56 BLACK GLAZE ON ROCKS. Chap. IL 



They hailed us from the bank in the evening with " Why 

 don't you come and sleep on she re like other people ?" 



The answer they received from our Makololo, who now 

 felt as independent as the Banyai, was, "We are held to 

 the bottom Avith iron ; you may see we are not like your 

 Bazungu." 



This hint, a little amplified, saved us from the usual exac- 

 tions. It is pleasant to give a present, but that pleasure the 

 Banyai usually deny to strangers by making it a fine, and 

 demanding it in such a supercilious way, that only a 

 sorely-cowed trader could bear it. They often refuse to 

 touch what is offered — throw it down and leave it — sneer 

 at the trader's slaves, and refuse a passage until the tribute 

 is raised to the utmost extent of his means. 



Leaving the steamer next morning, we proceeded on foot, 

 accompanied by a native Portuguese and his men and a 

 dozen Makololo, who carried our baggage. The morning was 

 pleasant, the hills on our right furnished for a time a delight- 

 ful shade ; but before long the path grew frightfully rough, 

 and the hills no longer shielded us from the blazing sun. 

 Scarcely a vestige of a track was now visible; and, indeed, 

 had not our guide assured us to the contrary, we should have 

 been innocent of even the suspicion of a way along the patches 

 of soft yielding sand, and on the great rocks over which we so 

 painfully clambered. These rocks have a singular appear- 

 ance, from being dislocated and twisted in every direction, 

 and covered with a thin black glaze, as if highly polished and 

 coated with lamp-black varnish. This seems to have been 

 deposited while the river was in flood, for it covers only 

 those rocks which lie between the highest water-mark 

 and a line about four feet above the lowest. Travellers 

 who have visited the rapids of the Orinoco and the Congo 



