Chap. XVI £ MERMAN. 197 



baskets of manioc and six dried fishes. His men Lad the skin 

 of a monkey, called in their tongue " poluma " (Culobus guereza), 

 of a jet black colour, except the long mane, which is pure 

 white. They behaved with reverence at our religious 

 services — a circumstance of some importance when we 

 remember the almost total want of reverence we encountered 

 in the south. 



Our friends informed us that Shinte would be highly 

 honoured by the presence of three white men in his town at 

 once. Two others had sent notice of their approach from the 

 west. How pleasant the prospect of meeting with Europeans in 

 such an out-of-the-way region ! The rush of thoughts made me 

 almost forget my fever. " Are they of the same colour as I am ?" 

 I inquired. — "Yes; exactly so." — "And have the same hair?" 

 — " Is that hair ?" was the rejoinder; " we thought it was a 

 wig ; we never saw the like before ; this white man must be 

 of the sort that lives in the sea." Henceforth my men sounded 

 my praises as a true specimen of the variety of white men 

 who live in the sea. " Only look at his hair," they exclaimed ; 

 " it is made quite straight by the sea-water !" I repeatedly 

 explained to them that, when it was said we came out of the 

 sea, it did not mean that we came from beneath the water; 

 but the fiction has been widely spread in the interior by the 

 Mambari, that the real white men live in the sea, and I 

 believe that my men always represented themselves to the 

 natives as led by a genuine merman. As the strangers had 

 woolly hair, I gave up the idea of meeting anything more 

 European than two half-caste Portuguese, engaged in trading 

 for slaves, ivory, and bees'-wax. 



16th. — After a short march we came to a most lovely valley 

 stretching away eastwards up to a low prolongation of 

 Monakadzi. A small stream meanders down the centre of 

 this pleasant glen ; and on a little rill, which flows into it 

 from the western side, stands the town of Shinte. (Lat. 12° 

 37' 35" S., long. 22° 47' E.) When Manenko thought the sun 

 high enough for us to make a lucky entrance, we proceeded. 

 The town was embowered in banana and other tropical trees ; 

 the streets were straight, and presented a complete contrast to 

 those of the Bechuanas, which are very tortuous. The native 

 huts had square walls and round roofs, and were enclosed with 



Q 



