276 MODE OF SALUTATION. Chap. XV. 



rejoined, that the Balobale would not kill me, but the Makololo 

 would all be sacrificed as their enemies. This produced con- 

 siderable effect on my companions, and inclined them to the 

 plan of Nyamoana, of going to the town of her brother, rather 

 than ascending the Leeba. The arrival of Manenko herself on 

 the scene, tlirew so much weight into the scale on their side, that 

 I was forced to yield the point. 



Manenko was a tall strapping woman about twenty, distin- 

 guished by a profusion of ornaments and medicines hung round 

 her person ; the latter are supposed to act as charms. Her body 

 was smeared all over with a mixture of fat and red ochre, as a 

 protection against the weather ; a necessary precaution, for, like 

 most of the Balonda ladies, she was otherwise in a state of 

 frightful nudity. This was not from want of clothing, for, being 

 a chief, she might have been as well clad as any of her subjects, 

 but from her peculiar ideas of elegance in dress. When she 

 arrived with her husband, Sambanza, they listened for some time 

 to the statements I was making to the people of Nyamoana, 

 after which the husband, acting as spokesman, commenced an 

 oration, stating the reasons for their coming, and, during every 

 two or three seconds of the delivery, he picked up a little sand, 

 and rubbed it on the upper part of his arms and chest. This is 

 a common mode of salutation in Londa ; and when they wish 

 to be excessively polite, they bring a quantity of ashes or pipe- 

 clay in a piece of skin, and, taking up handfuls, rub it on the 

 chest and upper front part of each arm ; others, in saluting, drum 

 their ribs with their elbows ; while others still, touch the ground 

 with one cheek after the other, and clap their hands. The chiefs 

 go through the manoeuvre of rubbing the sand on the arms, but 

 only make a feint at picking up some. When Sambanza had 

 finished his oration, he rose up, and showed his ankles orna- 

 mented with a bundle of copper rings ; had they been very 

 heavy, they would have made him adopt a straggling walk. 

 Some chiefs have really so many, as to be forced, by the weight 

 and size, to keep one foot apart from the other; the weight 

 being a serious inconvenience in walking. The gentlemen like 

 Sambanza, who wish to imitate their betters, do so in their 

 walk ; so you see men, with only a few ounces of ornament on 

 their legs, strutting along as if they had double the number of 



