PROPITIATORY OFFERINGS. 283 



to any of the Balonda near, but they refused to taste. 

 They are very punctilious in their manners to each other. 

 Bach hut has its own fire, and when it goes out they make 

 it afresh for themselves rather than take it from a neigh- 

 bour. I believe much of this arises from superstitious 

 fears. In the deep, dark forests near each village, as 

 already mentioned, you see idols intended to represent 

 the human head or a lion, or a crooked stick smeared 

 with medicine, or simply a small pot of medicine in a 

 little shed, or miniature huts with little mounds of earth 

 in them. But in the darker recesses we meet with human 

 faces cut in the bark of trees, the outlines of which, with 

 the beards, closely resemble those seen on Kgyptian monu- 

 ments. Frequent cuts are made on the trees all along 

 the paths, and offerings of small pieces of manioc-roots, 

 or ears of maize, are placed on branches. There are also 

 to be seen every few miles heaps of sticks, which are treated 

 in cairn fashion, by every one throwing a small branch 

 to the heap in passing ; or a few sticks are placed on the 

 path, and each passer-by turns from his course, and 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 pro- 

 pitiate, by their offerings, some superior beings residing 

 there. 



The dress of the Balonda men consists of the softened 

 skins of small animals, as the jackal or wild cat, hung 

 before and behind from a girdle round the loins. The 

 dress of the women is of a nondescript character ; but 

 they were not immodest. They stood before us as per- 

 fectly unconscious of any indecorum as we could be with 

 our clothes on. But, while ignorant of their own de- 

 ficiency, they could not maintain their gravity at the 

 sight of the nudity of my men behind. Much to the 

 annoyance of my companions, the young girls laughed 

 outright whenever their backs were turned to them. 



After crossing the I/onaje, we came to some pretty 

 villages, embowered, as the negro villages usually are, 

 in bananas, shrubs, and manioc, and near the banks of 

 the I^eeba we formed our encampment in a nest of ser- 

 pents, one of which bit one of our men, but the wound 

 was harmless. The people of the surrounding villages 

 presented us with large quantities of food, in obedience to 

 the mandate of Shinte, without expecting any equivalent. 



