550 INTKACTABLE HEADMAN. Chap. XXVII. 



and, inspecting the shelter, which, from there being abun- 

 dance of long grass and bushes near, our men put up for 

 us in half an hour, gradually changed his tactics, and, in the 

 evening, presented us with a huge pot of porridge and a deli- 

 ciously well-cooked fowl, and made an apology for having 

 been so rude to strangers, and a lamentation that he had 

 been so foolish as to refuse the fine cloth we had offered. 

 Another cloth was of course presented, and we had the 

 pleasure of parting good friends next day. 



We were not always so fortunate. Once, after a long 

 weary march, we were seeking a convenient spot to spend the 

 night in : the path led through a village, but the headman 

 tried to prevent our entering it. Without paying any atten- 

 tion to his vociferations, we went on and had reached the 

 other side of his hamlet, intending to sleep elsewhere, when 

 something he said induced us to turn back and sit down in 

 the open space in the centre of his castles. He ran off, and, 

 though we spent two nights there, we laboured in vain to 

 bring him to terms. During the first night he tried to steal 

 a blanket off one of the sleepers, and threw a horn among us 

 containing witchcraft medicine : the next night he hurled a 

 more potent missile into our midst in the shape of a big 

 stone. His neighbours, to whom we spoke about his con- 

 duct, seemed to think little of it; "It was like the man, 

 and it was no matter." 



Our guide, who belonged to the stockade near to which we 

 had slept, declined to risk .himself further than his home. 

 While waiting to hire another, Masiko attempted to purchase 

 a goat, and had nearly concluded the bargain, when the wife 

 of the would-be seller came forward, and said to her hus- 

 band, " You appear as if you were unmarried ; selling a goat 

 without consulting your wife; what an insult to a woman! 

 What sort of man are you ? " Masiko urged the man, saying, 



