mules, asses, and camels introduced by the Portuguese died out. Horned cattle there are none, though they thrive
well enough on the coast under the white man s care.The larger wild animals are similar to those of the neighbouring countries on the south; but the River Zaire seems to be a natural limit for many species on the north. The variety of birds is remarkable. Flamingoes, spoon-bills, herons, ducks, and various other aquatic species abound in the rivers and marshes. The common African crow, bright-coloured starlings, rollers, and doves are very common in the lower country ; and sun-birds and other insectivora frequent the palm-trees. The white ant is the most abundant of the insect tribes ; and mosquitoes of a most virulent sort are very common. The chigoe (Pulex penetrans), introduced in 1870, spread through the country, but seems to be dying out again. Bees abound, but are not domesticated.
Animal food is not in very general use, although the natives will eat the flesh of almost any beast or bird. The Mussurongos consider the cat a great dainty ; field rats are regularly captured for the kitchen, by the various tribes ; the king-cricket, and some species of caterpillars, are sought after for the same purpose; and the white ant is greedily devoured in the winged state.
Congo is as destitute as the other countries of tropical Africa of what a European would call a city. The native banzas, or townships, consist of a few hundred huts clustered together; and the Portuguese settlements are merely commercial factories or military posts. The places of most importance along the coast are Mangue Pequeno, Mangue Grande, Quinzao, Moculla. Ambrizzette, Musserra, Quicimbo, Ambriz, and Libongo, On the River Zaire may be mentioned King Antonio s Town, Boma (anciently Lambi), and Vinda la Nzadi, or Congo Town ; but the Jast two are on the north side of the river, and therefore are hardly to be included within our limits. The principal inland town is Sao Salvador, or Congo Grande, with a population at one time extravagantly estimated at 50,000 ; and Banza Noki to the north and Bembe and Encoge to the south are worthy of mention. The number of villages is very considerable, and together they must make up a fair population ; but it is evident from the condition of the country, as well as from the reports of the older travellers, that formerly the inhabitants must have been much more numerous.
The ordinary huts of the natives are formed of mats woven from a reedy grass, or the fibres of plants. That of the chief is constructed more skilfully of palm leaves, and is encompassed with a fence of reeds. In the coast towns the huts, though each is built separate, are comparatively close to each other; while further inland much more space is allowed to intervene, and hedges are frequently grown round small groups. The Mushicongos build on a larger scale than their Ambriz neighbours, and not unfrequently have two compartments. The household furniture and utensils, in simplicity and rudeness, are on a par with the domestic inclosures. Baskets are made of the fibres of the palm tree, and bowls and bottles of gourds and other vegetables; earthen vessels are used for boiling the victuals, and wooden spoons to eat them ; while a mat of grass thrown on a raised platform constitutes the only bedding.
There is no political or ethnographical unity in the country. No one tribe is predominant, and the king of Congo, whatever may have formerly been his authority, is now no more than a local chieftain, like a dozen others. The tribes numerically important are the Mussurongos, who extend from the Zaire as far south as Mangue Grande; the Mushicongos, who lie inland to the north of Bembe; the Ambrizians along the coast, and inland as far as Quiballa ; and the Mossulos to the north of the Dande. Besides the king of Congo, the king of North Bamba, or of the district between the Ambrizzette and the Loge, and the king of Encoge, with the title of "Deinbo Ambuilla," possess a certain amount of prestige. Every " town " has its own headman and assembly of " Macotas," or councillors ; and these in company manage its affairs. The office of headman confers no despotic power ; and it descends by inheritance not from father to son, but from uncle to nephew or niece. The languages of the Mussurongo, Mushicongo, and Ambriz tribes are radically one; and indeed the natives of the whole of this part of the coast, for a distance of 450 miles, can understand one another's speech. Under the name of Fiote, this common tongue has been the object of some little attention. Barbot gives a list of 33 words, Douville a more extended vocabulary of what he calls la langue Magialoua, and the authors of the Congo Expedition a third and much better collection. Vowels and liquids are numerous, and gutturals altogether absent, so that the language has a soft and harmonious sound. In number of words it is remarkably rich. According to Captain Burton, its likeness to the Kisawahili of Zanzibar is so great that he was frequently able to understand whole sentences from this resemblance alone. Along the coast a considerable number of the natives can speak Portuguese or even English ; but their pronunciation is extremely faulty, and they transfer the idiom of their own speech to the foreign tongue.
The religion, if such it can be called, of the Congoese is a gross fetishism, and almost the only trace of their and former superficial Christianization is the superstitious value attached to some stray crucifix now employed as a charm, a little more potent, it may be, than a string of beads or a land-shell filled full of birds' dung and feathers. Belief in witchcraft is very general, and develops itself in the most trivial and irrational style. Circumcision is practised by all the tribes ; and the rite is usually performed on boys of from eight to twelve years of age, who have to undergo a preparatory discipline, and live apart from the rest of the community for a month in a special hut. Polygamy prevails, every man having wives according to his wealth and rank. There is no nuptial ceremony ; but the bridegroom makes a present to the father-in-law, provides the bride with her marriage outfit, and bears the cost of a family feast. The costume of both men and women varies considerably with rank and the degree of European influence ; but in general it is very slight. The bodies of the dead are not unfrequently desiccated by roasting, and then buried in the huts which they formerly occupied. The interment is often delayed for a year or more, that all the relatives may be present at the " wake."
Since the stoppage of the slave trade, a very considerable traffic has been developed in the natural products of the country, and were it not for the inherent indolence of the natives it might be increased almost to any extent. The principal exports are the fibre of the baobab, first utilized as a paper material by Mr Monteiro in 1858; ground nuts, which find a ready market, especially in France, as an oil seed ; ivory brought down from the interior ; palm oil, sesamum, coffee, and an inferior kind of Indian-rubber obtained from a species of Landolfia. The commercial prosperity of the Congo River has been frequently interrupted by the attacks of the Mussurongo pirates, but this annoyance has been somewhat checked by the vigorous measures of the English cruisers. The last expedition of repression was that of Commodore Sir W. Hewett in 1875.
Congo was discovered by Diego Cam, probably in 1484. He erected a stone pillar at the mouth of the river, which accordingly took the title of Rio de Padrao, and established friendly relations with the natives, who reported that the country was subject to a great monarch, Mwani Congo, or Lord of Congo, resident at Ambasse Congo. The Portuguese were not long in making them-
