CHAEMS. 303 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Nyamoana's Present. — Charms. — Manenko's pedestrian Powers. — An Idol. — Ba- 

 londa Arms. — Eain. — Hunger. — Palisades. — Dense Forests. — Artificial Bee- 

 hives. — Mushrooms. — Villagers lend the Roofs of their Houses. — Divination and 

 Idols. — Manenko's Whims. — A night Alarm, — Shinte's Messengers and Present. 

 — The proper Way to approach a Village. — A Merman. — Enter Shinte's Town : 

 its Appearance. — Meet two half-caste Slave-traders. — The Makololo scorn them. 

 — The Balonda real Negroes. — Grand Beception from Shinte. — His Kotla. — 

 Ceremony of Introduction. — The Orators. — Women. — Musicians and Musical 

 Instruments. — A disagreeable Request. — Private Interviews with Shinte. — Give 

 him an Ox. — Fertility of Soil. — Manenko's new Hut. — Conversation with Shinte. 

 — Kolimbota's Proposal. — Balonda's Punctiliousness. — Selling Children. — Kid- 

 napping. — Shinte's Offer of a Slave. — Magic Lantern. — Alarm of Women. — De- 

 lay. — Sambanza returns intoxicated. — The last and greatest Proof of Shinte's 

 Friendship. 



11 th of January, 1854. On starting this morning, Samoana 

 (or rather Nyamoana, for the ladies are the chiefs here) presented 

 a string of beads, and a shell highly valued among them, as an 

 atonement for having assisted Manenko, as they thought, to vex 

 me the day before. They seemed anxious to avert any evil which 

 might arise from my displeasure ; but having replied that I never 

 kept my anger up all night, they were much pleased to see me 

 satisfied. We had to cross, in a canoe, a stream which flows 

 past the village of Nyamoana. Manenko's doctor waved some 

 charms over her, and she took some in her hand and on her body 

 before she ventured upon the water. One of my men spoke rath- 

 er loudly when near the doctor's basket of medicines. The doc- 

 tor reproved him, and always spoke in a whisper himself, glanc- 

 ing back to the basket as if afraid of being heard by something 

 therein. So much superstition is quite unknown in the south, 

 and is mentioned here to show the difference in the feelings of 

 this new people, and the comparative want of reverence on these 

 points among Caffres and Bechuanas. 



Manenko was accompanied by her husband and her drummer ; 

 the latter continued to thump most vigorously until a heavy, 

 drizzling mist set in and compelled him to desist. Her husband 



