My Men Got Pretty Well
Supplied Individually, For They Went Into The Villages And Commenced Dancing.
The Young Women Were
Especially pleased with the new steps they had to show,
though I suspect many of them were invented for the
Occasion,
and would say, "Dance for me, and I will grind corn for you."
At every fresh instance of liberality, Sekwebu said, "Did not I tell you
that these people had hearts, while we were still at Linyanti?"
All agreed that the character he had given was true, and some remarked,
"Look! although we have been so long away from home, not one of us
has become lean." It was a fact that we had been all well supplied
either with meat by my gun or their own spears, or food from
the great generosity of the inhabitants. Pangola promised
to ferry us across the Zambesi, but failed to fulfill his promise.
He seemed to wish to avoid offending his neighbor Mpende
by aiding us to escape from his hands, so we proceeded along the bank.
Although we were in doubt as to our reception by Mpende,
I could not help admiring the beautiful country as we passed along.
There is, indeed, only a small part under cultivation in this fertile valley,
but my mind naturally turned to the comparison of it with Kolobeng,
where we waited anxiously during months for rain, and only
a mere thunder-shower followed. I shall never forget
the dry, hot east winds of that region; the yellowish, sultry, cloudless sky;
the grass and all the plants drooping from drought, the cattle lean,
the people dispirited, and our own hearts sick from hope deferred.
There we often heard in the dead of the night the shrill whistle
of the rain-doctor calling for rain that would not come,
while here we listened to the rolling thunder by night,
and beheld the swelling valleys adorned with plenty by day.
We have rain almost daily, and every thing is beautifully fresh and green.
I felt somewhat as people do on coming ashore after a long voyage -
inclined to look upon the landscape in the most favorable light.
The hills are covered with forests, and there is often
a long line of fleecy cloud lying on them about midway up;
they are very beautiful.
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