A MERMAN. J 60 



pounded iny praises as a true specimen of the variety of 

 white men who live in the sea. "Only look at his hair; it 

 is made quite straight by the sea-water!" 



I explained to them again and again that, when it was 

 Baid we came out of the sea, it did not mean that we came 

 from beneath the water; but the fiction has been widely 

 spread in the interior by the Mambari that the real white 

 it en r.;e in the sea, and the myth was too good not to be 

 taken advantage of by my companions: so, notwithstand- 

 ing my injunctions, I believe that, when I was out of hear- 

 ing, my men always represented themselves as led by a 

 genuine merman : "Just see his hair V If I returned from 

 walking to a little distance, they would remark of some to 

 whom they had been holding forth, " These people want to 

 see 3*our hair." 



As the strangers bad woolly hair like themselves, I had 

 to give up the idea of meeting any thing more European 

 than two half-caste Portuguese engaged in trading for 

 slaves, ivory, and bees'-wax. 



lQth. — After a short march we came to a most lovely valley 

 about a mile and a half wide, and stretching away east- 

 ward up to a low prolongation of Monakadzi. A small 

 stream meanders down the centre of this pleasant green 

 glen; and on a little rill, which flows into it from the 

 western side, stands the town of Kabompo, or, as he likes 

 best to be called, Shinte. (Lat. 12° 37' 35" S., long. 22° 

 47' E. j When Manenko thought the sun was high enough 

 for us to make a lucky entrance, we found the town em- 

 bowered in banana and other tropical trees having great 

 expansion of leaf; the streets are straight, and present a 

 complete contrast to those of the Bechuanas, which are all 

 very tortuous. Here, too, we first saw native huts with 

 square walls and round roofs. Goats were browsing about, 

 and, when we made our appearance, a crowd of negroes, 

 all fully armed, ran toward us as if they would eat us up- 

 some had guns, but the manner in which they were held 

 showed that the owners were more accustomed to bows 



15 I 



