Life at Banza Nokki. 205 
which, besides hardening timber, was expected to 
keep the good man and his family from quake 
and fever, curled from the door ; and where the 
bed was a straw pallet, with a log of wood for a 
pillow. But the Congoese is better lodged than 
we were before the days of Queen Elizabeth ; what 
are luxuries in the north, broad beds and deep 
arm-chairs, would here be far less comfortable 
than the mats, which serve for all purposes. I 
soon civilized my hut with a divan, the Hindo- 
stani chabutarah, the Spanish estrada, the “ mud 
bank ” or “ bunting ” of Sierra Leone, a cool 
earth-bench running round the room, which then 
wanted only a glass window. But no domestic 
splendour was required ; life in the open air is the 
life for the tropics: even in England a greater 
proportion of it would do away with much neural¬ 
gia and similar complaints. And, if the establish¬ 
ment be simple, it is also neat and clean : we 
never suffered from the cimex and pulex of which 
Captain Tuckey complains so bitterly, and the 
fourmis voyageuses (drivers), mosquitoes, scorpions, 
and centipedes were unknown to us. 
The people much resemble those of the Gaboon. 
The figure is well formed, except the bosom, 
whose shape prolonged lactation, probably upon 
the principle called Malthusian, soon destroys ; 
hence the first child is said to “ make the breasts 
fall.” The face is somewhat broad and flat, the 
