140 



NON-COSTUME AND LOEDSHIP. 



against chiefs, yielded the controversy to two women, and began 

 preparations for an awful march through swamps and floods. 

 As Manenko assumed to direct this expedition, and requires us 

 to follow her majestic leadership for many days, we will take 

 time for her acquaintance. She is described as tall, strapping 

 and twenty. She was most elaborately arrayed in a coating of 

 red ochre ; only that and " nothing more," unless the strands of 

 ornaments and medicine charms about her neck may be called 

 clothing. The non-costume, which she prided herself on, was 

 intended to teach her people to despise anything effeminate. 

 Indeed, the whole Balonda people are singularly negligent of 

 clothing; the women particularly seldom wear anything but 

 ornaments, and are seen everywhere in frightful nudity. The 

 men are hardly better arrayed, and seem equally fond of orna- 

 ments. The most prevalent insignia of wealth and position 

 consist in the rings which are worn about the ankles. Some 

 chiefs put on so many that they walk with considerable diffi- 

 culty, and are forced to keep their feet far apart. And those 

 gentlemen who are desirous to appear important are often noticed 

 assuming the difficult gait of their betters. When Livingstone 

 smiled at seeing one of these gentlemen walking as if his limbs 

 were burdened, when really there were only one or two small 

 rings to be seen, one of the people remarked, "That is the way 

 they show off their lordship in these parts." 



From the village of Nyamoana, the party were to abandon 

 the canoes and strike out into the forests ; and the preparations 

 necessarily occupied some days, particularly as the self-willed 

 Manenko preserved a most despotic indifference to the impa- 

 tience of her guest, and took her own time as well as her own 

 methods in the matter. It was exceedingly trying to Living- 

 stone, reduced to the meanest diet, and exposed to the most 

 inclement weather, to be arrested by this petticoat government; 

 but the daily specimens of our lady's attainments in the pecu- 

 liarly feminine art of scolding which came under his notice kept 

 him in subjection, and he could only obey, when she met his re- 

 bellion by very quietly and authoritatively putting her hand on 

 his shoulder, and reminding him of the ready submission of his 

 followers, adding: "Now, my little man, just do as they have 

 done." Manenko, however, was really kind, and did all in her 



