598 BIEDS AND RAIN. 



Angola. The orchilla weed and mosses, too, were in but small 

 quantities. 



As we passed along, the people continued to supply us with 

 food in great abundance. They had by some means or other got 

 a knowledge that I carried medicine, and, somewhat to the dis- 

 gust of my men, who wished to keep it all to themselves, brought 

 their sick children for cure. Some of them I found had hooping- 

 cough, which is one of the few epidemics that range through this 

 country. 



In passing through the woods I for the first time heard the 

 bird called Mokwa reza, or " Son-in-law of God" (Micropogon 

 sulphuratus ?), utter its cry, which is supposed by the natives to 

 be "pula, pula" (rain, rain). It is said to do this only before 

 heavy falls of rain. It may be a cuckoo, for it is said to throw 

 out the eggs of the white-backed Senegal crow, and lay its own 

 instead. This, combined with the cry for rain, causes the bird to 

 be regarded with favor. The crow, on the other hand, has a bad 

 repute, and, when rain is withheld, its nest is sought for and de- 

 stroyed, in order to dissolve the charm by which it is supposed to 

 seal up the windows of heaven. All the other birds now join in 

 full chorus in the mornings, and two of them, at least, have fine 

 loud notes. 



