They Entered The Canoes At Last,
And Were The Better Of A Little Scolding For Being Inclined
To Put Dreams Before Authority.
It rained all the morning, but about eleven
we reached the village of Sheakondo, on a small stream named Lonkonye.
We sent a message to the head man, who soon appeared with two wives,
bearing handsome presents of manioc:
Sheakondo could speak
the language of the Barotse well, and seemed awestruck when told
some of the "words of God". He manifested no fear, always spoke frankly,
and when he made an asseveration, did so by simply pointing up to the sky
above him. The Balonda cultivate the manioc or cassava extensively;
also dura, ground-nuts, beans, maize, sweet potatoes, and yams,
here called "lekoto", but as yet we see only the outlying villages.
The people who came with Sheakondo to our bivouac had their teeth filed
to a point by way of beautifying them, though those which were left untouched
were always the whitest; they are generally tattooed in various parts,
but chiefly on the abdomen: the skin is raised in small elevated cicatrices,
each nearly half an inch long and a quarter of an inch in diameter,
so that a number of them may constitute a star, or other device.
The dark color of the skin prevents any coloring matter being deposited
in these figures, but they love much to have the whole surface of their bodies
anointed with a comfortable varnish of oil. In their unassisted state
they depend on supplies of oil from the Palma Christi, or castor-oil plant,
or from various other oliferous seeds, but they are all
excessively fond of clarified butter or ox fat. Sheakondo's old wife
presented some manioc roots, and then politely requested
to be anointed with butter: as I had been bountifully supplied
by the Makololo, I gave her as much as would suffice, and as they have
little clothing, I can readily believe that she felt her comfort
greatly enhanced thereby.
The favorite wife, who was also present, was equally anxious for butter.
She had a profusion of iron rings on her ankles, to which were attached
little pieces of sheet iron, to enable her to make a tinkling as she walked
in her mincing African style; the same thing is thought pretty
by our own dragoons in walking jauntingly.
We had so much rain and cloud that I could not get a single observation
for either longitude or latitude for a fortnight. Yet the Leeba
does not show any great rise, nor is the water in the least discolored.
It is slightly black, from the number of mossy rills which fall into it.
It has remarkably few birds and fish, while the Leeambye swarms with both.
It is noticeable that alligators here possess more of the fear of man
than in the Leeambye. The Balonda have taught them, by their poisoned arrows,
to keep out of sight. We did not see one basking in the sun.
The Balonda set so many little traps for birds that few appear.
I observed, however, many (to me) new small birds of song on its banks.
More rain has been falling in the east than here, for the Leeambye
was rising fast and working against the sandy banks so vigorously
that a slight yellow tinge was perceptible in it.
One of our men was bitten by a non-venomous serpent, and of course
felt no harm. The Barotse concluded that this was owing to many of them
being present and seeing it, as if the sight of human eyes
could dissolve the poison and act as a charm.
On the 6th of January we reached the village of another female chief,
named Nyamoana, who is said to be the mother of Manenko,
and sister of Shinte or Kabompo, the greatest Balonda chief
in this part of the country. Her people had but recently come
to the present locality, and had erected only twenty huts.
Her husband, Samoana, was clothed in a kilt of green and red baize,
and was armed with a spear and a broadsword of antique form,
about eighteen inches long and three broad. The chief and her husband
were sitting on skins placed in the middle of a circle thirty paces
in diameter, a little raised above the ordinary level of the ground,
and having a trench round it. Outside the trench sat about a hundred persons
of all ages and both sexes. The men were well armed with bows, arrows,
spears, and broadswords. Beside the husband sat a rather aged woman,
having a bad outward squint in the left eye. We put down our arms
about forty yards off, and I walked up to the centre of the circular bench,
and saluted him in the usual way by clapping the hands together
in their fashion. He pointed to his wife, as much as to say,
the honor belongs to her. I saluted her in the same way,
and a mat having been brought, I squatted down in front of them.
The talker was then called, and I was asked who was my spokesman.
Having pointed to Kolimbota, who knew their dialect best,
the palaver began in due form. I explained the real objects I had in view,
without any attempt to mystify or appear in any other character than my own,
for I have always been satisfied that, even though there were
no other considerations, the truthful way of dealing with the uncivilized
is unquestionably the best. Kolimbota repeated to Nyamoana's talker
what I had said to him. He delivered it all verbatim to her husband,
who repeated it again to her. It was thus all rehearsed four times over,
in a tone loud enough to be heard by the whole party of auditors.
The response came back by the same roundabout route, beginning at the lady
to her husband, etc.
After explanations and re-explanations, I perceived that our new friends
were mixing up my message of peace and friendship with Makololo affairs,
and stated that it was not delivered on the authority of any one less
than that of their Creator, and that if the Makololo did again
break His laws and attack the Balonda, the guilt would rest with the Makololo
and not with me.
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