To Prevent This, It Is Common To See
Large Demijohns With Padlocks On The Corks.
These are frequently stolen.
In fact, the carriers are much addicted to both lying and thieving,
as might be expected from the lowest class of a people on whom
the debasing slave system has acted for two centuries.
The Bashinje, in whose country we now are, seem to possess
more of the low negro character and physiognomy than either
the Balonda or Basongo; their color is generally dirty black,
foreheads low and compressed, noses flat and much expanded laterally,
though this is partly owing to the alae spreading over the cheeks,
by the custom of inserting bits of sticks or reeds in the septum;
their teeth are deformed by being filed to points; their lips are large.
They make a nearer approach to a general negro appearance
than any tribes I met; but I did not notice this on my way down.
They cultivate pretty largely, and rely upon their agricultural products
for their supplies of salt, flesh, tobacco, etc., from Bangalas.
Their clothing consists of pieces of skin, hung loosely from the girdle
in front and behind. They plait their hair fantastically. We saw
some women coming with their hair woven into the form of a European hat,
and it was only by a closer inspection that its nature was detected.
Others had it arranged in tufts, with a threefold cord along the ridge
of each tuft; while others, again, follow the ancient Egyptian fashion,
having the whole mass of wool plaited into cords, all hanging down as far
as the shoulders. This mode, with the somewhat Egyptian cast of countenance
in other parts of Londa, reminded me strongly of the paintings of that nation
in the British Museum.
We had now rain every day, and the sky seldom presented
that cloudless aspect and clear blue so common in the dry lands of the south.
The heavens are often overcast by large white motionless masses,
which stand for hours in the same position, and the intervening spaces
are filled with a milk-and-water-looking haze. Notwithstanding these
unfavorable circumstances, I obtained good observations
for the longitude of this important point on both sides of the Quango,
and found the river running in 9d 50' S. lat., 18d 33' E. long.
On proceeding to our former station near Sansawe's village,
he ran to meet us with wonderful urbanity, asking if we had seen Moene Put,
king of the white men (or Portuguese); and added, on parting,
that he would come to receive his dues in the evening. I replied that,
as he had treated us so scurvily, even forbidding his people
to sell us any food, if he did not bring us a fowl and some eggs
as part of his duty as a chief, he should receive no present from me.
When he came, it was in the usual Londa way of showing
the exalted position he occupies, mounted on the shoulders of his spokesman,
as schoolboys sometimes do in England, and as was represented
to have been the case in the southern islands when Captain Cook visited them.
My companions, amused at his idea of dignity, greeted him with a hearty laugh.
He visited the native traders first, and then came to me with two cocks
as a present.
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