NEWS! 



203 



with a severe wigging. It is, liowever, partly the 

 custom of the country : and even in the far less 

 barbarous Angola, to pass a farm-house without 

 entering it is to insult the proprietor. Man 

 claims a right to hear from the wandering 

 stranger news — a pabulum which his soul loves : 

 to coin the most improbable nonsense ; to be told 

 lies with the bloom on them, and to retail them 

 to his neighbours, are the mental distractions of 

 the idler, equally the prinium mobile of a Cri- 

 mean 'shave' and of an African palaver. But 

 the impending rain had sharpened our tempers. 

 We laughed in the faces of our furious expostu- 

 lators, and bidding them stop us if they could, we 

 pursued our way. 



Presently ascending a hill and making an 

 abrupt turn from N. West nearly due East, we 

 found ourselves opposite and about 10 miles dis- 

 tant from a tall azure hill-curtain, the highlands 

 of Puga. Below, the plain was everywhere po- 

 pulous with scatters of haycock villages. Lofty 

 tamarinds, the large-leaved plantain, and the 

 parasol-shaped papaw grew wild amongst the 

 thorny trees. Water stood in black pools, and 

 around it waved luxuriant sugar-cane : in a mo- 

 ment every mouth was tearing at and chewing 

 the end of a long pole. The cane is of the edible 



