Chap. XXIII. FUNERAL OBSERVANCES. 467 



next bog, in the hope of bringing us to a stand, for all are exces- 

 sively eager to trade ; but food was so very cheap that we sometimes 

 preferred paying them to keep it, and let us part in good humour. 

 A good-sized fowl could be had for a single charge of gunpowder. 

 Each native who owns a gun, carries about with him a measure 

 capable of holding but one charge, in which he receives his 

 powder. Throughout this region the women are almost entirely 

 naked, their gowns being a patch of cloth frightfully narrow, 

 with no flounces ; and nothing could exceed the eagerness with 

 which they offered to purchase strips of calico of an inferior 

 description. They were delighted with the larger pieces we 

 gave, though only about two feet long, for a fowl, and a basket 

 of upwards of 20 lbs. of meal. As we had now only a small 

 remnant of our stock, we were obliged to withstand their impor- 

 tunity, and then many of the women, with true maternal feelings, 

 held up their little naked babies, entreating us to sell only a little 

 rag for them. The fire, they say, is their only clothing by night, 

 and the little ones derive heat by clinging closely to their parents. 

 Instead of a skin or cloth to carry their babies in, the women 

 plait a belt about four inches broad, of the inner bark of a tree, 

 and this, hung from the one shoulder to the opposite side, like a 

 soldier's belt, enables them to support the child by placing it on 

 their side in a sitting position. Their land is very fertile, 

 and they can raise ground-nuts and manioc in abundance. Here 

 I observed no cotton, nor any domestic animals except fowls and 

 little dogs. The chief possessed a few goats, and I never could get 

 any satisfactory reason, why the people also did not rear them. 



On the evening of the 2nd of June we reached the village of 

 Kawawa, rather an important personage in these parts. This 

 village consists of forty or fifty huts, and is surrounded by forest. 

 Drums were beating over the body of a man who had died the 

 preceding day, and some women were making a clamorous wail 

 at the door of his hut, and addressing the deceased as if alive. 

 The drums continued beating the whole night, with as much 

 regularity as a steam-engine thumps, on board ship. We observed 

 that a person dressed fantastically with a great number of feathers, 

 left the people at the dance and wailing, and went away into the 

 deep forest in the morning, to return again to the obsequies in 

 the evening ; he is intended to represent one of the Barimo. 



2 h 2 



