NATIVES OF BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 431 
is an accident, an appanage of chieftainship ; but with the Wankonde at the 
north end of Lake Nyasa it is a matter of national existence. Their cattle 
are supreme in the place they occupy in the life and habits of the people. 
Elsewhere in Central Africa though cattle may be kept and occasionally eaten, 
they are not milked any more than are the goats. To most of these Central 
African negroes it is disgusting to drink milk. But with the Wankonde milk 
is an important article of diet. Milking is only performed by men : women 
are not allowed to have anything to do with the cattle. Milk is not drunk 
fresh but curdled. They wait till they can separate whey from curd ; the 
former is drunk, the latter eaten by means of spoons made of leaves. The 
WANKONDE CATTLE 
urine of the cows is not thought unclean. Occasionally it is mixed with the 
milk and drunk ; milk-pots are washed in it; and the cowherds often wash 
themselves in the cow’s urine. After the birth of a calf it is said that the 
herd wishing to ingratiate himself with the cow, wraps the placenta round him. 
The cow will then follow him anywhere. Cattle certainly become extra¬ 
ordinarily attached to their Wankonde herdsmen and these people are in 
much request as cattle-tenders in the Shire province. Cow-dung is preserved, 
chiefly for washing out and purifying the interiors of huts (mixed with water) 
as an insectifuge ; also to bind plaster and mud on the walls and floors. It 
is burnt to drive away mosquitoes, but is not used for manure except that 
tobacco may be planted on a dung-heap. 
The ears of Nkonde cattle are cropped and notched according to the owner’s 
private mark. Many of the cows have wooden bells on the necks, and it is 
