L O A 



LOB 



by themfelvei ; and they are fond of ornaments about tlieir 

 necks, legs, and wrifts, which they form of beads of coral, 

 ivory, (lielb of a beautiful hue, chains of copper, tin, or 

 iron, obtained from Europe. Polygamy is allowed among 

 them ; their rich men having 12 or more wives, and the poor 

 not fewer tlian three. Of a Supreme Beinjj, their notions are 

 very imperfetl and confufed. Their worlhip is addrefled to 

 demons, domellic and rural ; and to thefe they afcribe great 

 intl:jence. To their monarchs they attribute a kind of fuper- 

 natural and unlimited power. The foreign commerce- of the 

 country confifts cliiefly in flaves ; and they likewife fell con- 

 fiderable quantities of ivory, tin, lead, iron, and copper. 

 The kingdom of Loango, feparated from Congo, of which 

 it was formerly a part, is divided into four principal pro- 

 vinces, viz. Lovangiri, Louango-Mongo, Kilongo, and 

 Piri. The firll is fertile and well inhabited ; the fecond, 

 lying N.E. of the former, is fpacious and produftive, par- 

 ticularly ©f palm-trees, the oil of wliich they extract in 

 great quantities ; and the inhabitants employ themfelves in 

 working a variety of linen and cloth ; the third is.a maritime 

 province, and is the largeft and the moll populous of the 

 four ; its plains are extenlive and fertile, and they are Ihel- 

 tered at a di'.tance by ridges of higli mountains ; the trade 

 of the inhabitants, who are rude and unpoliflied, confifts in 

 elephants' teeth ; the lafl province, north of Kilongo and 

 Louango-Mongo, is low and flat, but abounds with variety of 

 fruits and other trees, and is well peopled and cultivated ; 

 the inhabitants are peaceable and ftrangers to war. They 

 have plenty of cattle, and of wild and tame fowl, and take 

 great pleafure in hunting. Their food is fupplied by the 

 game they take, and the milk of their cattle. In all thefe 

 provinces there are many towns and villages. 



LoAXGO, a city of Africa, and capital of the above-men- 

 tioned country, Ctuatedona river, which forms a bay at its 

 mouth, about fix miles from the coaft of the Atlantic. The 

 natives call it " Borai," or " B jori." It is very fpacious 

 and airy, as the houfes are not contiguous to one another. 

 The ftreets are wide and clean, and lined with palm-trees, 

 bananas, and bacavas, which (belter the houfes both before 

 and behind. The palace adjoins to a fquare in the centre of 

 the city, and of itfelf forms another fquare, one and a half 

 mile in compafs, furrounded with a palifado of llately palm- 

 trees. Befides the public buildings of which it confills, it 

 is occupied by the houfes of the king's women^, ten in num- 

 ber, and each capab'e of accommodating feven or eight of 

 them. At a fmall diftance is a market place, whicU fup- 

 plics purchafers every day with meal, poultry, fifh, wine, 

 corn and oil, as well as palm-cloth ; and ia the market- 

 place is a famous temple and mokiffo, or idol, called " Me- 

 kifTo a Loango," which has been held in great veneration 

 both by the kings and their fubjecls. The houfes are of at> 

 cblong Ihape, flat in the middle part of the roof, and each 

 houfe is fenced round with a hedge of palm-twigs, canes, 

 or bulru(hes. 



The bay of Loango, though upon the whole good, is in- 

 commoded by a bank on the N. fide of its entrance, running 

 half a league along the coaft, and having not more than two 

 and a half fathoms of water. The numerous and large 

 rivers that flow from the continent, occafion fuch rapid and 

 flrcng currents towards the north during almoft the whole 

 year, that it is very, difficult to veather them, and gain a 

 fouthern courfe. The only months in which they may be 

 ftemmed with fafety are January, February, March, and 

 April ; during the other months of the year the currents 

 flow fo Ilrong, that even coafters mull keep at Icaft 10 or 

 1.2 leagues off the land. S. lat. 4° 40'. E. long. lO" 25'. 



LoAKGO, a river of Africa, which run* into the Atlantic, 

 S. lat. 10 30'. 



LOANO, or LovANO, a town of Genoa, near the fea ; 

 fix miles S.S.W. of Finale. 



LOANS, GovEKNME.vT. See Stocks. 



LOAR, or LoARKE, in Geography, a town of Spain, in 

 Aragon ; i^ miles S. of Jaca. 



LOARDEGA, a town of Hindooftan, in Bihar ; 43 

 miles S. of Palamow. 



LOBARIA, in Natural Htfirjry, a genus of the Vermel 

 mollufca clafs and order : Body Jobatc, cunvcx above, fliit 

 below. There is only one fpecies, vlx,. quadriloba, cha- 

 racterized as having a tail with four lobes. It is found in 

 the northern feas. 



LOBATUM Folium, in Botany, a leaf the outline of 

 whofe fegments is curved. See Le.-\f. 



LOB AU, in Geography, a town of Pruffia, in the territory 

 of Culm ; 44 miles E. of Culm. 



LoBAU, or Liele, one of the moft ancient towns in the 

 province of Upper Lufatia, containing two churches, three 

 chapels, an hofpital, and a Latin fchool, and trading chiefly 

 in linen and thread ; 10 miles S.W. of Gorlitz. N. lat. ji' 

 7'. E.long. 14-46'. 



LOBB, TuEorHiLUS, in Biography, a phyfician of con- 

 fiderable reputation about the middle of the lail century, 

 pradlifed his profefTion in London, and left feveral works on 

 medical topics. He died on the 19th of May, 1763, in 

 the eighty-fifth year of his age. The following are the 

 titles of his publications. " Treatife of the Small-pox," 

 London, 173 1, 1748, 8vo. ; which was tranflated int« 

 French in 1749. " Rational Method of curing Fevers, deS- 

 duced from the Strufture of the Human Body," ibid. 1734, 

 8vo. : in this work he adopted the doftrines of Boerhaave, 

 •'Medical Praftice in caring Fevers," ibid. 1 735, 8vo. 

 " A Practical Treatife on painful Dillempers, with lome 

 effeftual Methods of curing them," ibid. 1739. " A Trea- 

 tife on Solvents of the Stone, and on curing the Stone and 

 the Gout by Aliments," ibid. 1739. This work patTed 

 through feveral editions, and was tranflated into Latin and 

 French. The author confidered the matter of urinary cal- 

 culi and of gout as of an alkaline nature, and vegetable acids 

 as the remedy. " Letters concerning the plague and other 

 contagious Diftempers," ibid. 1 745. " A Compendium 

 of the Practice of Phyfic," ibid. 1747. Befides tliefe 

 works, he was the author of feveral papers printed in the 

 Gentleman's Magazine, and of one or more tracts oa reli- 

 gious fubjecls in the latter part of his life. Eloy Dift. 

 Hill. Gent. Mag. 



LOBBY, m Jirchiiedure, is a fmall bailor waiting-room : 

 it is alfo an entrance into a principal apartment, where there 

 is a ctmfiderable fpace between that and a portico or veiU- 

 bule, and the length or dimenfions will not allow it to be 

 confidered as a veitibule or an anti-room. See AxTlcH.-lM- 

 BER. 



Lobby, in a Ship, an apartment clofe before the captain's 

 cabin. 



Lobby, in Agriculture, a fort of narrow confined place, 

 formed either by hedges and trees, or other kinds of fencing, 

 near to the farm-yard, for the purpofe of confining live- 

 flock. It is obferved by Mr. Marfiiall, in his Minutes of 

 Agriculture in the Midland Counties, tliat " every farmery 

 ought to have a lobby and a croft appending to it, ferving as 

 a double fence ; thereby preventing itotk from running over, 

 ^poaching, and injuring the fartn ; the latter for calves, a 

 faddle horfe, and invalids. He found the conveniency of a 

 lobby in Surrey, and the want of od« in Norfglk, and ia 



tbis 



