CUSTOMS--BURIAL--WHITE
ANT--WASPS--FRUITS--SCENTS--SPITTING-SNAKE--SCARABÆUS--LEMUR.
There are several peculiar habits and customs, common to the natives of
Angola, that I have not mentioned in the preceding chapters. One of the
most striking and pleasing is their regard for their parents and old
people. These are always consulted before they undertake a journey, or
hire themselves as carriers or for other service, and they always bid
them good-bye, and leave them some little present of beads or rum. On
returning to their towns they immediately see their fathers and mothers
and the old people, and squat down and “beat hands” to them, and give
an account of their doings. A little food is then eaten together, and
they consider that they have done their duty. Neither the men nor women
will smoke whilst speaking to their old people, but always take their
pipes out of their mouths, or, if their hands are engaged, hold the
pipe-stem across their teeth. Other marks of respect always practised
to their old men, to their kings, and to white men, are, when passing
between or close to them, to bend their bodies slightly and snap their
fingers: if they meet them on the road, they will stand aside without
moving, till they have passed, and if carrying a load on the head,
always remove it to the shoulder, or lift it above the head on both
hands. A gun is never carried on the shoulder in similar cases, but
always in the hand, horizontally at the side.
Smoking is universal, but although they are very fond of the habit,
and the plant grows luxuriantly and without any trouble, tobacco is
comparatively dear in all parts of Angola. It is a very usual thing
to see a native put a great piece of lighted charcoal in his empty
pipe-bowl, and puff away, as he says, to warm himself. They generally
carry the bits of plaited tobacco behind the ear. Tobacco is always
smoked pure. Only amongst the Mushicongos have I seen them put small
chips of a sweet-smelling root (probably a species of orris) in their
pipes with the tobacco, to give a flavour to the smoke. This root they
call “Ncombo” or “goat,” its beautiful scent being compared by the
natives to that of a billy-goat!
Snuff-taking is also very general, the Mushicongos and the natives of
the Zombo country beyond, who bring down the ivory to the coast, being
the tribes most addicted to the habit. The tobacco leaf is well dried
over a fire, and ground on a stone, when it is ready for use, but the
above-mentioned tribes are not satisfied with it in its pure condition,
and, to make it stronger, mix it with a white ash obtained by burning
the twigs of a bush which appears to be very alkaline. This even is not
sufficiently strong for many of their delicate noses, and dried ground
Chili (cayenne) pepper is also added to obtain the degree of strength
desired.
Their snuff-box is generally a length of cane between two knots,
the open end being closed by a small wooden stopper, secured to the
snuff-box by a bit of string passing through a hole in the centre.
Snuff-boxes are also carved out of wood, and variously ornamented.
The ordinary way of taking a pinch of snuff, between the forefinger
and thumb, is unknown to the blacks, and would be considered a very
unsatisfactory method. They pour about a teaspoonful of snuff into the
palm of the hand, and burying their wide and capacious nostrils in the
peppery mixture, snort it up loudly, aided by a rotary motion of the
half closed hand.
Many allow a scrubby, woolly moustache to grow for the sole purpose
of plastering it thickly with snuff, so that when on a journey and
carrying a load, they can take it by simply curling up the upper lip
and sniffing strongly, without stopping or laying down the load to open
the box and take it in the ordinary way.
Neither infanticide nor abortion are practised in Angola; on the
contrary, it is considered a misfortune not to have children, and their
marriages may be dissolved if they prove barren.
The Mundombes have a curious custom in connection with this desire for
children. A banana-tree is planted on the day of their marriage, and if
on its producing its first bunch of fruit, which is generally in nine
or ten months after, a child should not have been born, the contract is
considered void, and they may marry again.
The common way amongst blacks to assert the truth of a statement, is to
go on their knees and rub the forefinger of each hand on the ground,
and then touch their tongues and forehead with the dusty tips; this is
equivalent to an oath. About Loanda they make the sign of the cross on
the ground with a finger, for the same purpose, and this is evidently
derived from some old custom introduced by the former missionaries.
Some of the actions of the blacks are exactly the same as those
performed by monkeys. In using their hands and fingers to clean or
polish a piece of brass work, for instance, the feeble and nerveless
manner of holding the bit of oiled rag, and the whole action of the
hand and arm, is strikingly like that of a monkey when it rubs its
hands on the ground when they are sticky or dirty. Their manner
of sliding their hands up and down on the edge of a door or on a
door-post, or along the edges of a table whilst waiting or speaking, is
very monkey-like, and no black--man, woman, or child--ever goes along
a corridor or narrow passage without rubbing both hands on the walls.
Blacks, especially women, have a singular way of carrying any object
in the hand, which always appeared to me to be very uncomfortable. A
plate or glass, for instance, is invariably carried as in Plate XIV.,
the hand being thrown back and the object taken on the flat, extended
palm. The greater flexibility of the joints in the negro race may have
something to do with this, as also with the fact of their squatting
on their heels, but with their knees not touching the ground, for a
considerable length of time, and then getting up apparently without
the slightest stiffness from what would be to most of us a very
uncomfortable position.
Blacks have an odd habit, when they feel cold, of placing their hands
on their shoulders, not with their arms crossed, as would be most
natural for us to do, but each hand on its corresponding shoulder, and
if they feel very cold, they bring their elbows together in front and
shrink their heads into their shoulders, so that the ears touch the
sides of the hands.
They are fond of gambling, particularly the inhabitants of Loanda, and
also the slaves and servants of the white men on the coast. For this
they use playing-cards, and also small round pieces of crockery ground
on a stone to the size of a sixpence, and these they shake in the hands
and throw up in the same way as a handful of halfpence in our game of
“toss,” and according as a greater or lesser number of the plain or
coloured sides come down uppermost, so do the players win or lose. I
have also seen in several places a board in which were a number of
shallow pits, and in these a few seeds or round pebbles, which were
rapidly shifted about into the different holes by the two players,
but I could never make out the plan of the game. Beyond this, and the
“batuco” or dance, and playing the “marimba,” the natives of Angola
have absolutely no game or amusement of any kind whatever.
The youngsters have no toys or playthings, and never race or play
together as ours do.
None, either young or old, know or practise a single game of skill or
strength; there is not an indication anywhere that they ever contended
at ball, stick, wrestling, or any other exercise or feat. This to
my mind is striking in the highest degree, and most suggestive of a
singularly low type, one in which no sentiment of emulation or rivalry
exists, and consequently very difficult to work upon with much chance
of success for its advancement.
I have never seen or heard of any monument, or sculptured rocks or
stones being found in the country, which might indicate the existence
of a previous race; and the most curious thing is that even tradition
of any kind is unknown to the blacks of Angola. In no case could they
trace events further back than during the reign of five “sobas;”
no very great length of time when it is considered that these are
generally old men when elected. They do not even know the history of
the crucifixes now-existing amongst them as “fetishes” of the “sobas;”
and when I have explained to them that they formerly belonged to the
missionaries, they were astonished, and gave as a reason for their
ignorance and my knowledge, that the white men could write, whereas,
when they died, nothing they had seen or known was preserved, as our
writings were, for the information of their children.
This again, I think, is very indicative of their low type; as also is
the fact that no animal is tamed or utilized by the negro, or made
subservient to his comfort in any way. Even the cows or goats are not
milked except by the natives south of the River Quanza. In no part of
Angola (and the same holds good, I believe, of the whole negro race) is
a single animal employed in agriculture as a beast of burden, or for
riding.
The burial places of the blacks of Angola are almost everywhere alike.
A square place is raised about a foot from the ground, and the earth
enclosed by short stakes or flat pieces of rock, and on this raised
space broken bottles and crockery of every description are placed.
The ordinary burial places, like those mentioned about Ambriz, are
merely mounds of earth or stones, with a stick to mark the grave of
a man, and a basket that of a woman; and sometimes a slab of rock
is stuck upright in the ground to indicate the head of the grave.
Occasionally, in the case of a big “soba,” there are several tiers
of earth raised one above the other, and ornamented with broken glass
and crockery and various figures representing “fetishes,” and I have
also seen a shade of sticks and grass erected over the whole, to keep
it from the rain.
[Illustration:
PLATE XVI.
Pelopœus spirifex and nest.--Devil of the Road.--Dasylus
sp.--Caterpillars’ nests.--Mantis and nest.--Manis multiscutatum and
Ants’ nests.
_To face page 277._]
The “Salalé” or “white ant,” as the larva of quite a small black ant
is called, is, from its numbers and the ravages it commits, a very
important insect, and merits some notice. It is most abundant in the
interior, where the soil, from the decomposition of the clay and mica
slate, is more earthy or clayey, as it is not fond of rocky, stony, or
sandy ground unless it is very ferruginous. Their nests are sometimes
large, pointed masses of earth three and four feet high, and as many
in diameter at the base, internally tunnelled in every direction, and
swarming with ants, eggs, and larvæ; but the usual nests are about a
foot or eighteen inches high, like a gigantic mushroom, with from one
to six round curved heads placed one on top of the other (Plate XVI.).
These nests are very hard, and the exceedingly fine earth or clay of
which they are made must be mixed with some gummy secretion, by means
of which it becomes so hard on drying.
My cook at Cambambe was very clever at making small dome-shaped ovens
from old ants’ nests, which he ground fine and mixed to a thick paste
or mortar. When the oven was dry (nothing else being used in building
it but this mortar), he lit a fire in it, and it burnt to almost the
hardness of stone, and without a crack or flaw in it; it was then ready
for use, and lasted a long time. These ovens were big enough to bake
three small loaves of bread at a time.
These nests are sometimes so numerous, particularly in the grassy
plains of the interior, as to render walking difficult in many places,
and, when the grass has been burnt off, they give a very peculiar
appearance to the surface, looking something like a field of brown
cauliflowers. They are, like the larger ones, perforated with galleries
in every direction, and also full of ants and larvæ. It is curious that
considering the existence of the countless millions of these ants over
large areas of country, no bird, and with the exception of the rare
_Manis multiscutata_, no animal, should be found to feed on them. This
animal is something like an armadillo, with a long tail, and covered
with large, hard, long scales (Plate XVI.). Specimens are sold at
Loanda and elsewhere, and used as “fetishes” by the natives. A species
of the “ant-bear,” apparently the same as that found at the Cape, is
not uncommon in Benguella, but I have seen its burrows in situations
near the sea, in salt, dusty plains, &c., where very little or no
“Salalé” is found, and from examination of the dung, I found that its
food must consist principally of small lizards and larvæ of insects,
and beetles, especially the _Psammodes oblonga_, Dej., so extremely
abundant in its haunts.
The natives of Benguella say there are two kinds, one very much larger
than the other. I once tasted a roasted leg of the ant-bear, called
“Jimbo” by the natives, and its flavour was very much like pork.
It is a well-known fact that the white ant is most destructive to
timber and woodwork of every description, as well as to all clothes and
fabrics. Nothing comes amiss to its insatiable jaws, with the exception
of metal and some very few woods. Goods, provisions, &c., must be kept
on tables or frames built on wooden legs, as if placed on the ground
they would quickly be destroyed; but even then care must be taken to
examine the legs or supports of the frames every day, as they will run
up these in search of the good things on the top. The white ant is
about a quarter of an inch long, and its body is very soft and white,
but with a black head provided with most powerful jaws for so small a
creature.
It never ventures into the light, and when it leaves the shelter of the
ground always protects itself by building a flattened tube of earth
or sand as it goes along; it will carry this tube up a wall to reach
a window-sill or other woodwork, or right up to the roof timbers. Any
object left for a little time on the ground, particularly in a closed
or dark store, is quickly covered over with earth, and then completely
eaten away. I have known a pair of shoes thus covered in one night, and
the thread, being the softest part, devoured, so that the leathers came
apart at the seams when they were lifted.
I once left a trunk full of clothes at Loanda whilst I was away for
about a month on an excursion inland. When I returned the trunk seemed
all right, but on opening it I found that a black cloth coat I had laid
at the top was at the bottom, and under it about a couple of handfuls
of dust was all that remained of my boxfull of clothes.
Window or door frames I have seen completely eaten away from the walls,
leaving only a thin covering, often not thicker than a sheet of brown
paper, or little more than the thickness of the paint.
Whilst lying awake one night, I noticed a peculiar thrumming noise
made by the white ant when manufacturing a tube up the wall near my
bedside. In the morning I carefully peeled off the top of the tube with
a penknife, just sufficiently to observe the motions of the little
masons within, and I saw a string of larvæ coming up loaded with
little pellets of clay, which they delivered to others at the top, who
simultaneously, and at intervals of four or five seconds, patted them
down, thus producing the noise I had heard. This noise can be very
plainly heard if the larvæ are working on the “loandos” or mats with
which the huts or stick-houses are covered.
Towards the end of the rainy season the white ant attains its perfect
form, and on a still, warm evening, generally after a shower of rain, a
wonderful sight presents itself when the perfect winged insects issue
forth in countless myriads from the ground. This is everywhere full
of little holes, about the size of a goose-quill, from which the ants
are forcing their way out, not singly, but in a solid compact body or
stream. They instantly take wing and rise upwards for about six to
twelve feet, when the breeze wafts them about in every direction. The
air becomes so full of these ants, that a mist seems to hang over the
ground, and I have seen the whole of the bottom of the valley at Bembe
completely enshrouded by them. Great is the feast of birds and animals
at this time. Birds of all kinds are attracted by the sight and collect
in numbers, flying low, and gorging themselves with them. I have shot
hawks and eagles with their crops full to their beaks. Poultry eat them
till they go about with their beaks open, unable to find room for any
more. Several tame monkeys I had at Bembe used to sit on the ground,
and, taking pinches of the ants as they issued from their holes, bite
off the succulent bodies and throw away the wings.
On our last journey to Bembe my wife was very much amused to see two
little children come out of a hut, each with a slice of “quiquanga,”
and, sitting down on the ground close by an ant-hole, proceed to take
pinches of the ants (exactly as I have described the monkeys as doing),
and eat them as a relish to their “quiquanga.”
After rising in the air for a very little while, the ants quickly fall,
lose their wings, and disappear in the ground, leaving it covered
with the pretty, delicate, transparent wings. These lie so thickly
that a handful can easily be collected together. This will give some
idea of the number of these destructive pests, which Nature seems to
provide with wings simply to enable them to spread about and form new
colonies. It is very fortunate that they do not attack live plants or
roots. These soft, delicate little mites doubtless play an important
part in Nature’s most wonderful plan for the balance of life by quickly
destroying all dead timber and other vegetable matter that the quick
growing and ever luxuriant vegetation would otherwise soon completely
cover, thereby choking up the surface of the country. These ants do not
wait for the fall of a dead tree, or even a branch, for they will find
the latter out, and carrying their earthen tube up the tree quickly
consume the rotten limb. I do not know how intelligence of a likely
morsel is conveyed to the larvæ underground, but it is most likely
carried by the ants. They will construct four or five feet of tube up
a wall in one night, straight to a coat or any other object that may
be hanging up; they will also come through a wall, in which they have
bored, exactly behind anything placed against it that may be likely
food for their jaws.
There are many other species of ants in Angola; one very large black
kind migrates in columns of perhaps eight to ten abreast, and as
much as ten or twelve yards in length; they walk very fast, and do
not deviate from their intended path unless compelled to do so by an
impassable obstacle.
On touching one of these columns with a stick, a curious fizzing
noise is produced, which is communicated to the whole body, and they
instantly open out in all directions in search of the supposed enemy;
after a great deal of running backwards and forwards with their
powerful hooked mandibles open and upraised, they again collect and
fall into a column and proceed on their way.
I remember a laughable incident that happened at a small town on the
road to Bembe, where I once put up for the night. Some of my carriers
had gone to sleep in a hut, and towards morning I was awakened by
screams and shouts, and saw a number of these blacks coming pell-mell
out of it, dancing, jumping, and running about like mad. All the
town was alarmed, and the natives came running out of their huts to
ascertain what was the matter. I had hardly got on my feet when the
cries were mixed with peals of laughter, they having quickly found out
the cause of the terrific uproar.
It was nothing else than a column of these ants that had passed through
the hut and had instantly fastened on the bodies of the sleeping blacks
with which it was filled. They fasten their great jaws into the skin
so tightly, that their bodies can be pulled off their heads without
relaxing their hold. The mandibles must discharge a poisonous fluid
into the wound, as their bite feels exactly like a sharp puncture from
a red-hot needle, and they always draw blood.
I once unconsciously put my foot upon a column, but luckily only three
or four fastened on my ankle and leg, and I shall never forget the
sudden and sharp hot bite of the wretches.
There is another kind very abundant on bushes and trees, of a
semi-transparent watery-red colour, with long legs; their bite is also
very sharp. They build nests by attaching the leaves together with fine
white web; these nests are from the size of an apple to that of a hat.
Their food must be principally the fruit and seeds of the plants
they are usually found on. Some seeds, particularly those of the
india-rubber creeper, I had the greatest difficulty in obtaining ripe,
from these ants eating them up whilst green.
A minute red ant, like that which infests our kitchens and houses, is
extremely abundant, and is very difficult to keep out of sugar and
other provisions; the best way is to place the legs of the table in
saucers of vinegar and water, or have safes suspended by a rope, which
must be tarred, or they will find their way down. If anything on
which they are swarming is placed in the sun, they immediately vanish.
A small piece of camphor, tied up in a bit of rag and placed in a
sugar-basin or safe, will effectually keep them out, without flavouring
the sugar, &c., in the least.
The best and cheapest preventive against the white ant is ordinary
petroleum; they will not come near a place where the least trace of its
smell exists.
Of other insects the most abundant and worthy of note, besides the
mosquitoes already described, are the many species of wasps. One of
these, brightly barred with yellow and having a comical habit of
dropping down its long legs in a bunch straight under its body as it
flies, is the _Pelopœus spirifex_ (Plate XVI.)--(called “marimbondo” by
the natives)--and is one of the large family found in the tropics and
called “mud-daubers” from their habit of making clay or mud nests in
which they store up spiders and caterpillars as provision for the grubs
or larvæ. It is a very singular fact that of the fifty or sixty species
known to entomologists, all are males, the females not having yet been
discovered. It is supposed that the latter are parasites on other
insects, or perhaps in ants’ nests, &c. I have opened many hundreds of
the clay cells and invariably found a grub or perfect male insect, or
the empty chrysalis of one; and I further ascertained that the male
insect does not bring the female in its legs or mouth to lay the egg
in the cell, nor does he bring the egg, but the young, hatched grub. I
watched one nest being built, and when it was ready, I saw the insect
fly away and return and go into it, and on examination I found that it
had deposited the small grub at the bottom. In its next journeys it
brought spiders till the cell was full of them, when it procured some
clay and quickly plastered over the aperture. To procure the spiders it
first stabs them with its dreadful sting, and then picks them up and
flies away with them to its nest.
Whilst at Bembe, I fortunately witnessed a fight between a large
specimen of these wasps and a powerful spider which had built its
fine web on my office wall. The spider nearly had the wasp enveloped
in its web several times, and by means of its long legs prevented the
wasp from reaching its body with its sting, but at last, after a few
minutes hard fighting, the wasp managed to stab the spider right in the
abdomen, when it instantly curled up its legs and dropped like dead to
the ground. The wasp pounced down on it, but I interfered, and picking
up the spider placed it under a tumbler to ascertain how long it would
live, as I had noticed that the spiders stored in the nests were always
alive, although unable to crawl away when taken out. It lived for a
week, and, although moving its legs when touched, had no power of
locomotion, showing that the poison of the wasp has a strong paralysing
effect. I have counted as many as twenty spiders in a single cell, and
there are seldom less than three cells together, and sometimes as many
as eight or ten.
These wasps are fond of building their nests in the houses, on
curtains, behind picture-frames, books, or furniture, and I once found
the inside of a harmonium full of them. Each cell is about the size of
a thimble; they are very smoothly and prettily made, and a wasp will
build one in a day easily. I never found anything else in these cells
but spiders and caterpillars.
It is satisfactory to know that these savage destroyers of spiders have
in their turn enemies from which they have no escape. These are large,
long-bodied, brown flies (_Dasylus sp._ and _Dasypogon sp._) (Plate
XVI.), with long legs and a very quiet inoffensive look and manner of
flying. They settle on the backs of the different species of wasps,
their long legs enabling them to keep at such a distance that the wasp
cannot reach them with its sting, then insert a long sharp proboscis
into the wasp’s back and suck its body dry, when they fly off in search
of another. Other beautiful flies of splendent metallic colouring
(_Stilbum sp._) also prey on the wasps and mud-daubers. These flies
again are an easy prey to the numerous insectivorous birds, and thus
we get a series of links of the complicated chain of the apparently
somewhat cruel law of Nature, by means of which the due proportion
of animal life would appear to be principally adjusted, and an undue
preponderance of one kind over another prevented.
On the stems of the high grass may very often be seen little round
nests about the size of a hen’s egg, having the appearance of rough
glazed paper, and made by the different species of Mantis (Plate
XVI.). These nests are applied by the black women to an odd use; they
rub the soles of their children’s feet with them in the belief that it
will make them good walkers when they grow up, and I have often seen
the little brats struggling and yelling in their mothers’ laps whilst
being thus tickled.
A large species of wasp (_Synagris cornuta_) is called the “devil of
the road” by the natives, from the alleged poisonous character of its
bite and sting. It is a ferocious-looking creature with very large and
powerful mandibles (Plate XVI.). It is an inch and a half long, and is
said to have a habit of settling on the paths: hence its name, and the
natives then always give it a wide berth.
The sting of this class of insect is poisonous. One very small species
once stung me in the back of the neck, and it was greatly swollen, for
several hours; and I have seen a black who had been stung in the ear by
a moderate sized one, with not only his ear but the side of his face
very much swollen for a couple of days.
Centipedes are very abundant, but their bite is not dangerous. I
was bitten by one in the shoulder whilst asleep, and on awaking, and
putting my hand instinctively to the place, I was bitten a second time
in the wrist, and, although it was a large specimen, beyond the sharp
puncture and considerable irritation near the spots, no other ill
effect was produced. Whilst I was at Bembe a Portuguese officer was
bitten between the fingers, and his hand and arm as far as the shoulder
were swollen slightly for two or three days, but without much pain.
Many of the caterpillars are very gorgeously coloured and fancifully
ornamented with tufts of hair, but generally the moths and butterflies
are of a more dull and sombre colouring than might be expected from
the tropical latitude of Angola. Insect life as a rule is scarce, with
the exception of ants and mosquitoes, and not only very local in its
occurrence but also confined to a short space of time. Hardly an insect
of any kind is to be seen in the “cacimbo,” and in the hot season the
different species of butterflies only appear for a very few weeks,
and sometimes only days. Beetles are remarkably scarce at any time.
The finest butterflies are, of course, found in the forest region of
the first and second elevation, and almost exclusively in the places
most deeply shaded, where they flit about near the ground between the
trees. The sunny open places full of flowering plants are not so much
frequented by butterflies as might be expected, but the great abundance
of insectivorous birds may possibly supply an explanation of this
circumstance.
The following interesting note on the butterflies of Angola has
been kindly written by my friend, Mr. W. C. Hewitson, so well known
from his magnificent collection, and his beautiful work on ‘Exotic
Butterflies’:--
“Until very recently we knew nothing of the butterflies of Angola,
and very little of those of Africa north of the Cape of Good Hope,
except what we could learn from the plates of Drury. The great genus
_Romaleosoma_, so peculiar to that country, and remarkable for its rich
colour, rivalling even Agrias of America, was only represented in the
British Museum. Now we have them in abundance, and several species are
plentiful in Angola.
“We have had large collections from that country during the last
two years from Mr. Rogers, a collector sent out by me, and from Mr.
Monteiro, who, with the assistance of his wife, caught and brought home
a fine collection of Lepidoptera.
“With the first collections of Mr. Rogers, made on the banks of the
River Quanza, I was greatly disappointed. With a very few exceptions
they contained those butterflies only which we had previously received
in abundance from the Cape and from Natal. A collection from the
mountainous district of Casengo was much more promising, and supplied
us, together with some new species, with several varieties little known
before, amongst them _Charaxes Anticlea_ and _Harma Westermanni_.
“Mr. Monteiro’s collection, though also deficient in new
species, contained several of great value, and only recently
discovered--_Godartia Trajanus_, so remarkable for its nearly
circular wings, which had been previously taken by Mr. Crossley on
the Cameroons; the rare _Charaxes Lysianassa_, figured by Professor
Westwood in his ‘Thesaurus;’ _Charaxes Bohemani_, which we had
previously received from the Zambesi; the very beautiful _Crenis
Benguella_, described by Mr. Chapman; and a number of varieties of
_Acræa Euryta_, and the _Diademas_, which so closely resemble them.
“The most remarkable new species in the collection was the large
_Euryphene Plistonax_, since figured in the ‘Exotic Butterflies.’
“It is interesting to learn that the same species of butterflies are in
Africa spread over a very large extent of country. The distance from
the Cape of Good Hope to Angola is 1400 miles. Several new species
which I have had from the West Coast have been received by Mr. Ward
from Zanzibar, a distance of 36 degrees. Two new species of Papilio,
remarkable because unlike anything previously seen from Africa, which
I had received from Bonny, were very soon afterwards sent to Mr. Ward
from Zanzibar.”
Mr. H. Druce has published a list of the butterflies we collected in
the ‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ for 1875.
Several caterpillars form very curious nests or houses to protect
their bodies. One is made of bits of twig about an inch and a half
long, attached round a strong cocoon or web (Plate XVI.); the head and
front legs alone are protruded at will, which enables the insect to
walk about on the under side of the leaves on which it feeds. Another
is built up on the same plan, but the bits of twig are short and laid
across the length of the cocoon, and the whole enveloped in a strong
white web (Plate XVI.).
The coast of Angola has never to my knowledge been dredged for shells.
The surf grinds and destroys any that may be thrown up on the beach,
but as this is almost everywhere sandy and very slightly shelving from
the land, dredging would probably prove its fauna to be rich. Land and
fresh-water shells are rare.
I have seen land tortoises at Benguella and Musserra only, and they
appear to be confined to the gneiss and granite rocks of those two
places. They are only found in the hot season, and according to the
natives they hybernate in holes in the rock during the “cacimbo.” The
natives eat them, so that it is not easy to obtain live specimens. Two
that I brought home from Musserra lived for some time at the gardens
of the Zoological Society, and were described by Dr. Selater as the
_Cinixys erosa_ and the _Cinixys belliana_ (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871).
Porcupines are not uncommon, and I often found their quills lying on
the ground. The natives are fond of the flesh of this pretty animal;
they are also fond of sticking the quills in the wool of their heads
as an ornament, but they have no acquaintance with the story of their
being able to project their quills when angry, or as a means of defence.
Fruits are by no means so abundant in Angola as they might be. It is
only within the last few years that the Portuguese have followed the
good example of the old missionaries in planting fruit-trees. Most of
the European fruit-trees grow remarkably well. Oranges are of delicious
quality. Mulberries bear most abundantly, but only a very few trees
are to be seen. Limes grow wild in many places. Mangoes (_Mangifera
Indica_) grow splendidly, but are scarce everywhere except about
the Bengo country; there are none on the Quanza, the natives having
a prejudice against planting the tree, as they believe it would be
unlucky. Sweet and sour Sop (_Anona sp._) and Papaw (_Carica Papaya_)
are very common. The Guava (_Psidium Guaiava_) grows wild in abundance
in many places, and the Araçá, another species (_P. Araçá_) is also
cultivated. The Jambo (_Jambosa vulgaris_) is found growing wild, and,
although rather insipid, it has a delicious scent of attar of roses.
The “Munguengue” is the name of a tree (a species of _Spondiaceæ_)
bearing bunches of yellow, plum-like fruit of a very delicious flavour
and scent, and its pulp mixed with water and sugar makes one of the
nicest drinks I have tasted. It is a very handsome tree with leaves
of a bright, spring green, of which goats, sheep, and other animals
are exceedingly fond. The wood is soft and useless for carpentry,
but the branches are much used for fences round huts and enclosures,
as any piece stuck in the ground quickly takes root, and soon grows
into a fine shady tree. The natives on the coast eat the fruit of the
_Chrysobolamus Icaca_, var., which they call “Jingimo”; it is like a
round, black-purple plum, tasteless and astringent. It is a common
sea-side plant, covering large stretches of coast, and growing from
large trailing masses a few inches high, to small bushy trees. It has a
round, bright, shiny, green leaf. Pineapples are generally very fine,
and might be grown to any extent. Grapes and figs are sparingly grown,
but bear well.
The only plants employed by the natives as scents are the seeds of
the _Hibiscus Abelmoschus_, smelling strongly of musk, and a very
sweet-smelling wood. These they keep in their boxes with their cloths,
&c., and also rub them over the head and body. The natives from the
interior also rub themselves over with a stinking nut something like an
acorn, with a powerful smell like rotten onions. These are brought to
the coast for sale to the natives of Ambriz. On my asking one of them
how he could bear to rub his body with such a bad-smelling substance,
he answered by another question, “Do not you whites use Eau-de-Cologne?”
The blacks also use the skin of the musk or civet-cat, which is very
common in the interior, to scent their cloths and bodies. The smell of
this animal is so powerful that the clothes of a person passing through
grass where one has previously been, acquire such a strong smell of
musk as to retain it perceptibly for days.
Angola is poor in dyes, and only a few are employed by the blacks.
For red they use the fresh pulp enveloping the seeds of the “annatto”
(_Bixa Orellana_); for yellow they employ yellow ginger. The Quissamas
and some of the natives on the River Quanza dye their cloths of a
bluish-black with the black mud of the river, mixed with the infusion
of a plant that I believe to be a species of indigo. Cloths are also
made black by rubbing them with charred ground-nuts reduced to a fine
paste, and, as already mentioned, a fine red for painting their faces,
bodies, and houses, is obtained by rubbing tacula-wood to a pulp with
water on a rough stone, and drying the resulting paste.
Large land-lizards are rare except at Benguella, where they abound.
They are brown, and from two to three feet long. I tried very often to
preserve them alive, but without success, although I gave them every
kind of food I could think of. A very long yellow-spotted water-lizard
(_Monitor Niloticus_), with a handsome bead-like pattern on its back
and legs, and as much as six or eight feet long, is common in the
rivers, and is said to be very destructive to poultry. The natives
state that this lizard feeds upon the eggs and young of the alligator.
Snakes are nowhere very abundant--I may say singularly scarce; and
in the years that I have travelled in Angola I have not only never
trodden on or been attacked by one, but have only seen them a very few
times. The most common is the boa-constrictor, but only in the marshy
places near rivers. In these the River Jack (_Clotho nasicornis_) is
also found; one of these which had been caught in a fish-basket set to
catch “Bagre” in the River Luqueia, was brought alive to me at Bembe.
It was a very fine one and very brilliantly marked. I kept it in a
large box covered with wire-gauze. It lived for several months, and
died a natural death shortly after shedding its skin. It is called
“Uta-maza” (water-snake) by the natives, and is held in the greatest
fear by them, its bite being said to be deadly, and no antidote or cure
for it known. I can well believe this from witnessing the effect of its
bite on the live rats with which I fed it.
I was obliged to feed it on live rats, as it refused to eat any kind
of animal or bird that it had not itself killed. If I placed a dead
rat in its cage with the live one, I would find in the morning it had
swallowed the one it had killed, but had left the dead one. On placing
a rat in the cage, the snake, which was generally coiled up in a
corner, would lift up its head and hiss slightly at the rat, which
seemed conscious of its danger, and would run about seeking for some
means of escape. The snake would continue to watch it with uplifted
head till it passed close enough, when it would suddenly strike it a
blow with incredible rapidity, the action being so instantaneous that
I could never see how the fangs were projected forwards, or, in fact,
how the blow was delivered. The poor rat would only give a small squeak
on receiving the blow, run a few paces, then stagger, fall on its side,
stretch itself out, and die after a few feeble convulsions.
This snake would never make more than one dart at its prey, and would
only swallow it at night; and although I watched it for hours in
perfect quiet, and with a shaded light, I never succeeded in seeing it
eat.
There is a dangerous snake (Naja heje) not uncommon about Benguella.
It is small in size, but remarkable from its habit of spitting to a
considerable distance, and its saliva is said to blind a person if it
touches the eyes. It is called “Cuspideira” by the Portuguese. One of
these snakes was captured by the natives and brought to the mine at
Cuio, where it was placed in a cage. An English miner was standing over
the cage, which was on the ground, teasing the snake with a stick; when
it spat up in his face, and he felt some of the liquid enter one of
his eyes. He immediately had it washed out with water, but the eye was
very much irritated for several days after. I was absent at the time,
and the snake was unfortunately destroyed, but I have no reason for
doubting the miner’s statement or that of his companions, corroborated
as it is by that of the natives and Portuguese. A harmless snake is
found under floorings of houses and stores, and is very useful in
ridding them of rats and mice.
One of these snakes once gave me considerable trouble at Loanda. My
bedroom was on the ground-floor under an office, and outside my door
was the staircase leading to it. Every morning, just a little before
daybreak, I used to be awakened by hearing a loud crack on the table as
if made by a blow from a thick whip. This excited my curiosity greatly,
as I could find no possible explanation for the noise. At last I
determined to be on the watch. I had lucifers and a candle ready,
and was luckily awake when I heard the noise repeated on my table. I
instantly struck a light, and saw a snake about six feet long glide off
the table on to the ground and quickly disappear in a hole in a corner
of the room. I then ascertained that Mr. Snake went up the staircase
every night to the office above, where he hunted about for rats, and
towards morning returned through a hole in the flooring immediately
above my table, dropping a height of about ten feet, and producing the
whip-like sound that had so perplexed me for many nights. A bung in the
hole in the floor above stopped his return that way for the future, but
I could not help being thankful that my bed had not been placed where
the table stood, for, notwithstanding that I believed it was simply
a harmless and inoffensive ratcatcher, still six feet of cold snake
wriggling over my face and body might not have been quite pleasant in
the dark.
We collected a number of sphynx-moths, both at Ambriz and on the road
to Bembe. At Ambriz they always came to the flowers of the shrubby
jasmine I have described as being so abundant near the coast (_Corrissa
sp._) Farther inland we saw them flitting about only on the white
flowers of a herbaceous plant (_Gynandropsis pentaphylla_, D.C.), a
very common weed, particularly around the towns and in open, cleared
spaces.
A large scarabæus beetle (which my friend, Mr. H. W. Bates, finds to be
a new species, and has named _Ateuchus Angolensis_) is very abundant
wherever cow-dung is found; and it is amusing to see them at work,
making it up into balls nearly the size of a billiard-ball, an egg
having been deposited in each. Two or three may often be seen pushing
the ball along backwards--the custom of these beetles everywhere. I
once saw a curious episode at Ambriz:--one beetle was on the top of
a ball fussing about as if directing two others that were pushing
it along with all their might; suddenly he came down and commenced
fighting with one of them, and after a hard tussle (during which they
made quite a perceptible hissing noise), beat him off and took his
place.
I discovered at Benguella a very beautiful lemur, named by Mr. A.
D. Bartlett the _Galago Monteiri_, and described and figured in the
‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ (June 1863). It is of a light,
chinchilla-grey colour, with black nose and ears, and dark brown feet
and toes. This animal can turn back and crumple up its rather large
and long ears at will. Its tail is long, and, like the rest of the
body, very furry. It is very quiet and gentle, nocturnal in its habits,
and sleeps much during the day. The natives use its long, fine fur to
stanch bleeding from cuts or wounds.