CHAP. III. ANNOYANCE FROM MOSQUITOES. 67 



and shore-bred bloodsuckers, of which several species show 

 us their irritating attentions. A large brown sort, called 

 by the Portuguese mansos (tame), flies straight to its 

 victim, and goes to work at once, as though it were an 

 invited guest. Some of the small kinds carry uncommonly 

 sharp lancets, and very potent poison. " What would 

 these insects eat, if we did not pass this way ? " becomes a 

 natural question. 



The juices of plants, and decaying vegetable matter in 

 the mud, probably form the natural food of mosquitoes, 

 and blood is not necessary for their existence. They 

 appear so commonly at malarious spots, that their presence 

 may be taken as a hint to man to be off to more healthy 

 localities. None appear on the high lands. On the low 

 lands they swarm in myriads. The females alone are 

 furnished with the biting apparatus, and their number 

 appears to be out of all proportion in excess of the males. 

 At anchor, on a still evening, they were excessively 

 annoying; and the sooner we took refuge under our 

 mosquito curtains, the better. The miserable and sleep- 

 less night that only one mosquito inside the curtain can 

 cause, is so well known, and has been so often described, 

 that it is needless to describe it here. One soon learns, 

 from experience, that to beat out the curtains thoroughly 

 before entering them, so that not one of these pests can 

 possibly be harboured within, is the only safeguard 

 against such severe trials to one's tranquillity and temper. 



A few miles above Mboma we came again to the village 

 (16° 44' 30" S.) of the chief Tingane, the beat of whose 

 war-drums can speedily muster some hundreds of armed 

 men. The bows and poisoned arrows here are of superior 

 workmanship to those below. Mariano's slave-hunting 

 parties stood in great awe of these barbed arrows, and 

 long kept aloof from Tingane's villages. His people were 

 friendly enough with us now, and covered the banks with 



