MANENKO TAKES COMMAND. 141 



power to render the weary and sick explorer comfortable. It 

 was not in her power to yield her will, perhaps ; that is a hard 

 thing for men to do, and more than should be expected of her. 



With the morning of January 11th the delay ended. The 

 journey lay first across a succession of forests and lawns, where 

 the largest evergreens were exchanged for the richest carpets 

 of green grass. The singular little army marched gallantly 

 along through the driving rain — the queenly Manenko in 

 advance, in her coat of red grease, the picture of inde- 

 pendence. And she led the party at a right good pace, and 

 so steadily that they were rejoiced when she would finally allow 

 them to rest. The Makololo, who were as unaccustomed to 

 such leadership as Dr. Livingstone, were full of admiration for 

 this phenomenon in that line, and declared that Manenko was 

 " a soldier" 



It is the custom in the Balonda country for the men to carry 

 their arms, and wherever our party pitched their tent they 

 were surrounded by numbers of ferocious-looking individuals 

 with short swords and quivers of the wickedest-looking iron- 

 headed arrows. They did not receive the same attentions, how- 

 ever, which had cheered their way through the Makololo tribes, 

 and found none of the ready hospitality which made them 

 almost careless of supplies. The missionary was made to add 

 hunger to the record of hardships. Fever, rain, hunger, day 

 after day, tells a story of painful sacrifice, and the gentleness, 

 the faith and perseverance which could not be overcome, tell of 

 singular greatness and God's upholding. The houses are the 

 ordinary huts, but they are unlike the homes farther south, in 

 being surrounded by strong palisades, as if designed to be fort- 

 resses in case of war. War does not spare the enlightened or 

 benighted: it is everywhere. The trees of the forests along this 

 route were of the finest proportions, such as would almost turn 

 the head of a lumberman; but they suggest no ideas of wealth 

 or greater comfort to the rude men who shoot their arrows 

 among their branches or stalk the game in their deep shadows. 



The gloomy depths of these forests seem to cast a shadow on 

 the spirits of the dark beings who dwell in them ; charms and 

 medicines are found in most unexpected places, and idols are 

 more numerous as the forests deepen. The idols of Balonda 



