376 
THE EASTERN COAST. 
ly fertile, and supplies rice and fruits to the inha- 
bitants of Mosambique. 
The principal native race, immediately behind 
Mosambique, is the Makooa, or Makooana, whose 
tribes extend from the neighbourhood of Melinda 
to the mouth of the Zambese. They are a strong 
athletic race of people ; their aspect deformed 
and ferocious. They ornament their skins by 
tattowing, an operation often executed so rudely, 
that the marks rise to the eighth part of an inch 
above the surface. They file their teeth to a 
point, so as to give to the whole set the appear- 
ance of a coarse saw. They wear their hair in 
various fantastic shapes ; sometimes shaving one 
side, sometimes both sides, with a crest extending 
across from the brow to the neck ; sometimes 
leaving only a tuft on the crown. Their enmity 
against the Portuguese is inveterate, and not ex- 
cited without just cause. They fight chiefly with 
spears, darts, and poisoned arrows ; but they have 
procured also a considerable number of muskets. 
There seems little doubt that these are the nation 
reported by Campbell and Lichtenstein under the 
name of Macquanas ; though, in that case, they 
are erroneously stated to belong to the Boshuana 
race, as they are negroes. Their females, how- 
ever, have, in some degree, the curved spine and 
portruding hinder parts of the Hottentot womea, 
whom they appear to rival in ugliness. 
