168 Village Life in Pongo-lana. 
known by the violent merriment of the men, and 
the no less violent quarrelling and “ flyting ” of 
the sex which delights in the “ harmony of 
tongues.” All then retire to their huts, and with 
chat and song, and peals of uproarious laughter 
and abundant horseplay, such as throwing minor 
articles at one another’s heads, smoke and drink 
till ii p.m. The scene is “ Dovercourt, all speakers 
and no hearers.” The night is still as the grave, 
and the mewing of a cat, if there were one, 
would sound like a tiger’s scream. 
The mornings and evenings in these plantation- 
villages would be delightful were it not for what 
the Brazilians call immundicies . Sandflies always 
swarm in places where underwood and tall grasses 
exclude the draughts, and the only remedy is 
clearing the land. Thus at St. Isabel or Clarence, 
Fernando Po, where the land-wind or the sea- 
breeze ever blows, the vicious little wretches are 
hardly known; on the forested background of 
mountain they are troublesome as at Nigerian 
Nufe. The bite burns severely, and presently the 
skin rises in bosses, lasting for days with a severe 
itching, which, if unduly resented, may end in 
inflammatory ulcerations—I can easily understand 
a man being laid up by their attacks. The 
animalcules act differently upon different constitu¬ 
tions. While mosquitoes hardly take effect, 
sand flies have often blinded me for hours by 
