The Country Through Which We Were Passing Was The Same Succession
Of Forest And Open Lawns As Formerly Mentioned:
The trees were
nearly all evergreens, and of good, though not very gigantic size.
The lawns were covered with grass, which, in thickness of crop,
looked like ordinary English hay.
We passed two small hamlets
surrounded by gardens of maize and manioc, and near each of these I observed,
for the first time, an ugly idol common in Londa - the figure of an animal,
resembling an alligator, made of clay. It is formed of grass,
plastered over with soft clay; two cowrie-shells are inserted as eyes,
and numbers of the bristles from the tail of an elephant are stuck in
about the neck. It is called a lion, though, if one were not told so,
he would conclude it to be an alligator. It stood in a shed,
and the Balonda pray and beat drums before it all night in cases of sickness.
Some of the men of Manenko's train had shields made of reeds,
neatly woven into a square shape, about five feet long and three broad.
With these, and short broadswords and sheaves of iron-headed arrows,
they appeared rather ferocious. But the constant habit of wearing arms
is probably only a substitute for the courage they do not possess.
We always deposited our fire-arms and spears outside a village
before entering it, while the Balonda, on visiting us at our encampment,
always came fully armed, until we ordered them either to lay down
their weapons or be off. Next day we passed through a piece of forest
so dense that no one could have penetrated it without an axe. It was flooded,
not by the river, but by the heavy rains which poured down every day,
and kept those who had clothing constantly wet. I observed,
in this piece of forest, a very strong smell of sulphureted hydrogen.
This I had observed repeatedly in other parts before.
I had attacks of fever of the intermittent type again and again,
in consequence of repeated drenchings in these unhealthy spots.
On the 11th and 12th we were detained by incessant rains,
and so heavy I never saw the like in the south. I had a little tapioca
and a small quantity of Libonta meal, which I still reserved for worse times.
The patience of my men under hunger was admirable; the actual want
of the present is never so painful as the thought of getting nothing
in the future. We thought the people of some large hamlets very niggardly
and very independent of their chiefs, for they gave us and Manenko nothing,
though they had large fields of maize in an eatable state around them.
When she went and kindly begged some for me, they gave her five ears only.
They were subjects of her uncle; and, had they been Makololo,
would have been lavish in their gifts to the niece of their chief.
I suspected that they were dependents of some of Shinte's principal men,
and had no power to part with the maize of their masters.
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