292 SUPERSTITIONS OF NATIVES. Chap. XXII. 



a community of race among the tribes. All believe that the 

 souls of the departed still mingle among the living, and par- 

 take in some way of the food they consume. In sickness 

 sacrifices of fowls and goats are made to appease the spirits, 

 who wish, as they imagine, to take the living away from 

 earth and all its enjoyments. In cases of murder or man- 

 slaughter a sacrifice is made to lay the spirit of the victim. 

 A sect is reported to exist who kill men in order to take 

 their hearts and offer them to the Barimo. The prejudices 

 in favour of these practices are very deeply rooted in the 

 native mind. Even at Loanda they retire out of the city in 

 order to perform their heathenish rites in secrecy. Their 

 religion, if such it may be called, is one of dread. Numbers 

 of charms are employed to avert the evils with which they 

 feel themselves to be encompassed. Occasionally you meet a 

 man, more cautious or more timid than the rest, with twenty 

 or thirty charms hung round his neck, on the principle that 

 among so many he surely must have the right one. How 

 painful is the contrast between this inward gloom and the 

 brightness of the outer world — between the undefined terrors 

 of the spirit, and the peace and beauty that pervade the 

 scenes around us ! I have often thought, in travelling 

 through this land, that it presents pictures of beauty which 

 angels might enjoy. How often have I beheld, in Still morn- 

 ings, scenes the very essence of beauty, and all bathed in an 

 atmosphere of delicious warmth to which the soft breeze 

 imparts a pleasing sensation of coolness as if from a fan! 

 Green grass} r meadows, the cattle feeding, the goats browsing, 

 the kids skipping, the groups of herdbo}^ with miniature 

 bows, arrows, and spears ; the women wending their way to 

 the river with watering-pots poised jauntily on their head ; 

 men sewing under the shady banians ; and old grey-headed 

 fathers sitting on the ground, with staff in hand, listening to the 

 morning gossip, while others carry branches to repair their 

 hedges. Such scenes, flooded with the bright African sun- 

 shine, and enlivened by the songs of the birds before the heat 

 of the day has become intense, form pictures which can never 

 be forgotten. 



Captain Neves was now actively engaged in preparing a 

 present, worth about fifty pounds, to be sent by Pombeiros oi 



