Chap. XX. DOMESTIC FOWL. 407 



duces in great abundance. It is brought in crystals of about 

 12 inches long and 1^ in diameter. This is hawked about every- 

 where in Angola, and, next to calico, is the most common medium 

 of barter. The Kisama are brave ; and when the Portuguese 

 army followed them into then forests, they reduced the invaders 

 to extremity by tapping all the reservoirs of water, which were no 

 other than the enormous baobabs of the country, hollowed into 

 cisterns. As the Kisama country is ill supplied with water other- 

 wise, the Portuguese were soon obliged to retreat. Then- country 

 lying near to Massangano is low and marshy, but becomes more 

 elevated in the distance, and beyond them he the lofty dark 

 momitain-ranges of the Libollo, another powerful and independent 

 people. Near Massangano I observed what seemed to be an 

 effort of nature to furnish a variety of domestic fowls, more 

 capable than the common kind, of bearing the heat of the sun. 

 Tins was a hen and chickens, with ail then feathers curled 

 upwards ; thus giving shade to the body without increasing 

 the heat. They are here named " kisafu " by the native 

 population, who pay a high price for them when they wish 

 to offer them as a sacrifice* and by the Portuguese they are 

 termed " arripiada," or shivering. There seems to be a tendency 

 in nature to afford varieties adapted to the convenience of man. 

 A kind of very short-legged fowl among the Boers was obtained, 

 in consequence of observing that such were more easily caught 

 for transportation, in then frequent removals in search of pasture. 

 A similar instance of seeming a variety, occurred with the short- 

 limbed sheep in America. 



Returning by ascending the Lucalla into Cazengo, we had an 

 opportunity of visiting several flourishing coffee plantations, and 

 observed that several men, who had begun with no capital but 

 honest industry, had in the course of a few years acquired a com- 

 fortable subsistence. One of these, Mr. Pinto, generously furnished 

 me with a good supply of his excellent coffee, and my men with a 

 breed of rabbits to carry to their own country. Their lands, 

 granted by Government, yielded, without much labour, coffee 

 sufficient for all the necessaries of life. 



The fact of other avenues of wealth opening up so readily, seems 

 like a providential invitation to forsake the slave-trade and engage 



