240 ACROSS AFEICA. [Chap. 



June, lis -work formed of deej) cuts disposed irregularly over the 

 1874. body. 



The clothing of the men usually consisted of a short kilt of 

 skins or bark-cloth. The women wore leather belts, divided into 

 two or three strips, which supported a small square of cloth be- 

 hind and a very minute aj^ron in front. Some were even more 

 scantily attired, having only a string round the waist with a 

 small leather apron, about three inches wide and four or live 

 deep, cut into strips no wider than a boot-lace. 



I heard that a short distance farther west the peoj^le were 

 perfectly nude ; but that they managed by constant manijjula- 

 tion, when the children wei'e very young, to cause the fatty cov- 

 ering of tlie lower part of their bellies to hang down like an 

 apron almost to the middle of the thigh ; and this was allowed 

 to answer the purpose of dress. 



On mentioning this to His Excellency the Governor-general 

 of Angola, Admiral Andrade, on my arrival at Loanda, he in- 

 formed me that he had witnessed a similar peculiarity among 

 tribes in the interior near Mozambique. 



Instead of pounding their corn in mortars, the people here 

 made use of trunks of trees let flush into floors of hardened 

 earth ; and, in consequence of their having small holes in them, 

 the flour they made was even more gritty than that prepared in 

 wooden mortars. 



Close to the western end of Uliiya we crossed the Luwika, a 

 considerable stream falling into the Lukuga, according to the 

 evidence of a traveled Waguhha, who had settled in Uliiya as 

 chief of a village. The latter river he said he had traced to its 

 confluence wnth the Lualaba. 



Just before leaving Uhiya, we camped in a deserted village, 

 the whilom inhabitants of which had, in accordance with a very 

 common custom, flitted, on account of the death of their chief, 

 and were now busily engaged in building a new village not far 

 from their former habitation. They had planted young bark- 

 cloth trees round the site of their new home, and had erected 

 the frame-work of their huts and granaries. These they were 

 now plastering with red clay obtained from the large ant-hills. 

 This clay is also used for making pottery. 



The huts were square, and were constructed of stakes four 



