ISANGILA TO MANYANGA. — 97 
Manyanga is a great food centre. I have already 
hinted at its abundantly supplied markets, where eighty 
or ninety fowls, fifty goats, troops of sheep, and hundreds - 
of eggs may be purchased at a single time. The favourite 
medium of exchange here is blue glass beads, and hand- 
kerchiefs and stuffs will scarcely be taken at any sacrifice. 
Indeed it is quite a false idea to imagine that you can go 
anywhere in Africa with any sort of bead and any kind 
of cloth. Each district has its peculiar tastes and fancies 
to consult, and you might starve in one place with bales — 
of goods that would purchase kingdoms in another. In 
one part of the Congo basin red is the favourite colour, 
in another blue, in a third green, and [ have come across 
some tribes where white cloth far outvalued coloured or 
patterned stuffs. Between Vivi and Isangila you will 
find red handkerchiefs, striped cloth, brass “tacks,” gin, 
and wire useful. At Manyanga blue beads rule the 
market ; at Stanley Pool brass rods. On the Upper river, 
besides most of the articles already mentioned, “ cowries 
come into use, and are used freely as small change. 
At Manyanga, owing to the abundance of native food, 
and the scarcity of nearly every European article of diet 
which then existed, we were able to test the possibility 
of living solely on the products of the country, a state of 
affairs which, owing to the expense and difficulty of 
transport, is very likely to occur, and must eventually 
largely influence the conditions of colonization. On the 
whole I had little to complain of. We had no tea, coffee, 
cocoa, wine, sugar, butter, or bread, it is true, but with 
a little ingenuity substitutes were found for many of these 
adjuncts to European living. The goats gave plenty of 
milk, and we drank it hot, and ‘“‘made believe” it was tea. 
Palm wine was our only intoxicant, and “ Kikwanga” in 
some way took the plece of bread. Palm-oil fried our 
meats, enriched our stews, and fed the lamps that lighted 
up our evening meal. We had superb desserts of massive 
pine-apples, bananas made puddings that were richly 
sweet, and plantains took the place of potatoes. I never 
ate with better appetite and rarely lived more happily. 
H 
