the long black tail-feathers being highly esteemed by the natives for plumes.  We saw here also the “Lehututu” (’Tragopan Leadbeaterii’), a large bird strongly resembling a turkey; it is black on the ground, but when it flies the outer half of the wings are white.  It kills serpents, striking them dexterously behind the head.  It derives its native name from the noise it makes, and it is found as far as Kolobeng.  Another species like it is called the Abyssinian hornbill.

Before we reached Cassange we were overtaken by the commandant, Senhor Carvalho, who was returning, with a detachment of fifty men and a field-piece, from an unsuccessful search after some rebels.  The rebels had fled, and all he could do was to burn their huts.  He kindly invited me to take up my residence with him; but, not wishing to pass by the gentleman (Captain Neves) who had so kindly received me on my first arrival in the Portuguese possessions, I declined.  Senhor Rego had been superseded in his command, because the Governor Amaral, who had come into office since my departure from Loanda, had determined that the law which requires the office of commandant to be exclusively occupied by military officers of the line should once more come into operation.  I was again most kindly welcomed by my friend, Captain Neves, whom I found laboring under a violent inflammation and abscess of the hand.  There is nothing in the situation of this village to indicate unhealthiness, except, perhaps, the rank luxuriance of the vegetation.  Nearly all the Portuguese inhabitants suffer from enlargement of the spleen, the effects of frequent intermittents, and have generally a sickly appearance.  Thinking that this affection of the hand was simply an effort of nature to get rid of malarious matter from the system, I recommended the use of quinine.  He himself applied the leaf of a plant called cathory, famed among the natives as an excellent remedy for ulcers.  The cathory leaves, when boiled, exude a gummy juice, which effectually shuts out the external air.  Each remedy, of course, claimed the merit of the cure.

Many of the children are cut off by fever.  A fine boy of Captain Neves’ had, since my passage westward, shared a similar fate.  Another child died during the period of my visit.  During his sickness, his mother, a woman of color, sent for a diviner in order to ascertain what ought to be done.  The diviner, after throwing his dice, worked himself into the state of ecstasy in which they pretend to be in communication with the Barimo.  He then gave the oracular response that the child was being killed by the spirit of a Portuguese trader who once lived at Cassange.  The case was this:  on the death of the trader, the other Portuguese merchants in the village came together, and sold the goods of the departed to each other, each man accounting for the portion received to the creditors of the deceased at Loanda.  The natives, looking on, and not understanding the nature of written mercantile transactions, concluded