276 The March to Banza Nkuht. 
Brazilian Porto Seguro, where the people complain 
that they cannot bury their dead. All the uplands, 
however, grow grass which is sometimes ten to 
twelve feet tall, and in places there are shrubs and 
trees. About Nkulu the highlands are rightly de¬ 
scribed as “ steep hills of quartz, ferruginous earth, 
and syenite with fertile tops rocks and stones are 
rare upon the plateaux : they are rich enough to 
produce everything from wheat to coffee, and 
hardly a hundredth part is cultivated. Thin and 
almost transparent lines of palms denote the several 
Banzas on the ridges, and in the valley are rock 
circles like magnified and prostrated Stonehenges. 
The “ termes arborum” is universal, and ant¬ 
hills form a prominent feature. It has been re¬ 
marked that these buildings are the most conspi¬ 
cuous architectural efforts of the country, and the 
Abbe Proyart observes that here more effectually 
than in any other land man ought to be sent to the 
ant school. The material is of dark and sometimes 
black earth as in the Gaboon, and the shape is the 
umbrella, rarely double or pagoda-roofed. The 
column may be twelve to eighteen inches high, and 
the diameter of the capital attains two feet : I 
never saw, however, a “ gigantic toadstool as high 
as a one-storied house/’ 1 Nor are the mushroom 
tops now used as chafing-dishes. 
1 “ Journal of an African Cruiser,” by an Officer of the 
United States Navy, p. 173. London, 1848. Tuckey (“ Nar¬ 
rative,” 132) gives a sketch of the building. 
