304 PUNCTILIOUSNESS OF THE BALONDA. Chap. XVII. 



Our chief guide, Intemese, sent orders to all the villages 

 around our route that Shinte's friends must have abundance of 

 provisions. Our progress was impeded by the time requisite for 

 communicating the chief's desire, and consequent preparation of 

 meal. We received far more food from Shinte's people than 

 from himself. Kapende, for instance, presented two large baskets 

 of meal, three of manioc-roots steeped and dried in the sun and 

 ready to be converted into flour, three fowls and seven eggs, with 

 three smoke-dried fishes ; and others gave with similar liberality. 

 I gave to the headmen small bunches of my stock of beads, with 

 an apology that we were now on our way to the market for these 

 goods. The present was always politely received. 



We had an opportunity of observing that our guides had 

 much more etiquette than any of the tribes farther south. They 

 gave us food, but would not partake of it when we had cooked 

 it ; nor would they eat their own food in our presence. When 

 it was cooked they retired into a thicket, and ate their porridge ; 

 then all stood up, and clapped their hands, and praised Intemese 

 for it. The Makololo, who are accustomed to the most free and 

 easy manners, held out handfuls of what they had cooked to any 

 of the Balonda near, but they refused to taste. They are very 

 punctilious in their manners to each other. Each hut has its 

 own fire, and when it goes out they make it afresh for themselves 

 rather than take it from a neighbour. I believe much of this 

 arises from superstitious fears. In the deep, dark forests near 

 each village, as already mentioned, you see idols intended to 

 represent the human head or a lion, or a crooked stick smeared 

 with medicine, or simply a small pot of medicine in a little shed, 

 or miniature huts with little mounds of earth in them. But in 

 the darker recesses we meet with human faces cut in the bark of 

 trees, the outlines of which, with the beards, closely resemble 

 those seen on Egyptian monuments. Frequent cuts are made 

 on the trees all along the paths, and offerings of small pieces of 

 manioc-roots, or ears of maize, are placed on branches. There 

 are also to be seen every few miles heaps of sticks, which are 

 treated in cairn fashion, by every one throwing a small branch 

 to the heap in passing ; or a few sticks are placed on the path, 

 and each passer-by turns from his course, and forms a sudden 

 bend in the road to one side. It seems as if their minds were 



