A Visit to Banza Chisalla. 119 
gale extends over the body, especially the shins, 
and the people, who appear in the perpetual 
practice of scalpturigo, attribute it to the immode¬ 
rate use of palm wine. I observed, however, that 
Europeans, in the river, who avoid the liquor, are 
hardly ever free from this foul blood-poison, and a 
jar of sulphur mixture is a common article upon 
the table. Hydrocele is not unfrequent, but hardly 
so general as in the Eastern Island; one manner 
of white man, a half caste from Macdo, was suffer¬ 
ing with serpigo, and boasted of it. 
All predicted to me a similar fate from the 
“botch of Congo,” but happily I escaped. Indeed, 
throughout the West African Coast, travellers 
risk “ craw-craw,” a foul form of the disease, seen 
on board the African steamers. Kru-men touching 
the rails of the companion ladders, have commu¬ 
nicated it to passengers, and these to their wives 
and families. 
The town was neat and clean as the people. 
The houses were built upon raised platforms, and 
in the little fenced fields the Cajanus Indicus 
vetch was conspicuous. In Hindostani it is called 
Thur, or Doll-plant, by the Eastern Arab Turiyan, 
in Kisawahili Mbarazi, in Angola voando (Merolla’s 
Ouuanda), and in the Brazil Guandu. 1 The people 
1 See the note of the learned Robert Brown, p. 472, Ap¬ 
pendix V., Tuckey’s “ Congo.” 
