Logo
Prev
Bookmark
Rotate
Print
Next
Contents
All Pages
Related Articles
Browse Issues
Help
Search
Home
'
National Geographic : 1960 Feb
Contents
National Geographic, February, 1960 in families not so fortunate also get a share. The remainder is sold to the Bantu. Pygmy mothers sometimes weave the nets and give them to their sons when they marry. A mother starts a net when her son is young; until it is his alone, he shares the family net. A Pygmy may transfer his share of a net; whoever receives it gets part of the game it traps. Wayward Spear Wounds a Hunter At sundown Salamini, one of the hunters, began chanting. Five of the other young men answered him in chorus. The song was a prayer to the forest spirits for better hunting. The rest of the Pygmies were silent. In the dim light under the high green vault, I felt as if I were at vespers in a great cathedral. We all ate a meager dinner together and sat around the fire chatting for a while. The Pygmy women squatted in front of their huts, shredding vines to make ropes for the hunters' nets. Everyone went to bed early. By the time I awakened, the Pygmies had been up for hours. The older women had gone off to the river, and the hunters were out with their nets. The camp was quiet, except for the children's games, for there was no beat ing of bark. Rain threatened, and the Pyg mies believe bark-cloth making in such weather brings bad luck. Of the old men only one was left in camp. His name was Sale. He gave me some deli cious meat he had cooked in a leaf over the coals, and also avocado and roasted manioc. About three in the afternoon the hunters re turned, grim and wordless. After a long si lence Salamini said Mbaka had been wounded. Unsuspecting "elephant" lifts his "trunk" as a hunter closes in. Holding a spear 292
Links
Archive
1960 Mar
1960 Jan
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page