THE CONGO IN 1863. 
99 
be not indigenous to Africa as well as to Asia ; and 
whether smoking was not known in the Old World, as 
it certainly was in the New, before tobacco was intro- 
duced. The cannabis Indica was the original anaesthetic 
known to the Arabs and to civilized Orientals many 
centuries before the West invented ether and chloro- 
form. 
Our landlord has two wives, but one is a mother and 
will not rejoin him till her child can carry a calabash of 
water unaided. To avoid exciting jealousy he lives in a 
hut apart, surrounded by seven or eight slaves, almost 
all of them young girls. This regular life is varied by 
a little extra exertion at seed-time and harvest, by 
attending the various quitandas or markets of the 
country side, and by an occasional trip to “ town ” 
(Borna). When the bush is burning, all sally out with 
guns, clubs, and dogs, to bring home “ beef.” And thus 
they dwell in the presence of their brethren, thinking 
little of to-day, and literally following the precept, 
“ Take no thought for the morrow.” As the old mis- 
sioned testify, they have happy memories, their tempers 
are mild, and quarrels rarely lead to blows ; they are 
covetous, but not miserly ; they share what they have, 
and they apply the term “ close-fist ” to the European 
who gives “ nuffin for nufiin.” 
The most superstitious of men, they combine the two 
extremes of belief and unbelief ; they have the firmest 
conviction in their own tenets, whilst those of others 
flow off their minds like water from a greased surface. 
The Catholic missioners laboured amongst them for nearly 
two hundred years ; some of these ecclesiastics were 
ignorant and bigoted as those whom we still meet on 
the West African Coast, but not a few were earnest and 
energetic, scrupulous and conscientious, able and learned 
as the best of our modern day. All did not hurry over 
their superficial tasks like the Neapolitan father Jerome 
da Montesarchio, who baptized 100,000 souls ; and 
others, who sprinkled children till their arms were tired. 
Many lived for years in the country, learning the lan- 
guage and identifying themselves with their flocks. Yet 
h 2 
