288 TRADERS AND CARRIERS. Ohap, XXi; 



such abundance that the people even make their huts of coffee- 

 trees. Numerous independent tribes inhabit the country to 

 the north. The Portuguese power may be said to be firmly 

 seated only between the rivers Dande and Coanza, and to 

 extend inland about three hundred miles to the river Quango, 

 containing a population amounting to about 600,000 souls. 



Leaving Malange, we passed quickly along the path by 

 which we had come to Sanza and Tala Mungongo. At the 

 latter place we met a native of Bihe who had visited the 

 country of Shinfe three times for the purposes of trade. He 

 gave us some of the news of that distant part, but not a word 

 about the Makololo, who have alwa} T s been represented in the 

 countries to the north as a desperately savage race whom no 

 trader could visit with safety. The half-caste traders whom 

 we met at Shinte's had returned to Angola with sixty-six 

 slaves and upwards of fifty tusks of ivory. As we came along 

 the path we daily met long lines of carriers bearing large 

 square masses of bees' -wax, each about a hundred pounds' 

 weight, and numbers of elephants' tusks, the property of 

 Angolese merchants. Many natives were proceeding to the 

 coast also on their own account, carrying bees'-wax, ivory, and 

 sweet oil. They appeared to travel in perfect security ; and 

 at different parts of the road we purchased fowls from them 

 at a penny apiece. 



During our stay at Tala Mungongo our attention was 

 attracted to a species of red ant, which infests different parts 

 of this country, and is remarkable for its love of animal food. 

 The commandant of the village having slaughtered a cow, 

 slaves were obliged to sit up the whole night, burning fires of 

 straw around it to keep them off. These ants travel across 

 the country in vast numbers like a small army. At a little 

 distance they appear as a brownish-red band, two or three 

 inches wide, stretched across the path, all eagerly pressing on 

 m one direction. If a person happens to tread upon them, 

 they rush up his legs and bite with surprising vigour. I 

 first encountered this by no means contemptible enemy near 

 Cassange, where I accidently stepped upon one of their nests. 

 Not an instant seemed to. elapse before a simultaneous attack 

 was made on various unprotected parts, up the trowsers from 

 below, and on my neck and breast above. Their bites wei 2 



