THE DISTRICT OF CAZENOO. 887 



valleys," says Monteiro, filled with magnificent virgin forests, cover the country. 

 Streams and springs of the clearest water abound, and the valleys are full of 

 monkeys and beautifully coloured birds and butterflies. Most wonderful and 

 varied effects of rolling mists, sunrise and sunset are to be seen in this earthly 

 paradise, and the clearness and lightness of the atmosphere are most exhilar- 

 ating and agreeable after the dull oppressiveness of the air on the coast. At 

 Cazengo I saw the largest trees I have ever seen, and conspicuous amongst 

 these the cotton-wood tree (Enodendron anfractuosum), towering to an 

 immense height straight as an arrow, without the slightest break, to the 

 small branches at the very top covered with feathery-looking foliage, and 

 studded with puffy balls like white silk, from the burst seed-pods. The stems 

 and branches are thickly studded with hard, short, conical, sharp-pointed 

 spikes, and at the base of the stem vast flattened buttresses project, which 

 give a wonderful idea of strength and stability. In these grand forests the 

 splendid giant touraco (Turacus cristatus), the largest of the tropical African 

 plaintain-eaters, finds a fitting habitat, and from its great size compared with 

 the other much smaller species, is evidence of the magnificence of the forests 

 and scenery of Cazengo and Golungo Alto." 



From Grolungo Alto to the south the geological formation is a hard, 

 compact, quartzose granite rock. At Cazengo gneiss is found, and granite, 

 and a hard quartzose slaty rock, with in places a curious rock seemingly 

 composed of disintegrated granite and clay slate. The great forests on the 

 slopes of the chains of mountains and valleys of the country about Golungo 

 Alto and the Dembos are full of coffee-trees growing wild, and they are gra- 

 dually being cleared of bush or underwood by the natives so as to enable them 

 to collect the berry. 



Cazengo has been celebrated from time immemorial for its iron, smelted 

 by the natives, and the bellows employed in the process appears to date from 

 the earliest times, being in fact identical with that used by the ancient 

 Egyptians. For ordinary blacksmith's work the forge is simply a small 

 cavity scooped out in the ground, the fuel being charcoal ; and in this, with 

 one bellows, a welding heat is obtained, and they are enabled to make hoes 

 and other implements out of ordinary iron hooping or other scrap-iron. Iron 

 smelting from the ore is but little practised now in Angola, as the iron hoop- 

 ing from bales obtained from the traders nearly suffices for the few purposes 

 for which this useful metal is required. 



The natives of the interior comprised between the River Dande and 

 Quanza speak the Bunda language. The natives beyond the River Dande 

 speak the Congo language, and its dialects of Ambriz and Mossulo. There 

 is a singular custom common to the Bunda-speaking race, and to the natives 

 of Navo Redondo farther south. " When a relative or other person visits 

 them, a dish of ' infundi ' or ' piras ' is prepared, and should there not be a 



