PALABALA AND YELALA. 49 
prolonged to a sort of verandah, further supported by two 
extra poles, and susceptible of any modification, from 
being the shady space of a few feet where the inmates of 
the house pass most of their time, to becoming the great - 
reception-place and palaver-ground of kings. Here, as we 
pass, the inhabitants of each house are nearly always 
assembled. ‘The women look up from pounding palm- 
kernels and show all their teeth in a grin at the “mun- 
dele” (white man); the men, squatted in lazy ease, take 
their large-bowled pipes from their mouths and call out a 
salutation, generally “ Mavimpi,” whilst, irresolute be- — 
tween the threshold and the interior, large-headed, round- 
eyed children mutely and distrustfully regard the white 
man, who must in their eyes as much embody some notion 
of uncanny bogeyism as the traditional black man does 
to English children. 
Around each village there is a grove of bananas, or 
plantains, a perpetual source of food supply to their 
cultivators. ‘Two sorts of fruit are principally eaten here ; 
the plantain, which has no sweet taste, but is excellent 
roasted and eaten with butter, and the richly sweet 
banana. | 
The style of scenery on the road to Palabala is typical 
of the cataract region of the Congo, a succession of stony 
hills, covered with rough grass, and rich, fertile valleys 
with luxuriant forests and running streams in their depths. 
- About midway to Palabala, you have to cross by means of 
a native ferry the river Mposo,* a rapid stream that rises 
near Sao Salvador, and flows into the Congo exactly 
opposite Vivi. Beyond this the road is all up hill and 
down dale, till at length we descry a fringe of forest which 
marks the site of Palabala, on the crest of a great hill, 
1600 feet high. As I pass through the native village, the 
people cry out “ Mundele, mundele,’ and several come 
forward and salute me with “’Morning,” a contraction of 
“Good-morning,” which they have learnt from the 
* Mposo means buffalo. Many African rivers are named after 
animals. | 
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