Chap. XXTO. 
BIEDS AND RAIN. 
559 
Angola. The orchilla-weed and mosses, too, were in but small 
quantities. 
As we passed along, the people continued to supply us with food 
in great abundance. They had by some means or other got a 
knowledge that I carried medicine, and somewhat to the disgust 
of my men, who wished to keep it all to themselves, brought 
their sick children for cure. Some of them I found had hooping- 
cough, which is one of the few epidemics that range through this 
country. 
In passing through the woods, I, for the first time, heard the 
bird called Mokwa reza, or ‘^Son-in-law of God” (Micropogon 
sulphuratus ?), utter its cry, which is supposed by the natives to be 
“ pula, pula ” (rain, rain). It is said to do this only before heavy 
falls of rain. It may be a cuckoo, for it is said to throw out the eggs 
of the white-backed Senegal crow, and lay its own instead. This, 
combined with the cry for rain, causes the bird to be regarded 
with favour. The crow, on the other hand, has a bad repute, and 
when rain is withheld, its nest is sought for and destroyed, in 
order to dissolve the charm by which it is supposed to seal up 
the windows of heaven. AU the other birds now join in full 
chorus in the mornings; and two of them, at least, have fine loud 
notes. 
