ption. They were
delighted with the large pieces we gave, though only about two feet
long, for a fowl and a basket of upward of 20 lbs. of meal. As we had
now only a small remnant of our stock, we were obliged to withstand
their importunity, and then many of their women, with true maternal
feelings, held up their little naked babies, entreating us to sell only
a little rag for them. The fire, they say, is their only clothing by
night, and the little ones derive heat by sticking closely to their
parents. Instead of a skin or cloth to carry their babies in, the women
plait a belt about four inches broad, of the inner bark of a tree, and
this, hung from the one shoulder to the opposite side, like a soldier's
belt, enables them to support the child by placing it on their side in
a sitting position. Their land is very fertile, and they can raise
ground-nuts and manioc in abundance. Here I observed no cotton, nor any
domestic animals except fowls and little dogs. The chief possessed a few
goats, and I never could get any satisfactory reason why the people also
did not rear them.

On the evening of the 2d of June we reached the village of Kawawa,
rather an important personage in these parts. This village consists of
forty or fifty huts, and is surrounded by forest. Drums were beating
over the body of a man who had died the preceding day, and some women
were making a clamorous wail at the door of his hut, and addressing the
deceased as if alive. The drums continued beating the whole night, with
as much regularity as a steam-engine thumps on board ship. We observed
that a person dressed fantastically with a great number of feathers left
the people at the dance and wailing, and went away into the deep forest
in the morning, to return again to the obsequies in the evening; he is
intended to represent one of the Barimo.

In the morning we had agreeable intercourse with Kawawa; he visited us,
and we sat and talked nearly the whole day with him and his people. When
we visited him in return, we found him in his large court-house, which,
though of a beehive shape, was remarkably well built. As I had shown him
a number of curiosities, he now produced a jug, of English ware, shaped
like an old man holding a can of beer in his hand, as the greatest
curiosity he had to exhibit.

We had now an opportunity of hearing a case brought before him for
judgment. A poor man and his wife were accused of having bewitched the
man whose wake was now