Identifier: inwildestafricar00macq (find matches)
Title: In wildest Africa : the record of a hunting and exploration trip through Uganda, Victoria Nyanza, the Kilimanjaro region and British East Africa, with an account of an ascent of the snowfields of Mount Kibo, in East Central Africa, and a description of the various native tribes
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: MacQueen, Peter, 1865-1924
Subjects:
Publisher: London : George Ball and sons
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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ndia and are exchanged for ru-pees at the rate of one thousand to the rupee. Arupee is worth about thirty-three cents, and as theshells are put up in strings of one hundred each,a string of shells is worth just about three cents ofour money. Seven dollars worth is a good loadfor a man, and ten cents would weigh about as muchas sixteen of our silver dollars. This makes commerce difficult, and the Germansare trying to introduce a new coinage based on theIndian rupee. The chief difficulty is to make thecoin small enough. The present issue includes coinsknown as hellers, one hundred to the rupee, so thatone heller is worth one-third of a cent in ourmoney. In the interior we found an even more primitivelife. The largest huts had only two apartmentsabout three feet wide and six feet long, which wereused for sleeping. In the centre of the hut was afire, upon which, in an earthen pot, some food wasconstantly steaming. There was neither stove norchimney and the smoke filled the hut. Under con-
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Ili.it^.feruijli by IVur I)iitku» il-Ii, copyright, lJ09, by Underwood & rnrl(rwu..il. N. V.A GROUP OF WISE-MEN AMONG THE KANDI. Some Tribes and Customs 153 ditions of such discomfort we were always glad tofind refuge in the open air. In those parts of the country remote from thewhite mans influence matches are unknown, andfire is gotten by twisting a stick in a hole made ina block of wood until the friction brings a light.Years of practice are required to produce fire inthis way. Very few white men have ever been ableto accomplish it. Referring again to the marriage customs of Cen-tral Africa, we observed among the Nandi tribeson the highlands beyond Mau that the richest menhave from ten to forty wives. The price for a goodwife of fourteen is six cows. Girls are often be-trothed as early as seven and they are married ateleven. The cows are paid on instalments, and ifno child is born within a year after the marriagethe husband may stop payment. It is among these Nandi, as among t

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