One Very Intelligent Man Among Them Asked,
"If He Should Make A Canoe, And Take It Down The River To
The Makololo,
would he get a cow for it?" This question, which my men answered
in the affirmative, was important,
As showing the knowledge
of a water communication from the country of Matiamvo to the Makololo;
and the river runs through a fertile country abounding in large timber.
If the tribes have intercourse with each other, it exerts a good influence
on their chiefs to hear what other tribes think of their deeds.
The Makololo have such a bad name, on account of their perpetual forays,
that they have not been known in Londa except as ruthless destroyers.
The people in Matiamvo's country submit to much wrong from their chiefs,
and no voice can be raised against cruelty, because they are afraid
to flee elsewhere.
We left Quendende's village in company with Quendende himself,
and the principal man of the embassadors of Matiamvo, and after
two or three miles' march to the N.W., came to the ford of the Lotembwa,
which flows southward. A canoe was waiting to ferry us over,
but it was very tedious work; for, though the river itself
was only eighty yards wide, the whole valley was flooded, and we were obliged
to paddle more than half a mile to get free of the water. A fire was lit
to warm old Quendende, and enable him to dry his tobacco-leaves.
The leaves are taken from the plant, and spread close to the fire
until they are quite dry and crisp; they are then put into a snuff-box,
which, with a little pestle, serves the purpose of a mill
to grind them into powder; it is then used as snuff.
As we sat by the fire, the embassadors communicated their thoughts freely
respecting the customs of their race. When a chief dies, a number of servants
are slaughtered with him to form his company in the other world.
The Barotse followed the same custom, and this and other usages
show them to be genuine negroes, though neither they nor the Balonda
resemble closely the typical form of that people. Quendende said
if he were present on these occasions he would hide his people,
so that they might not be slaughtered. As we go north, the people become
more bloodily superstitious.
We were assured that if the late Matiamvo took a fancy to any thing,
such, for instance, as my watch-chain, which was of silver wire,
and was a great curiosity, as they had never seen metal plaited before,
he would order a whole village to be brought up to buy it from a stranger.
When a slave-trader visited him, he took possession of all his goods;
then, after ten days or a fortnight, he would send out a party of men
to pounce upon some considerable village, and, having killed the head man,
would pay for all the goods by selling the inhabitants.
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