Chap. XVI. FERTILITY OF SOIL. 295 



man ; then all the company joined in the response by clapping 

 of hands too. 



After the more serious business was over, I asked if he had 

 ever seen a white man before. He replied, " Never ; you are 

 the very first I have seen with a white skin and straight hair ; 

 your clothing too is different from any we have ever seen." 

 They had been visited by native Portuguese and Mambari 

 only. 



On learning from some of the people that " Shinte's mouth 

 was bitter for want of tasting ox-flesh," I presented him with an 

 ox, to his great delight ; and as his country is so well adapted 

 for cattle, I advised him to begin a trade in cows with the Mako- 

 lolo. He was pleased with the idea ; and when we returned 

 from Loanda, we found that he had profited by the hint, for he 

 had got three, and one of them justified my opinion of the coun- 

 try, for it was more like a prize heifer for fatness than any we 

 had seen in Africa. He soon afterwards sent us a basket of 

 green maize boiled, another of manioc-meal, and a small fowl. 

 The maize shows by its size the fertility of the black soil of all 

 the valleys here, and so does the manioc, though no manure is 

 ever applied. We saw manioc attain a height of six feet and 

 upwards, and this is a plant winch requires the very best soil. 



During this time Manenko had been extremely busy with all 

 her people in getting up a very pretty hut and court-yard, to be, 

 as she said, her residence always when white men were brought 

 by her along the same path. When she heard that we had given 

 an ox to her uncle, she came forward to us with the air of one 

 wronged, and explained that " This white man belonged to her ; 

 she had brought him here, and therefore the ox was hers, not 

 Shinte's." She ordered her men to bring it, got it slaughtered 

 by them, and presented her uncle with a leg only. Shinte did 

 not seem at all annoyed at the occurrence. 



19th. — I was awakened at an early hour by a messenger from 

 Shinte, but the thirst of a raging fever being just assuaged, 

 by the bursting forth of a copious perspiration, I declined going 

 for a few hours. Violent action of the heart all the way to the 

 town, did not predispose me to be patient with the delay which 

 then occurred, probably on account of the divination being unfa- 

 vourable : " They could not find Shinte." When I returned to 



