Chap. XVI. MANENKO'S WHIMS,. 287 



not, &c, I learned that the Balonda, and even the Barotse, 

 believe that divination may be performed by means of these 

 blocks of wood and clay ; and though the wood itself could not 

 hear, the owners had medicines by which it could be made to 

 hear and give responses ; so that if an enemy were approaching 

 they would have full information. Manenko having brought us 

 to a stand, on account of slight indisposition and a desire to send 

 forward notice of our approach to her uncle, I asked why it was 

 necessary to send forward information of our movements, if 

 Shinte had idols who could tell him everything ? " She did it 

 only," * was the reply. It is seldom of much use to show one 

 who worships idols the folly of idolatry, without giving something 

 else as an object of adoration instead. They do not love them. 

 They fear them, and betake themselves to their idols only when 

 in perplexity and danger. 



Whilst delayed, by M anenko's management, among the Ba- 

 londa villages, a little to the south of the town of Shinte, we 

 were well supplied by the villagers with sweet potatoes and 

 green maize ; Sambanza went to his mother's village for sup- 

 plies of other food. I was labouring under fever, and did not 

 find it very difficult to exercise patience with her whims ; but it 

 being Saturday, I thought we might as well go to the town for 

 Sunday (15th.) "No; her messenger must return from her 

 uncle first." Being sure that the answer of the uncle would be 

 favourable, I thought we might go on at once, and not lose two 

 days in the same spot. " No, it is our custom ;" and everything 

 else I could urge was answered in the genuine pertinacious lady 

 style. She ground some meal for me with her own hands, and, 

 when she brought it, told me she had actually gone to a village 

 and begged corn for the purpose. She said this with an air as 

 if the inference must be drawn by even a stupid white man : 

 " I know how to manage, don't I ? " It was refreshing to get 

 food which could be eaten without producing the unpleasantness 

 described by the Bev. John Newton, of St. Mary's, Woolnoth, 

 London, when obliged to eat the same roots while a slave in the 

 West Indies. The day (January 14th) for a wonder was fan, and 



* This is a curious African idiom, by which a person implies le had no 

 particular reason for his act. 



