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The Bedford Handbook Tenth Edition
The Bedford Handbook Tenth Edition
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The Bedford Handbook
Diana Hacker
Nancy Sommers
Harvard University
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For Bedford/St. Martin’s
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Vice President, Editorial, Macmillan Learning Humanities: Edwin Hill
Editorial Director, English: Karen S. Henry
Senior Publisher for Composition, Business and Technical Writing, Developmental Writing: Leasa Burton
Executive Editor: Michelle M. Clark
Senior Editor: Mara Weible
Senior Media Editor: Barbara G. Flanagan
Senior Production Editor: Gregory Erb
Senior Media Producer: Allison Hart
Production Manager: Joe Ford
Marketing Manager: Emily Rowin
Assistant Editor: Stephanie Thomas
Copy Editor: Linda B. McLatchie
Indexer: Ellen Kuhl Repetto
Photo Editor: Martha Friedman
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Senior Art Director: Anna Palchik
Text Design: Claire Seng-Niemoeller
Cover Design: John Callahan
Composition: Cenveo Publisher Services
Printing and Binding: LSC Communications
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except as may be
expressly permitted by the applicable copyright statutes or in writing by the Publisher.
1 0 9 8 7 6
f e d c b a
Acknowledgments
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Text acknowledgments and copyrights appear at the back of the book on pages 871–72, which constitute an extension
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a violation of the law to reproduce these selections by any means whatsoever without the written permission of the
copyright holder.
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Preface for Instructors
Dear Colleagues:
Welcome to the tenth edition of The Bedford Handbook. When you assign The Bedford Handbook, you send
an important message to students: Writing is worth studying and practicing. And you give students the
resource to answer their writing questions and to learn from the answers. College writing is high stakes, after
all. Students learn to become nurses and teachers, psychologists and criminal justice professionals through
writing. For academic success, no skill is more critical than effective writing.
As I worked on the new edition, I had the pleasure of finding answers to my own writing questions in a
gracious and thoughtful group of editorial advisers (see p. xii), teachers of writing with many years of
experience at two- and four-year schools and with many suggestions for smart ways to address the problems
student writers have. I wanted each new feature in the tenth edition to address the specific challenges our
students face as college writers — drafting and revising a thesis statement; reading critically; locating,
evaluating, and citing sources; making sentence-level decisions about grammar and punctuation — and to give
students practice in building these core skills to become confident college writers.
As you page through the tenth edition, you’ll discover many new features inspired by my thirty years as a
writing teacher and by the expert advice of our talented team of reviewers, teachers who use The Bedford
Handbook in their classrooms and who urged us to make the handbook even more practical, “more handy.”
We listened to our reviewers who asked for more hands-on practice around transferable skills, such as writing
a thesis, making an argument, conducting research, and more. In the tenth edition, you’ll find 20 new writing
exercises to give students practice in developing core academic skills and applying handbook lessons; you’ll
also find more than 350 assignable exercises and activities in LaunchPad Solo for Hacker Handbooks and in
Writer’s Help 2.0, Hacker Version, the companion media. I am especially excited about our new “How to” boxes
that offer students step-by-step, practical instruction on essential skills such as drafting an argumentative
thesis, deciding when to paraphrase or summarize sources, and avoiding plagiarizing from the Web.
These new “How to” boxes offer students straightforward solutions to some of the biggest challenges they
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face as academic writers. My students report, for instance, that one of their major research challenges is
locating authoritative sources beyond a quick Google search. Google is fast, but it’s not efficient for academic
research. So in the tenth edition, we respond with the new “How to go beyond a Google search” box (see p.
536) to give students a practical method for becoming more efficient and effective researchers.
Just as we want our students to go beyond an unreliable, superficial online search to conduct academic
research, we want their writing instruction to be reliable and comprehensive. A search of free online materials
might provide millions of results to students’ questions about thesis or citation practices, but we know that
these results are often more confusing than illuminating and that this method is neither an efficient nor an
effective way to learn how to develop a thesis or cite sources.
In the tenth edition, you and your students will find new instruction on paraphrasing, guidelines for
accurate citation of online sources (including MLA’s 2016 guidelines), and step-by-step guidance on giving
peer review comments. You’ll also find practical “Writing guides” to help students write common
assignments, such as an annotated bibliography, which many of you told me you assign. And you’ll find new
“Writer’s choice” boxes, which offer a more rhetorical approach to sentence-level concerns. All the features in
the new edition are designed to answer your students’ questions and to help them solve their writing
problems. By assigning the tenth edition of The Bedford Handbook, you guide students to read deeply, write
clearly, and join ongoing research conversations as contributors of ideas.
I am eager to share this handbook with you, knowing that in the new edition you’ll find everything you
and your students trust and value about The Bedford Handbook.
Nancy Sommers
[email protected]
Step-by-step instruction will help your students apply writing advice in practical ways and transfer skills to
different kinds of writing assignments. More than a dozen new “How to” boxes offer the straightforward help
that instructors and students want.
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▸ How to solve five common problems with thesis statements
More exercises and activities in a wide variety of formats give students more practice opportunities than ever
before.
The print book features more exercises in the new edition, including writing and grammar exercises that
require rhetorical thinking, research exercises that ask students to practice paraphrasing and summarizing,
and writing prompts that encourage students to apply handbook advice to their own writing.
LaunchPad Solo for Hacker Handbooks and Writer’s Help 2.0, Hacker Version — your two choices for
companion media — include 300 exercises (most autoscored), LearningCurve adaptive quizzes, and
writing prompts.
New “Writer’s choice” boxes on grammar and style topics offer opportunities for students to practice critical
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thinking at the sentence level. A new rhetorical approach to grammar coverage makes this content more
teachable by giving instructors flexibility — a way to individualize instruction for students who may need
more than a conventional explanation of the rules.
New emphasis on peer review allows students to practice the skills they need to collaborate in college writing
environments and beyond.
Thoroughly revised content in Chapter 2 illustrates best practices for peer review.
The 2016 MLA guidelines inform all of our MLA coverage, and our revision ensures that you and your
students have the most up-to-date advice and models and that your students have ample instruction for
conducting responsible research. Two new sample research essays, one in MLA style and one in APA style,
model proper formatting and effective writing from sources.
New advice for public speaking/oral presentation prepares students to speak confidently in academic settings and
to look ahead to professional and everyday situations that call for oral communication. See page 166).
Prebuilt content modules (12–16 pages each) on a variety of topics allow you to create the handbook that
meets the needs of you and your students. Choose from modules on time management, CSE style,
business writing, using sentence templates for academic writing, and more.
You can also define your program and communicate your policies with brief, original, school-specific
content such as goals of the writing program, location and hours of the writing center, common
syllabus/assignments, and so on.
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What hasn’t changed?
The handbook covers a lot of ground. Even Google can’t give students the confidence that comes with a
coherent reference that covers all the topics they need in a writing course. The Bedford Handbook supports
students as they compose for different purposes and audiences and in a variety of genres, as they
collaborate, revise and edit, conduct research, document sources, and format their writing.
It’s easy to use, easy to understand. The handbook’s explanations are brief, accessible, and illustrated by
examples. The book’s many boxes, charts, checklists, and menus are designed to help users find what they
need quickly.
The handbook provides authoritative, trustworthy instruction. Most writing resources on the Web offer
information, but they don’t offer instruction. With the tenth edition of The Bedford Handbook, students
have reference content that has been class-tested by hundreds of thousands of students and instructors.
The handbook adoption includes the service and support you have come to expect from Bedford/St.
Martin’s. We provide professional resources, professional development workshops, training for digital
tools, and quick, personal service when you need it.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful for the expertise, enthusiasm, and classroom experience that so many individuals brought to the
tenth edition.
Reviewers
Nora Bacon, University of Nebraska; Garrison Bickerstaff, University of Georgia; Megan Boeshart, Texas
State University; Brooke Bovee, Miami Dade College; Steve Brahlek, Palm Beach State College; Edward
Coursey, Hillsborough Community College; Pamela Fletcher, St. Catherine University; Edward Glenn,
Miami Dade College; Wanda Grimes, Volunteer State Community College; Kay Grossberg, Volunteer State
Community College; David Holper, College of the Redwoods; Edmund Jones, Seton Hall University;
Matthew Klauza, Palm Beach State College; Matthew Kretchmar, Denison University; Rebecca Mills,
California State Polytechnic University; Luis Nazario, Pueblo Community College; Stephanie Noll, Texas
State University; Susan North, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; Annemarie Oldfield, Eastern New
Mexico University; Tara O’Neill-Knasick, Hudson Valley Community College; Matthew Sagorski, Miami
Dade College; James Suderman, Northwest Florida State College; Tom Treffinger, Greenville Technical
College
Editorial advisers
I was thrilled to have the help of the following fellow teachers of writing in shaping a new edition that
responds to students’ needs, saves teachers time, and reflects current pedagogy.
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Shonette Grant, Northern Virginia Community College
Mickey Hall, Volunteer State Community College
Melody Hargraves, St. Johns River State College
Bill Leach, Florida Institute of Technology
Lanie Lundgrin, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Alexandra Mason, Miami Dade College
Loren Mitchell, University of Hawaii
Tiffany Mitchell, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Jeannine Morgan, St. Johns River State College
Lisa Shaw, Miami Dade College
Ross Wagner, Greenville Technical College
Nancy Wilson, Texas State University
Contributors
I thank the following fellow teachers for smart revisions of important content: Kimberli Huster, ESL
specialist at Robert Morris University, updated the advice for multilingual writers, and Sara McCurry,
instructor of English at Shasta College, coauthored the new edition of Teaching with Hacker Handbooks with
Jonathan Cullick, professor of English at Northern Kentucky University. I also thank Robert Koch, director
of the Center for Writing Excellence at the University of North Alabama, for drafting content for the new
“Writer ’ s choice” rhetorical grammar boxes.
Student contributors
Including sample student writing in each edition of the handbook and its media makes the resources useful for
you and your students. I would like to thank these students for letting us adapt their work as models: Ned
Bishop, Sophie Harba, Sam Jacobs, Michelle Nguyen, Emilia Sanchez, April Bo Wang, and Ren Yoshida.
Bedford/St. Martin’s
A comprehensive handbook is a collaborative writing project, and it is my pleasure to acknowledge and thank
the enormously talented Bedford/St. Martin’s editorial team, whose focus on students informs each new
feature of The Bedford Handbook. Edwin Hill, vice president for humanities editorial, and Leasa Burton, senior
publisher for composition, offer their commitment to and deep knowledge of the field of composition and the
ways in which it is changing. Karen Henry, editorial director for English, has helped shape the book’s identity
and has guided us with insights about how to continue to meet the needs of the college writer.
Michelle Clark, executive editor, is the editor every author dreams of having — a treasured friend and
colleague and an endless source of creativity and clarity. Michelle combines wisdom with patience,
imagination with practicality, and hard work with good cheer. Barbara Flanagan, senior media editor, brings
unrivaled expertise in documentation — mastering the 2016 MLA update — and organizes our media
content. Mara Weible, senior editor, brings to the tenth edition her teacher’s sensibility; I thank her for
working with student writer April Wang on a new APA-style research essay. Thanks to Stephanie Thomas,
assistant editor, for expertly managing the review and permissions processes and for developing Teaching with
Hacker Handbooks and other key supplements. And many thanks to Allison Hart, senior media producer, for
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delivering engaging handbook tools for students in the digital age.
Practical advice from Bedford colleagues Emily Rowin, Joy Fisher Williams, Jimmy Fleming, Nick
Carbone, Karita dos Santos, Brendan Baruth, and Harriet Wald — all of whom, like me, spend many hours
on the road and in faculty offices — is always treasured. Many thanks to Gregory Erb, senior production
editor, who keeps us on schedule and expertly manages the design and composition processes. And thanks to
Linda McLatchie, copyeditor, for her thoroughness and attention to detail; to Claire Seng-Niemoeller, text
designer, who crafted a clean and more accessible tenth edition of the book; and to John Callahan, designer,
who has given the book a strikingly beautiful cover.
Last, but never least, I offer thanks to my own students who, over many years, have shaped my teaching
and helped me understand their challenges in becoming college writers. Thanks to my friends and colleagues
Suzanne Lane, Maxine Rodburg, Laura Saltz, and Kerry Walk for sustaining conversations about the teaching
of writing. And thanks to my family: to Joshua Alper, an attentive reader of life and literature, for his
steadfastness across the drafts; to my parents, Walter and Louise Sommers, who encouraged me to write and
set me forth on a career of writing and teaching; to my extended family, Ron, Charles Mary, Alexander,
Demian, Devin, Liz, Kate, Sam, Terry, Steve, and Yuval, for their good humor and good cheer; and to Rachel
and Curran, Alexandra and Brian, witty and wise beyond measure, always generous with their instruction and
inspiration in all things that matter. And to Lailah Dragonfly, my granddaughter, thanks for the joy and
sweetness you bring to life.
Nancy Sommers
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Contents
d Drafting a plan
e Drafting an introduction
g Drafting a conclusion
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Writing guide: How to write a reflective letter
a Reading actively
a Reading actively
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f Establishing credibility and stating your position
a Reading actively
b Forming an interpretation
a In compound structures
b that
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c In comparisons
a Mixed grammar
b Illogical connections
a Limiting modifiers
d Split infinitives
e Dangling modifiers
b Verb tense
b Choppy sentences
d Ineffective subordination
e Excessive subordination
f Other techniques
a Sentence openings
b Sentence structures
c Inverted order
d Question
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PART IV Word Choice
ONLINE ACTIVITIES
a Redundancies
b Unnecessary repetition
a Jargon
e Levels of formality
f Sexist language
g Offensive language
a Connotations
c Misused words
d Standard idioms
e Clichés
f Figures of speech
a Subordinate clauses
b Phrases
d Acceptable fragments
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a Revision with coordinating conjunction
d Revision by restructuring
e Indefinite pronouns
f Collective nouns
a Singular with singular, plural with plural (indefinite pronouns, generic nouns)
b Collective nouns
c Implied antecedents
c Appositives
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d Pronoun following than or as
e we or us before a noun
a In subordinate clauses
b In questions
e Double negatives
a Irregular verbs
d -ed endings
e Omitted verbs
f Verb tense
g Subjunctive mood
28 Verbs
b Passive voice
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a Articles and other noun markers
c When to use a or an
30 Sentence structure
f Placement of adverbs
32 The comma
c Items in a series
d Coordinate adjectives
e Nonrestrictive elements
h he said etc.
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33 Unnecessary commas
h Other misuses
34 The semicolon
d Misuses
35 The colon
b Conventional uses
c Misuses
36 The apostrophe
a Possessive nouns
c Contractions
e Misuses
37 Quotation marks
a Direct quotations
d Words as words
f Misuses
38 End punctuation
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a The period
a Dash
b Parentheses
c Brackets
d Ellipsis mark
e Slash
40 Abbreviations
b Familiar abbreviations
c Conventional abbreviations
d Units of measurement
e Latin abbreviations
f Plural of abbreviations
g Misuses
41 Numbers
a Spelling out
b Using numerals
42 Italics
a Titles of works
c Foreign words
43 Spelling
a Spelling rules
b The dictionary
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44 The hyphen
a Compound words
b Hyphenated adjectives
f Word division
45 Capitalization
46 Parts of speech
a Nouns
b Pronouns
c Verbs
d Adjectives
e Adverbs
f Prepositions
g Conjunctions
h Interjections
47 Sentence patterns
a Subjects
c Pattern variations
a Prepositional phrases
b Verbal phrases
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c Appositive phrases
d Absolute phrases
e Subordinate clauses
49 Sentence types
a Sentence structures
b Sentence purposes
52 Evaluating sources
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WRITING MLA PAPERS
53 Supporting a thesis
55 Integrating sources
d Synthesizing sources
32
59 Citing sources; avoiding plagiarism
60 Integrating sources
d Synthesizing sources
a Supporting a thesis
c Integrating sources
d Documenting sources
e Manuscript format
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65 Approaching writing assignments in the disciplines
a Writing in psychology
b Writing in business
c Writing in biology
d Writing in nursing
GLOSSARY OF USAGE
ANSWERS TO EXERCISES
INDEX
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Why good habits matter
College offers many opportunities to learn from the process of writing and revising. As you write, you will use
evidence to support your ideas, develop your ability to think carefully, and read and respond to what others
have written. In a sociology class, you might write a field report; in a nursing class, a case study; and in a
literature class, a critical analysis. By writing in these classes, you contribute your ideas and join writers who
share interests, ideas, and ways of communicating with one another.
Developing certain approaches to academic work, often called habits of mind — curiosity, engagement,
responsibility, and reflection — will help you write successfully in all of your college courses.
Be curious. What issues intrigue you? What questions need to be explored? Writing is more rewarding when
you explore questions you don’t have answers to.
JEKA/SHUTTERSTOCK
Be engaged. Writing is a social activity that brings you into conversations with scholars, instructors, classmates,
and others. Writing drafts provides opportunities to request feedback from readers — readers who will help
shape your work in progress.
Be responsible. Engaging with the ideas of other writers requires responsibility — to represent their ideas fairly
and to acknowledge their contributions to your work.
Be reflective. By examining your decisions, successes, and challenges, you’ll be able to figure out what’s
working and what needs more work and to transfer skills from one writing assignment to the next.
Another good habit, of course, is consulting your Bedford Handbook whenever you have a question about
writing — whatever the writing assignment.
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Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
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.