Chap. XXIIL 
FUNERAL OBSERVANCES. 
467 
next bog, in the hope of bringing us to a stand, for all are exces¬ 
sively eager to trade; but food was so very cheap that we sometimes 
preferred paying them to keep it, and let us part in good humour. 
A good-sized fowl could be had for a single charge of gunpowder. 
Each native who owns a gun, carries about with him a measm'e 
capable of holding but one charge, in wliich he receives liis 
powder. Throughout this region the women are almost entirely 
naked, their govms being a patch of cloth frightfuJly narrow, 
with no flounces; and nothing could exceed the eagerness with 
which they offered to purchase strips of calico of an inferior 
description. They were delighted with the larger pieces we 
gave, though only about two feet long, for a fowl, and a basket 
of upwards of 20 lbs. of meal. As we had now only a small 
remnant of om’ stock, we were obliged to mthstand their impor¬ 
tunity, and then many of the women, with true maternal feelings, 
held up their little naked babies, entreating us to seU only a little 
rag for them. The fii’e, they say, is then only clothing by night, 
and the little ones derive heat by clinging closely to their parents. 
Instead of a skin or cloth to carry theff babies m, the women 
plait a belt about fom^ inches broad, of the inner bark of a tree, 
and this, hung from the one shoulder to the opposite side, like a 
soldier’s belt, enables them to support the child by placing it on 
theff side in a sitting position. Their land is very fertile, 
and they can raise ground-nuts and manioc in abundance. Here 
I observed no cotton, nor any domestic animals except fowls and 
little dogs. The chief possessed a few goats, and I never could get 
any satisfactory reason, why the people also did not rear them. 
On the evening of the 2nd of June we reached the village of 
Kawawa, rather an important personage in these parts. This 
village consists of forty or fifty huts, and is surrounded by forest. 
Drums were beating over the body of a man who had died the 
preceding day, and some women were making a clamorous wail 
at the door of liis hut, and addressing the deceased as if ahve. 
The drums continued beatmg the whole night, with as much 
regularity as a steam-engine thumps, on board ship. We observed 
that a person dressed fantastically with a great number of feathers, 
left the people at the dance and wailing, and went away mto the 
deep forest in the morning, to return again to the obsequies in 
the evenmg; he is intended to represent one of the Barimo. 
2 H 2 
