In Angola the Portugals have a City called the Holy Ghost,[268] where they have great store of Merchandise, and the Moors do come thither with all kind of such things as the country yieldeth; some bring elephant’s teeth, some bring negro slaves to sell, that they take from other kingdoms which join hard by them; thus do they use once a week, as we keep markets, so do all the Blackamoors bring hens and hogs, which they call gula,[269] and hens they call Sange,[270] and a kind of beast that they take in the wilderness, like a dog, which they call ambroa:[271] then they have that beast which before I have told you of, called gumbe, which is bigger than a horse.[272]
The Blackamoors do keep good laws, and fear their King very much; the King is always attended with the nobles of his realm, and whensoever he goeth abroad, he has always at the least two hundred archers in his guard, and ten or twelve more going before him, singing and playing with pipes made of great canes, and four or five young Moors coming after him as his pages. After them follow all his noblemen.
When there falleth out any controversy among them, they crave battle of the King, and then they fight it out before him. They come before the King and fall flat on their breasts; then they rise up and kneel upon their knees, stretching out their arms crying, Mahobeque benge, benge;[273] then the King striketh them on the shoulders with a horse-tail; then they go to the camp, and with their bows they fight it out till they kill one another. After the battle is done, if any liveth, he that liveth falleth down before the King in the same manner as he did when he went to the field; and after a long oration made, he taketh the horse-tail from the King’s shoulder, and waveth it about the King’s head, and then layeth it on his shoulder again, and goeth away with great honour, being accompanied with all the nobles of the Court. The Moors of Angola do know that there is a God, and do call God Caripongoa,[274] but they worship the sun and the moon.
The country is champaign plain, and dry black earth, and yieldeth very little corn; the most of anything that it yieldeth is plantons [plantains], which the Portugals call baynonas [bananas], and the Moors call them mahonge[275] and their wheat they call tumba,[276] and the bread anou; and if you will buy any bread of them, you must say, Tala cuna auen tumbola gimbo; that is, Give me some bread, here is money.[277] Their money is called gullginbo,[278] a shell of a fish that they find by the shore-side; and from Brazil the Portugals do carry great store of them to Angola.
These Moors do esteem very much of red, blue and yellow cloths. They will give a slave for a span of cloth in breadth, I mean, and the length of it, of the breadth of the piece; those pieces of cloth they wear about their middles, and under it they hang the skin of a great weasel before them, and another behind them, and this is all the garments that they wear. A weasel in their language is called puccu.[279] You can do a Blackamoor no greater disgrace than to take away his skin from before him, for he will die with grief if he cannot be revenged.
The Portugals do mark them as we do sheep, with a hot iron, which the Moors call crimbo.[280] The poor slaves stand all in a row one by another, and sing Mundele que sumbela he Carey ha belelelle,[281] and thus the poor rogues are beguiled, for the Portugals make them believe that they that have not the mark is not accounted a man of any account in Brazil or in Portugal, and thus they bring the poor Moors to be in a most damnable bondage under the cover of love.
The country of Angola yieldeth no stone, and very little wood: the Moors do make their houses all covered with earth. These houses are no bigger than a reasonable chamber, and within are many partitions, like the cabins of a ship, in such sort that a man cannot stand upright in them. Their beds are made of great bulrushes sewed together with the rinds of a tree. They do make cloth like spark of velvet (but it is thinner) of the bark of a tree, and that cloth they do call mollelleo.[282]
The elephants do feed in the evening and in the morning in low marshes, as there be many. The Moors do watch which way they come, and as soon as the elephants are at meat, they dig great holes in the ground, and cover them with sticks, and then they cover the pits with earth; and when they have made all ready they go to the elephants and shoot at them with their arrows; and as soon as the elephants feel themselves hurt, they run at whatsoever they see before them, following after the Blackamores that chase them. Then they fall into the deep pits where, after they are once in, they cannot get out.
The Moors of Angola are as black as jet; they are men of good stature; they never take but one wife, whom they call mocasha.[283] These Moors do cut long streaks in their faces, that reach from the top of their ears to their chins. The women do wear shells of fishes[284] on their arms, and on the small of their legs. The law amongst them is, that if any Moor do lie with another’s wife, he shall lose his ears for his offence. These Moors do circumcise their children, and give them their names, as we do when we baptize.