otably the _Carpodinus
chylorrhiza._ This species and other varieties of carpodinus are very
widely distributed. Landolphias are also found. The coffee, cotton and
Guinea pepper plants are indigenous, and the tobacco plant flourishes
in several districts. Among the trees are several which yield
excellent timber, such as the tacula (_Pterocarpus tinctorius_), which
grows to an immense size, its wood being blood-red in colour, and the
Angola mahogany. The bark of the musuemba (_Albizzia coriaria_) is
largely used in the tanning of leather. The mulundo bears a fruit
about the size of a cricket ball covered with a hard green shell and
containing scarlet pips like a pomegranate. The fauna includes the
lion, leopard, cheetah, elephant, giraffe, rhinoceros, hippopotamus,
buffalo, zebra, kudu and many other kinds of antelope, wild pig,
ostrich and crocodile. Among fish are the barbel, bream and African
yellow fish.

_Inhabitants._--The great majority of the inhabitants are of
Bantu-Negro stock with some admixture in the Congo district with the
pure negro type. In the south-east are various tribes of Bushmen. The
best-known of the Bantu-Negro tribes are the Ba-Kongo (Ba-Fiot), who
dwell chiefly in the north, and the Abunda (Mbunda, Ba-Bundo), who
occupy the central part of the province, which takes its name from the
Ngola tribe of Abunda. Another of these tribes, the Bangala, living
on the west bank of the upper Kwango, must not be confounded with the
Bangala of the middle Congo. In the Abunda is a considerable strain of
Portuguese blood. The Ba-Lunda inhabit the Lunda district. Along the
upper Kunene and in other districts of the plateau are settlements of
Boers, the Boer population being about 2000. In the coast towns the
majority of the white inhabitants are Portuguese. The Mushi-Kongo
and other divisions of the Ba-Kongo retain curious traces of the
Christianity professed by them in the 16th and 17th centuries and
possibly later. Crucifixes are used as potent fetish charms or as
symbols of power passing down from chief to chief; whilst every native
has a "Santu" or Christian name and is dubbed dom or dona.
Fetishism is the prevailing religion throughout the province. The
dwelling-places of the natives are usually small huts of the simplest
construction, used chiefly as sleeping apartments; the day is spent in
an open space in front of the hut protected from the sun by a roof of
palm or other leaves.

_Chief Towns._--Th