WAZEEWA WOMEN. 
205 
well also. One chief amongst them came to see me, 
leading his fat brindled dog, partly of bull-dog extrac- 
tion. He wore a silvery roan-coloured cow-skin down 
his back, and slung from the neck — a most handsome 
garb, almost lustrous, and of which he seemed very- 
proud. Their women were comely; and although 
they had an objection to allow me to drink out of their 
gurrahs or earthen jars of water, one of them, while 
her husband, an officer in the kings service, was 
absent, wished to accompany me on the march ; but 
even this pleasure had to be declined, and the pretty 
Wazeewa had to console herself, as many others did, 
without even a lock of my straight hair, which was 
the wonder of them all. These people paid great at- 
tention to their plantain orchards. The bunches some- 
times contained 200 large fruit, bending the stems, 
which had to be supported by a forked stick or ropes. 
On the fruit being ripe the tree is cut down, to permit 
the growth of the young shoot, which comes from the 
parent root. All the groves are of bare-poled single 
trees, which makes the fruit much finer than if the trees 
were allowed to grow in clusters ; and should the leaf- 
stalk droop too much from the trunk, the natives ban- 
dage it up to prevent rain from beating into the heart 
of the tree. They use large circular trays, four feet 
across, made of osiers, and covered with cow-dung, for 
drying their grain in the sun. An article of diet not 
seen before was locusts ; a number of them were 
brought in by a woman to be roasted as food. They 
were one inch long, had two pairs of wings, and an- 
tenna 1\ inches long. White ants also, when young 
and freshly fledged, were caught in a framework placed 
over their mound of earth, to be eaten by the people. 
