GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 361 



discovered, he had nearly eaten the whole skin in a state 

 scarcely warm. There do not appear, however, to bathe 

 slightest grounds for supposing that they ever eat human 

 flesh, not even that of their enemies, but that all the accu- 

 sations of this nature are totally false. 



None of the banzas or villages seen by tlie party were of 

 great extent ; the largest probably not exceeding one hun- 

 dred huts. Embomma, Cooloo, and Inga, are each the 

 residence of a Chenoo ; the first was supposed to consist of 

 about sixty huts, exclusive of the Chenoo's inclosure, and 

 about five hundred inhabitants; the second, one hundred 

 huts, and from five to six hundred inhabitants ; and the 

 third, being the last in the line of the river within the 

 kingdom of Congo, of seventy huts, and three hundred in- 

 habitants. The party stationed at this banza understood, 

 that the Chenoo could command about two hundred fiojht- 

 ingmen, one hundred of whom he can arm with musquets; 

 and with this force he conceives hiuiself to be the dread 

 and terror of his enemies. These banzas are usually placed 

 amidst groves of palms and adansonias. 



The huts in general consist of six pieces, closely woven 

 or matted together, from a reedy grass, or the fibres of 

 some plant ; the two sides exactly corresponding, the two 

 ends the same, excepting that in one is the door way, an 

 opening just large enough to creep in at, and the two slop- 

 ing sides of the roof also correspond. The sides and ends 

 are made fast to upright posts stuck in the ground ; and 

 the two pieces of the roof are bound to the sides, and also 



3 A 



