304 AN IDOL.— BALONDA AKMS. 



used various incantations and vociferations to drive away the 

 rain, but down it poured incessantly, and on our Amazon went, 

 in the very lightest marching order, and at a pace that few of the 

 men could keep up with. Being on ox-back, I kept pretty close 

 to our leader, and asked her why she did not clothe herself dur- 

 ing the rain, and learned that it is not considered proper for a 

 chief to appear effeminate. He or she must always wear the ap- 

 pearance of robust youth, and bear vicissitudes without wincing. 

 My men, in admiration of her pedestrian powers, every now and 

 then remarked, "Manenko is a soldier;" and thoroughly wet and 

 cold, we were all glad when she proposed a halt to prepare our 

 night's lodging on the banks of a stream. 



The country through which we were passing was the same 

 succession of forest and open lawns as formerly mentioned : 

 the trees were nearly all evergreens, and of good, though not 

 very gigantic size. The lawns were covered with grass, which, 

 in thickness of crop, looked like ordinary English hay. We 

 passed two small hamlets surrounded by gardens of maize and 

 manioc, and near each of these I observed, for the first time, an 

 ugly idol common in Londa — the figure of an animal, resembling 

 an alligator, made of clay. It is formed of grass, plastered over 

 with soft clay ; two cowrie-shells are inserted as eyes, and num- 

 bers of the bristles from the tail of an elephant are stuck in about 

 the neck. It is called a lion, though, if one were not told so, he 

 would conclude it to be an alligator. It stood in a shed, and the 

 Balonda pray and beat drums before it all night in cases of sick- 

 ness. 



Some of the men of Manenko's train had shields made of 

 reeds, neatly woven into a square shape, about five feet long and 

 three broad. With these, and short broadswords and sheaves of 

 iron-headed arrows, they appeared rather ferocious. But the 

 constant habit of wearing arms is probably only a substitute for 

 the courage they do not possess. We always deposited our fire- 

 arms and spears outside a village before entering it, while the 

 Balonda, on visiting us at our encampment, always came fully 

 armed, until we ordered them either to lay down their weapons 

 or be off. Next day we passed through a piece of forest so 

 dense that no one could have penetrated it without an axe. It 

 was flooded, not by the river, but by the heavy rains which 



