94 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



That is the chorus, and I imagine the moral 

 and meaning of the ditty is that the frog looks 

 for his wife to labour on his behalf, just as the 

 women grind up the food whilst their lords and 

 masters sit themselves in the doors of their 

 huts and idle away the happy sunshine of their 

 lives. 



The natives of Africa have their tales and 

 their fables, their music and their poetry, their 

 philosophy and their proverbs, just as we have, 

 and I am not at all sure but that their fairy 

 tales are more entrancing than are ours, that 

 their music and poetry are more fascinating, 

 and that their proverbs are more wise than 

 those on which we pride ourselves. And they 

 have their prophets, too, just as we have our 

 magicians and clairvoyants, and they are more 

 wonderful than any we can boast of. 



Along the banks of the Kafue River dwell the 

 people of the famous Mushukulumbwe tribe, 

 so called by the Barotse because of the curious 

 horn-shaped growth of their hair on the fore 

 part of their heads. 



These fierce savages — the people from whom 

 Selous and Holub had such narrow escapes many 

 years ago, and who are greatly feared by the 

 neighbouring tribes — are the Baila, and their 

 language is called Chila. 



The Baila are a strange people. They have 

 intermingled with no other tribes, and are, in fact, 

 amongst the most insular people in Africa. For 

 miles round the Mushukulumbwe country the 

 land is uninhabited. There is no paramount 

 chief of the Mushukulumbwe as there is with 

 most other African tribes. Each village has its 

 own headman who pays homage to none. In 

 the past the Mushukulumbwe have fought bitterly 



