AFRICAN BEE-KEEPERS. 889 



from Dondo up the river are the first cataracts of Carubambe. Immediately on 

 leaving Dondo the river is enclosed by high hills or cliffs on both sides, and 

 winds a good deal, so that a succession of fresh and seemingly more beauti- 

 ful pictures is constantly presented to the traveller's admiration as he ascends 

 the river in a boat. The river is wide and deep, and the slopes and perpen- 

 dicular sides of the hilly walls on either side are of endless variety of colour, 

 both of rock, moss and lichen, plant, and tree. Deep red iron-stained 

 sandstone, conglomerate, blue clay slate, huge white-stemmed baobabs, dark 

 masses of palm-trees, plots of large-leaved plantains, masses of trees overgrown 

 with creepers, meet the eye in ever-varying combination ; and gradually 

 the wide valley worn by the water becomes narrower and narrower, until 

 at last it is a deep gorge with almost upright walls of clay slate, and the pas- 

 sage for the great body of water is barred right across by vast rocky ledges 

 and peaks, over which, in the rainy season, it rushes and dashes with a deafen- 

 ing wild roar and mad flinging up into the air of showers of water and foam." 



The southern bank of the Quanza, from its mouth to opposite Dondo, is 

 called the Quissama country, and is inhabited by the peculiar race or tribe of 

 negroes of the same name. They are very black, undersized, exceedingly 

 dirty, and have a remarkably ugly cast of countenance. The greater part 

 of the Quissama country is very barren, and perfectly destitute of water, ex- 

 cept on the banks of the river itself ; the natives use baobab trees, hollowed 

 out for the purpose, as reservoirs for rain-water falling in the wet season. 

 The Libollos, or natives of the Libollo country, are a very much finer and 

 cleaner race than their neighbours the Quissamas, and their country is beauti- 

 ful and fertile, and covered in great part with palm-trees. The Quinbundos 

 are a warlike people to the south of the Libollo and Quissama countries, and 

 are tall, well-formed, and very handsome. They come in caravans to Dondo, 

 principally laden with bees-wax, singing on the march. They plait their 

 hair in thin strings all round their heads, and in each plait they put several 

 beads, mostly made of red paste, in imitation of coral. 



The tribes on both banks of the Quanza are great bee-keepers. The 

 hives are to be seen on almost every baobab, this being the tree chosen in 

 preference to any other, and as many as four or five hives may be seen on 

 one tree. They are made by splitting a piece of wood, generally a branch 

 of a tree with the bark on, about five feet long and ten or twelve inches in 

 diameter ; the centre is scooped out, leaving the ends entire ; the two halves 

 are securely tied together, and three holes large enough to admit the little 

 finger are bored at each end. An aperture is cut in the middle of the hollow 

 cylinder, where the two halves are joined together, large enough to admit the 

 hand. This aperture is closed with a piece of wood, and clayed over, to 

 thoroughly prevent any rain from getting in. The hive is securely placed in the 

 branches of the tree, and a quantity of dry grass put over it as a roof, or thatch. 

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