486

MODES OF DRESSING THE HAIR.

an operation as some might imagine; for a tree was growing in a horizontal position across part of the stream, and, there being no want of the tough climbing plants which admit of being knitted like ropes, Senhor P. soon constructed a bridge. The Loajima was here about twenty-five yards wide, but very much deeper than where I had crossed before on the shoulders of Mashauana. The last rain of this season had fallen on the 28th, and had suddenly been followed by a great decrease of the temperature. The people in these parts seemed more slender in form, and their color a lighter olive, than any we had hitherto met. The mode of dressing the great masses of woolly hair which lay upon their shoulders, together with their general features, again reminded me of the ancient Egyptians. Several were seen with the upward inclination of the outer angles of the eye, but this was not general. A few of the ladies adopt a curious custom of attaching the hair to a hoop which encircles the head, giving it some

what the appearance of the glory round the head of the Virgin (wood-cut No. 1). Some have a small hoop behind that represented in the wood-cut. Others wear an ornament of woven hair and hide adorned with beads. The hair of the tails of buffaloes, 'which are to be found farther east, is sometimes added. This is

MODES OF DRESSING THE HAIR.

487

represented in No. 2. While others, as in No. 3, weave their own hair on pieces of hide into the form of buffalo horns; or,

as in No. 4, make a single horn in front. The features given are frequently met with, but they are by no means universal. Many tattoo their bodies by inserting some black substance

488

MODES OF DRESSING THE HAIR.

beneath the skin, which leaves an elevated cicatrix about half an inch long: these are made in the form of stars, and other figures of no particular beauty.

PECULIARITIES OF NATIVES.

489

CHAPTER XXIII

Make a Détour southward.-Peculiarities of the Inhabitants.-Scarcity of Animals.-Forests.-Geological Structure of the Country.-Abundance and Cheapness of Food near the Chihombo.-A Slave lost.-The Makololo Opinion of Slaveholders.-Funeral Obsequies in Cabango. Send a Sketch of the Country to Mr. Gabriel.-Native Information respecting the Kasai and Quango.The Trade with Luba.-Drainage of Londa.-Report of Matiamvo's Country and Government.-Senhor Faria's Present to a Chief.-The Balonda Mode of spending Time.-Faithless Guide.-Makololo lament the Ignorance of the Balonda. Eagerness of the Villagers for Trade.-Civility of a Female Chief. The Chief Bango and his People.-Refuse to eat Beef.-Ambition of Africans to have a Village.—Winters in the Interior.—Spring at Kolobeng.—White Ants : "Never could desire to eat any thing better."-Young Herbage and Animals.— Valley of the Loembwe.-The white Man a Hobgoblin.-Specimen of Quarreling.-Eager Desire for Calico.-Want of Clothing at Kawawa's.-Funeral Observances.-Agreeable Intercourse with Kawawa.-His impudent Demand.Unpleasant Parting.-Kawawa tries to prevent our crossing the River Kasai.Stratagem.

WE made a little détour to the southward in order to get provisions in a cheaper market. This led us along the rivulet called Tamba, where we found the people, who had not been visited so frequently by the slave-traders as the rest, rather timid and very civil. It was agreeable to get again among the uncontaminated, and to see the natives look at us without that air of superciliousness which is so unpleasant and common in the beaten track. The same olive color prevailed. They file their teeth to a point, which makes the smile of the women frightful, as it reminds one of the grin of an alligator. The inhabitants throughout this country exhibit as great a variety of taste as appears on the surface of society among ourselves. Many of the men are dandies; their shoulders are always wet with the oil dropping from their lubricated hair, and every thing about them is ornamented in one way or another. Some thrum a musical instrument the livelong day, and, when they wake at night, proceed at once to their musical performance. Many of these musicians are too poor to have iron keys to their instrument, but make them of

490

SCARCITY OF ANIMALS.-FORESTS.

bamboo, and persevere, though no one hears the music but themselves. Others try to appear warlike by never going out of their huts except with a load of bows and arrows, or a gun ornamented with a strip of hide for every animal they have shot; and others never go any where without a canary in a cage. Ladies may be seen carefully tending little lap-dogs, which are intended to be eaten. Their villages are generally in forests, and composed of groups of irregularly-planted brown huts, with banana and cotton trees, and tobacco growing around. There is also at every hut a high stage erected for drying manioc roots and meal, and elevated cages to hold domestic fowls. Round baskets are laid on the thatch of the huts for the hens to lay in, and on the arrival of strangers, men, women, and children ply their calling as hucksters with a great deal of noisy haggling; all their transactions are conducted with civil banter and good temper.

My men, having the meat of the oxen which we slaughtered from time to time for sale, were entreated to exchange it for meal; no matter how small the pieces offered were, it gave them pleasure

to deal.

The landscape around is green, with a tint of yellow, the grass long, the paths about a foot wide, and generally worn deeply in the middle. The tall overhanging grass, when brushed against by the feet and legs, disturbed the lizards and mice, and occasionally a serpent, causing a rustling among the herbage. There are not many birds; every animal is entrapped and eaten. Gins are seen on both sides of the path every ten or fifteen yards, for miles together. The time and labor required to dig up moles and mice from their burrows would, if applied to cultivation, afford food for any amount of fowls or swine, but the latter are seldom met with.

We passed on through forests abounding in climbing-plants, many of which are so extremely tough that a man is required to go in front with a hatchet; and when the burdens of the carriers are caught, they are obliged to cut the climbers with their teeth, for no amount of tugging will make them break. The paths in all these forests are so zigzag that a person may imagine he has traveled a distance of thirty miles, which, when reckoned as the crow flies, may not be fifteen.

We reached the River Moamba (lat. 9° 38' S., long. 20° 13' 34"