328 THROUGH ANGOLA 



tages, or its area. One reason for this, now happily 

 past, was the destruction of cattle in intertribal 

 wars and at the death ceremonies of Chiefs, when 

 domestic animals as well as human beings were 

 sacrificed for the burial feast, and as food for the 

 spirit of the dead Chief. The other reason, which 

 may equally be banished also, if the remarkable 

 new treatment by a German drug called " 205 " and 

 new English methods of serum treatment prove a 

 success, is the distribution of tsetse fly disease. 

 This scourge, which infects north Angola along 

 the Congo and Coanza Rivers and their tribu- 

 taries, and parts of eastern and south-eastern 

 Angola, limits the best cattle country to well- 

 watered portions of central and southern angola. 



Cattle. In the districts of Cabinda, Congo, 

 and Lunda there are few cattle ; in North Coanza 

 district, except near Luanda itself, I did not 

 see many cattle in my journey to Melanje, as the 

 route followed the Coanza valley where the tsetse 

 fly is present. More cattle were met in my 

 journey through the interior of South Coanza 

 province, to the east of the river and to the west of 

 it as far as Bihe, but the fly along the Coanza 

 limits their distribution and numbers. 



On the Benguella plateau from Bihe west- 

 wards, more cattle were seen, and there was stock 

 in the farms along the Benguella Railway till 

 another fly belt near the Cubal and Catumbella 

 Rivers wa , reached. In the well-watered high- 

 lands to the north of this railway there are several 

 cattle farms ; among them one with a large stock 

 of splendid cattle belonging to the Zambezia 



