462 DESIRE TO POSSESS A VILLAGE. Chap. XXIIT. 



her village was quite impassable there, and for a distance of about 

 a mile on either side, the bog being soft and shaky, and, when the 

 crust was broken through, about six feet deep. 



On the 28th we reached the village of the chief Bango (lat. 

 12° 22' 53" S., long. 20° 58' E.), who brought us a handsome 

 present of meal, and the meat of an entire pallah. We here 

 slaughtered the last of the cows presented to us by Mr. Schut, 

 wliich I had kept milked, until it gave only a teaspoonful at a 

 time. My men enjoyed a hearty laugh when they found that I 

 had given up all hope of more, for they had been talking among 

 themselves about my perseverance. We offered a leg of the cow 

 to Bango ; but he informed us that neither he nor his people ever 

 partook of beef, as they looked upon cattle as human, and living 

 at home like men. None of his people purchased any of the 

 meat, wliich was always eagerly done everywhere else. There 

 are several other tribes who refuse to keep cattle, though not to 

 eat them when offered by others, because, say they, oxen bring 

 enemies and war ; but tins is the first instance I have met with in 

 wliich they have been refused as food. The fact of killing the 

 pallahs for food, shows that the objection does not extend to 

 meat in general. 



The little streams in this part of the country did not flow in 

 deep dells, nor were we troubled with the gigantic grasses, which 

 annoyed our eyes on the slopes of the streams before we came to 

 Cabango. The country was quite flat, and the people cultivated 

 manioc very extensively. There is no large collection of the 

 inhabitants in any one spot. The ambition of each seems to be 

 to have his own little village ; and we see many coming from 

 distant parts with the flesh of buffaloes and antelopes as the tri- 

 bute claimed by Bango. We have now entered again the country 

 of the game ; but they are so exceedingly shy that we have not 

 yet seen a single animal. The arrangement into many villages, 

 pleases the Africans vastly, for every one who has a few huts under 

 lihn, feels himself in some measure to be a chief. The country at 

 this time is covered with yellowish grass quite dry. Some of the 

 bushes and trees are green ; others are shedding then leaves, the 

 young buds pushing off the old foliage. Trees, which in the south 

 stand bare during the winter months, have here but a short period 

 of leaflessness. Occasionally, however, a cold north wind comes 



