Large and small pots for cooking and holding water are made in many places. They are made of clay, and are burnt by being built up in a heap in the open air with dry grass and covered with the same, which is then set on fire and allowed to burn out; when cold, the pots are found completely baked, without the use of anything like a kiln. Clay pipes for smoking are also made, and burnt in the same manner (Plate V.).
Many of the towns in the interior, in the more out-of-the-way places, are completely isolated for several months by the growth of the high grass towards the end of the rainy and the beginning of the dry season. In travelling it is the custom of the guides to lay a handful of grass on the paths that they wish the rest of the party to avoid; and this is the universal practice of the natives all over Angola, to indicate the path to be taken by others following them, and which from the height of the grass and the number of intersecting paths, would be difficult to keep without some such mark. Blacks, of course, never travel but in single file, and I was once asked by a negro the reason why white men always walked side by side, and not one behind the other as they did, but my reply failed to convince him of the advantage of our plan.
For some years the “chefes” have had the paths leading from each capital town of their divisions kept clear of grass and weeds for a breadth of from six to twelve feet by the natives of the town nearest it, but even then the blacks not only walk in single file, but, what is very curious, tread out and follow a winding path in it from side to side. Their own paths are never straight but invariably serpentine, and this habit or instinct is followed even when a broad, straight road is offered them.
Whilst I was at Cambambe, a somewhat eccentric Portuguese (not a military man) was “chefe” of Pungo Andongo, and he took it into his head that he would break the natives of this habit of walking in single file, and he actually fined and otherwise punished a number of them, but, of course, he never succeeded in making them alter the custom except when passing before his house. The blacks will never move a stone or other impediment in the road. If a tree or branch fall on it, and it is too large to walk over comfortably, no one pushes it aside, however easy such an operation may be, but they deviate from the path and walk round it, and this deviation continues to be used ever after, although the obstacle may rot away or be otherwise removed.
I twice saw in Cambambe the remarkable “spit-frog” described by Dr. Livingstone. This insect is of the same shape as the ordinary British “spit-frog,” but is quite three-quarters of an inch in length. Its scientific name is Ptyelus olivaceus. The larvæ, like the British species, have the property of secreting a copious watery froth, in which they envelop themselves, a number being found together on a thin twig or branch, and the amount of water secreted is so great as to drop constantly from the branch on which they are living, so that the ground beneath becomes quite wet. Though the amount of water abstracted from the atmosphere is something enormous for so small a creature, the very hygroscopic state of the air there is quite sufficient to account for its source.
Lizards are very abundant on the rocks, and there are some very pretty and brightly-coloured species. Chameleons are also abundant, and the natives are everywhere afraid to touch them. The Mushicongos believe that if they once fasten on the wool of a black’s head, nothing can take them off, and that they are poisonous; but their dislike of these harmless creatures does not prevent them from trying a curious though cruel experiment—the quick and mortal action of nicotine—on them. They insert a bit of straw or grass into the wooden stems of their pipes, so as to remove a small portion of the nicotine and other products of the combustion of the tobacco, and when the poor chameleon opens its jaws in fear, they pass the moistened straw across its tongue and mouth, and in a very few seconds it turns on its side, stiffens, and is quite dead. This very small quantity of the poison is wonderfully rapid in its fatal action.
The ground is cultivated with a hoe like that described in use about Ambriz, but with a double instead of a single handle ([Plate XIV.]).
The natives, like those of the country to the north, eat considerable quantities of the ground-nut, and from the following analysis by B. Corenwinder (‘Journal de Pharm. et de Chimie,’ 4th series, xviii. 14) its great value as an article of food is apparent:—
| Water | 6·76 | |
| Oil | 51·75 | |
| Nitrogenous matter | 21·80 | |
| Non-nitrogenous matter containing starch | 17·66 | |
| Phosphoric acid | 0·64 | } 2·03 |
| Potash, chlorine, magnesia, &c. | 1·39 | |
| 100·00 | ||
The proportion of phosphoric acid found in the perfectly white ash was 31·53%