168 MODE OF APPROACHING VILLAGES. 



1 ho dilly-dallying way of this lady was the proper mode 

 of making acquaintance with the Balonda; and much of 

 the favor with which I was received in different places 

 was owing to my sending forward messengers to state the 

 object of our coming before entering each town and vil- 

 lage. When we came in sight of a village, we sat down 

 under the shade of a tree and sent forward a man to give 

 notice who we were and what were our objects. The head- 

 man of the village then sent out his principal men, as 

 Shinte now did, to bid us welcome and show us a tree 

 under which we might sleep. Before I had profited by the 

 rather tedious teaching of Manenko, I sometimes entered 

 a village and created unintentional alarm. The villagers 

 would continue to look upon us with suspicion as long as 

 we remained. Shinte sent us two large baskets of manioc 

 and six dried fishes. His men had the skin of a monkey, 

 called in their tongue " poluma," (Colobus guereza,) of a jet- 

 black color, except the long mane, which is pure white : it 

 is said to be found in the north, in the country of Mati- 

 amvo, the paramount chief of all the Balonda. We 

 learned from them that they are in the habit of praying 

 to their idols when unsuccessful in killing game or in any 

 other enterprise. They behaved with reverence at our re- 

 ligious services. This will appear important if the reader 

 remembers the almost total want of prayer and reverence 

 we encountered in the south. 



Our friends informed us that Shinte would be highly 

 honored by the presence of three white men in his town 

 at once. Two others had sent forward notice of their ap- 

 proach from another quarter, (the west;) could it be Barth 

 or Krapf ? How pleasant to meet with Europeans in such 

 an out-of-the-way region ! The rush of thoughts made me 

 almost forget my fever. Arc they of the same color as I 

 am? "Yes; exactly so." And have the same hair? "Is 

 that hair? we thought it was a wig; we never saw the 

 like before: this white man must be of the sort that lives 

 in the sea." Henceforth my men took the hint, and always 



