Chap. XIX. 



OPPORTUNE AID. 



365 



demand again. My men stripped off the last of their copper rings 

 and gave tliem ; but lie was still intent on a man. He thought, 

 as others did, that my men were slaves. He was a young man, 

 with his woolly hair elaborately dressed : that behind was made 

 up into a cone, about eight inches in diameter at the base, care- 

 fully swathed round with red and black thread. As I resisted 



Bashinje chiefs mode of wearing the hair. 



the proposal to deliver up my blanket until they had placed us 

 on the western bank, this chief continued to worry us with his 

 demands till I was tired. My little tent was now in tatters, and 

 having a wider hole behind than the door in front, I tried in vain 

 to lie down out of sight of our persecutors. We were on a reedy 

 flat, and could not follow our usual plan of a small stockade, in 

 which we had time to think over and concoct our plans. As I was 

 trying to persuade my men to move on to the bank in spite of 

 these people, a young half-caste Portuguese sergeant of militia, 

 Cypriano di Abreu, made his appearance, and gave the same 

 advice. He had come across the Quango in search of bees'-wax. 

 When we moved off from the chief who had been plaguing us, 

 his people opened a fire from our sheds, and continued to blaze 

 away some time in the direction we were going, but none of the 

 bullets reached us. It is probable that they expected a demon- 



