Chap. XY. INTERVIEW WITH FEMALE CHIEF. 273 



The favourite wife, who was also present, was equally anxious 

 for butter. She had a profusion of iron rings on her ankles, to 

 which were attached little pieces of sheet-iron, to enable her to 

 make a tinkling as she walked in her mincing African style ; the 

 same thing is thought pretty by our own dragoons in walking 

 jauntingly. 



We had so much rain and cloud, that I could not get a single 

 observation for either longitude or latitude for a fortnight. Yet 

 the Leeba does not show any great rise, nor is the water in the 

 least discoloured. It is slightly black, from the number of mossy 

 rills which fall into it. It has remarkably few birds and fish, 

 while the Leeambye swarms with both. It is noticeable that 

 alligators here, possess more of the fear of man than in the 

 Leeambye. The Balonda have taught them, by their poisoned 

 arrows, to keep out of sight. We did not see one basking in the 

 sun. The Balonda set so many little traps for birds, that few 

 appear. I observed, however, many (to me) new small birds of 

 song on its banks. More rain has been falling in the east than 

 here, for the Leeambye was rising fast and working against 

 the sandy banks so vigorously, that a slight yellow tinge was 

 perceptible in it. 



One of our men was bitten by a non-venomous serpent, and 

 of course felt no harm. The Barotse concluded, that this was 

 owing to many of them being present and seeing it, as if the 

 sight of human eyes could dissolve the poison, and act as a 

 chann. 



On the 6th of January, we reached the village of another 

 female chief, named Nyamoana, who is said to be the mother of 

 Manenko, and sister of Shinte or Kabompo, the greatest Balonda 

 chief in this part of the country. Her people had but recently 

 come to the present locality, and had erected only twenty huts. 

 Her husband, Samoana, was clothed in a kilt of green and red 

 baize, and was armed with a spear, and a broad-sword of antique 

 form, about eighteen inches long and three broad. The chief 

 and her husband, were sitting on skins, placed in the middle of a 

 circle, thirty paces in diameter, a little raised above the ordinary 

 level of the ground, and having a trench round it. Outside the 

 trench sat about a hundred persons of all ages and both sexes : 

 the men were well armed with bows, arrows, spears, and broad- 



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