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Or with what an awakened sense of humour would LIVINGSTONE'S account of a similar scene be perused, if the fur and red cloth and goats' hair and horse hair and powdered chalk and black patches on the top of the head, were all at Tala Mungongo instead of Westminster?
It may be seen on the heights of Tala Mungongo, or nearly 300 miles from the west coast, where it was first introduced by the Jesuit missionaries. We spent Sunday, the 30th of April, at Ngio, close to the ford of the Quize as it crosses our path to fall into the Coanza. The country becomes more open, but is still abundantly fertile, with a thick crop of grass between two and three feet high.
We ascended the eastern acclivity that bounds the Cassange valley, which has rather a gradual ascent up from the Quango, and we found that the last ascent, though apparently not quite so high as that at Tala Mungongo, is actually much higher.
Their nests are but a short distance beneath the soil, which has the soft appearance of the abodes of ants in England. Occasionally they construct galleries over their path to the cells of the white ant, in order to secure themselves from the heat of the sun during their marauding expeditions. We descended in one hour from the heights of Tala Mungongo.
I counted the number of paces made on the slope downward, and found them to be sixteen hundred, which may give a perpendicular height of from twelve to fifteen hundred feet. Water boiled at 206 Degrees at Tala Mungongo above, and at 208 Deg. at the bottom of the declivity, the air being at 72 Deg. in the shade in the former case, and 94 Deg. in the latter.
Leave Pungo Andongo Extent of Portuguese Power Meet Traders and Carriers Red Ants; their fierce Attack; Usefulness; Numbers Descend the Heights of Tala Mungongo Fruit-trees in the Valley of Cassange Edible Muscle Birds Cassange Village Quinine and Cathory Sickness of Captain Neves' Infant A Diviner thrashed Death of the Child Mourning Loss of Life from the Ordeal Wide-spread Superstitions The Chieftainship Charms Receive Copies of the "Times" Trading Pombeiros Present for Matiamvo Fever after westerly Winds Capabilities of Angola for producing the raw Materials of English Manufacture Trading Parties with Ivory More Fever A Hyaena's Choice Makololo Opinion of the Portuguese Cypriano's Debt A Funeral Dread of disembodied Spirits Beautiful Morning Scenes Crossing the Quango Ambakistas called "The Jews of Angola" Fashions of the Bashinje Approach the Village of Sansawe His Idea of Dignity The Pombeiros' Present Long Detention A Blow on the Beard Attacked in a Forest Sudden Conversion of a fighting Chief to Peace Principles by means of a Revolver No Blood shed in consequence Rate of Traveling Slave Women Way of addressing Slaves Their thievish Propensities Feeders of the Congo or Zaire Obliged to refuse Presents Cross the Loajima Appearance of People; Hair Fashions.
In the west of Scotland strong objections are made by that body of men to farmers planting beans in their vicinity, from the belief that they render the mines unhealthy. The gravitation of the malaria from the more elevated land of Tala Mungongo toward Cassange is the only way the unhealthiness of this spot on the prevalence of the westerly winds can be accounted for.
Situated a few miles from the edge of the descent, we found the village of Tala Mungongo, and were kindly accommodated with a house to sleep in, which was very welcome, as we were all both wet and cold. We found that the greater altitude and the approach of winter lowered the temperature so much that many of my men suffered severely from colds.
Mashauana, as usual, made his bed with his head close to my feet, and never during the entire journey did I have to call him twice for any thing I needed. During our stay at Tala Mungongo, our attention was attracted to a species of red ant which infests different parts of this country. It is remarkably fond of animal food.
The western edge of the Quango valley appears, about twenty miles off, as if it were a range of lofty mountains, and passes by the name of Tala Mungongo, "Behold the Range". In the old Portuguese map, to which I had been trusting in planning my route, it is indicated as Talla Mugongo, or "Castle of Rocks!" and the Coanza is put down as rising therefrom; but here I was assured that the Coanza had its source near Bihe, far to the southwest of this, and we should not see that river till we came near Pungo Andonga.
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