THE YELL ALA OF THE CONGO. 
129 
cottons five ells long and each = 200 reis ; others 
describe them as fine linen each piece worth 7s. 6d. to 
8s. The bank-note was the “ Indian piece or Mulech, a 
young black about twenty years of age, worth 20 Mil 
Keys (dollars) each.” (Carli.) In the Barbots’ day each 
“ coin-clout ” was equivalent to 2d. ; some were un- 
marked, whilst others bore the Portuguese arms single 
or double. The wilder Kru-men still keep up their 
“buyapart” (= 25 cents), a cloth four inches square 
and thickly sewn over with cowries. 
The only liquor was palm wine in huge calabashes. 
The smoking of Lyamba (Bhang or Cannabis sativa ) 
seems to become more common as we 
advance. I did not find the plant 
growing, as did Dr. Livingstone at 
Linyanti and amongst the Batoka 
( <£ First Expedition,” 198, 541). The 
pipe is the gourd of a baobab, which 
here sometimes grows a foot and a 
half long ; it is cleared, filled with 
water and provided with a wooden 
tube fixed in the upper part away 
from the mouth, and supporting a 
small “ chillam ” or bowl of badly 
baked clay. The people when smok- 
ing affect the bunched shoulders, 
the deep inhalation, and the loud and body-shaking 
bark, which seems inseparable from the enjoyment of 
this stimulant. I have used it for months together, 
and my conclusion is, that mostly the cough is an 
affectation. Tobacco is smoked in the usual heavy clay 
pipes, with long mouthpieces of soft wood, quite as 
civilized as the best European. “ Progress ” seems 
unknown to the pipe ; the most advanced nations are 
somewhat behind the barbarians, and in the matter of 
snuff the Tupi or Brazilian savage has never been 
rivalled. 
The greater part of the vendors seemed to be women, 
of the buyers men ; there was more difference of appear- 
ance than in any European fair, and the population 
VOL. II. K 
