Angola and the River Congo, vol. 2

by Joachim John Monteiro

Angola is poor in dyes, and only a few are employed by the blacks. For red they use the fresh pulp enveloping the seeds of the “annatto” (Bixa Orellana); for yellow they employ yellow ginger. The Quissamas and some of the natives on the River Quanza dye their cloths of a bluish-black with the black mud of the river, mixed with the infusion of a plant that I believe to be a species of indigo. Cloths are also made black by rubbing them with charred ground-nuts reduced to a fine paste, and, as already mentioned, a fine red for painting their faces, bodies, and houses, is obtained by rubbing tacula-wood to a pulp with water on a rough stone, and drying the resulting paste.

Large land-lizards are rare except at Benguella, where they abound. They are brown, and from two to three feet long. I tried very often to preserve them alive, but without success, although I gave them every kind of food I could think of. A very long yellow-spotted water-lizard (Monitor Niloticus), with a handsome bead-like pattern on its back and legs, and as much as six or eight feet long, is common in the rivers, and is said to be very destructive to poultry. The natives state that this lizard feeds upon the eggs and young of the alligator.

Snakes are nowhere very abundant—I may say singularly scarce; and in the years that I have travelled in Angola I have not only never trodden on or been attacked by one, but have only seen them a very few times. The most common is the boa-constrictor, but only in the marshy places near rivers. In these the River Jack (Clotho nasicornis) is also found; one of these which had been caught in a fish-basket set to catch “Bagre” in the River Luqueia, was brought alive to me at Bembe. It was a very fine one and very brilliantly marked. I kept it in a large box covered with wire-gauze. It lived for several months, and died a natural death shortly after shedding its skin. It is called “Uta-maza” (water-snake) by the natives, and is held in the greatest fear by them, its bite being said to be deadly, and no antidote or cure for it known. I can well believe this from witnessing the effect of its bite on the live rats with which I fed it.

I was obliged to feed it on live rats, as it refused to eat any kind of animal or bird that it had not itself killed. If I placed a dead rat in its cage with the live one, I would find in the morning it had swallowed the one it had killed, but had left the dead one. On placing a rat in the cage, the snake, which was generally coiled up in a corner, would lift up its head and hiss slightly at the rat, which seemed conscious of its danger, and would run about seeking for some means of escape. The snake would continue to watch it with uplifted head till it passed close enough, when it would suddenly strike it a blow with incredible rapidity, the action being so instantaneous that I could never see how the fangs were projected forwards, or, in fact, how the blow was delivered. The poor rat would only give a small squeak on receiving the blow, run a few paces, then stagger, fall on its side, stretch itself out, and die after a few feeble convulsions.

This snake would never make more than one dart at its prey, and would only swallow it at night; and although I watched it for hours in perfect quiet, and with a shaded light, I never succeeded in seeing it eat.

There is a dangerous snake (Naja heje) not uncommon about Benguella. It is small in size, but remarkable from its habit of spitting to a considerable distance, and its saliva is said to blind a person if it touches the eyes. It is called “Cuspideira” by the Portuguese. One of these snakes was captured by the natives and brought to the mine at Cuio, where it was placed in a cage. An English miner was standing over the cage, which was on the ground, teasing the snake with a stick; when it spat up in his face, and he felt some of the liquid enter one of his eyes. He immediately had it washed out with water, but the eye was very much irritated for several days after. I was absent at the time, and the snake was unfortunately destroyed, but I have no reason for doubting the miner’s statement or that of his companions, corroborated as it is by that of the natives and Portuguese. A harmless snake is found under floorings of houses and stores, and is very useful in ridding them of rats and mice.

One of these snakes once gave me considerable trouble at Loanda. My bedroom was on the ground-floor under an office, and outside my door was the staircase leading to it. Every morning, just a little before daybreak, I used to be awakened by hearing a loud crack on the table as if made by a blow from a thick whip. This excited my curiosity greatly, as I could find no possible explanation for the noise. At last I determined to be on the watch. I had lucifers and a candle ready, and was luckily awake when I heard the noise repeated on my table. I instantly struck a light, and saw a snake about six feet long glide off the table on to the ground and quickly disappear in a hole in a corner of the room. I then ascertained that Mr. Snake went up the staircase every night to the office above, where he hunted about for rats, and towards morning returned through a hole in the flooring immediately above my table, dropping a height of about ten feet, and producing the whip-like sound that had so perplexed me for many nights. A bung in the hole in the floor above stopped his return that way for the future, but I could not help being thankful that my bed had not been placed where the table stood, for, notwithstanding that I believed it was simply a harmless and inoffensive ratcatcher, still six feet of cold snake wriggling over my face and body might not have been quite pleasant in the dark.

We collected a number of sphynx-moths, both at Ambriz and on the road to Bembe. At Ambriz they always came to the flowers of the shrubby jasmine I have described as being so abundant near the coast (Corrissa sp.) Farther inland we saw them flitting about only on the white flowers of a herbaceous plant (Gynandropsis pentaphylla, D.C.), a very common weed, particularly around the towns and in open, cleared spaces.

A large scarabæus beetle (which my friend, Mr. H. W. Bates, finds to be a new species, and has named Ateuchus Angolensis) is very abundant wherever cow-dung is found; and it is amusing to see them at work, making it up into balls nearly the size of a billiard-ball, an egg having been deposited in each. Two or three may often be seen pushing the ball along backwards—the custom of these beetles everywhere. I once saw a curious episode at Ambriz:—one beetle was on the top of a ball fussing about as if directing two others that were pushing it along with all their might; suddenly he came down and commenced fighting with one of them, and after a hard tussle (during which they made quite a perceptible hissing noise), beat him off and took his place.

I discovered at Benguella a very beautiful lemur, named by Mr. A. D. Bartlett the Galago Monteiri, and described and figured in the ‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ (June 1863). It is of a light, chinchilla-grey colour, with black nose and ears, and dark brown feet and toes. This animal can turn back and crumple up its rather large and long ears at will. Its tail is long, and, like the rest of the body, very furry. It is very quiet and gentle, nocturnal in its habits, and sleeps much during the day. The natives use its long, fine fur to stanch bleeding from cuts or wounds.