They Were Delighted
With The Large Pieces We Gave, Though Only About Two Feet Long,
For A Fowl And A Basket Of Upward Of 20 Lbs.
Of meal.
As we had now
only a small remnant of our stock, we were obliged to withstand
their importunity, and then many of their women, with true maternal feelings,
held up their little naked babies, entreating us to sell only a little rag
for them. The fire, they say, is their only clothing by night,
and the little ones derive heat by sticking closely to their parents.
Instead of a skin or cloth to carry their babies in, the women plait a belt
about four inches broad, of the inner bark of a tree, and this,
hung from the one shoulder to the opposite side, like a soldier's belt,
enables them to support the child by placing it on their side
in a sitting position. Their land is very fertile, and they can raise
ground-nuts and manioc in abundance. Here I observed no cotton,
nor any domestic animals except fowls and little dogs. The chief possessed
a few goats, and I never could get any satisfactory reason
why the people also did not rear them.
On the evening of the 2d of June we reached the village of Kawawa,
rather an important personage in these parts. This village
consists of forty or fifty huts, and is surrounded by forest.
Drums were beating over the body of a man who had died the preceding day,
and some women were making a clamorous wail at the door of his hut,
and addressing the deceased as if alive.
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