884 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



tween its breasts and those of a -woman. The flesh is good eating, though of 

 no particular flavour, and is greatly liked by the natives. The marshes and 

 lagoons are full of wild duck and other water-fowl. The country from the 

 Bengo to Loanda rises suddenly, and the coast line is high and bold, but the 

 soil is very arid and sandy, the rocks being arenaceous, evidently of recent 

 formation, and full of casts of shells. There is much admixture of oxide of 

 iron; and some of the sandy cliffs and dunes close to Loanda are of a beauti- 

 ful red from it. Doves of various kinds are abundant, and splendidly coloured 

 starlings; kingfishers too are common, and two or three species of bustards. 



The city of St. Paul de Loanda is situated in a beautiful bay, backed by 

 a kind of low, sandy cliff. In front of the bay a long, low, and very narrow 

 spit of pure sand stretches like a natural breakwater, and protects the harbour 

 of Loanda perfectly from the waves and surf of the ocean. The cocoa-nut- 

 palm tree thrives well on this narrow spit. Loanda contains about twelve 

 thousand inhabitants, of whom about one-third are whites. The houses are 

 generally commodious, built of stone, and roofed with red tiles. The window- 

 sills and door-posts are generally painted blue, which gives the place a pretty 

 appearance. Most of the houses have large yards, and the streets are wide, 

 so that there is no overcrowding. The principal street runs through the 

 whole length of the town, and for some distance a row of banyan trees goes 

 through the centre, under the shade of which a daily market or fair is held 

 of cloth and dry goods. The vendors are chiefly women. 



" A square at the back of the custom-house is the general market of 

 Loanda, and presents a curious scene, from the great variety of articles sold, 

 and the great excitement of buyers and sellers crying out their wares, and 

 making their purchases at the top of their voices. The vendors here, again, 

 are mostly women ; and as no booths are allowed to be put up, they wear 

 straw hats with wide brims, almost as huge as an ordinary umbrella, to shade 

 themselves. Every kind of delicacy to captivate the negro palate and fancy 

 is to be had here; wooden dishes full of lean, measly-looking pork; earthen 

 pots full of beans and palm-oil, retailed out in small platters, at so much a 

 large wooden spoonful, and eaten on the spot ; horrible-looking messes of 

 fish, cakes, and pastry, etc., everything thickly covered with flies and large 

 blue-bottles ; large earthen jars, called sangas, and gourds full of garapa, or 

 indian-corn beer ; live fowls and ducks, eggs, milk, Chili peppers, small white 

 tomatoes, bananas, and in the season, oranges, mangoes, sour-sop, and other 

 fruits, quiavos, a few cabbage-leaves and vegetables, firewood, tobacco pipes 

 and stems, wild hemp, mats, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, palm and ground-nut 

 oil and dried salt fish. The women squat on their heels, with their wares in 

 front, all round and over the square, while hundreds of natives are jabbering 

 and haggling over their bargains, as if their existence depended on their 

 noisy exertions." 



