1871.] MARKET-DAY. 125 



early age of forty. His advice saved me, for this complaint 

 has been my safety-valve. 



The Zingifure, or red pigment, is said to be a cure for 

 itch common among both natives and Arab slaves and Arab 

 children. 



2Qth May. — Abed called Kalonga the headman, who 

 beguiled him as I soon found, and delivered the canoe he 

 had bought formally to me, and went off down the Lualaba 

 on foot to buy the Babisa ivory. I was to follow in the 

 canoe and wait for him in the Eiver Luera, but soon I 

 ascertained that the canoe was still in the forest, and did 

 not belong to Kalonga. On demanding back the price he 

 said, " Let Abed come and I will give it to him ;" then when 

 I sent to force him to give up the goods, all his village fled 

 into the forest : I now tried to buy one myself from the 

 Bagenya, but there was no chance ; so long as the half-caste 

 traders needed any they got all — nine large canoes, and I 

 could not secure one. 



24th May. — The market is a busy scene — everyone is 

 in dead earnest — little time is lost in friendly greetings; 

 vendors of fish run about with potsherds full of snails 

 or small fishes or young Clarias capensis smoke-dried and 

 spitted on twigs, or other relishes to exchange for cassava 

 roots dried after being steeped about three days in water- 

 potatoes, vegetables, or grain, bananas, flour, palm-oil, fowls, 

 salt, pepper ; each is intensely eager to barter food for 

 relishes, and makes strong assertions as to the goodness or 

 badness of everything : the sweat stands in beads on their 

 faces — cocks crow briskly, even when slung over the shoulder 

 with their heads hanging down, and pigs squeal. Iron 

 knobs, drawn out at each end to show the goodness of the 

 metal, are exchanged for cloth of the Muabe palm. They 

 have a large funnel of basket-work below the vessel holding 

 the wares, and slip the goods down if they are not to be 

 seen. They deal fairly, and when differences arise they are 



