Chap. V. VILLAGE OF LUBA. 101 



then arrived witliin hearing distance, but did not 

 actually see tliem ; indeed, I believe my guides 

 tliemselves did not know where the true Samba 

 Nagoshi were situated. 



Apaka, the head man of the village, was taken 

 unawares by our arrival, and had not time to run 

 away from us like the rest of the people. When I 

 approached him, his heart was visibly beating with 

 fear under his shining skin. Movema Baka, my 

 Ashira Kamba guide, however, soon pacified him. 

 The village is called Luba, and was a far cleaner 

 place than the one we had visited higher up. The 

 houses were hidden in the shade of plantain-trees, 

 but the people were short of food, and we not only 

 missed our usual introductory presents, but found 

 great difficulty in purchasing anything to eat. 



The chief informed me, in the course of my conver- 

 sations with him, that the Ishogo tribe did not dwell 

 on the banks of the river to the east, but a little 

 more than a day's journey in the interior, in a N.E. 

 direction, and that another tribe, the Acoa, probably 

 a branch of the Shekiani, wdiich I described in 

 * Equatorial Africa,' lay between them and the 

 river. 



As will be seen in the sequel, I visited the Ishogos 

 afterwards in the southern part of their territoiy. 

 If the information given me by Apaka was correct, 

 this tribe must occupy a narrow extent of territory 

 stretching in a curved form, nearly parallel to the 

 bend of the Ngouyai from the north-west to the 

 south-east. 



I asked Apaka to show me the village mbuiti, or 



