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KRUMEN (KROOMEN, KROOBOYS, KRUS, or CROOS) , a See also: negro See also: people of the West See also: Coast of See also: Africa
.
They dwell in villages scattered along the coast of See also: Liberia from below Monrovia nearly to Cape Palmas
.
The name has been wrongly derived from the See also: English word " See also: crew," with reference to the fact that Krumen were the first West See also: African people to take service in See also: European vessels
.
It is probably from Kraoh, the See also: primitive name of one of their tribes
.
Under Krumen are now grouped many kindred tribes, the Grebo, Basa, Nifu, &c., who collectively number some 40,000
.
The Krus proper live in the narrow See also: strip of coast between the Sino rivefand Cape Palmas, where are their five chief villages, Kruber, Little Kru, Settra Kru, Nana Kru and See also: King
See also: William's
See also: Town
.
They are traditionallyfrom the interior, but have long been noted as skilful See also: seamen and daring fishermen
.
They are a stout, See also: muscular, broad-chested See also: race, probably the most robust of African peoples
.
They have true negro features—skin of a blue-black See also: hue and woolly and abundant hair
.
The See also: women are of a lighter shade than negro women generally, and in several respects come much nearer to a European See also: standard
.
Morally as well as physically the Krumen are one of the most remarkable races in Africa
.
They are honest, brave, proud, so passionately fond of freedom that they will starve or drown themselves to escape capture, and have never trafficked in slaves
.
Politically the Krus are divided into small commonwealths, each with an hereditary chief whose duty is simply to represent the people in their dealings with strangers . The realSee also: government is vested in the elders, who See also: wear as insignia iron rings on their legs
.
Their president, the See also: head fetish-See also: man, See also: guards the See also: national symbols, and his See also: house is sanctuary for offenders till their See also: guilt is proved
.
See also: Personal See also: property is held in See also: common by each See also: family
.
See also: Land also is communal, but the rights of the actual See also: cultivator cease only when he fails to See also: farm it
.
At 14 or 15 the Kru " boys " eagerly contract themselves for voyages of twelve or eighteen months
.
Generally they prefer See also: work near at home, and are to be found on almost every See also: ship trading on the See also: Guinea coast
.
As soon as they have saved enough to buy a wife they return home and See also: settle down
.
Krumen See also: ornament their faces with tribal marks—black or blue lines on the forehead and from ear to ear
.
They See also: tattoo their arms and mutilate the incisor teeth
.
As a race they are singularly intelligent, and exhibit their enterprise in numerous settlements along the coast
.
Sierra Leone, See also: Grand See also: Bassa and Monrovia all have their Kru towns
.
Dr Bleek classifies the Kru language with theSee also: Mandingo family, and in this he is followed by Dr R
.
G
.
Latham; Dr Kolle, who published a Kru grammar (1854), considers it as distinct
.
See A. de Quatrefages and E
.
T
.
Hamy, Crania ethnica, ix
.
363 (1878–1879) ; See also: Schlagintweit-Sakunlunski, in the Sitzucgsberichte of the See also: academy at See also: Munich (1875) ; See also: Nicholas, in Bull. de la See also: Soc. d'Anthrop
.
(See also: Paris, 1872) ; J
.
Biittikofer, Reisebilder aus Liberia (See also: Leiden, 189o) ; See also: Sir H
.
H
.
See also: Johnston, Liberia (See also: London, 1906)
.
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