462 
DESIEE TO POSSESS A VILLAGE. 
CriAP. XXIII. 
her village was quite impassable there, and for a distance of about 
a mile on either side, the bog being soft and shaky, and, when the 
crust was broken through, about six feet deep. 
On the 28th we reached the village of the chief Bango (lat. 
12° 22' 53" S., long. 20° 58' E.), who brought us a handsome 
present of meal, and the meat of an entire pallali. We here 
slaughtered the last of the cows presented to us by Mr. Schut, 
whicli I had kept milked, until it gave only a teaspoonful at a 
time. My men enjoyed a hearty laugh when they found that I 
had given up all hope of more, for they had been talking among 
themselves about my perseverance. We offered a leg of the cow 
to Bango ; but he informed us that neither he nor his people ever 
pai’toolv of beef, as they looked upon cattle as human, and living 
at liome like men. None of his people purchased any of the 
meat, which was always eagerly done everywhere else. There 
are several other tribes who refuse to keep cattle, though not to 
eat them when offered by others, because, say they, oxen briug 
enemies and war; but this is the first iustance I have met with m 
wliich they have been refused as food. The fact of killing the 
paUahs for food, shows that the objection does not extend to 
meat in general. 
The little streams in tliis part of the country did not flow in 
deep dells, nor were we troubled with the gigantic grasses, which 
annoyed our eyes on the slopes of tlie streams before we came to 
Cabango. The country was quite flat, and the people cultivated 
manioc very extensively. There is no large collection of the 
inhabitants in any one spot. The ambition of each seems to be 
to have his ovm little village; and we see many coming from 
distant parts with the flesh of buffaloes and antelopes as the tri¬ 
bute claimed by Bango. We have now entered again the country 
of the game; but they are so exceedingly shy that we have not 
yet seen a single animal. The arrangement iuto many villages, 
pleases the Africans vastly, for every one who has a few huts under 
liim, feels himself in some measure to be a cliief. The country at 
this time is covered with yellowish grass quite dry. Some of the 
bushes and trees are green; others are shedding then* leaves, the 
young buds pushing off the old foliage. Trees, wliich in the south 
stand bare during the winter months, have here but a short period 
of leaflessness. Occasionally, however, a cold north wind comes 
