11 страница. After the confluence of the White Nile and West Nile, the former draining Lake Victoria and the Uganda lakes through Uganda

FIG. 42. The reward of obeying nature's laws of nutrition is illustrated in this west Nile tribe in Belgian Congo. Note the breadth of the dental arches and the finely proportioned features. Their bodies are as well built as their heads. Exceedingly few teeth have been attacked by dental caries while on their native foods.

After the confluence of the White Nile and West Nile, the former draining Lake Victoria and the Uganda lakes through Uganda, and the latter, Lakes Kivu, Edwards and Albert and eastern Belgian Congo, the volume of water moving northward is very large. A unique obstruction to navigation has developed due to the fact that the Nile runs underground for a considerable distance. In this district vegetation is rank and prolific, including large quantities of water plants which form islands that are often attached temporarily to the shore. The water carries large quantities of alluvia which furnish an abundance of nutriment to the floating plant life. Accordingly, in many of these floating islands a large quantity of soil is enmeshed in the plant roots. At some period in the past the river became bridged across in upper Sudan near its southern border. With the progressive addition of new material a large natural bridge has been raised on which trees are now growing, and across which are elephant trails. This and a series of rapids require a detour of over a hundred miles.

The elephants are so plentiful in this district that both in Uganda and Sudan the governments have been required to send in special hunters to reduce the herds. In one district in Uganda two hundred were said to have been slaughtered. They are very destructive to banana plantations. They break the banana trees over or pull them up by the roots and eat the succulent heart as well as the fruits. In a night a herd may destroy an entire plantation. The only people in the districts who are permitted to kill the elephants without license are the pygmies. They are also the only ones not required to pay a head tax. There are many tribes of them in the great forest area in Belgian Congo and Uganda. Their skill with spears is remarkable and they are able to kill an elephant while the animal remains unaware of his danger. It takes them one to two days to hamstring an elephant by working stealthily from behind, always keeping out of the elephant's sight. Although an elephant can scent a human for a long distance, these pygmies can disguise themselves so completely that the elephant is unaware of their presence. After disabling him by cutting the tendons of both hind legs, they attack him openly and, while one attracts his attention, the other slowly but progressively hacks off his trunk. In this manner he bleeds to death. They are particularly fond of elephant meat and a slaughter means a great feast. While we were in one of the pygmy colonies two of them brought in the tusks of an elephant they had just killed. We had the rare opportunity of witnessing the celebration in the colony, which included the special reproduction in pantomime of the attack and method of killing the elephant. The pygmy mother of these two men is shown in Fig. 43 (lower half). It will be noticed that she is a full head shorter than Mrs. Price, who is five feet three inches tall. This rugged, though small, woman is the mother of five grown men, two of whom are shown in Fig. 43 with the tusks of the elephant. Note their homemade spears. As marksmen with bows and arrows and as trappers, these pygmies have wonderful skill. Their arrows are tipped with iron of their own manufacture and have receptacles for carrying drugs which they extract from plants. These drugs temporarily paralyze the animals. For animals which they wish to destroy the arrows carry a poison which rapidly produces death. The home life of the pygmies in the forest is often filled with danger. Just before our arrival two babies had been carried off by a leopard. This stealthy night prowler is one of the most difficult animals to combat and probably has been one of the reasons the pygmies build cabins in the trees. Ordinarily their homes are built on the ground in a little clearing in the big forest. They consist of low shelters covered with banana leaves and other plants, built over a frame work. The native missionary dispensed our gift of salt which is one of their most prized gifts. They put on a dance for us.

FIG. 43. The Pygmies of Belgian Congo are expert hunters. The two young men in the center above have slain single handed the large bull elephant whose tusks they are holding. The spears used are shown. They are two of five grown sons of the pygmy mother standing next to Mrs. Price in the lower picture. Their teeth are excellent and their knowledge of foods unique.

Pygmies, Ituru Forest, Belgian Congo. These people are said to have originally lived in the trees and they were exceedingly shy and difficult to contact. We were taken to several of their villages in the heart of the dense Ituru forest. We found them very well disposed through the confidence that has been established by the mission workers. Their shyness, however, together with the difficulty of making them understand through two transfers of languages, made an examination of their teeth very difficult.

A study of 352 teeth of twelve individuals revealed eight teeth had been attacked by tooth decay, or 2.2 per cent.

The native tribes of Africa have depended to a great extent on fresh water fish from the numerous lakes and rivers for certain of their essential food factors. After being dried in the sun these fish are carried long distances into the interior. The Nile perch grows frequently to a weight of 150 pounds. The natives of Africa know that certain insects are very rich in special food values at certain seasons, also that their eggs are valuable foods. A fly that hatches in enormous quantities in Lake Victoria is gathered and used fresh and dried for storage. They also use ant eggs and ants.

Nyankunde Mission, Iruinu, Belgian Congo. This group is made up of members of the Bahema, Babira, Alur and Balendu tribes. We will consider the representatives of these different tribes collectively since they live largely on a common dietary consisting chiefly of cereals. Only the Bahemas of this group have small herds of cattle. Some of the others have a few goats. This district is located southwest of Lake Albert.

A study of 6,461 teeth of 217 individuals revealed 390 teeth with dental caries, or 6 per cent. Thirty-eight and seven-tenths per cent of the individuals suffered from dental caries.

Bogora Mission, Belgian Congo. This mission is located west of Lake Albert and includes members of the Bahema and Balendu tribes. While the Bahema tribe originally lived very largely on cattle products, milk, blood and meat, in this district, the herds were small and they were using a considerable quantity of cereals, chiefly corn and beans, some sweet potatoes and bananas. These latter were the chief foods of the other tribes, in addition to goats' milk.

An examination of 2,196 teeth of seventy-seven individuals revealed 160 teeth with caries, or 7.2 per cent. Fifty-three per cent of the individuals had caries.

Kasenyi Port, Lake Albert, Belgian Congo. These natives were members of several tribes surrounding this district who were for the most part temporary residents as laborers. The people had been living largely on a cereal diet and now during their temporary residence at the port had had fish.

An examination of 1,940 teeth of sixty-three individuals revealed 120 teeth with dental caries, or 6.1 per cent of the teeth. Fifty and eighttenths per cent of the individuals had dental caries.

Wanande Tribe, Belgian Congo. This tribe is located at Lubero in Belgian Congo. Their diet consists largely of bananas, sweet potatoes, cereals and goats' milk.

In an examination of 368 teeth of thirteen individuals, there were eight teeth with caries, or 2.2 per cent. Fifteen and four-tenths per cent of the individuals were affected.

Baitu Tribe, Nyunge, Ruanda, Belgian Protectorate. This district lies south of Uganda and east of Belgian Congo proper, northwest of Tanganyika. It lies just east of Lake Kivu. When we learn that Lake Kivu was only discovered in 1894, even though it is one of the important sources of the Nile waters, we realize the primitiveness of the people of this and adjoining districts. This group lives largely on dairy products from cattle and goats, together with sweet potatoes, cereals and bananas.

In a study of 364 teeth of thirteen individuals, not a single tooth was found to have been attacked by dental caries.

Native Hotel Staff at Goina, Belgian Congo. This group consisted of the inside and outside servants of a tourist hotel on Lake Kivu.

An examination of 320 teeth of ten individuals revealed twenty teeth with caries, or 6.3 per cent. It is significant that all of these carious teeth were in the mouth of one individual, the cook. The others all boarded themselves and lived on native diets. The cook used European foods.

Where the members of the African tribes had attached themselves to coffee plantations aad were provided with the imported foods of white flour, sugar, polished rice and canned goods, tooth decay became rampant. This is typically illustrated in Fig. 44.

FIG. 44. Wherever the Africans have aidopted the foods of modern commerce, dental caries was active, thus destroying large numbers of the teeth and causing great suffering. The cases shown here are typical of workers on plantations which largely use imported foods.

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan has an area approximately one-third that of the United States. It is traversed throughout its length from south to north by the Nile. There are several tribes living along this great waterway, which are of special interest now owing to their close proximity to Ethiopia. There are wonderful hunters and warriors among them. In hunting they use their long-bladed spears almost entirely. The shores of the Nile for nearly a thousand miles in this district are lined with papyrus and other water plants to a depth of from several hundred yards to a few miles. Back of this area the land rises and provides excellent pasturage for the grazing cattle. These tribes, therefore, use milk, blood and meat from cattle and large quantities of animal life from the Nile River. Some of the tribes are very tall, particularly the Neurs. The women are often six feet or over, and the men seven feet, some of them reaching seven and a half feet in height. I was particularly interested in their food habits both because of their high immunity to dental caries which approximated one hundred per cent, and because of their physical development. I learned that they have a belief which to them is their religion, namely, that every man and woman has a soul which resides in the liver and that a man's character and physical growth depend upon how well he feeds that soul by eating the livers of animals. The liver is so sacred that it may not be touched by human hands. It is accordingly always handled with their spear or saber, or with specially prepared forked sticks. It is eaten both raw and cooked.

Many of these tribes, like the Neurs, wear no clothing and decorate their bodies with various designs, some of them representing strings of beads produced by putting foreign substances under the skin in definite order. They have maintained a particularly bitter warfare against the Arab slave dealers who have come across from the Red Sea coast to carry off the women and children. In isolated districts even to this day they are suspicious of foreigners. We were told that in one district adjoining Ethiopia all light skinned people are in danger and cannot safely enter that territory without a military escort.

Terraizeka, Upper Nile, Sudan. These people are tall and live largely on fish and other animal life. This part of Sudan consists of many districts of great marshland called the sudd. It is covered with rank papyrus to the height of fifteen to thirty feet. This jungle of rank marsh growth swarms with a wide variety of animal life, large and small.

An examination of 548 teeth of eighteen individuals revealed that not a single tooth had been attacked by dental caries, or 100 per cent immunity.

Neurs, Malakal, Sudan. The Neurs at Malakal on the Nile River are a unique tribe because of their remarkable stature. Many of the women are six feet tall and the men range from six feet to seven and a half feet in height. Their food consists very largely of animal life of the Nile, dairy products, milk and blood from the herds.

A study of 1,268 teeth of thirty-nine individuals revealed only six teeth with dental caries, or 0.5 per cent. Only three individuals had caries, or 7.7 per cent.

Dinkas, Jebelein, Sudan. This tribe lives on the Nile. Its members are not as tall as the Neurs. They are physically better proportioned and have greater strength. They use fish from the Nile and cereals for their diet. They decorate their bodies profusely with scars.

An examination of 592 teeth of twenty-two individuals revealed only one tooth with caries, or 0.2 per cent.

Arab Schools at Khartoum and Omdurman, Sudan. The Arabs are the chief occupants of the territory of Northern Sudan. Omdurman on the west bank of the White Nile opposite Khartoum is the largest purely Arab city in the world. It has been but slightly influenced by modern civilization. Khartoum, on the contrary, just across the river from Omdurman and the capital of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, has districts which are typically modern. These include the government offices and administration organization. The Arab section of Khartoum has been definitely influenced by contact with the Europeans. This makes possible a comparative study of similar groups in the two cities-modernized Khartoum and primitive Omdurman.

A study of 1,284 teeth of fifty-two individuals in an Arab school at Khartoum revealed that 59 teeth or 4.7 per cent had been attacked by dental caries, or 44.2 per cent of the individuals studied.

In Omdurman a study of 744 teeth in thirty-one individuals, revealed only nine teeth that had been attacked by tooth decay, or 1.2 per cent. In this group only two or 6.4 per cent of the individuals had dental caries.

The groups examined were selected with the assistance of the government officials and consisted of the higher grade pupils in two advanced native schools, one in Khartoum and one in Omdurman.

It is of interest that of the two boys in the Arab school at Omdurman with dental caries one was the son of a rich merchant and used liberally sweets and European foods.

Native Hospital, Khartoum, Sudan. The individuals studied in this institution were from quite remote areas distributed through Sudan. Some had traveled many days on camels to obtain the help that the hospital provided.

A study of 288 teeth of ten individuals revealed that thirteen had been attacked by tooth decay, or 4.5 per cent.

Ikhlas School, Cairo, Egypt. This is a native school in which the individuals are comparable in many respects to those in the native schools at Khartoum and Omdurman. Their nutrition is highly modernized by living in a modern city.

A study of 2,092 teeth of eighty-five individuals revealed that 353 teeth or 12.1 per cent had been attacked by tooth decay. Seventy-five per cent of the individuals of this group had dental caries.

The total number of teeth examined in the preceding groups was 28,438. Of this number, 1,346 were found with dental caries or 4.7 per cent. This represents a total of 1,002 individuals examined, of whom 300 had one or more carious teeth, or had lost teeth by caries, making 29.9 per cent of the individuals with dental caries. Of this total number of individuals studied in twenty-seven groups, there were several groups with practically complete immunity to dental caries, while other groups had relatively high incidence of that disease.

Facial and Dental Arch Deformities. The purpose of these studies has included the obtaining of data which will throw light also on the etiology of deformities of the dental arches and face, including irregularity of position of the teeth.

A marked variation of the incidence of irregularities was found in the different tribes. This variation could be directly associated with the nutrition rather than with the tribal pattern. The lowest percentage of irregularity occurred in the tribes living very largely on dairy products and marine life. For example, among the Masai living on milk, blood and meat, only 3.4 per cent had irregularities. Among the Kikuyu and Wakamba, 18.2 and 18.9 per cent respectively had irregularities. These peap!e were largely agriculturists living primarily on vegetable foods. In the native Arab school at Omdurman, among the pupils living almost entirely according to the native customs of selection and preparation of foods, 6.4 per cent had irregularities, while in the native school at modernized Khartoum 17 per cent had irregularities. In the Ikhlas school at Cairo, under modern influence, 16.5 per cent had irregularities. In the native hospital at Khartoum, 70 per cent had irregularities. In the Pygmy group 33.3 per cent had irregularities, and among the grain eaters of the west Nile, 25.5 per cent had irregularities. The Jeannes School had 46.1 per cent and the Ogada mission 30 per cent.

While the primitive racial stocks of Africa developed normal facial and dental arch forms when on their native foods, several characteristic types of deformity frequently developed in the children of the modernized groups. One of the simplest forms, and one which corresponds with a very common deformity pattern in the United States, involves the dropping inward of the laterals with narrowing of the upper arch making the incisors appear abnormally prominent and crowding the cuspids outside the line of the arch. Typical illustrations of this are shown in Fig. 45. Where the nutritional deficiency is very severe, as at Mombasa on the coast, more severe changes in facial form are found.

FIG. 45. In the new generations, born after the parents had adopted typical modernized diets of Europeans, there was a marked change in the facial and dental arch forms of the adolescent children. Note the narrowing of the nostrils and dental arches and the crowding of the teeth in these four typical young men.

Among the deformity patterns a lack of development forward of the middle third of the face or of the lower third of the face often appeared in the more highly modernized groups. An illustration of the former is seen in Fig. 46 (upper left), and of the latter in Fig. 46 (lower left and right). In the girl at the upper left, the upper arch tends to go inside the lower arch all around. This girl is of the first generation, in a mission in Nairobi, following the adoption of the modernized foods by the parents.

FIG. 46. Disturbed nature may present a variety nf deformity patterns. In the upper left the upper arch is much too small for the lower and nearly goes inside it. The upper right is narrowed with crowding of the teeth. Both lower cases demonstrate an underdevelopment of the mandible of the lower jaw.

A more extreme and severe type of facial change involves an abnormal narrowing with marked distortion of both upper and lower arches. This is shown typically in Fig. 47.

FIG. 47. As in our civilization, even the first generation, after the adoption of modernized foods may show gross deformities. Note the extreme protrusion of the upper teeth with shortening of the lower jaw in the upper pictures and the marked narrowing with lengthening of the face in the lower views. The injury is not limited to the visible structures.

These extreme deformities often produce facial expressions that are suggestive of the faces of some of the monkeys. This is illustrated by the three boys shown with the monkey in Fig. 48.

FIG. 48. A very frequent injury apearing in the offspring after the adoption of less efficient foods often involves a marked depression of the middle third of the face as illustrated in the three boys in this view. Note the comparison with the chimpanzee face.

The Arabs in several districts use camels' milk extensively. It is nutritious, and in much of the desert country constitutes the mainstay of the nomads for months at a time. The primitive Arabs studied had fine dental arches with very little deformity. Even the horses ridden by the Arab chiefs in moving their camel herds across the desert are often dependent, sometimes for as long as three months, upon the milk of the camels for their nutrition. Typical Arab faces and a camel caravan at rest are shown in Fig. 49. The primitive Arab girls have splendidly developed faces and fine dental arches. Their natural beauty, however, is rapidly lost with modernization, as illustrated in Fig. 50.

FIG. 49. In the hot desert countries of Asia and Africa camel's milk is an important item of human nutrition. The teeth of the Arahs, as illustrated helow, are excellent. Large areas could not maintain human life without the camel and its milk.

FIG. 50. Both girls and boys in the modernized colonies in Cairo showed typical deformity patterns in faces and dental arches. The health of these groups is not comparable to that of those living on the native dietaries. Reproductive efficiency in these generations is greatly reduced.

Dr. Hrdlicka has called attention to the occasional development in several racial stocks of individuals who travel on all fours instead of upright. I saw several individuals of this type in Africa scooting around about as rapidly as the dogs. They were, accordingly, difficult to photograph. Two are shown in Fig. 51.

FIG. 51. These two native African children scooted around on all fours so swiftly that it was difficult to take their pictures. We did not see them stand up. They behaved very much like tame chimpanzees.

While slavery of the old form no longer exists in the so-called civilized countries, in its new form it is a most tragic reality for many of the people. Taxes and the new order of living make many demands. For many of these primitive tribes a new suit of clothes could formerly be had every day with no more trouble than cutting a new banana leaf. With the new order they are requested to cover their bodies with clothing. Cloth of all kinds including the poorest cotton has to be imported. They must pay an excessive charge due to the long transportation cost for the imported goods, a charge which often exceeds the original cost in the European or American markets by several fold. In order to pay their head tax they are frequently required to carry such products as can be used by the government officials, chiefly foods, over long distances and for part of each year. These foods are often those which not only the adults, but particularly the growing children sorely need for providing body growth and repair. This naturally has produced a current of acute unrest and a chafing under the foreign domination.

As we encircled Ethiopia we found the natives not only aware of what was going on in that border country, but deeply concerned regarding the outcome. From their temper and sympathetic attitude for the oppressed Ethiopians, it would not be surprising if sympathizers pass over the border into that country to support their crushed neighbors. The problem is accordingly very much larger than the interest of some particular foreign power. It deals directly with the future course of events and the attitude of the African natives in general toward foreign domination. The native African is not only chafing under the taxation by foreign overlords, but is conscious that his race becomes blighted when met by our modern civilization. I found them well aware of the fact that those of their tribes who had adopted European methods of living and foods not only developed rampant tooth decay, but other degenerative processes.

In one of the most efficiently organized mission schools that we found in Africa, the principal asked me to help them solve a serious problem. He said there was no single question asked them so often by the native boys in their school as why it is that those families that have grown up in the mission or government schools were physically not so strong as those families who had never been in contact with the mission or government schools. These young men were thinking. I was even asked several times by them whether or not I thought that the native Africans must go the way of the Red Indians of America.

The happiness of the people in their homes and community life is everywhere very striking. A mining prospector who had spent two decades studying the mineral deposits of Uganda was quoted to me as stating that if he could have the heaven of his choice in which to spend all eternity it would be to live in Uganda as the natives of Uganda had lived before modern civilization came to it.

While inter-tribal warfare has largely ceased, a new scourge is upon them, namely the scourge which comes with modern civilization. As in the primitive racial stocks previously studied and reported, we found that modernizing forces were often associated with a very marked increase of the death rate over the birth rate. In some districts in Africa a marked degeneration is taking place. Geoffrey Gorer in his book, "Africa Dances," (1) which was written after making studies in West Africa, discusses this problem at length.

He quotes figures given by Marcel Sauvage (2) in his article on French Equatorial Africa: "'In 1911 French Equatorial Africa had twenty million negro inhabitants; in 1921 there were seven and a half million; in 1931 there were two and a half million.'"

He states regarding the quotation: "These figures were given in a responsible French conservative paper and have not been denied." Major Browne, a high official of the British Government Administrative Department of Kenya, with long experience, states in the closing paragraph of his book entitled, "The Vanishing Tribes of Kenya," (3) the following:

It must also be remembered that the "blessings of civilization" are not in practice by any means as obvious as some simple-minded folk would like to believe. It can be said with fair accuracy that among the tribes with which we have been dealing there is, in their uncontaminated society, no pauperism, no paid prostitution, very little serious drunkenness, and on the whole astonishingly little crime; while practically everyone has enough to eat, sufficient clothing, and an adequate dwelling, according to the primitive native standard. Of what civilized community can as much be said?

Civilizations have been rising and falling not only through all the period of recorded history, but long before as evidenced by archeological findings. If we think of Nature's calendar as one in which centuries are days and civilizations are years, the part current events are playing in the history of a great continent like Africa may be mere incidents.

This much we do know that throughout the world some remnants of several primitive racial stocks have persisted to this day even in very exacting environments and only by such could they have been protected.

In my studies of these several racial stocks I find that it is not accident but accumulated wisdom regarding foods that lies behind their physical excellence and freedom from our modern degenerative processes, and, further, that on various sides of our world the primitive people know many of the things that are essential for life-things that our modern civilizations apparently do not know. These are the fundamental truths of life that have put them in harmony with Nature through obeying her nutritional laws. Whence this wisdom? Was there in the distant past a world civilization that was better attuned to Nature's laws and have these remnants retained that knowledge? If this is not the explanation, it must be that these various primitive racial stocks have been able through a superior skill in interpreting cause and effect, to determine for themselves what foods in their environment are best for producing human bodies with a maximum of physical fitness and resistance to degeneration.

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