Phlebotomy Essentials 5th Edition Ebook PDF
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vi UNIT IV: SPECIAL PROCEDURES AND ADDITIONAL DUTIES
Preface
Phlebotomy Essentials, fifth edition, was written for all who want to correctly and safely prac-
tice phlebotomy. The authors have over 70 years of combined experience in laboratory sci-
ences, phlebotomy program direction, and teaching many different levels and diverse popula-
tions of phlebotomy students. As with previous editions, the goal of Phlebotomy Essentials,
fifth edition, is to provide accurate, up-to-date, and practical information and instruction in
phlebotomy procedures and techniques along with a comprehensive background in phlebot-
omy theory and principles. It is appropriate for use as an instructional text or as a reference
for those who wish to update their skills or study for national certification.
Organization
Much care has been taken to present the material in a clear and concise manner that encour-
ages learning and promotes comprehension. A good deal of time was spent organizing and
formatting the information into a logical and student-friendly reading style in an order that
allows the reader to build on information from previous chapters.
The book is divided into four units. Unit I, The Healthcare Setting, presents a basic descrip-
tion of the healthcare system and the role of the phlebotomist within it. Major topics include
communication skills, healthcare financing and delivery with an emphasis on clinical labora-
tory services, quality assurance and legal issues and their relationship to the standard of care,
and comprehensive instruction in infection control and safety.
Unit II, Overview of the Human Body, provides a foundation in medical terminology and
a basic understanding of each of the body systems, including associated disorders and diag-
nostic tests. An entire chapter is devoted to the circulatory system, with special emphasis on
the vascular system, including blood vessel structure, vascular anatomy of the arm, and blood
composition.
Unit III, Blood Collection Procedures, describes phlebotomy equipment (including the latest
safety equipment and order of draw) and proper procedures and techniques for collecting
venipuncture and capillary specimens based upon the latest CLSI standards. Also included
is an extensive explanation of preanalytical variables, complications, and procedural errors
associated with blood collection.
Unit IV, Special Procedures, offers information and instruction on how to handle special
blood and nonblood specimen collections and the latest in point-of care instruments and
testing. Routine and special handling and processing of specimens, with an emphasis on the
latest rules of safety, are included in this section. Covered in this unit is an overview of the
Laboratory Information System (LIS)—how it supports the laboratory process and is used by
the phlebotomist in specimen collection. Also included is a discussion of nonblood specimens
and testing information, which can be an important part of the phlebotomist’s responsibilities,
as well as arterial puncture for those phlebotomists who do ABGs or who anticipate advanc-
ing beyond venous collection.
PREFACE vii
The appendices give readers ready access to helpful supplementary information as they
progress through the text.
• Appendix A is an alphabetical list of laboratory tests including specimen type, handling
considerations, and the department that does the testing. Not only does this help read-
ers categorize the many different tests performed by a laboratory, but it also provides
practice in using a reference manual.
• Appendix B, Laboratory Math, provides a quick review and reference for certain calcula-
tions that may be needed but are not always used enough to have been committed to
memory.
• English to Spanish translation of conversational phrases, including phonetic Spanish
pronunciation guidelines, found in Appendix C can help non–Spanish-speaking phle-
botomists provide safe and appropriate directions to patients who speak only Spanish.
• Appendix D identifies conditions that require work restrictions for healthcare workers, a
quick reference that can help phlebotomists learn when and how to protect themselves
and others from infection.
• Appendix E, Answers to Study and Review Questions and Case Studies, allows readers
to check their answers, reinforcing the material and assuring that they have learned it
correctly.
• Appendix F gives the reader immediate access to tube guides from two leading manu-
facturers for a quick reference and colorful way to learn by association.
There are many technical and specialized terms associated with healthcare in general and
phlebotomy in particular. The extensive updated and alphabetically arranged glossary makes
the meanings of unfamiliar terms within easy reach.
Features
The fifth edition includes various features meant to help the reader learn and retain the infor-
mation in Phlebotomy Essentials.
• Key Terms and Objectives open each chapter and help students recognize the important
terms and concepts that they will come across in reading the chapter.
• Consistently organized step-by-step Procedures, with an explanation or rationale for
each step, assist the student in learning and understanding phlebotomy techniques.
• Key Points emphasize important concepts to enhance student learning.
• Cautions highlight critical information to help students identify and avoid dangerous
practices.
• FYIs are interesting notes and fun facts that will enhance practical application of the
information.
• Memory Joggers offer a proven way to help students remember important information.
• Study and Review Questions at the end of each chapter provide a review of each chapter’s
content.
• Case studies at the end of each chapter bring concepts to life and enhance critical thinking
skills.
• A Media Menu at the end of each chapter points out online student resources available
for that chapter.
• Book Icons throughout the text refer readers to the Student Workbook for Phlebotomy
Essentials and the Phlebotomy Exam Review, for further opportunities to enrich their
learning (available for separate purchase).
• Online Icons throughout the text refer readers to corresponding videos and animations
on the book’s companion Web site, which bring the content to life (see “Additional
Resources,” below, for more information).
The content of this new edition of Phlebotomy Essentials was designed in accordance with
applicable National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Science (NAACLS) competencies.
viii PREFACE
Procedures have been written to conform to the latest OSHA safety regulations and, wherever ap-
plicable, standards developed by the CLSI.
Additional Resources
Phlebotomy Essentials, fifth edition, includes additional resources for both instructors and students
that are available on the book’s companion Web site at http://thepoint.lww.com/McCall5e.
INSTRUCTORS
Approved adopting instructors will be given access to the following additional resources:
• Lesson Plans
• Critical Thinking Questions
• Brownstone Test Generator
• Image Collection
• All the appendixes from the book
• PowerPoint Slides with Images and Tables
• WebCT-/Blackboard-Ready Cartridges
• Signature Papers (i.e., HIPAA/confidentiality forms, blood-borne pathogen statements,
assumption-of-risk form, health declaration form)
• Log Examples
• Lab Skills Evaluation Checklists (i.e., venipuncture, skin puncture, special test procedures)
• Phlebotomy Program Pre-test and Post-test and their answer keys
STUDENTS
Students who have purchased Phlebotomy Essentials, fifth edition, have access to the follow-
ing additional resources:
• New to the fifth edition, interactive games and exercises offer a fun way to study and
review. Exercise types include Look and Label, Zooming In, Word Building, Body Build-
ing, Roboterms, Interactive Crossword Puzzles, Quiz Show, and Concentration.
• 23 videos, including 10 that are new to the fifth edition
• 17 animations, including 12 that are new to the fifth edition
• Audio flash cards and, new to the fifth edition, a flash card generator
• An audio glossary, new to the fifth edition
In addition, purchasers of the text can access the searchable Full Text On-line by going to
the Phlebotomy Essentials, fifth edition Web site at http://thepoint.lww.com/McCall5e. See
the inside front cover of this text for more details, including the passcode you will need to
gain access to the Web site.
Related Titles
The authors of this textbook have created the following two titles, available for separate
purchase, that correspond to Phlebotomy Essentials, fifth edition, to create an ideal study
package for phlebotomy training programs. Each corresponds to this main textbook in chapter
sequence.
• The companion workbook (McCall R, Tankersley C. Student Workbook for Phlebotomy
Essentials, 5th ed., available for separate purchase) provides students with chapter-by-
chapter exercises to reinforce text material, assessment tools to evaluate their skills, re-
alistic scenarios to gauge their grasp of key concepts, and skills logs to chart their prog-
ress. The workbook includes key terms matching exercises, chapter review questions,
PREFACE ix
crossword puzzles, skill and knowledge drills, requisition activities, case studies, and
procedure evaluation forms.
• The companion exam review book (McCall R, Tankersley C. Phlebotomy Exam Review,
4th ed., available for separate purchase) prepares students for all the national certifica-
tion exams in phlebotomy.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to express their gratitude to the many individuals who gave of their time,
talent, and expertise to make this edition of Phlebotomy Essentials current and accurate. In
particular, we would like to thank Jane Adrian, David Berg, Theresa McGillvray-Dodd, Joyce
Hall, Maureane Hoffman, Glenda Hiddessen, Bob Kaplanis, Scott Leece, Jeri Litteral, Charez
Norris, Mary Robitaille, Phil Tate, and Janet Vittori.
In addition we would like to thank animator Mark Flanders, illustrator Christine Vernon,
photographer Bruce Knapus, videographer Michael Norde, and all who played a role in the
latest videos, including Jim Gregory, Lynette Hales, Nancy Jefferys, Bruce Knaphus, Patty
Lewis, April Meyers, Flavia Pradolin, Donald Pryor, and Maura Smith.
Finally, we would like to thank Acquisitions Editor Pete Sabatini and the production and
editorial staff at Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, especially those with whom we worked most
closely, with an extra special thank you to Senior Product Manager Meredith Brittain for her
patience, support, and dedication to this endeavor.
RUTH E. McCALL
CATHEE M. TANKERSLEY
x UNIT IV: SPECIAL PROCEDURES AND ADDITIONAL DUTIES
User’s Guide
Phlebotomy Essentials is designed for anyone wanting to correctly and safely practice
phlebotomy. This User’s Guide shows you how to put the features of this book to work
for you.
CHAPTER
1
Past and Present and
The Healthcare Setting
KEY TERMS are listed at the begin- KEY TERMS AHCCCS HMOs PHS
ning of each chapter and defined in Do the Match-
ing Exercises in the
APC ICD-9-CM phlebotomy
case manager IDS polycythemia
the glossary. WORKBOOK to
gain familiarity with
certification kinesic slip PPOs
CLIA ’88 kinesics primary care
these terms.
CMS MCOs proxemics
communication barriers Medicaid reference laboratories
CPT Medicare secondary care
exsanguinate MLS tertiary care
HIPAA PHI third-party payer
4 Describe the basic concepts of communication as they relate to healthcare and how
appearance and nonverbal messages affect the communication process.
9 List the clinical analysis areas of the laboratory and the types of laboratory
procedures performed in the different areas.
10 Describe the different levels of personnel found in the clinical laboratory and how
Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment regulations affect their job descriptions.
USER’S GUIDE xi
Special Features
Unique chapter features draw your attention to crucial material and heighten your compre-
hension and retention of information.
Reviewers
Carol Abshire, MLT, BGS Mary Ellen Brown, CMA Nancy Heldt, MS, MT (ASCP)
Laboratory Manager/Coordinator (AAMA), PBT (ASCP) Professor of Medical Laboratory
Arts & Science Instructor Technology
Lamar State College—Orange Medical Assisting Department Division of Science and Health
Orange, Texas Lincoln Technical Institute Careers
Hamden, Connecticut Oakton Community College
Diana Alagna, RN, RMA Des Plaines, Illinois
Program Director Susen Edwards, MA
Medical Assisting Program Coordinator Claudia N. Hewlett, AS
Branford Hall Career Institute Allied Health Senior MA Lead Instructor
Southington, Connecticut Middlesex County College Allied Health
Edison, New Jersey Remington College
David E. Berg, MS, FAHA Memphis, Tennessee
Director, Arizona Research Foundation Nancy Feulner, MS Ed
Phoenix, Arizona Program Coordinator Maureane Hoffman, MD, PhD
Health Science Professor
Judith Blaney, AMT, MCLS College of DuPage Pathology
Phlebotomy Internship Coordinator Glen Ellyn, Illinois Duke University Medical Center
Allied Health Department Durham, North Carolina
Manchester Community College Tammy Gallagher, BS, MT
Manchester, New Hampshire Medical Technologist Carol Itatani, PhD, MS, MT
Butler County Community College (ASCP)
Gerry Brasin, AS, CMA Butler, Pennsylvania Professor
(AAMA), CPC Department of Biological Sciences
Coordinator Kathi Gilmore, AS California State University, Long Beach
Education/Compliance Master Instructor Long Beach, California
Premier Education Group Medical Assisting
Springfield, Massachusetts Remington College, Nashville Cherika de Jesus, CMA/AAMA
Campus Lead Medical Assistant Chair
Marilyn Braswell, BA, MT Nashville, Tennessee Medical Assistant
(ASCP), SBB Globe University Minnesota School
Phlebotomy Instructor Joyce Hall, C (ASCP) of Business
Healthcare Continuing Education Laboratory Administrative Brooklyn Center, Minnesota
Central Piedmont Community Manager
College John C. Lincoln—North Mountain Paula Furlan Kimball, MS,
Charlotte, North Carolina Phoenix, Arizona MLT, AHI
Assistant Master Technical
Lou Brown, BS, MT (ASCP), Andrea T. Harper, MS, MLS Instructor
CMA (AAMA) (ASCP) Department of Allied Health—MLT
Program Director Adjunct Faculty Phlebotomy Program
Medical Assisting and Phlebotomy Instructor University of Texas at Brownsville
Wayne Community College Manchester Community College and Texas Southmost College
Goldsboro, North Carolina Manchester, New Hampshire Brownsville, Texas
REVIEWERS xv
Robin Gaynor Krefetz, M.Ed Michael Murphy, CMA (AAMA) Mary Robitaille, BS, MT
MLS (ASCP) PBT Program Coordinator (ASCP)
CLT and Phlebotomy Program Berdan Institute at The Summit Phlebotomy Instructor
Director Medical Group CNM Community College
Community College of Philadelphia Union, New Jersey Albuquerque, New Mexico
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sonja Nehr-Kanet, MS, MLS Mary E. Stassi, RN-BC
Tanya O. Mace, MSN, RN, PBT (ASCP) Health Occupations Coordinator
(ASCP) CLS Program Director/Clinical St. Charles Community College
Program Director Associate Professor Cottleville, Missouri
Nursing and Phlebotomy Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science
Brunswick Community College Program Philip Tate, DA
Supply, North Carolina Idaho State University Author, Seeley’s Principles of
Meridian, Idaho Anatomy and Physiology,
James R. McGee, MA, MT 2010
(ASCP) Charez Norris, RRT Lubbock, Texas
Instructor, Phlebotomy Training and Clinical Educator, Respiratory
Exploring Medical Language Services Scott Tharpe, CLS (CA), MT
Retired, Part Time Instructor John C. Lincoln—North Mountain Program Director, Clinical
Healthcare Continuing Education Phoenix, Arizona Laboratory Sciences
Central Piedmont Community Health Science
College Robert Plick, RMA, RPT, CET, BS Saddleback College
Charlotte, North Carolina American Heart Association CPR Mission Viejo, California
Instructor
D. Gayle Melberg, MS, MT 9 Health Fair Phlebotomy Task Marie Thomas, CLT, CMA
(ASCP) Force Clinical Instructor/Lead
Adjunct Faculty Externship and Community Affairs Medical Assisting
Medical Laboratory Technician Coordinator, Medical Instructor Berdan Institute
J. Sargeant Reynolds Community Medical Instructor, Medical Lab Wayne, New Jersey
College Assistant/Phlebotomist and
Richmond, Virginia Associate Minister Church of Christ Barbara Vaiden, BS, MT
Education Department (ASCP)
Cheryl Milish, AAS Alta/Westwood College Supervisor
Instructor Denver, Colorado Phlebotomy
Allied Health OSF Saint Anthony Medical
Southwestern College Pamela B. Primrose, PhD, MT Center
Florence, Kentucky (ASCP) Rockford, Illinois
Professor and Program Chair
Judith Miller, BS, MT (ASCP) Medical Laboratory Technology/ Janet Vittori, BS, MT
Clinical Coordinator Phlebotomy (ASCP)
Medical Laboratory Technician School of Health Sciences Point-of-Care Testing
Program Ivy Tech Community College Coordinator
Barton County Community College South Bend, Indiana Laboratory Supervisor
Great Bend, Kansas John C Lincoln Hospital—North
Debbie Reasoner, Mountain
Lane Miller, MBA/HCM (NHA)-CPT-CHI Phoenix, Arizona
Director Director and Instructor
Continuing Education Phlebotomy/Lab Assistant
Medical Careers Institute West Coast Phlebotomy, Inc.
Virginia Beach, Virginia Oregon City, Oregon
xvi UNIT IV: SPECIAL PROCEDURES AND ADDITIONAL DUTIES
Brief Contents
UNIT I THE HEALTHCARE SETTING 1
1 Past and Present and The Healthcare Setting 3
2 Quality Assurance and Legal Issues 39
3 Infection Control, Safety, First Aid, and Personal Wellness 63
APPENDIX A
Laboratory Tests 477
APPENDIX B
Laboratory Mathematics 487
APPENDIX C
Conversational Phrases in English and Spanish 493
APPENDIX D
Work Restrictions for Healthcare Employees 495
APPENDIX E
Answers to Study & Review Questions and Case Studies 497
APPENDIX F
Tube Guides 503
GLOSSARY 507
Index 523
xviii UNIT IV: SPECIAL PROCEDURES AND ADDITIONAL DUTIES
Detailed Contents
About the Authors iv
Preface vi
User’s Guide x
Reviewers xiv
Brief Contents xvi
List of Procedures xxviii
Avoiding Lawsuits 57
Patient Consent 57
The Litigation Process 59
Legal Cases Involving Phlebotomy Procedures 59
STUDY AND REVIEW QUESTIONS 60
CASE STUDIES 61
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SUGGESTED READINGS 62
MEDIA MENU 62
Gender 288
Intramuscular Injection 288
Jaundice 289
Position 289
Pregnancy 290
Smoking 290
Stress 290
Temperature and Humidity 290
PROBLEM SITES 291
Burns, Scars, and Tattoos 291
Damaged Veins 291
Edema 291
Hematoma 291
Mastectomy 291
Obesity 292
VASCULAR ACCESS DEVICES (VADS) AND SITES 293
Arterial Line 293
Arteriovenous Shunt, Fistula, or Graft 293
Blood Sampling Device 293
Heparin or Saline Lock 296
Intravenous Sites 296
Previously Active IV Sites 297
Central Vascular Access Devices 297
PATIENT COMPLICATIONS AND CONDITIONS 300
Allergies to Equipment and Supplies 300
Excessive Bleeding 301
Fainting 301
Nausea and Vomiting 303
Pain 303
Petechiae 303
Seizures/Convulsion 304
PROCEDURAL ERROR RISKS 304
Hematoma Formation 304
Iatrogenic Anemia 305
Inadvertent Arterial Puncture 305
Infection 306
Nerve Injury 306
Reflux of Additive 306
Vein Damage 307
SPECIMEN QUALITY CONCERNS 307
Hemoconcentration 307
Hemolysis 308
Partially Filled Tubes 309
Specimen Contamination 311
Wrong or Expired Collection Tube 311
TROUBLESHOOTING FAILED VENIPUNCTURE 311
Tube Position 311
Needle Position 311
Collapsed Vein 314
Tube Vacuum 315
STUDY AND REVIEW QUESTIONS 315
CASE STUDIES 316
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SUGGESTED READINGS 317
MEDIA MENU 317
APPENDIX A
Laboratory Tests 477
APPENDIX B
Laboratory Mathematics 487
APPENDIX C
Conversational Phrases in English and Spanish 493
APPENDIX D
Work Restrictions for Healthcare Employees 495
APPENDIX E
Answers to Study & Review Questions and Case Studies 497
APPENDIX F
Tube Guides 503
GLOSSARY 507
Index 523
xxviii UNIT IV: SPECIAL PROCEDURES AND ADDITIONAL DUTIES
List of Procedures
PROCEDURE 3-1 Hand-Washing Technique 71
1
Past and Present and
The Healthcare Setting
OBJECTIVES
1 Define the key terms and abbreviations listed at the beginning of this chapter.
Upon successful
completion of 2 Describe the evolution of phlebotomy and the role of the phlebotomist in today’s
this chapter, the healthcare setting.
reader should be
3 Describe the traits that form the professional image and identify national
able to:
organizations that support professional recognition of phlebotomists.
4 Describe the basic concepts of communication as they relate to healthcare and how
appearance and nonverbal messages affect the communication process.
9 List the clinical analysis areas of the laboratory and the types of laboratory
procedures performed in the different areas.
10 Describe the different levels of personnel found in the clinical laboratory and how
Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment regulations affect their job descriptions.
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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.