File:The River Congo from its mouth to Bólobó; with a general description of the natural history and anthropology of its western basin (1895) (14761695484).jpg

Identifier: rivercongofromit00john (find matches)
Title: The River Congo from its mouth to Bólobó; with a general description of the natural history and anthropology of its western basin
Year: 1895 (1890s)
Authors: Johnston, Harry Hamilton, Sir, 1858-1927
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: London, S. Low, Marston & Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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tic animalsof the natives also supply them wTith food, but they arenot so meat-eating as the tribes of Eastern or SouthernAfrica, who possess their great herds of cattle. On theUpper Congo the ox is unknown, and his old classical Bantu name, Nombu, or Nombe, is applied by theBa-yansi to the buffalo. The sheep is rarely met withbeyond Stanley Pool; still it is known and named. Itbelongs to the Central African type—a hairy sheep, withsmall horns, and a magnificent mane in the ram, which THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO. 293 extends from the chin to the stomach, and greatlyresembles the same appendage in the aoudad, or wildsheep of Northern Africa. I do not believe, however,that this domestic sheep of Central Africa had its originin the mouflon a manchettes of Algeria. On thecontrary, the ewe, which has no mane, and the youngmaneless rams, exactly resemble certain breeds of Persiansheep, like which they are pied black and white in colour.The goat of the Congo is a little compactly built animal,
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A CONGO SHEEP. short on the legs and very fat. The females makeexcellent milch goats, and their milk is a most deliciousand wholesome addition to ones diet. Unfortunately,they run dry after three months milking, and the onlyway to keep up a constant supply of this grateful fluid isto keep four or five of them at once, and arrange thatthey all kid at different times. The natives, however,never take this precaution, as they think it disgusting todrink milk. The general type of the dog on the Upper Congo (onthe Lower river it is much mixed with European races 294 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. introduced by the Portuguese) is simply the pariah dog ofIndia and the East over again, with a look of the dingoand the wild dog of Sumatra superadded. It has a foxyhead, prick ears, a smooth fawn-coloured coat, and a tailslightly inclined to be bushy, and is to my thinking avery pretty creature They have one admirable point intheir character in that they never bark, giving vent only,when very much

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