154 MAMBARI TRADERS. 



chiefs would be pleased to hear that they had treated ua 

 well : we gave them pieces of meat in return. 



When crossing at the confluence of the Leeba and Ma- 

 kondo, one of my men picked up a bit of a steel watch- 

 chain of English manufacture, and we were informed that 

 this was the spot where the Mambari cross in coming to 

 Masiko. Their visits explain why Sekelenke kept his tusks 

 so carefully. These Mambari are very enterprising mer- 

 chants : when they mean to trade with a town, they delibe- 

 rately begin the affair by building huts, as if they knew 

 that little business could be transacted without a liberal 

 allowance of time for palaver. They bring Manchester 

 goods into the heart of Africa; these cotton prints look so 

 wonderful that the Makololo could not believe them to be 

 the work of mortal hands. On questioning the Mambari, 

 they were answered that English manufactures came out 

 of the sea, and beads were gathered on its shore. To 

 Africans our cotton-mills are fairy dreams. "How can the 

 irons spin, weave, and print so beautifully?" Our country 

 is like what Taprobane was to our ancestors, — a strange 

 realm of light, whence came the diamond, muslin, and 

 peacocks; an attempt at explanation of our manufactures 

 usually elicits the expression, "Truly ye are gods!" 



When about to leave the Makondo, one of my men had 

 dreamed that Mosantu was shut up a prisoner in a stockade : 

 this dream depressed the spirits of the whole party, and 

 when I came out of my little tent in the morning, they 

 were sitting the pictures of abject sorrow. I asked if we 

 were to be guided by dreams, or by the authority 1 derived 

 from Sekeletu, and ordered them to load the boats at once; 

 they seemed ashamed to confess their fears; the Makololo 

 picked up courage and upbraided the others for having 

 such superstitious views, and said this was always their 

 way : if even a certain bird called to them, they would turn 

 back from an enterprise, saying it was unlucky. They 

 entered the canoes at last, and were the bettei of a little 

 scolding for be'.ng inclined to put dreams before authority. 



