C US TO MS OF NA TI YE TRIBES. 883 



we collected the rose-coloured flowers of that extremely curious root parasite, 

 the Thonningea sanguinea." 



The soil about Bembe is magnificent, and will produce almost anything. 

 Sugar-cane grows to a huge size, and vegetables flourish in a remarkable 

 manner. A handsome creeper (Mucuna pruriens), with leaves like those of a 

 scarlet-runner, and bearing large, long bunches of dark maroon bean-like 

 flowers, grows very abundantly. The flowers are succeeded by crooked 

 pods covered with fine hairs, which cause dreadful itching when rubbed on 

 the skin. "The first time," says Monteiro, "I pulled off a bunch of the 

 pods I shook some of the hairs over my hands and face, and the sensation 

 was alarming, like being suddenly stung all over with a nettle. I have seen 

 blacks, when clearing bush for plantations, shake these hairs on their hot, 

 naked bodies, and jump about hke mad, uutill they were rubbed with hand- 

 fuls of moist earth." 



The Mussurongo, Ambriz, and Mushicongo negroes have hardly any 

 industrial or mechanical occupation ; they weave no cloths of cotton or other 

 fibre ; their only manufactures being the few implements, baskets, and pots, 

 required in their agriculture and household operations. Building huts is 

 man's work, and as no nails of any kind are employed in their construction, 

 the sticks only being notched and tied together with baobab fibre, a few days, 

 with but little trouble, suffice to build one. Women's work is entirely re- 

 stricted to cultivating the ground and preparing the food. Their simple agri- 

 cultural operations are all performed with one implement, a single-handed hoe. 



The mandioca-root, and a species of small harricot bean, constitute the 

 principal food of the natives. Chili pepper is the universal condiment of the 

 country. The banana is eaten raw, except by the Portuguese, who both 

 roast and boil it. The Ambriz and Mushicongo natives make but little use 

 of animal food ; the latter, however, are very fond of frogs and grasshoppers. 

 The common drink manufactured in the country is a sort of beer, prepared 

 from Indian corn and dry mandioca-root. It is slightly milky in appearance, 

 and when freshly made is sweet, but afterwards becomes acid and intoxicating. 



The distance from Ambriz, to Loando is about sixty miles, and the greater 

 part of the country is called Mossulo, from being inhabited by a tribe of that 

 name. They have not yet been subdued, and they dispute the passage of the 

 white man through their territory. About half-way between Ambriz and 

 Loando is Libongo, celebrated for its mineral pitch. The soil around here is 

 very fertile, and the mandioca, the sugar-cane, and the tamarind tree, grow 

 in perfection. The rivers Bengo and Dande are greatly infested by alligators ; 

 and a curious idea prevails amongst all the natives of Angola, that the liver 

 of the alligator is a deadly poison, and that it is employed as such by the 

 fetish-men. The manatee is not uncommon in these rivers. The Portuguese 

 call this curious mammal the woman-fish, from the supposed resemblance be- 



