260 THE MAPiCH THROUGH APONO-LAND. Chap. SHI. 



The large quantity of palm-trees in and around 

 the village furnish the Aponos of Mokaba with a 

 ready supply of their favourite drink, palm-wine ; 

 for, as I have said before, they are a merry people, 

 and make a regular practice of getting drunk every 

 day as long as the wine is obtainable. I often saw 

 them climb the trees in early morning, and take deep 

 draughts from the calabashes suspended there. Like 

 most drunken people, they become quarrelsome ; and 

 being a lively and excitable race, many frays occur. 

 Happily the palm-wine season lasts only a few months 

 in the year : it was the height of the drunken season 

 when I was at Mokaba. I saw very few men who 

 had not scars, or the marks of one or more wounds, 

 received in their merry-making scrimmages. Their 

 holidays are very frequent. Unlimited drinking is 

 the chief amusement, together with dancing, tam-tam- 

 ming, and wild uproar, which last all night. They 

 are very fond of the ocuya performances. The ocuya 

 is a man supporting a large framework resembling 

 a giant, and whimsically dressed and ornamented, 

 who walks and dances on stilts. In Mokaba, he 

 appears in a white mask with thick open lips, dis- 

 closing the rows of teeth minus the middle incisors, 

 according to the Apono fashion. The long gar- 

 ment reaches to the ground, covering the stilts. It 

 struck me as a droll coincidence that his head-dress 

 resembled exactly a lady's bonnet, at least the re- 

 semblance held good before chignons came into 

 vogue ; it was surmounted by feathers and made of 

 the skin of a monkey. Behind, however, hung the 



