrying swords and knifes MARCHED TWO ABREAST, contorting their bodies as they went, while troops of women and girls walked about singing funeral chants to Ja-Ja. The cos- tumes of some of these damsels would be accurately described by saying that they "wore a string of beads and a congenial smile." Another procession was formed by the daughters of Ja-ja, and of some of the prominent chiefs, attired in English military and naval full dress, wearing gold epaulets and cocked hats, and having quantities of valuable pink coral strunground their per- sons. The music, drumming, dancing, and gun ring were kepb up all the day and the following night. In a short time will com- mence the ceremony of installing the new head chief of Ja-Ja's house. The Door -Yard. Where the door -yard is not the litter place of the family during the winter, it is not a difficult thing to put it in order in the spring; yet there is always a great deal to be done to the yard when the snow melts off and the ground begins to soften. Careful people like to top -dress their lawn in the autumn when they put their plants and shrubbery which need it, in straw, and all this dressing must be removed in the spring. Even in the most careful families it will be found necessary to sweep the yard in the vieinity of the hou e, as decaying refuse and vegetation are most unwhole- some, breeding miasma, and disease. There are always ashes and debris of various kinds to be cleaned away, which belong essentially to the house. Itis alwa,embetter to attendsuch matters as these as early as possible, before the spring cleauing uomes. The use of white- wash in the cellar and disinfectants every- where, should be insisted on at this time. There are many flower -garden seeds which can be sown very early, as soon as the ground is fairly opened, if, indeed, they are not sown in the fall -such as sweet peas, pinks and many other hardy annuals. Nothing shows the care and neatness of a good housekeeper so much as the condition of the yard -especially the yard in the vicinity of the kitchen door. If you want to keep on thinking WeIllif a 'man don't go his security. Children. Cry for Pitcher's Castodai Bats on a Wrecked Steamahip. A correspondenb of the Newastle Claron ice, deseribing seenes on the Northunther• land coast, tells a curious story about rats -What a seene of de eastation did St lkdary's Island witness as the result of the breakIng up of the Gothenburg City. I was one of a peaty that went on board that ill-fated vessel a few days before the broke up, and saw a sight to he remembered, I shall never forget it. To all appearance, as we approached, her, the vessel might have been sailing comfortably out of harbour, save for the absence of any apparent life on board of her. .But we had no sooner put foot on (leek than we wore immediately at- taoked in such a manner that such of us as had got on board had to make tracks for the rigging, while the rest fallback into the boats. Rats! I never saw so many in my life, and never hope to again. Great hun- gry, lanky, lean -looking rats, many of them with their tails chewed off, swarmed up from below in never-ending thousands, squeaking and squirming over one another in a manner sickening and horrible to behold, particularly to those of us up in the rigging. At last we cut off some loose ropes, knotted them into con- venient lengths, and so armed we descended and attacked the rodents, eventually suc- ceeding in beating a passage to our boat. Any one would have supposed that they knew by instinct the impending fate of the vessel, for they no sooner saw us over the side than they began to swarm down the ropes and try to enter the boat, and it was only with difficulty we were able to beat them off before casting the boat clear; and they squeaked in a horrible manner in their anguish and ma 4 frenzy as we rowed away from the vessel's side. They were too far both from the island and the mainland to swim ashore. They could not eurien on the timber and coal, and so that was washed ashore to warm the shins of the coast folk. While every other part of the vessel seemed to go to splinters, the deck- house, strange to say, mane ashore on the island intact. Little Son -"Papa, mynew sled is broke. " Papa-" That was a very pretty little sled, and I told you to be careful of it." "1 was, It just broke itself while we was ridin' down Breakneek Hill on it." "Who were riding on it? " Me an' George an' Jack an' Dick an' Bob an' Fatty an' the reet." When Baby was sick, we traveller Castoria. When shelve.% a Child, she cried for Castoria, When she became Miss, she clung to Castoria. When 11110 had Children, shegavethem (Astoria. • V '$ Ln Lar Mao. They are a - gnaws Weal IlLeou Bums= TONIC and Simms IWAMOTO% as tboy. supply In a condensee form tho substances actually needed to en leh the Blood, eurin, all diseases comitn. from Poen and W. EAT BLOOD, or from VITIATED inntor.s is :hs Br.00e, and also invigorate and Mural in* the BLOOD and SYSTEM', when broken down by overwork, mental worry, discos^ =ems and indiscre- tions. They have a Smiervie Amoson the Suxuar.Sxarnar of both men and women, restoring LOST mon and corroding a. inimarts.nrrice and SUPPRESSIONS. EvErly II 'Who finds his mental fac- GE 'Mies dull or failing, or his physical powers Mining, should take these ati.r.s. They will restoi o lzIs lost energies, both physical lua mental. EVERY WEAN Itogda:tak.°01113e.T.: pressions eaa irri.gulsrities, which inevitably entail sickneal when neglected. YOUNG tirlm rit°0Tatii°01`rtiPifirT4'. sults of youthful bad hatuti, and strengthen tho oystom. jPetEni 9eyys fkg1.7iEN Trensiod For sale by all druggists, or will bo sent upon receipt of price (zee. per box), by ad' ressing CONSUMPTIONa beve a positive remedy for the abore disease; by ita use thousands of eases of the worst Idnd and of long standing hare been cured. Indeed so strong is my faith In ita efficacy, that I IrM send TWO BOTTLES FREE, -with a VALUABLE TREATISE on this disease to any flatterer who will send me their E.v.pnEss and RO. addresa T. A. Simoum, M. C., 186 ADELAIDE ST., WEST, TORONTO, ONT. 1.; v. At. 4. ' • • • eeeneueeecwanseeteeeean4,'-esiee' ' ' •.• for Infants and Children. "Castorla is so well. adapteilto children that I recommend it asit superior to any prescription known to me." IL A. ARCBER, 31, 11., 111SO. Oxford Si., Brooklyn, N. Y. "The use of ‘Castoria` is so universal and its remits so wellknown that it scares a work of supererogation to endorse it. Few are the intelligent families who do not keep Castoria vrithin easy reach." Camas 31.torrrs, D.D.. New York City. Late Pastor Bloomingdale Reformed Church. Castoriss cures Colle,Constiaatkm. Sour Stomach, Diarrhoea, Eructation, Kills Worms, gives sleep, and promotes di- gestion, Without injurious medication., "For several years I have recommended your Oastoria, and shall always continue to do so as it has inveriablyproduced beneheial results," Lewitt 5%P4nnin% AL D., "The Winthrop,"12,1th street and 7th Ave., Wew York city. 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