FERTILITY OF SOIL. 319 



man ; then all the company joined in the response by clapping of 

 hands too. 



After the more serious business was over, I asked if he had 

 ever seen a white man before. He replied, "Never; you are 

 the very first I have seen with a white skin and straight hair; 

 your clothing, too, is different from any we have ever seen." 

 They had been visited by native Portuguese and Mambari 

 only. 



On learning from some of the people that " Shinte's mouth was 

 bitter for want of tasting ox-flesh," I presented him with an ox, 

 to his great delight ; and, as his country is so well adapted for 

 cattle, I advised him to begin a trade in cows with the Makololo. 

 He was pleased with the idea, and when we returned from Loan- 

 da, we found that he had profited by the hint, for he had got three, 

 and one of them justified my opinion of the country, for it was 

 more like a prize heifer for fatness than any we had seen in Af- 

 rica. He soon afterward sent us a basket of green maize boiled, 

 another of manioc-meal, and a small fowl. The maize shows by 

 its size the fertility of the black soil of all the valleys here, and so 

 does the manioc, though no manure is ever applied. We saw ma- 

 nioc attain a height of six feet and upward, and this is a plant 

 which requires the very best soil. 



During this time Manenko had been extremely busy with all 

 her people in getting up a very pretty hut and court-yard, to be, as 

 she said, her residence always when white men were brought by 

 her along the same path. When she heard that we had given an 

 ox to her uncle, she came forward to us with the air of one wrong- 

 ed, and explained that " this white man belonged to her ; she had 

 brought him here, and therefore the ox was hers, not Shinte's." 

 She ordered her men to bring it, got it slaughtered by them, and 

 presented her uncle with a leg only. Shinte did not seem at all 

 annoyed at the occurrence. 



19 1 h. I was awakened at an early hour by a messenger from 

 Shinte ; but the thirst of a raging fever being just assuaged 

 by the bursting forth of a copious perspiration, I declined going 

 for a few hours. Violent action of the heart all the way to the 

 town did not predispose me to be patient with the delay which 

 then occurred, probably on account of the divination being unfa- 

 vorable : " They could not find Shinte." When I returned to 



