The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African
which these places were frequented, gave an inexpressible terror to
the scene.
We compute the year from the day on which the sun crosses the line,
and on its setting that evening there is a general shout throughout
the land; at least I can speak from my own knowledge throughout our
vicinity. The people at the same time make a great noise with rattles,
not unlike the basket rattles used by children here, though much
larger, and hold up their hands to heaven for a blessing. It is then
the greatest offerings are made; and those children whom our wise men
foretel will be fortunate are then presented to different people. I
remember many used to come to see me, and I was carried about to
others for that purpose. They have many offerings, particularly at
full moons; generally two at harvest before the fruits are taken out
of the ground: and when any young animals are killed, sometimes they
offer up part of them as a sacrifice. These offerings, when made by
one of the heads of a family, serve for the whole. I remember we often
had them at my father's and my uncle's, and their families have been
present. Some of our offerings are eaten with bitter herbs. We had a
saying among us to any one of a cross temper, 'That if they were to be
eaten, they should be eaten with bitter herbs.'
We practised circumcision like the Jews, and made offerings and feasts
on that occasion in the same manner as they did. Like them also, our
children were named from some event, some circumstance, or fancied
foreboding at the time of their birth. I was named _Olaudah_, which,
in our language, signifies vicissitude or fortune also, one favoured,
and having a loud voice and well spoken. I remember we never polluted
the name of the object of our adoration; on the contrary, it was
always mentioned with the greatest reverence; and we were totally
unacquainted with swearing, and all those terms of abuse and reproach
which find their way so readily and copiously into the languages of
more civilized people. The only expressions of that kind I remember
were 'May you rot, or may you swell, or may a beast take you.'
I have before remarked that the natives of this part of Africa are
extremely cleanly. This necessary habit of decency was with us a part
of religion, and therefore we had many purifications and washings;
indeed almost as many, and used on the same occasions, if my
recollection does not fail me, as the Jews. Those that touched the
dead at any time were obliged to wash and purify themselves before
they could enter a dwelling-house. Every woman too, at certain times,
was forbidden to come into a dwelling-house, or touch any person, or
any thing we ate. I was so fond of my mother I could not keep from
her, or avoid touching her at some of those periods, in consequence of
which I was obliged to be kept out with her, in a little house made
for that purpose, till offering was made, and then we were purified.
Though we had no places of public worship, we had priests and
magicians, or wise men. I do not remember whether they had different
offices, or whether they were united in the same persons, but they
were held in great reverence by the people. They calculated our time,
and foretold events, as their name imported, for we called them
Ah-affoe-way-cah, which signifies calculators or yearly men, our year
being called Ah-affoe. They wore their beards, and when they died they
were succeeded by their sons. Most of their implements and things of
value were interred along with them. Pipes and tobacco were also put
into the grave with the corpse, which was always perfumed and
ornamented, and animals were offered in sacrifice to them. None
accompanied their funerals but those of the same profession or tribe.
These buried them after sunset, and always returned from the grave by
a different way from that which they went.
These magicians were also our doctors or physicians. They practised
bleeding by cupping; and were very successful in healing wounds and
expelling poisons. They had likewise some extraordinary method of
discovering jealousy, theft, and poisoning; the success of which no
doubt they derived from their unbounded influence over the credulity
and superstition of the people. I do not remember what those methods
were, except that as to poisoning: I recollect an instance or two,
which I hope it will not be deemed impertinent here to insert, as it
may serve as a kind of specimen of the rest, and is still used by the
negroes in the West Indies. A virgin had been poisoned, but it was not
known by whom: the doctors ordered the corpse to be taken up by some
persons, and carried to the grave. As soon as the bearers had raised
it on their shoulders, they seemed seized with some[F] sudden
impulse, and ran to and fro unable to stop themselves. At last, after
having passed through a number of thorns and prickly bushes unhurt,
the corpse fell from them close to a house, and defaced it in the
fall; and, the owner being taken up, he immediately confessed the
poisoning[G].
The natives are extremely cautious about poison. When they buy any
eatable the seller kisses it all round before the buyer, to shew him
it is not poisoned; and the same is done when any meat or drink is
presented, particularly to a stranger. We have serpents of different
kinds, some of which are esteemed ominous when they appear in our
houses, and these we never molest. I remember two of those ominous
snakes, each of which was as thick as the calf of a man's leg, and in
colour resembling a dolphin in the water, crept at different times
into my mother's night-house, where I always lay with her, and coiled
themselves into folds, and each time they crowed like a cock. I was
desired by some of our wise men to touch these, that I might be
interested in the good omens, which I did, for they were quite
harmless, and would tamely suffer themselves to be handled; and then
they were put into a large open earthen pan, and set on one side of
the highway. Some of our snakes, however, were poisonous: one of them
crossed the road one day when I was standing on it, and passed between
my feet without offering to touch me, to the great surprise of many
who saw it; and these incidents were accounted by the wise men, and
therefore by my mother and the rest of the people, as remarkable omens
in my favour.
Such is the imperfect sketch my memory has furnished me with of the
manners and customs of a people among whom I first drew my breath. And
here I cannot forbear suggesting what has long struck me very
forcibly, namely, the strong analogy which even by this sketch,
imperfect as it is, appears to prevail in the manners and customs of
my countrymen and those of the Jews, before they reached the Land of
Promise, and particularly the patriarchs while they were yet in that
pastoral state which is described in Genesis--an analogy, which alone
would induce me to think that the one people had sprung from the
other. Indeed this is the opinion of Dr. Gill, who, in his commentary
on Genesis, very ably deduces the pedigree of the Africans from Afer
and Afra, the descendants of Abraham by Keturah his wife and concubine
(for both these titles are applied to her). It is also conformable to
the sentiments of Dr. John Clarke, formerly Dean of Sarum, in his
Truth of the Christian Religion: both these authors concur in
ascribing to us this original. The reasonings of these gentlemen are
still further confirmed by the scripture chronology; and if any
further corroboration were required, this resemblance in so many
respects is a strong evidence in support of the opinion. Like the
Israelites in their primitive state, our government was conducted by
our chiefs or judges, our wise men and elders; and the head of a
family with us enjoyed a similar authority over his household with
that which is ascribed to Abraham and the other patriarchs. The law of
retaliation obtained almost universally with us as with them: and even
their religion appeared to have shed upon us a ray of its glory,
though broken and spent in its passage, or eclipsed by the cloud with
which time, tradition, and ignorance might have enveloped it; for we
had our circumcision (a rule I believe peculiar to that people:) we
had also our sacrifices and burnt-offerings, our washings and
purifications, on the same occasions as they had.
As to the difference of colour between the Eboan Africans and the
modern Jews, I shall not presume to account for it. It is a subject
which has engaged the pens of men of both genius and learning, and is
far above my strength. The most able and Reverend Mr. T. Clarkson,
however, in his much admired Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the
Human Species, has ascertained the cause, in a manner that at once
solves every objection on that account, and, on my mind at least, has
produced the fullest conviction. I shall therefore refer to that
performance for the theory[H], contenting myself with extracting a
fact as related by Dr. Mitchel[I]. "The Spaniards, who have inhabited
America, under the torrid zone, for any time, are become as dark
coloured as our native Indians of Virginia; of which _I myself have
been a witness_." There is also another instance[J] of a Portuguese
settlement at Mitomba, a river in Sierra Leona; where the inhabitants
are bred from a mixture of the first Portuguese discoverers with the
natives, and are now become in their complexion, and in the woolly
quality of their hair, _perfect negroes_, retaining however a
smattering of the Portuguese language.
These instances, and a great many more which might be adduced, while
they shew how the complexions of the same persons vary in different
climates, it is hoped may tend also to remove the prejudice that some
conceive against the natives of Africa on account of their colour.
Surely the minds of the Spaniards did not change with their
complexions! Are there not causes enough to which the apparent
inferiority of an African may be ascribed, without limiting the
goodness of God, and supposing he forbore to stamp understanding on
certainly his own image, because "carved in ebony." Might it not
naturally be ascribed to their situation? When they come among
Europeans, they are ignorant of their language, religion, manners, and
customs. Are any pains taken to teach them these? Are they treated as
men? Does not slavery itself depress the mind, and extinguish all its
fire and every noble sentiment? But, above all, what advantages do not
a refined people possess over those who are rude and uncultivated. Let
the polished and haughty European recollect that his ancestors were
once, like the Africans, uncivilized, and even barbarous. Did Nature
make _them_ inferior to their sons? and should _they too_ have been
made slaves? Every rational mind answers, No. Let such reflections as
these melt the pride of their superiority into sympathy for the wants
and miseries of their sable brethren, and compel them to acknowledge,
that understanding is not confined to feature or colour. If, when they
look round the world, they feel exultation, let it be tempered with
benevolence to others, and gratitude to God, "who hath made of one
blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth[K];
and whose wisdom is not our wisdom, neither are our ways his ways."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote A: See Benezet's "Account of Guinea" throughout.]
[Footnote B: When I was in Smyrna I have frequently seen the Greeks
dance after this manner.]
[Footnote C: The bowl is earthen, curiously figured, to which a long
reed is fixed as a tube. This tube is sometimes so long as to be born
by one, and frequently out of grandeur by two boys.]
[Footnote D: When I was in Smyrna I saw the same kind of earth, and
brought some of it with me to England; it resembles musk in strength,