42 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTRAL AFRICA 



My horse was obstinately deliberate, I had long ago 

 given up the effort to impose my will upon his, and, as 

 I disliked being scraped against the bushes, had dis- 

 mounted and walked on. I was some considerable 

 way in advance of the beast, when the sounds of an 

 aligata band arrested me. It could proceed but from 

 one cause, and as quick as thought I turned round, 

 ran back to my steed, and was hardly mounted before 

 a large body of horsemen appeared on the brow of a 

 hill, headed by the Lamido, Chief of all the Mundonng. 

 Horses and riders were magnificently apparelled. The 

 robes were of every hue — red, blue, purple, green, and 

 yellow ; the saddle-cloths were worked with gold and 

 silver threads, and, united to the sheen of horse- 

 armour and the glint of spears, the effect was one 

 of magnificent glittering confusion. They thundered 

 down on us at a gallop, pulled up within a horse's 

 length of where we stood to receive them, saluted, 

 and wheeled round to escort us in triumph to the 

 town — the whole party riding to the spirited strains 

 of a drum and aligata band. 



This charge is the ordinary form of salutation, but 

 it was the first Mrs Talbot and I had seen, and it 

 needed all our resolution to stand our ground in the 

 face of it. It was once practised witli a view to war, 

 and still, at all the fantasias, or displays of horseman- 

 ship, a man's skill is judged by his quickness to pull 

 up when riding at great speed. It was a splendid 

 reception, but, alas ! through me the glory of our entry 

 was marred. My pony was without pride, and refused 

 to quicken his lagging gait, so that the distance 

 between ourselves and our escort became increasingly 

 great, and when, at the outskirts of Lere, M. 



