Angola and the River Congo, vol. 1

by Joachim John Monteiro

Where mosquitoes are in such abundance, nothing but a proper curtain will avail against them; smoking them out is of very little use, as only such a large amount of acrid smoke will effectually drive them away as to make the remedy almost unbearable. The substances usually burnt in such cases are dry cow-dung, mandioca-meal, or white Angola gum.

There are several species of mosquito in Angola; that found in marshes is the largest, and is light brown in colour, and very sluggish in its flight or movements. When the fellow settles to insert his proboscis, it is quite sufficient to put the tip of a finger on him to annihilate him, but none of the others can be so easily killed; two or three species—notably a little black shiny fellow, only found near running water—are almost impossible to catch when settled and sucking, even with the most swiftly delivered slap. Another species is beautifully striped or banded with black, body and legs.

Mosquitoes rarely attack in the daytime, except in shady places, where they are fond of lying on the under side of leaves of trees. Some with large beautiful plumed antennæ appear at certain times of the year in great numbers, and are said to be the males, and are not known to bite or molest in any way.

Although we pitched our tent on top of a hill to escape the marsh mosquitoes, and had a terrific rain-storm nearly the whole of the night, they found us out, and in the morning the inner side of our tent was completely covered with them;—had we not slept under a good mosquito net, we should have passed just such another night as I have described. We had to stop a second night on this hill to wait for our full number of carriers. The scenery from it is magnificent, low hills covered with dense bush of the prickly acacia tree (A. Welwitschii), high grass, baobabs and euphorbias, and in the low places a great abundance of a large aloe, with pale crimson flowers in tall spikes.

At last all loads were properly distributed and secured in the “mutetes,” an arrangement in which loads are very conveniently carried. They are generally made from the palm leaves, the leaflets of which are woven into a kind of basket, leaving the stems only about five or six feet long; a little shoe or slipper, made of wood or hide, is secured to the under side. When the carrier wishes to rest, he bends down his head until the palm stems touch the ground, and the load is then leant up against a tree. If there is not a tree handy, then the end of their stick or staff being inserted into the shoe, forms with the two ends three legs, on which it stands securely. This shoe is also useful with the staff when on the journey, to rest the carrier for a few minutes by easing the weight of the load off his head without setting it down. The natives of the interior carry loads on their heads that they are unable to lift easily from the ground, and the “mutete” is therefore very convenient. In carrying a large bag of produce, a long stick is tied on to each side, to act in the same way as the “mutete.”

In four days we arrived at Quiballa, where we rested a couple of days, to collect plants and some fine butterflies from the thick surrounding woods, and to dry the plants we had gathered thus far. The country we had passed was comparatively level, and the scenery for the most part was very like that of a deserted park overgrown with rank grass and weeds.

As Quiballa is approached the country becomes very hilly in all directions, and the vegetation changes to fine trees and creepers, conspicuous amongst which is the india-rubber plant already described.

Quiballa is a large town most picturesquely situated on a low, flat-topped hill, surrounded on all sides by other higher hills, and separated from them by a deep ravine filled with magnificent forest vegetation, and in the bottom of which a shallow stream of the clearest water runs swiftly over its fantastic rocky bed—all little waterfalls and shady transparent pools. Our finest specimens of butterflies, such as Godartia Trajanus, Romaleosoma losinga, R. medon, Euryphene Plistonax and others, were collected in these lovely woods; they do not come out into the sunny open, but flit about in the shadiest part under the trees, flying near the ground, and occasionally settling on a leaf or branch on which a streak of sunshine falls through the leafy vault above. Other species, such as the Papilios (P. menestheus, P. brutus, P. demoleus, P. erinus, Diadema misuppus), &c. &c., on the contrary, we only found in the full sunshine, on the low bushes and flowering plants, skirting, as with a broad belt, the woods or forest.

The change in vegetation from the coast to Quiballa may be due not only to difference of altitude, but partly to the rock of the country, which is a large-grained, very quartzose mica rock or gneiss from the coast to near Quiballa, where it changes to a soft mica slate, easily decomposed by water and atmospheric influences. Several species of birds, very abundant on the coast and as far as Matuta, disappear about Quiballa, the most notable being the common African crow (Corvus scapulatus), the brilliantly-coloured starlings (Lamprocolius), and the several rollers; doves also, so abundant on the coast, are comparatively rare after passing Quiballa.

The Coracias caudata, the most beautiful of the African rollers, has a very extraordinary manner of flying, tumbling about in a zig-zag fashion in the air as if drunk, and chattering loudly all the time. I once shot at one on the top of a high tree at Matuta; it fell dead, as I thought, but on picking it up I was gladly surprised to find it quite uninjured, and only stunned apparently. I placed it in a hastily-constructed cage, and took it with me to Bembe, where it became quite tame, and I had it several months, till my boy, feeding it one morning, left the door of its cage open, and it flew away. In its native state it feeds principally on grasshoppers; in captivity its food was mostly raw meat, which it ate greedily.