282 AN IDOL- BALONDA ARMS. Chap. XVL 



husband used various incantations and vociferations to drive 

 away the rain, but down it poured incessantly, and on our Amazon 

 went, in the very lightest marching order, and at a pace that few of 

 the men could keep up with. Being on ox-back, I kept pretty 

 close to our leader, and asked her why she did not clothe herself 

 during the rain, and learned that it is not considered proper for 

 a chief to appear effeminate. He or she must always wear the 

 appearance of robust youth, and bear vicissitudes without winc- 

 ing. My men, in admiration of her pedestrian powers, every 

 now and then remarked, " Manenko is a soldier ;" and thoroughly 

 wet and cold, we were all glad when she proposed a halt to pre- 

 pare our night's lodging on the banks of a stream. 



The country through winch we were passing was the same 

 succession of forest and open lawns as formerly mentioned — ■ 

 the trees were nearly all evergreens, and of good, though not very 

 gigantic, size. The lawns were covered with grass, wliich in 

 tlnckness of crop looked like ordinary English hay. We passed 

 two small hamlets surrounded by gardens of maize and manioc, 

 and near each of these I observed, for the first time, an ugly idol 

 common in Londa — the figure of an animal, resembling an alli- 

 gator, made of clay. It is formed of grass, plastered over with 

 soft clay ; two cowrie-shells are inserted as eyes, and numbers of 

 the bristles from the tail of an elephant are stuck in about the 

 neck. It is called a lion, though, if one were not told so, he 

 would conclude it to be an alligator. It stood in a shed, and the 

 Balonda pray and beat drums before it all night in cases of sick- 

 ness. 



Some of the men of Manenko's train had shields made of 

 reeds, neatly woven into a square shape, about five feet long and 

 three broad. With these, and short broadswords and sheaves of 

 iron-headed arrows, they appeared rather ferocious. But the 

 constant habit of wearing arms is probably only a substitute for 

 the courage they do not possess. We always deposited our fire- 

 arms and spears outside a village before entering it, while the 

 Balonda, on visiting us at our encampment, always came fully 

 armed, until we ordered them either to lay down their weapons 

 or be off. Next day we passed through a piece of forest so 

 dense that no one could have penetrated it without an axe. It 

 was flooded, not by the river, but by the heavy rains which 



