. British Central Africa; an attempt to give some account of a portion of the territories under British influence north of the Zambezi. Natural history. i94 BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA diversifying the grey scrub and sombre forest, and these clearly indicate the existence of plantations, while the vicinity of man is proved by occasional puffs and spirals of blue smoke where the natives are burning weeds. The path, too, is clearer, wider, and better made ; the obtrusive wayside vegetation has been checked and no longer impedes your progress. Then you begin to meet occasional inhabitants of the dista
. British Central Africa; an attempt to give some account of a portion of the territories under British influence north of the Zambezi. Natural history. i94 BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA diversifying the grey scrub and sombre forest, and these clearly indicate the existence of plantations, while the vicinity of man is proved by occasional puffs and spirals of blue smoke where the natives are burning weeds. The path, too, is clearer, wider, and better made ; the obtrusive wayside vegetation has been checked and no longer impedes your progress. Then you begin to meet occasional inhabitants of the distant unseen settlements —women with babies slung on their backs and earthen pitchers poised on their heads on their way to the spring to obtain their evening supply of water; or men returning from the chase armed with long-barrelled ancient-looking guns, spears, assegais, or clubs, and accompanied by several snarling curs, whose collars are hung with little bells. To your surprise, instead of plunging terror stricken into the bush or assuming a defiant and hostile attitude, each native greets you politely with " Morning ! Goo' morning ! " for they have learned from the mis- sionaries our matutinal salutation, which they indifferently make use of at all hours of the day and night. On each side of the widened road a straggling row of young plantain trees begins to make its appearance, evidently planted with the view of its forming ultimately a shady avenue: then behind a wooden fence appear thriving plantations of vegetables and hedges of pine-apples, and at last, a turn in the road brings into view a garden of flowers and flowering shrubs — blazing with brilliant masses of colour—and a long, low-built dwelling house of one storey, with white-washed walls, green window shutters, and a wide overhanging roof of thatch forming a verandah round the building. Behind the house are other dwellings of a humbler architecture, more or less hidden with green shrubs and trees ;
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
