§ VII.
Of the Zebra and Hippopotamus; The Portugal Wars in those parts; the Fishing, Grain, and other things remarkable.
[Domestic Animals.]
In this kingdom there is no kind of tame cattle but goats, for none other cattle will live here. Oxen and kine have been brought hither, but they presently die. The hens in this place do so abound that a man may buy thirty for the worth of sixpence in beads.[191]
[Wild Birds.]
Here is store of pheasants, and great plenty of partridges and wild fowl. Here is a kind of fowl that lives in the land bigger than a swan, and they are like a heron, with long legs and long necks, and it is white or black, and hath in her breast a bare place without feathers, where she striketh with her beak. This is the right Pelican, and not those sea-birds which the Portugals call pelicans, which are white and as big as geese, and these abound in this country also.
[The Zebra.]
Here is also the zevera or zebra, which is like a horse, but that his mane, his tail, his strakes and divers colours down his sides and legs do make a difference. These zeveras are all wild and live in great herds, and will suffer a man to come within shot of them, and let them shoot three or four times at them before they will run away.[192]
[The Hippopotamus.]
Moreover, there are great store of sea or river horses, which feed always on the land, and live only by grass, and they be very dangerous in the water. They are the biggest creature in this country, except the elephant. They have great virtue in the claws of their left forefoot, and have four claws on every foot, like the claws of an ox. The Portugals make rings of them, and they are a present remedy for the flux.
[Portuguese dealings with the Natives.]
The Portugals make war against the negroes in this manner. They have out of Congo a nobleman, which is known to be a good Christian and of good behaviour. He bringeth out of Congo some one hundred negroes that are his followers. This Macicongo [mwishi-Kongo]is made Tandala,[193] or general over the black camp, and hath authority to kill, to put down Lords and make Lords, and hath all the chief doings with the negroes. And when any Lord cometh to obey he first cometh to Tandala and bringeth his present, as slaves, kine and goats. Then the Tandala carrieth him before the Portugal Governor, and bringeth two slaves for the Governor’s page, before he goeth in. Then he must have a great gift for the Governor, which is sometimes thirty or forty slaves, besides cattle. But when he cometh before the Governor he kneeleth down and clappeth his hands, and falleth down with his face upon the ground, and then he riseth and saith: “I have been an enemy, and now I protest to be true, and never more to lift my hand against you.” Then the Governor calleth a soldier, which hath deserved a reward, and giveth the Lord to him. This soldier seeth that he have no wrong; and the Lord acknowledgeth him to be his master, and he doth maintain the soldier and maketh him rich. Also, in the wars he commandeth his master’s house to be built before his own, and whatsoever he hath taken that day in the wars, he passeth [divideth] with his master. So that there is no Portugal soldier of any account, but hath his negro sova, or Lord.[194]
[Fishing.]
They use upon this coast to fish with harping irons, and wait upon a great fish that cometh once a day to fish along the shore, which is like a grampus. He runneth very near the shore and driveth great shoals of fish before him; and the negroes run along the shore as fast as they are able to follow him, and strike their harping irons round about him, and kill great store of fish, and leave them upon the sand till, the fish hath done feeding; and then they come and gather their fish up.
This fish will many times run himself on ground, but they will presently shove him off again, which is as much as four or five men can do. They call him Emboa, which is in their speech a dog, and will by no means hurt or kill any of them.[195]
Also, they use in the bays and rivers, where shoal water is, to fish with mats, which are made of long rushes, and they make them of an hundred fathoms long. The mats swim upon the water, and have long rushes hanged upon one edge of the mat, and so they draw the mat in compass, as we do our nets. The fishes, fearing the rushes that hang down, spring out of the water and fall upon the mat, that lyeth flat on the water, and so are taken.
[“Corn.”]
They have four sorts of corn in Longo. The first is called Masanga,[196] and it groweth upon a straw as big as a reed, and hath an ear a foot long, and is like hempseed. The second is called Masembala.[197] This is of great increase, for of one kernel there springs four or five canes, which are ten foot high, and they bear half a pint of corn apiece. This grain is as big as tares, and very good. Thirdly, they have another that groweth low like grass, and is very like mustard-seed: and this is the best.[198] They have also the great Guinea wheat, which they call Mas-impoto.[199] This is the least esteemed.
[Ground-nuts.]
They have very good Peason [peas], somewhat bigger than ours, but they grow not as ours do; for the pods grow on the roots, underneath the ground, and by their leaves they know when they be ripe.[200] They have another kind of Peason, which they call Wando.[201] This is a little tree, and the first year that it is planted it beareth no fruit; but after, it beareth fruit three years, and then it is cut down.[202]
[Plantains, or Bananas.]
Their plantain trees bear fruit but once, and then are cut down, and out of the root thereof spring three or four young trees.
[Bees and the Baobab.]
They have great store of honey, which hangeth in the Elicondy trees.[203] They gather it with a hollow piece of wood, or chest, which they hang in the top of the tree, and once a year it is full, by smoke rewarding the laborious creatures with robbery, exile, death.
[Purchas here adds in the margin, “out of Battell’s own reports”:—
This Alicunde or Elicondi tree is very tall and exceeding great, some as big as twelve men can fathom, spreading like an oak. Some of them are hollow, and from the liberal skies receive such plenty of water, that they are hospitable entertainers of thousands in this thirsty region. Once have I known three or four thousand remain at one of these trees, and thence receiving all their watery provision for four and twenty hours, and yet not empty. The negroes climbed up with pegs of hardwood (which that softer easily receiveth, the smoothness not admitting other climbing), and I think that some one tree hold forty tuns of water.
This tree affords not less bountiful hospitality to the back than belly, yielding (as her belly to their bellies, so) her back to their backs; excepting that this is better from the younger trees, whose tenderer backs being more seasonable for discipline, are so soundly beaten (for man’s fault, whence came the first nakedness), whereby one fathom cut from the tree is extended into twenty, and is presently fit for wearing, though not so fine as the Iuzanda[204] tree yields. This tree yields excellent cloth from the inner bark thereof by like beating.]
[Palm Trees.]
Of their palm trees, which they keep with watering and cutting every year, they make velvets, satins, taffetas, damasks, sarsenets, and such like; out of the leaves, cleansed and purged, drawing long threads and even, for that purpose. They draw wine (as it is said) from the palm-tree. There is another kind of palm-tree which beareth a fruit good for the stomach and for the liver, and most admirable.[205]
[A Crocodile Story.]
One crocodile was so huge and greedy that he devoured an Alibamba,[206] that is, a chained company of eight or nine slaves, but the indigestible iron paid him his wages, and murdered the murderer, found afterwards in his belly. I have seen them watch their prey, hauling in gennet, man, or other creature, into the water. But one soldier thus wrapt in shallower water drew his knife, took his taker in the belly, and slew him.