VISIT OF MANENKO. 257 



on a block of wood. Certain charms mixed with red 

 ochre and white pipe-clay are dotted over them, when 

 they are in use ; and a crooked stick is used in the same 

 way for an idol, when they have no professional carver. 



As the Leeba seemed still to come from the direction 

 in which we wished to go, I was desirous of proceeding 

 farther up with the canoes ; but Nyamoana was anxious 

 that we should allow her people to conduct us to her 

 brother Shinte ; and when I explained the advantage 

 of water-carriage, she represented that her brother did 

 not live near the river, and, moreover, there was a cataract 

 in front, over which it would be difficult to convey the 

 canoes. She was afraid, too, that the Balobale, whose 

 country lies to the west of the river, not knowing the 

 objects for which we had come, would kill us. To my 

 reply, that I had been so often threatened with death 

 if I visited a new tribe, that I was now more afraid of killing 

 any one than of being killed, she rejoined, that the Balo- 

 bale would not kill me, but the Makololo would all be 

 sacrificed as their enemies. This produced considerable 

 effect on my companions, and inchned them to the plan 

 of Nyamoana, of going to the town of her brother, rather 

 than ascending the Iyeeba. The arrival of Manenko 

 herself on the scene, threw so much weight into the scale 

 on their side, that I was forced to yield the point. 



Manenko was a tall strapping woman about twenty, 

 distinguished by a profusion of ornaments and medicines 

 hung round her person ; the 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 otherwise in a state of frightful nudity. 

 This was not from want of clothing, for, being a chief, 

 she might have been as well clad as any of her subjects, 

 but 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 Nyamoana, after which the husband, acting as 

 spokesman, commenced an oration, stating the reasons 

 for their coming, and, during every two or three seconds 

 of the delivery, he picked up a little sand, 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 



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