252 LIBERIA. 



Beyond the forest reg-ion a parklike coiintrjT^ is entered, inhabited 

 for the most part nowadays by a more or less Mohammedanized 

 people, belonoing chiefly to the Mandingo stock. These Mandingos 

 keep large herds of cattle, examples of which find their way down 

 to the coast throngli the forest roads. They are similar to the breed 

 which is on sale at the market of Sierra Leone — smallish, straight- 

 backed cattle (without a hump), one-colored as a rule (fawn or gray 

 or reddish-yellow), with rather long horns. This breed resembles 

 in miniature the long-horned (iala ox which is found in southern 

 Abyssinia, and thence, with several breaks in its distribution, to 

 Uganda and the Avest side of Tanganyika, and across the Nile to the 

 shores of Lake Chad. The Mandingc) ox is, to my thinking, simply a 

 dwarfed variety of this Gala breed, which seems to have been the 

 oldest form of domestic ox known in Africa. In origin it is thought 

 to be more connected with the Indian cattle than with the descendants 

 of Bos taurus,' but when it is found in its purest form, it has not 

 got the humi:) that is associated with the zebu species, though it 

 freely mixes with that type, and sometimes thus acquires the zebu 

 humj:* in addition to the characteristics of the extremely long, 

 spreading horns (longest in the cow) and the tendency to be one- 

 colored. I am not so sure myself that this type of ox is necessarily 

 descended from Bos Indicus. It is represented in the paintings of 

 the Egyptian monuments together with the zebu type. It may have 

 been descended from an intermediate type of wild ox native to north- 

 east Africa — intermediate betw^een Bos taurus and Bos indicus. 



In this open Mandingo country of hills, mountains, and grass lands 

 there is said to be a great deal of big game. The lion exists there, 

 hartebeests of the West African type, w^ater buck, giraffe, roan ante- 

 lope, reed buck, possibly zebra, rhinoceros, and giraffe. Elei:)hants 

 are abundant all over Liberia down to within about 30 miles of the 

 coast region. In fact, many of the paths through the forest are little 

 else than elephant tracks. Elephants are a good deal dreaded by the 

 natives of tlie forest region, as they are alleged to attack man quite 

 improvoked. They do a great deal of damage to plantations. The 

 Mandingos, by-the-bye, have horses similar in appearance to the native 

 breeds of Nigeria. Occasionally one of these horses finds its w^ay 

 down to the coast in Liberia, but, as a rule, the few horses one meets 

 Avith at Liberian coast toAvns have been brought by sea from French 

 (xuinea (Konakri). It is an important fact, however, of great nega- 

 tive value, that apparently there is no Nagana or tsetse fly disease in 

 Liberia. No doubt there are one or more species of Glossma related 

 to the tsetse fly, but they do not carry the celebrated tsetse disease 

 to horses and cattle. 



The principal and remarkable animals of the Liberian forest region 

 are, among antelopes, the handsomest of the Tragelaphs, the bongo. 



