Cuap. XVIII. DEEP VALLEY. 329 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 



The watershed between the northern and southern rivers — A deep valley — 

 Rustic bridge — Fountains on the slopes of the valleys — Village of Ka- 

 binje — Good effects of the belief in the power of charms — Demand for 

 gunpowder and English calico — The Kasai — Vexatious trick — Want 

 of food — Xo game — Katende's unreasonable demand — A grave offence 



— Toll-bridge keeper — Greedy guides — Flooded valleys — Swim the 

 fiuana Loke — Prompt kindness of my men — Makololo remarks on the 

 rich uncultivated valleys — Difference in the colour of Africans — Reach 

 a village of the Chiboque — The heamdan's impudent message — Sur- 

 rounds our encampment with his warriors — The pretence — Their demand 



— Prospect of a fight — Way in which it was averted — Change our 

 path — Summer — Fever — Beehives and the honey-guide — Instinct of 

 trees — Climbers — The ox Sinbad — Absence of thorns in the forests — 

 Plant peculiar to a forsaken garden — Bad guides — Insubordination sup- 

 pressed — Beset by enemies — A robber party — More troubles — Detained 

 by Ionga Panza — His village — Annoyed by Bangala traders — My men 

 discouraged — Their determination and precaution. 



24tA February. — On reaching unflooded lands beyond the plain, we 

 found the villages there acknowledged the authority of the chief 

 named Kate'nde, and we discovered also, to our surprise, that the 

 almost level plain we had passed, forms the watershed between 

 the southern and northern rivers, for we had now entered a dis- 

 trict in which the rivers flowed in a northerly direction into the 

 Kasai or Loke, near to which we now were, while the rivers we 

 had hitherto crossed were all running southwards. Having met 

 with kind treatment and aid at the first village, Katema's guides 

 returned, and we were led to the N.N.W. by the inhabitants, 

 and descended into the very first really deep valley we had seen 

 since leaving Kolobeng. A stream ran along the bottom of a 

 slope of three or four hundred yards from the plains above. 



We crossed this by a rustic bridge at present submerged 

 thigh deep by the rains. The trees growing along the stream 

 of this lovely valley were thickly planted and very high. 

 Many had sixty or eighty feet of clean straight trunk, and 

 beautiful flowers adorned the ground beneath them. Ascending 

 the opposite side, we came, in two hours' time, to another valley, 



