Chap. XYI. CHAEMS. 281 



CHAPTEK XVI. 



Nyamoana's present — Charms — Manenko's pedestrian powers — An idol — 

 Balonda arms — Eain — Hunger — Palisades — Dense forests — Artificial 

 beehives — Mushrooms — Villagers lend the roofs of their houses — Divi- 

 nation and idols — Manenko's whims — A night-alarm — Shinte's mes- 

 sengers and present — The proper way to approach a village — A merman 

 — Enter Shinte's town : its appearance — Meet two half-caste slave- 

 traders — The Makololo scorn them — The Balonda real negroes — Grand 

 reception from Shinte — His kotla — Ceremony of introduction — The 

 orators — Women — Musicians and musical instruments — A disagreeable 

 request — Private interview with Shinte — Give him an ox — Fertility of 

 soil — Manenko's new hut — Conversation with Shinte — Kolimb6ta's 

 proposal — Balonda punctiliousness — Selling children — Kidnapping — 

 Shinte's offer of a slave — Magic-lantern — Alarm of women — Delay — 

 Sambanza returns intoxicated — The last and greatest proof of Shinte's 

 friendship. 



11th January, 1854. — On starting this morning, Samoana (or 

 rather Nyanioana, for the ladies are the chiefs here) presented a 

 string of beads, and a shell highly valued among them, as an 

 atonement for having assisted Manenko, as they thought, to vex 

 me the day before. They seemed anxious to avert any evil 

 which might arise from my displeasure ; but having replied that 

 I never kept up my anger all night, they were much pleased to 

 see me satisfied. We had to cross, in a canoe, a stream winch, 

 flows past the village of Nyamoana. Manenko's doctor waved 

 some charms over her, and she took some in her hand and on 

 her body before she ventured upon the water. One of my men 

 spoke rather loudly when near the doctor's basket of medicines. 

 The doctor reproved Mm, and always spoke in a whisper himself, 

 glancing back to the basket as if afraid of being heard by some- 

 thing therein. So much superstition is quite unknown in the 

 south, and is mentioned here to show the difference in the feel- 

 ings of this new people, and the comparative want of reverence 

 on these points among Caffres and Bechuanas. 



Manenko was accompanied by her husband and her drum- 

 mer; the latter continued to thump most vigorously, until a 

 heavy drizzling mist set in and compelled him to desist. Her 



