238 THE MAMBARI. 



the name of the year when the white men came, or of Sebituane's 

 death ; but they prefer the former, as they avoid, if possible, any 

 direct reference to the departed. After my wife's first visit, great 

 numbers of children were named Ma-Robert, or mother of Robert, 

 her eldest child ; others were named Gun, Horse, Wagon, Monare, 

 Jesus, etc. ; but though our names, and those of the native Portu- 

 guese who came in 1853, were adopted, there is not a trace of any 

 thing of the sort having happened previously among the Barotse : 

 the visit of a white man is such a remarkable event, that, had any 

 taken place during the last three hundred years, there must have 

 remained some tradition of it. 



But Santuru was once visited by the Mambari, and a distinct 

 recollection of that visit is retained. They came to purchase 

 slaves, and both Santuru and his head men refused them per- 

 mission to buy any of the people. The Makololo quoted this 

 precedent when speaking of the Mambari, and said that they, as 

 the present masters of the country, had as good a right to expel 

 them as Santuru. The Mambari reside near Bihe, under an Am- 

 bonda chief named Kangombe. They profess to use the slaves for 

 domestic purposes alone. 



Some of these Mambari visited us while at Naliele. They 

 are of the Ambonda family, which inhabits the country southeast 

 of Angola, and speak the Bunda dialect, which is of the same 

 family of languages with the Barotse, Bayeiye, etc., or those 

 black tribes comprehended under the general term Makalaka. 

 They plait their hair in three-fold cords, and lay them carefully 

 down around the sides of the head. They are quite as dark as 

 the Barotse, but have among them a number of half-castes, with 

 their peculiar yellow sickly hue. On inquiring why they had 

 fled on my approach to Linyanti, they let me know that they 

 had a vivid idea of the customs of English cruisers on the coast. 

 They showed also their habits in their own country by digging 

 up and eating, even here where large game abounds, the mice 

 and moles which infest the country. The half-castes, or native 

 Portuguese, could all read and write, and the head of the party, 

 if not a real Portuguese, had Euiopean hair, and, influenced 

 probably by the letter of recommendation which I held from 

 the Chevalier Duprat, his most faithful majesty's Arbitrator in 



