The Country Becomes
More Open, But Is Still Abundantly Fertile, With A Thick Crop Of Grass
Between Two And Three Feet High.
It is also well wooded and watered.
Villages of Basongo are dotted over the landscape, and frequently
a square house of wattle and daub, belonging to native Portuguese,
is placed beside them for the purposes of trade.
The people here
possess both cattle and pigs. The different sleeping-places on our path,
from eight to ten miles apart, are marked by a cluster of sheds
made of sticks and grass. There is a constant stream of people
going and returning to and from the coast. The goods are carried
on the head, or on one shoulder, in a sort of basket
attached to the extremities of two poles between five and six feet long,
and called Motete. When the basket is placed on the head,
the poles project forward horizontally, and when the carrier wishes
to rest himself, he plants them on the ground and the burden against a tree,
so he is not obliged to lift it up from the ground to the level of the head.
It stands against the tree propped up by the poles at that level.
The carrier frequently plants the poles on the ground, and stands
holding the burden until he has taken breath, thus avoiding the trouble
of placing the burden on the ground and lifting it up again.
When a company of these carriers, or our own party, arrives at
one of these sleeping-places, immediate possession is taken of the sheds.
Those who come late, and find all occupied, must then erect others
for themselves; but this is not difficult, for there is no lack of long grass.
No sooner do any strangers appear at the spot, than the women may be seen
emerging from their villages bearing baskets of manioc-meal,
roots, ground-nuts, yams, bird's-eye pepper, and garlic for sale.
Calico, of which we had brought some from Cassange, is the chief
medium of exchange.
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