BETWEEN ANGOLA AND TEE ZAMBESI. 
495 
account. Tliey are seculos and favourites of the Sova, 
but nothing- more ; and by seculos must be understood 
the nobility, sons of nobles, or personages ennobled by 
the sovereign. Many of these seculos , who possess libatas, 
or fortified places of residence, assume within their en¬ 
closure the airs of native sovereigns, and their people, 
when addressing them, use the expression Net coco, 
meaning “ Your Majesty.” In addition to the Macotas, 
there are three negroes who are in attendance on the 
Sova, and who, when he gives audience, squat upon the 
ground near him, and carefully gather up the royal 
spittle, to cast it out of doors. There is another who 
carries the royal seat or chair, and there is the fool, an 
indispensable adjunct of the court of every Sova and 
even of opulent and powerful seculos. To the fool is 
assigned the duty of cleansing the door of the Sova’s 
house, and the space all round it. The libatas are 
defended by a strong wooden stockade, almost always 
covered with enormous sycamores, and a second stockade 
within the other defends and encloses the residence of 
the great man. This second enclosure is called the 
lombe. 
Having given these brief explanations, I will say a 
few words as to what occurs on the death or proclama¬ 
tion of the sovereign. The decease of the Sova is of 
course known to the Macotas, who keep the matter a 
profound secret. They give out to the people that their 
king is ill, and therefore does not appear. Meanwhile 
they lay out the corpse on the bed within the hut and 
cover it with a cloth—at least, this is the custom in 
Caquingue, but in the Bihe country they hang it up by 
the neck to the roof of the hut. The body so remains 
until putrefaction and insects have left the bones bare ; 
or until, as in the Bihe, the head drops from the body. 
It is when this occurs that they announce his death and 
proceed to the interment of his remains. The bones 
are placed within an ox-hide and deposited in a hut 
which exists within the lombe , and serves as the 
mausoleum of all the Sovas. The hut in which the 
corpse putrefied is demolished and the material of which 
