434 KAWAWA'S VISAGE. 



obliged to withstand their importunity, and then many 

 of the women, with true maternal feelings, held up their 

 little naked babies, entreating us to sell only a little rag 

 for them. The fire, they say, is their only clothing, by 

 night, and the little ones derive heat by clinging closely 

 to their parents. Instead of a skin or cloth to carry their 

 babies in, the women plait a belt about four inches broad, 

 of the inner bark of a tree, and this, hung from the one 

 shoulder to the opposite side, like a soldier's belt, enables 

 them to supoort the child by placing it on their side in 

 a sitting position. Their land is very fertile, and they 

 can raise ground-nuts and manioc in abundance. Here 

 I observed no cotton, nor any domestic animals except 

 fowls and little dogs. The chief possessed a few goats, 

 and I never could get any satisfactory reason why the 

 people also did not rear them. 



On the evening of the 2nd of June we reached the village 

 of Kawawa, rather an important personage in these parte. 

 This village consists of forty or fifty huts, and is sur- 

 rounded by forest. Drums were beating over the body 

 of a man who had died the preceding day, and some 

 women were making a clamorous wail at the door of his 

 hut, and addressing the deceased as if alive. The drums 

 continued beating the whole night, with as much regularity 

 as a steam-engine thumps, on board ship. We observed 

 that a person dressed fantastically with a great number 

 of feathers, left the people at the dance and wailing, 

 and went away into the deep forest in the morning, to 

 return again to the obsequies in the evening ; he is 

 intended to represent one of the Barimo. 



In the morning we had agreeable intercourse with 

 Kawawa ; he visited us, and we sat and talked nearly the 

 whole day with him and his people. When we visited 

 him in return, we found him in his large court-house, 

 which, though of a beehive shape, was remarkably well 

 built. As I had shown him a number of curiosities, he 

 now produced a jug of English ware, shaped like an old 

 man holding a can of beer in his hand, as the greatest 

 curiosity he had to exhibit. 



We had now an opportunity of hearing a case brought 

 before him for judgment. A- poor man and his wife 

 were accused of having bewitched the man, whose wake 

 was now held in the village. Before Kawawa even heard 

 the defence, he said, " You have killed one of my children. 



