become too proud to work, lest they should be thought slaves themselves.
In consequence of this, the women look after the household work--such as
brewing, cooking, grinding corn, making pottery and baskets, and taking
care of the house and the children, besides helping the slaves whilst
cultivating, or even tending the cattle sometimes.

Now, descending to the inferior order of creation, I shall commence with
the domestic animals first, to show what the traveller may expect to
find for his usual support. Cows, after leaving the low lands near the
coast, are found to be plentiful everywhere, and to produce milk in
small quantities, from which butter is made. Goats are common all over
Africa; but sheep are not so plentiful, nor do they show such good
breeding--being generally lanky, with long fat tails. Fowls, much
like those in India, are abundant everywhere. A few Muscovy ducks are
imported, also pigeons and cats. Dogs, like the Indian pariah, are very
plentiful, only much smaller; and a few donkeys are found in certain
localities. Now, considering this good supply of meat, whilst all
tropical plants will grow just as well in central equatorial Africa
as they do in India, it surprises the traveller there should be any
famines; yet such is too often the case, and the negro, with these
bounties within his reach, is sometimes found eating dogs, cats, rats,
porcupines, snakes, lizards, tortoises, locusts, and white ants, or
is forced to seek the seeds of wild grasses, or to pluck wild herbs,
fruits, and roots; whilst at the proper seasons they hunt the wild
elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, pigs, and antelopes; or, going out
with their arrows, have battues against the guinea-fowls and small
birds.

The frequency with which collections of villages are found all over the
countries we are alluding to, leaves but very little scope for the runs
of wild animals, which are found only in dense jungles, open forests,
or praires generally speaking, where hills can protect them, and near
rivers whose marshes produce a thick growth of vegetation to conceal
them from their most dreaded enemy--man. The prowling, restless
elephant, for instance, though rarely seen, leaves indications of his
nocturnal excursions in every wilderness, by wantonly knocking down the
forest-trees. The morose rhinoceros, though less numerous, are found in
every thick jungle. So is the savage buffalo, especially delighting in
dark places, where he can wallow i