ROUGH TREATMENT BY THE M ? BANaALA. 437 
fulfilled, by sending us two or three pounds of 
the meat of our own animal, with many ex- 
pressions of regret at haying nothing else to 
give. It was impossible to avoid laughing at 
the coolness of the generous creatures. I had 
paid away my razors, shirts, and everything I 
could dispense with; but though I showed 
these extortioners the instruments and all we 
had, as being perfectly useless to them, the 
oxen, men, and guns, still remained. "You 
may as well give what we ask for, as we shall 
get the whole to-morrow, after we have killed 
you : or, " You must go back from whence you 
came, and say we sent you were some of the 
witticisms which, with hunger, were making 
us all sulky and savage. If Sekeletu had al- 
lowed my companions to bring their shields, I 
could not have restrained them ; but we never 
came into actual collision, and as far as we are 
concerned, the way is open for our return. On 
the last occasion on which we parted with an 
ox, objections were raised against one which 
had lost his tail, because they imagined a 
charm had been inserted into the stump, which 
might injure them; and the remaining four, 
still in our possession, very soon exhibited the 
same peculiarity of their caudal extremities. 
Attempts have frequently been made by the 
Balonda and other distant tribes, to open up 
