178. LABOR IN ANGOLA. 



too great and their wares too tempting. The one secured them 

 possession of great numbers of the poor creatures, the other 

 found means to dispose of them. 



The abundance of this unrewarded labor throughout Angola 

 had probably been the cause of much negligence in the masters 

 of the soil. The appliances of agriculture were almost entirely 

 wanting, though the soil is singularly fertile and offers a won- 

 derful reward for industry. Cotton grows almost as freely as 

 the native grasses, and coffee, though probably imported, is 

 found in many places growing most luxuriantly and yielding 

 abundantly with hardly any attention. Indeed, almost every 

 variety of fruit and vegetable and important article of agri- 

 culture is easily reared in the splendid valleys of this district. 

 Yet singularly enough there was found no implement of labor 

 except the peculiar Angola hoe with double handle, which is 

 dragged lazily along across the ground to make a place for the 

 seed, which when once deposited is left to its own vitality and 

 the favor of climate and soil until the harvest. The labor of 

 cultivating the lands falls to the women. The men are not dis- 

 tinguished by as much industry as the women, and work so 

 leisurely at their weaving that they only produce a single web, 

 a few feet in length and twenty inches wide, in a month ; receiv- 

 ing only two shillings for their task and material. There are in 

 various places ruins of manufactories, aud traces of former 

 works in iron and copper. The natives have become exceed- 

 ingly fond of barter, in which they exchange with foolish pro- 

 digality anything they may get their hands on for such articles 

 as may strike their fancy. Those who are held as slaves mani- 

 fest a perfect mania for stealing, and are always ready with any 

 amount of lying to conceal their thefts. Their chief food is the 

 manioc ; and they are in consequence more effeminate than they 

 would be with a stronger diet. They are, like many of the 

 more inland tribes, dreadfully superstitious, and cherish some 

 strange and cruel customs, which spring from their beliefs. 

 They can hardly be called idolaters in the strict sense of the* 

 term, because the worship of idols implies an ultimate appeal 

 to a Supreme Being. They are Fetich worshippers. The 

 difference between them and idolaters is that they do not con- 

 sider the object which they bow down before as an image of an 



