Fundamental Nursing Skills and

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Peggy Betch, MSN, RN
Lead Instructor
Delaware Technical Community College
Dover, Delaware

Adrienne Blanks, LPN, RN, BSN, MSN

Associate Professor of Practical Nursing
Southside Virginia Community College
Alberta, Virginia

Patricia Clowers, RN, MSN

Director of Nursing and Allied Health
East Mississippi Community College
Scooba, Mississippi

Audria Denker, DNP, MSN, RN

Executive Vice President of Prelicensure Nursing
Galen College of Nursing
Louisville, Kentucky

LaTonya Dowell, MSN

Nursing Instructor
Tennessee College of Applied Technology
Memphis, Tennessee

Penny Fauber, RN, BSN, MS, PhD

Director of Practical Nursing Program
Dabney S. Lancaster Community College
Clifton Forge, Virginia

Gloria Gingrich, BSN

Nursing Instructor
Lebanon County Career and Technology Center
Lebanon, Pennsylvania
Erin Hahs, BSN, RN
Lead Instructor
Valley Baptist School of Vocational Nursing
Harlingen, Texas
Marie Harper, RN, BSN, MSN
Nursing Professor
Florida State College
Jacksonville, Florida
Joy Harrison, MSN, BSN
Practical Nursing Division Chair and Instructor
Alabama Southern Community College
Thomasville, Alabama

Lorena Hines, MSN

Nursing Instructor
Shawnee Community College
Ullin, Illinos

Cynthia Hotaling, MSN, BSN, RN

Nursing Professor
Owens Community College
Toledo, Ohio

Lori Huber, MSN

LPN Coordinator
Portage Lakes Career Center
Uniontown, Ohio
Celeste Hughes, MSN, RN
Nursing Instructor
Georgia Northwestern Technical College
Rome, Georgia
Nora James, MSN, RN
VN Program Coordinator
Lee College
Baytown, Texas
Michelle Johnson, MSN
Professor, PN Coordinator
Northern Michigan University
Marquette, Michigan

Cynthia Leffel, MSN, RN-BC, PhD (c)

Associate Professor
Trocaire College
Buffalo, New York
Laura Mallett, MSN
Nursing Instructor
Neosho County Community College
Ottawa, Kansas
Lauren Mixon, BSN
Nursing Professor
Nunez Community College
Chalmette, Louisiana
Melaine Moore, PhD, MSN, RN
Assistant Dean of Nursing
VIRGINIA WESTERN Community College
Roanoke, Virginia

Patricia Needham, ASN

Nursing Instructor
Northshore Technical Community College–FPC
Kentwood, Louisiana

Karen Neighbors, MSN

Nursing Instructor
Trinity Valley Community College
Kaufman, Texas

Sharon Nowak, MSN, EdD (c)

Professor of Nursing
Jackson College
Jackson, Michigan

Cathy Onsager, MSN

Nursing Instructor
Galen College of Nursing
Louisville, Kentucky
Lisa Peak, MSN
PN Program Director
Galen College of Nursing
Louisville, Kentucky

Adrienne Reyes, BSN, RN

Nursing Instructor/Student Development
Valley Baptist Medical Center
Harlingen, Texas

Polly Reynolds, MSN

Nurse Educator
Galen College of Nursing
Louisville, Kentucky

Carolyn Santiago, MSN, RN, NP-C

Director of Nursing
Santa Barbara Business College
Bakersfield, California

Alnisa Shabazz, MS, RN

Assistant Professor
BRONX Community COLLEGE
New York, New York

Becky Shuttlesworth, BSN

Simulation Coordinator
San Jacinto College South
Houston, Texas

Evelyn Simmons
Nursing Instructor
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida
Deborah Smith, ASN
Nursing Instructor
Oconee Fall Line Technical College
Dublin, Georgia

Vernita Smith, MSN, BSN, RN

Nursing Instructor
Fortis College-Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio

Deborah Stewart
Nursing Faculty
Cabell County Career Technology Center
Huntington, West Virginia
Lynne Sullivan, MS
Nursing Coordinator
Bristol Plymouth Regional Technical School
Taunton, Massachusetts

Teresa Truckenbrod, BSN, MS, RN

Nursing Faculty
Anoka Technical College
Anoka, Minnesota

Renee Zacher, BSN, RN

Nursing Faculty
Western Dakota Tech
Rapid City, South Dakota
Preface

undamental Nursing Skills and Concepts is designed to assist beginning

F nursing students in acquiring a foundation of basic nursing theory and
developing clinical skills. In addition, its content can serve as a ready
reference for updating the skills of currently employed nurses or those
returning to work after a period of inactive practice.

PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE TEXT

Several philosophical concepts are the bases for this text:

• The human experience is a composite of physiologic, emotional, social,

and spiritual aspects that affect health and healing.
• Caring is the essence of nursing and is extended to every client.
• Each client is unique, and nurses must adapt their care to meet the
individual needs of every person without compromising safety or
achievement of desired outcomes.
• A supportive network of health care providers, family, and friends
promotes health restoration and health promotion. Therefore, it is
essential to include the client’s significant others in teaching, formal
discussions, and provision of services.
• Licensed and student nurses are accountable for their actions and
clinical decisions; consequently, each must be aware of legislation as it
affects nursing practice.

In today’s changing health care environment, nurses face many challenges

and opportunities. The 11th edition of Fundamental Nursing Skills and
Concepts has been written to help nurses meet these challenges and take
advantage of expanding opportunities.

NEW TO THIS EDITION

• Integration of Gerontologic, Pharmacologic, and Nutritional
Considerations. Information that focuses on gerontologic,
 pharmacologic, and nutritional considerations is integrated within the
text of each chapter where they are more applicable to the immediate
content rather than appearing at the end of each chapter. Their location is
identified by unique, recurring icons.
• Current NANDA diagnoses and terminology. The NANDA diagnoses
labels and definitions found in the Nursing Implications and
accompanying Nursing Care Plans throughout the text have been
updated according to the latest NANDA-I publication, Nursing
Diagnoses 2015–2017.
• New Content. The entire text has been revised and updated to reflect
current medical and nursing practice. Additionally, several skills and
sections contain pertinent content. The following are some highlights:
• Chapter 1, “Nursing Foundations,” traces the origin and growth of
nursing practice in the United States. It provides the current definition
of nursing from the American Nurses Association and other theorists’
explanations about the practice of nursing from Florence Nightingale
to more contemporary nurses. This chapter introduces the term
evidence-based practice and relates its significance to current nursing
practice. Based on data provided by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics,
this chapter reinforces the projected increase in the demand for
licensed practical nurses in a variety of health care settings. Because
licensed practical nurses (LPNs), as well as registered nurses (RNs),
work with unlicensed assistive personnel (UAPs), Chapter 1 expands
the criteria for appropriate delegation. Updated statistics on
enrollments and numbers of licensed nurses in various nursing
programs demonstrate a continuing shortage of nurses as well as
trends toward a demand for higher levels of nursing education,
specialty certifications, and continuing education. The Institute of
Medicine’s goal for 80% of nurses to acquire a baccalaureate degree
by 2020 is reiterated. The content describes the crises in health care
and how efforts to extend the Nurse Reinvestment Act or create
similar federal legislation would somewhat help relieve the shortage
of nurses in the United States. One example is the effort to continue
designing ladder programs to advance the education of nurses from
one level of practice to the next. The chapter identifies how The 2010
Affordable Care Act funds innovative models of community-based
care for older adults with chronic illnesses, creating many new roles
 for nurses. In addition, it notes that the American Nurses Association
and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing have endorsed
the delegation of supportive nursing care to UAP, emphasizing that
such delegation demands supervision and ultimate accountability on
nurses who work with them.
• Chapter 2, “Nursing Process,” defines and emphasizes the role of
critical thinking in the nursing process. It continues to describe how
creating nursing care plans or care maps promotes and refines the
ability of students to think critically while gathering data that is
significant and organizing the interventions for client care using
evidence-based practice.
• Chapter 3, “Laws and Ethics,” expands on the significance of the
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) in
setting standards for ensuring the security of health information. It
also reinforces that the National Practitioner Data Bank tracks unfit
health care practitioners within a database shared by licensing boards
and health care facilities that hire nurses.
• Chapter 4, “Health and Illness,” discusses various government-funded
health programs. It provides statistics on enrollments in the Patient
Protection and Care Act, a health reform law.
• Chapter 6, “Culture and Ethnicity,” updates the demographic
information on the various ethnic groups that make up the population
of the United States. The chapter also discusses various methods for
communicating with deaf clients, clients who do not speak English, or
those who speak English as a second language, including the use and
certification of language interpreters. It introduces and defines
integrative medicine, a new term for health care that combines
conventional treatment with complementary and alternative medicine
(CAM).
• Chapter 7, “The Nurse–Client Relationship,” expands its discussion of
special techniques to be used in communicating with older adults.
• Chapter 8, “Client Teaching,” correlates the domains of client
learning with the manner in which test questions on the National
Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) are classified according to
their level of difficulty. It supports how questions in the NCLEX-style
review questions at the end of each chapter in the text are similarly
classified. The chapter recommends using the “teach-back method” as
 a technique for confirming that a client has understood what has been
taught by asking the client to repeat the information in his or her own
words.
• Chapter 9, “Recording and Reporting,” provides more information on
electronic charting as well as its advantages and disadvantages.
• Chapter 10, “Asepsis,” differentiates the rationales for broad and
narrow spectrum antibiotic therapy. The mechanism of action for
antiviral medications is explained. The World Health Organization’s
campaign identified as “Five Moments for Hand Hygiene” is provided
to link hand hygiene with direct client care.
• Chapter 12, “Vital Signs,” contains additional information on reasons
why infants and older adults have difficulty maintaining normal body
temperature. A more detailed discussion is provided on the correct
use of infrared temporal thermometers, including circumstances when
this type of thermometer is more advantageous than other types of
thermometers. Assessing for postural hypotension is expanded with
nursing measures for restoring or maintaining normotension.
• Chapter 13, “Physical Assessment,” discusses the controversy among
various medical authorities regarding the benefit of breast self-
examination, and the guidelines for the initial and subsequent
screenings for breast cancer using mammography.
• Chapter 14, “Special Examinations and Tests,” includes the most
revised guidelines from the American Cancer Society, the Association
of Reproductive Health Professionals, and the American Congress of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) regarding when women
should be screened for cervical cancer and human papilloma virus
infection.
• Chapter 15, “Nutrition,” expands the information on trans fats, also
known as partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs), to include the fact that
the FDA no longer considers PHOs safe in any human food, and
therefore mandates that food manufacturers remove them from their
products. Values and significance for cardiac risk according to lipid
laboratory test results established by the American Association of
Clinical Endocrinologists has been updated.
• Chapter 16, “Fluid and Chemical Balance,” contains more depth in
explaining facilitated diffusion of glucose. The consequences of blood
 donation by individuals who have been actually or potentially exposed
to Ebola are discussed.
• Chapter 17, “Hygiene,” contains information on various types of
assistive listening devices that amplify sounds, reduce the effect of
distance between persons with loss and the sound source, minimize
background noise, and compensate for poor acoustics.
• Chapter 18, “Comfort, Rest, and Sleep,” discusses how inadequate
sleep is increasingly identified as a risk factor for obesity and is now
considered an important lifestyle behavior linked to health. The stages
of sleep and their characteristics have been revised to correlate with
information from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Sleep
requirements for various age groups have been revised to coincide
with information from the National Sleep Foundation.
• Chapter 19, “Safety,” reinforces the risk for latex allergy and
measures that must be taken to prevent its occurrence. The chapter
provides updated statistics on fires in health care facilities from
National Fire Protection Association, and introduces the mnemonic
PASS to help recall the sequence of actions when using a fire
extinguisher. The pathophysiology of carbon monoxide poisoning is
described as well as actions to take when victims succumb to its
inhalation. Fall prevention is emphasized not only because falls are a
leading cause of injury and death but also because the Center for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will no longer cover the cost
of care that was incurred by a fall. Private insurers are following a
similar nonpayment policy.
• Chapter 20, “Pain Management,” describes several pain theories that
explain how pain is transmitted, perceived, and ameliorated. The list
of common reactions of others who are in relationships with persons
with chronic pain has been revised. The discussion of surgical
approaches to pain relief has been updated in the light of more recent
less invasive techniques.
• Chapter 21, “Oxygenation,” adds a discussion of the tripod position to
improve breathing and the use of a Bi-Pap mask.
• Chapter 22, “Infection Control,” elaborates on various classifications
of infectious diseases with an emphasis on health care–associated
infections. It refers readers to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) guidelines for infection control practices for Ebola
 when caring for exposed or infected health care workers returning to
the United States from Africa. It also clarifies the sequence for
removing personal protection equipment.
• Chapter 23, “Body Mechanics, Positioning, and Moving,” added an
algorithm for the safe transfer of clients to and from bed, and
integrated actions within related skills.
• Chapter 24, “Fitness and Therapeutic Exercise,” has been retitled to
reflect the current discussion on maintaining and improving general
health and stamina. A table has been included for assessing fitness
using a walking pedometer or FitBit™ device, and a discussion has
been added on isokinetic exercise.
• Chapter 27, “Perioperative Care,” removed information on checking
Homan’s sign because this assessment is no longer considered valid.
• Chapter 28, “Wound Care,” adds to the discussion on wound healing.
It includes additional information on types of dressings; describes
maggot therapy and negative pressure wound therapy (vacuum-
assisted closure); and notes that wet-to-dry dressings are now
considered a substandard practice.
• Chapter 29, “Gastrointestinal Intubation,” revises the information on
determining tube location and the reasons why former assessment
methods are no longer recommended. It revises information about
gastric residual measurements and recommended actions, and
provides new information on methods for clearing an obstruction
within a tube.
• Chapter 30, “Urinary Elimination,” discusses the rationale for using
soap and water versus antiseptic swabs when a clean catch urine
specimen is required. It eliminates the need to test the balloon before
inserting a retention catheter because this is no longer necessary.
• Chapter 31, “Bowel Elimination,” adds a discussion about fecal
immunologic and stool DNA tests to detect colorectal cancer. It
identifies current guidelines for endoscopic screenings for colorectal
cancer.
• Chapter 32, “Oral Medications,” includes a discussion about The Joint
Commission’s Medication Management Standards that requires
hospitals to develop a list of look-alike/sound-alike medications they
store, dispense, or administer to promote the safe administration of
medications. It includes a reference to The Institute for Safe
 Medication Practices for a List of Confused Drug Names as well as
error-prone abbreviations, symbols, and dose designations. It
elaborates on the circumstances in which verbal and telephone orders
are justified and on precautions the nurse must take in regard to these
types of medication orders.
• Chapter 34, “Parenteral Medications,” adds to the discussion about
insulin pens. It provides new information on insulin pumps and
discusses the reasons why the dorsogluteal injection site should be
avoided.
• Chapter 36, “Airway Management,” elaborates on the parts of a
tracheostomy tube. It adds information on how to obtain a sputum
specimen using a suction catheter and mucous trap.
• Chapter 37, “Resuscitation,” reflects the most recent changes in the
American Heart Association’s (AHA’s) International
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Emergency Cardiovascular
Care (ECC) Guidelines of 2016 for performing basic life support
techniques.
• Chapter 38, “End-of-Life Care,” provides the most recent guidelines
for determining brain death as identified by the American Academy
of Neurology. It describes the difference between a medical examiner
and a coroner; identifies what types of deaths are reported to a
medical examiner or coroner; explains the difference between a
clinical autopsy and forensic autopsy; and includes the variations in
preparing a body during postmortem care when a forensic autopsy
will be performed.
• Art and Photography Program. Contemporary nursing practice is
illustrated by the many new full-color photos and line drawings. These
illustrations assist visual learners to become familiar with the latest
equipment, techniques, and practices in today’s health care environment.
Features and Learning Tools

Table of Contents. Based on market feedback, Section I in the 11th

edition provides chapters that relate to Fundamental Nursing Concepts.
Section II, “Fundamental Nursing Skills,” begins with Chapter 10,
“Asepsis,” to underscore the importance of hand hygiene and other aseptic
practices when providing nursing care.

Words to Know. These key terms are listed at the beginning of each
chapter and set in boldface type within the text where they appear with or
near their definition. Additional technical terms are italicized throughout
the text. Words to Know and their definitions can also be found in the
glossary in alphabetical order.
Learning Objectives. These student-oriented objectives appear at the
beginning of each chapter to serve as guidelines for acquiring specific
information. They are now numbered so that the corresponding student
and instructors resources can be easily matched.
Nursing Process Focus. The focus on the Nursing Process continues to be
strong. The concepts and paradigm for the nursing process appear in
Chapter 2. The premise is that early familiarity with its components will
reinforce its use in the Skills and sample Nursing Care Plans throughout
the text. Each skill chapter has the most recent Applicable Nursing
Diagnoses that correlate with the types of problems recipients of the
respective skills may have.
Nursing Care Plans. Nursing Care Plans are now accompanied by a
representative photo of a client and a description of a clinical scenario.
This feature has been added to help students identify with a “real person”
and his or her subsequent individualized care. The diagnostic statements
contain three parts for actual diagnoses and two parts for potential
diagnoses. A double-column format lists interventions on one side and
corresponding rationales on the other. The evaluation step is reinforced by
evidence indicating expected outcome achievement.

Skills. The Skills continue to be clustered at the end of each chapter for
ease of access and to avoid interrupting the narrative and distancing
related tables and boxes to locations where they previously seemed out of
context. In addition, each illustration within the Skills has been closely
reviewed to ensure that it complies with Standard Precautions, infection
control guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nursing Guidelines. These mini-procedures provide directions for
performing various kinds of nursing care, or suggestions for managing
client care problems. Illustrations have been relocated or added to the
nursing guidelines to facilitate visual learning.
Client and Family Teaching Boxes. These specially numbered boxes
found throughout the chapters highlight essential education points for
nurses to communicate to clients and their families.
Critical Thinking Exercises. Critical thinking questions appear at the end
of each chapter to facilitate application of the material, using clinical
situations or rhetorical questions.
NCLEX-PN Style Questions. NCLEX-Style questions help students apply
their acquired knowledge by answering items that reflect the formats
within the 2016 NCLEX-PN Test plan. In this edition, a test-taking
strategy has been included after each question. An effort has been made to
include many alternate format items to assist students with the types of
questions they will eventually encounter on their licensing examination. A
cognitive level and classification of the test item accompany each question
to demonstrate how the question correlates with the NCLEX-PN test plan.
Glossary. Found at the back of the book, this is a quick reference of
definitions for Words to Know that are used throughout the text. The
glossary provides the key terms in alphabetical order.
Bibliography. This is a comprehensive listing of references and suggested
readings, including general recommendations as well as unit-specific
citations, which provides a streamlined guide to current literature about
topics discussed in the text.
Detailed Table of Contents. Located at the beginning of the textbook, this
provides an outline of each unit’s and chapter’s subject matter.
USE WITH INTRODUCTORY MEDICAL–SURGICAL
NURSING
Fundamental Nursing Skills and Concepts may be adopted as a single text
for students in a nursing program. Additionally, the book may be adopted
with Introductory Medical–Surgical Nursing by Timby and Smith, as well
as Lippincott’s NCLEX-PN Review Book by Timby and Rupert. The
content, designs, features, and styles of these texts have been coordinated
closely to facilitate understanding and to present a consistent approach to
learning.

TEACHING–LEARNING PACKAGE
The 11th edition of Fundamental Nursing Skills and Concepts features a
compelling and comprehensive complement of additional resources to
help students learn and instructors teach.

RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS

Valuable learning tools for students are available on :

• Concepts in Action animations and Watch and Learn video clips

demonstrate important concepts related to various topics explored in the
accompanying text.
• NCLEX-style review questions that correspond with each book chapter
help students review important concepts and practice for the NCLEX.
• A Spanish–English glossary lists words commonly encountered or
needed in the nurse’s practice.
• Journal Articles about relevant topics enable students to stay aware of
the latest research and information available in the current literature.
• Case Studies help students apply their learning about nursing concepts
and skills to client-oriented scenarios.
• Answer Keys for the Stop, Think, and Respond boxes, NCLEX-Style
Review Questions, and Critical Thinking Exercises allow students to
check their comprehension of textbook presentations as desired.

RESOURCES FOR INSTRUCTORS

The above student-oriented materials are available for instructors on
. Additionally, instructors have access to the following tools to assist
with teaching:

• An extensive collection of materials is provided for each chapter:

• Prelecture Quizzes and Answers are quick, knowledge-based
assessments that allow instructors to check students’ reading and
comprehension.
• PowerPoint presentations provide an easy way to integrate the
textbook with students’ classroom experience, via either
computerized slide shows or handouts.
• Guided Lecture Notes walk instructors through the chapters,
objective by objective, and provide corresponding PowerPoint slide
numbers.
 • Discussion Topics (and suggested answers) are organized by
learning objective and can be used as classroom conversation starters.
• Assignments (and suggested answers), also organized by learning
objective, include group, written, clinical, and web-based activities.
• An Image Bank provides the photographs and illustrations from this
textbook to be used in a way that best suits instructor needs, including in
PowerPoint slides.
• A sample syllabus provides guidance for structuring an LPN/LVN
course.
• The Test Generator lets teachers assemble exclusive new tests from a
bank containing more than 900 questions to help assess students’
understanding of the material. These questions are formatted to match
the NCLEX, so students can practice preparing for this important
examination.

STUDENT WORKBOOK
The Workbook for Fundamental Nursing Skills and Concepts, 11th edition,
is available for purchase and provides an engaging review of important
material. Featuring images from the text, review exercises, application
activities, and more NCLEX-PN practice questions, the Workbook
complements this textbook and provides dynamic reinforcement of
everything students need to learn from it. Answers to the exercises in the
Workbook are available to instructors through .
Acknowledgments

I
t is my belief that this text and its ancillary package will facilitate
learning and produce safe, effective practitioners, capable of
providing quality care for diverse clients in a variety of settings.
Thanks go to the following people at Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
for their help in preparing this book and for supporting the revision and
new ideas and organization of the text material:

• Kelley Squazzo, Acquisitions Editor

• Shana Murph, Product Development Editor
Contents
Contributors
Preface
Features and Learning Tools
Acknowledgments

UNIT 1
Exploring Contemporary Nursing
1 Nursing Foundations
2 Nursing Process

UNIT 2
Integrating Basic Concepts
3 Laws and Ethics
4 Health and Illness
5 Homeostasis, Adaptation, and Stress
6 Culture and Ethnicity

UNIT 3
Fostering Communication
7 The Nurse–Client Relationship
8 Client Teaching
9 Recording and Reporting

UNIT 4
Performing Basic Client Care
10 Asepsis
11 Admission, Discharge, Transfer, and Referrals
12 Vital Signs
13 Physical Assessment
14 Special Examinations and Tests

UNIT 5
Assisting With Basic Needs
15 Nutrition
16 Fluid and Chemical Balance
17 Hygiene
18 Comfort, Rest, and Sleep
19 Safety
20 Pain Management
21 Oxygenation
22 Infection Control

UNIT 6
Assisting the Inactive Client
23 Body Mechanics, Positioning, and Moving
24 Fitness and Therapeutic Exercise
25 Mechanical Immobilization
26 Ambulatory Aids

UNIT 7
The Surgical Client
27 Perioperative Care
28 Wound Care
29 Gastrointestinal Intubation

UNIT 8
Promoting Elimination
30 Urinary Elimination
31 Bowel Elimination

UNIT 9
Medication Administration
32 Oral Medications
33 Topical and Inhalant Medications
34 Parenteral Medications
35 Intravenous Medications

UNIT 10
Intervening in Emergency Situations
36 Airway Management
37 Resuscitation

UNIT 11
Caring for the Terminally Ill
Another random document with
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 DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
 FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
 Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
 The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

 This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
 “We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
 Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
 BRAZIER

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE

 FINISHING THE BOTTOM

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

 LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
 Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

 BEATING THE BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN