SEKEXENKE'S PRESENT. 251 



live far to the N.W. ; their language, the Bonda, is the 

 common dialect in Angola. Sekelenke had fled, and 

 was now living with his village as a vassal of Masiko. 

 As notices of such men will perhaps convey the best idea 

 of the state of the inhabitants to the reader, I shall here- 

 after allude to the conduct of Sekelenke, whom I at 

 present only introduce. Sekelenke had gone with his 

 villagers to hunt elephants on the right bank of the L,eeba, 

 and was now on his way back to Masiko. He sent me 

 a dish of boiled zebra's flesh, and a request that I should 

 lend him a canoe to ferry his wives and family across the 

 river to the bank on which we were encamped. Many 

 of Sekelenke' s people came to salute the first white man 

 they ever had an opportunity of seeing ; but Sekelenke 

 himself did not come near. We heard he was offended 

 with some of his people for letting me know he was among 

 the company. He said that I should be displeased with 

 him for not coming and making some present. This was 

 the only instance in which I was shunned in this quarter. 



As it would have been impolitic to pass Manenko, or 

 any chief, without at least showing so much respect as 

 to call and explain the objects of our passing through 

 the country, we waited two entire days for the return 

 of the messengers to Manenko ; and as I could not hurry 

 matters, I went into the adjacent country to search for 

 meat for the camp. 



The country is furnished largely with forest, having 

 occasionally open lawns covered with grass, not in tufts 

 as in the south., but so closely planted that one cannot 

 see the soil. We came upon a man and his two wives 

 and children, burning coarse rushes and the stalks of tsitla, 

 growing in a brackish marsh, in order to extract a kind of 

 salt from the ashes. They make a funnel of branches of 

 trees, and line it with grass rope, twisted round until it 

 is, as it were, a beehive-roof inverted. The ashes are put 

 into water, in a calabash, and then it is allowed to per- 

 colate through the small hole in the bottom and through 

 the grass. When this water is evaporated in the sun, 

 it yields sufficient salt to form a relish with food. The 

 women and children fled with precipitation, but we sat 

 down at a distance, and allowed the man time to gain 

 courage enough to speak. He, however, trembled ex- 

 cessively at the apparition before him ; but when we 

 explained that our object was to hunt game, and not men, 



