ing
a similar red clay soil, that this plant has propagated itself so
widely. The meadow-lands adjacent to the Senza and Coanza being
underlaid by that marly tufa which abounds toward the coast, and
containing the same shells, show that, previous to the elevation of that
side of the country, this region possessed some deeply-indented bays.

28TH SEPTEMBER, KALUNGWEMBO.--We were still on the same path by which we
had come, and, there being no mosquitoes, we could now better enjoy the
scenery. Ranges of hills occupy both sides of our path, and the fine
level road is adorned with a beautiful red flower named Bolcamaria. The
markets or sleeping-places are well supplied with provisions by great
numbers of women, every one of whom is seen spinning cotton with a
spindle and distaff, exactly like those which were in use among the
ancient Egyptians. A woman is scarcely ever seen going to the fields,
though with a pot on her head, a child on her back, and the hoe over her
shoulder, but she is employed in this way. The cotton was brought to the
market for sale, and I bought a pound for a penny. This was the price
demanded, and probably double what they ask from each other. We saw
the cotton growing luxuriantly all around the market-places from seeds
dropped accidentally. It is seen also about the native huts, and, so far
as I could learn, it was the American cotton, so influenced by climate
as to be perennial. We met in the road natives passing with bundles of
cops, or spindles full of cotton thread, and these they were carrying to
other parts to be woven into cloth. The women are the spinners, and the
men perform the weaving. Each web is about 5 feet long, and 15 or 18
inches wide. The loom is of the simplest construction, being nothing but
two beams placed one over the other, the web standing perpendicularly.
The threads of the web are separated by means of a thin wooden lath,
and the woof passed through by means of the spindle on which it has been
wound in spinning.

The mode of spinning and weaving in Angola, and, indeed, throughout
South Central Africa, is so very like the same occupations in the
hands of the ancient Egyptians, that I introduce a woodcut from the
interesting work of Sir Gardner Wilkinson. The lower figures are engaged
in spinning in the real African method, and the weavers in the left-hand
corner have their web in the Angolese fashion.*

* Unfortunately, this woodcut can not be represented in this
AS