File:A naturalist in Mid-Africa- being an account of a journey to the Mountains of the Moon and Tanganyika (1890) (14759755836).jpg

Identifier: naturalistinmida00elli (find matches)
Title: A naturalist in Mid-Africa: being an account of a journey to the Mountains of the Moon and Tanganyika
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Elliot, G. F. Scott (George Francis Scott), 1862-1934
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: London A.D. Innes & Co.
Contributing Library: Field Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: The Field Museum's Africa Council

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
ight on a plantation, nothingis left but the midribs of the leaves—this damage,however, is not permanent, as the plants soonrecover. Usually speaking these banana plantations arecovered by a dense jungle of weeds curiouslydistinct from those found in uncultivated places.Many of these plantation plants are of Americanorigin, and I fancy most have accompanied thebanana wherever it has been carried by man.Sometimes, however, a good deal of care is taken,and in one place I have seen a very considerableamount of irrigation carried on. On the bare slopes, and high up the valleys tonearly 7,200 feet, the cultivation usually consistsof beans, wimbi, hungry rice, and sweetpotatoes ; there are also in the higher valleysquantities of the edible Arum. Fresh clearedland is planted in May with beans, which are saidto yield a crop three or four months afterwards, andalong with them pumpkins and gourds of varioussorts. It is afterwards planted with hungryrice, and then left to the bush, and a fresh
Text Appearing After Image:
WAHIMA, WAKONDJA, AND SUAHILIS. 113 clearing is made. The houses are built of aframework of sticks and chiefly covered by bananaleaves or elephant grass. The people seem to have no amusements what-ever. They are very much afraid of appearing toowell off, so that I fancy they are much moreindustrious than they appear to be. The ownership of every plantation is entirelywith the chief of the district; if there happens tobe an abundance of food then every one gets asmuch as he wants, but in a state of famine orscarcity there is absolutely no kind of communalproperty; everybody looks most strictly after hisown farm, and is quite justified in killing any onewho takes food from it. When a man dies, the plantations are usuallycarried on by his grown-up sons, one of whom isappointed by his immediate superior to succeedhim. If he dies leaving only young children, the chiefacts theoretically as the trustee for these children,and keeps things going till the sons grow up andsucceed. I fancy, howev

Note About Images