NOTES. 435 



19. Page 100, /. 28. — Natives of the same tribe can very quickly deter- 

 mine their relative ages, although they cannot tell how many years they 

 each have lived. They associate the year of their birth with the event of 

 that year, be it the death of the chief or the appearance of some plague, or 

 an eclipse of the sun, or large comet seen. Missionaries going into a new 

 district are often amused at the interest taken in their relative ages, and 

 cannot quite understand it at first, seeing that the African does not keep 

 any record of the number of years he may have lived. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



20. Page 107, /. 27. — It is well known that people living in open 

 savannahs and prairies, as the Bechuana and Zulu tribes do, are less 

 superstitious than the inhabitants of forest-clad countries. 



21. Page no, /. 16.— The bark of the Mowana or Baobab tree is an 

 important article of export from Ambriz and Ambrizette on the West 

 Coast of Africa. It is used chiefly in the manufacture of paper. 



22. Page in, /. 16. — Some of these edible caterpillars respond in a 

 curious way to a half-whistling, half-cooing sound, by wagging their heads 

 and setting every leaf of the tree infested by them in motion. 



CHAPTER IX. 



23. Page 123, /. 9. — The white man that Dr. Livingstone met at 

 Linyanti was the well-known Portuguese trader Senhor Silva Porto, who 

 began trading from Loanda in the year 1 83 7. Slaves were then in great 

 demand, and could be bought on the Kuanza river for four yards of calico 

 a head. Little by little Senhor Porto worked his way inland ; he 

 employed his own slaves, as well as Bihe headmen, to do most of his 

 trading; these native agents are called "Pumbeiros" by the Portuguese. 

 A Pumbeiro of the name of Jao was the first to reach the Zambesi ; 

 returning, he informed Senhor Porto, who decided to visit the Makololo 

 chief. Senhor Porto traded for ivory, rubber, and beeswax all over West 

 Central Africa ; his regular habits and just treatment of all free-natives 

 gave him great influence in the country. The Portuguese Government 

 made him Capitao Mor for Bihe, where during a sudden native revolt 

 (1890) the old hero lost heart and blew himself up with gunpowder. 

 His body was carried to Lisbon and buried with public honours. The 

 Portuguese call him " The Livingstone of Portugal." 



24. Page 127, /. .25. — The African bead trade is divided into what 

 might be called "currency bead" and "fashion bead" trades. Missionaries 

 and explorers would do well to keep to currency beads. Traders can of 

 course make more money out of the fashion bead, but it is much more risky. 



25. Page 128, /. 3. — In the year 1883 — nearly thirty years after Dr. 

 Livingstone's visit — I, when on my first missionary journey, met with 

 an old blind minstrel in the Barotse Valley, who, failing to interest 



2 K 



