878 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



overland to Cabeca da Cobra, or " Snake's Head." The coast line from Cabeca 

 to Ambriz is principally composed of red bluff's and cliffs, and the road or 

 path is generally near the edge of the cliffs, affording fine views of the sea 

 and surf-beaten beach below. The country is arid and thinly wooded, and 

 is covered with hard, wiry, branched grass, and the curious Mateba palm grows 

 in great abundance in the country from the Congo to Moculla, where it is 

 replaced by the Cashew tree as far as Ambrizzette. 



A lowly plant, but perhaps the most important in native tropical African 

 agriculture, the ground-nut (Arachis hypogoea), deserves description. Many 

 thousand tons of this small nut are grown on the whole of the West Coast of 

 Africa, large quantities being exported to Europe, principally to France, to be 

 expressed into oil. The native name for it is " mpinda" or " ginguba," and 

 it is cultivated in the greatest abundance at a few miles inland from the coast, 

 where the comparatively arid country is succeeded by better ground and 

 climate. " It requires a rich soil for its cultivation, and it is chiefly grown, 

 therefore, in the bottoms of valleys, or in the vicinity of rivers and marshes. The 

 plant grows from one to two feet high, with a leaf and habit very much like 

 a finely-grown clover. The bright-yellow pea-like flowers are borne on long 

 slender stalks; these, after flowering, curl down, and force the pod into the 

 ground, where it ripens beneath the soil. Its cultivation is a very simple affair. 

 The ground being cleared, the weeds and grass are allowed to dry, and then 

 burnt; the ground is then lightly dug a few inches deep by the women with 

 their small hoes, their only implement of agriculture, and the seeds dropped 

 into the ground and covered up. The sowing takes place in October and 

 November, at the beginning of the rainy season, and the first crop of nuts for 

 eating green is ready about April ; but they are not ripe for nine months after 

 sowing, or about July or August, when first brought down to the coast for trade. 



" A large plantation of ground-nuts is a very beautiful sight; a rich ex- 

 panse of the most luxuriant foliage of the brightest green, every leaf studded 

 with diamond-like drops glittering in the early sun. The ground-nut is an 

 important part of the food of the natives, and more so in the country from 

 Ambriz to the Congo than south at Loanda and Benguela. It is seldom eaten 

 raw, but roasted, and when young and green, and roasted in the husks, is 

 really delicious eating. It is excessively oily when fully ripe, and the natives 

 then generally eat it with bananas, and either the raw mandioca root, or some 

 preparation of it, experience showing them the necessity of the admixture of 

 a farinaceous substance with an excessively oily food. The nuts are also 

 ground on a stone to a paste, with which to thicken their stews and messes. 

 This paste, mixed with ground Chili pepper, is also made into long rolls, en- 

 veloped in leaves of the Phrynium ramosissimum, and is eaten principally in 

 the morning to stay the stomach in travelling till they reach the proper camp- 

 ing-places, for their breakfast or first meal and rest, generally about noon. 



