Chap. XXIII. NATIVE PECULIARITIES. 303 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



Detour southward. — Cabango. — the Kasai and Quango. — Tiik 

 seasons. — Valley of the Loembwe. — Crossing the Kasai. 



We made a little detour to the southward, in order to get 

 provisions in a cheaper market. This led us among a people 

 who had not been visited so frequently by the slave-traders as 

 the rest, and who were therefore rather timid and very civil. 

 The same olive complexion prevailed, as also does the custom 

 of filing their teeth to a point, which makes the smile of the 

 women frightful, as it reminds one of the grin of an alligator. 

 The inhabitants throughout this country exhibit, just as great 

 a variety of taste as any civilized community. Many of the 

 men are dandies, with their shoulders dripping with the oil 

 from their lubricated hair, and everything about them orna- 

 mented in one way or another. Some spend the whole day 

 and even portions of the night in thrumming a musical instru- 

 ment for their own sole gratification. Others try to appear 

 warlike by never going out of their huts, except with a load of 

 bows and arrows, or a gun ornamented with a strip of hide for 

 every animal they have shot ; and others never go anywhere 

 without a canary in a cage. Ladies may be seen carefully 

 tending little lapdogs, which are intended to be eaten. Their 

 villages are generally in forests, and are composed of irregular 

 groups of brown huts, with banana and cotton trees, and 

 tobacco growing around. Every hut is provided with a high 

 stage for drying manioc roots and meal, and with cages to hold 

 domestic fowls. Round baskets are laid on the thatch of the 

 huts for the hens to lay in, and, on the arrival of strangers, 

 men, women, and children ply their calling as hucksters, with 

 a great deal of noisy haggling, but still with civility and good 

 temper. Animal food is very scarce among these people, and 

 even birds are rare, from the extent to which they have been 

 consumed. Moles and mice constitute important articles of 

 diet among them ; and traps may be seen fringing the paths 

 for miles together at intervals of ten or fifteen yards. 



