360 
ARRIVAL AT THE DWELLING OF THE CHIEF. 
13 July, 
were not. He, indeed, had, some years before, made a journey to the 
Kruman at the time when the Bachapins were residing in a town on 
that river ; but to all the others, this country and its inhabitants, 
were not less new, than they were to myself. 
The buildings were nowhere ranged in the form of streets, nor 
placed according to any regular plan ; but were scattered about, in 
some places far apart, and in others standing so closely together, as 
not to admit a passage for my waggons between them.* 
I had desired Muchunka to conduct us at once to the dwelling 
of the Chief As we proceeded towards the middle of the town and 
the waggons drove past their dwellings, the families ran out to get a 
sight of us ; the women half-astonished, the children half-afraid : but 
the men immediately quitted their employment and added them- 
selves to the countless crowd by which we were already surrounded, 
and almost impeded. Yet, they conducted themselves without the 
least disorderly behaviour or boisterous noise : nor did they, though 
naturally most importunate beggars of tobacco, attempt at this time 
to interrupt our progress by any solicitations of the kind. One man 
who was walking by the side of the waggon, once, as he looked up in 
my face, pronounced the word muchuko (tobacco) ; but no others 
followed his example as I took no notice of it, being fearful, from the 
experience I had already gained, that had I complied with his request, 
the whole crowd would soon have been in an uproar ; and the only 
word to have been distinguished, would have been, muchuko. 
At length we arrived before Mattivis house : it differed in no 
respect from other houses, nor did its appearance exhibit the least 
superiority, or indicate it to be the dwelling of the Chief of so large 
a town, and the ruler of a whole tribe. 
I waited a minute, expecting that the Chief himself, or some 
* The ^th plate will give some idea of the appearance of the town of Litakun, on 
entering it from the west, and looking northward. The various objects seen in this view, 
will be found fully explained in the two last chapters of this volume. On the left, is 
represented a man carrying a parasol made of ostrich-feathers ; and in the middle of the 
picture, are the figures of two women and a child. The large trees are mokaalas, or 
camel thorns. 
