188 PREVALENCE OF SUPERSTITION. Chap. XV. 



contained, they replied, "Medicine for the Barimo ;" but 

 when I looked into them, they said they were medicine for 

 the game. We saw the first evidence of idolatry in the 

 remains of an old idol at a deserted village. It simply 

 consisted of a human head carved out of a block of wood. 

 Certain charms, mixed with red ochre and white pipeclay, are 

 dotted over the idols when they are in use ; and a crooked stick 

 is used instead of an idol in the absence of a professional carver. 



The trees all along the paths are marked with incisions, 

 and offerings of small pieces of manioc-roots, or ears of maize, 

 are placed on branches. Heaps of sticks may be seen at 

 intervals of a few miles, raised cairn -fashion by every passer- 

 by adding a small branch to the heap ; or a few sticks are 

 placed on the path, and at these points each passer-by forms 

 a sudden bend in the road to one side. It seems as if their 

 minds were ever in doubt and dread in these gloomy recesses 

 of the forest, and that they were striving to propitiate by their 

 offerings some superior beings residing there. 



As the Leeba seemed to come from the direction in which 

 we wished to go, I was desirous of proceeding farther up with 

 the canoes ; but Xyamoana interposed numerous objections, 

 and the arrival of Manenko herself settled the point in the 

 negative. She was a tall strapping woman about twenty 

 years of age, and distinguished by a profusion of ornaments 

 and medicines, which latter are supposed to act as charms. 

 Her body was smeared all over with a mixture of fat and 

 red ochre, as a protection against the weather ; a necessary 

 precaution, for, like most of the Balonda ladies, she was in a 

 state of frightful nudity, not so much from want of clothing 

 as from her peculiar ideas of elegance in dress. When she 

 arrived with her husband, Sambanza, they listened for some 

 time to the statements I was making to the people of Nya- 

 moana ; after which her husband commenced an oration, 

 during the delivery of which he picked up a little sand at 

 intervals of two or three seconds, and rubbed it on the upper 

 part of his arms and chest. This is a common mode of 

 salutation in Londa; and when they wish to be excessively 

 polite they bring a quantity of ashes or pipeclay in a piece 

 of skin, and rub it on the chest and upper front part of each 

 ann; others drum their ribs with their elbows; while others 



