328 PUNCTILIOUSNESS OF THE BALONDA. 



Our chief guide, Intemese, sent orders to all the villages around 

 our route that Shinte's friends must have abundance of provis- 

 ions. Our progress was impeded by the time requisite for com- 

 municating the chief's desire and consequent preparation of meal. 

 We received far more food from Shinte's people than from him- 

 self. Kapende, for instance, presented two large baskets of meal, 

 three of manioc roots steeped and dried in the sun and ready to 

 be converted into flour, three fowls, and seven eggs, with three 

 smoke-dried fishes ; and others gave with similar liberality. I 

 gave to the head men small bunches of my stock of beads, with 

 an apology that we were now on our way to the market for these 

 goods. The present was always politely received. 



We had an opportunity of observing that our guides had 

 much more etiquette than any of the tribes farther south. They 

 gave us food, but would not partake of it when we had cooked 

 it, nor would they eat their own food in our presence. When 

 it was cooked they retired into a thicket and ate their porridge ; 

 then all stood up, and clapped their hands, and praised Intemese 

 for it. The Makololo, who are accustomed to the most free and 

 easy manners, held out handfuls of what they had cooked to any 

 of the Balonda near, but they refused to taste. They are very 

 punctilious in their manners to each other. Each hut has its 

 own fire, and when it goes out they make it afresh for themselves 

 rather than take it from a neighbor. I believe much of this 

 arises from superstitious fears. In the deep, dark forests near 

 each village, as already mentioned, you see idols intended to 

 represent the human head or a lion, or a crooked stick smeared 

 with medicine, or simply a small pot of medicine in a little shed, 

 or miniature huts with little mounds of earth in them. But in 

 the darker recesses we meet with human faces cut in the bark 

 of trees, the outlines of which, with the beards, closely resemble 

 those seen on Egyptian monuments. Frequent cuts are made 

 on the trees along all the paths, and offerings of small pieces of 

 manioc roots or ears of maize are placed on branches. There 

 are also to be seen every few miles heaps of sticks, which are 

 treated in cairn fashion, by every one throwing a small branch 

 to the heap in passing ; or a few sticks are placed on the path, 

 and each passer-by turns from his course, and forms a sudden 

 bend in the road to one side. It seems as if their minds were 



