100 
Seven Years in Central Africa. [June, 
OXEN BEWITCHED. 
May 2^th. — The oxen refusing to cross the river, were sent 
up stream to look for a ford. 
2(ith. — There being no signs of the oxen, we started for the 
Kuti river (Cuchibe of Serpa Pinto), crossing four hills and three 
valleys. 
2']th. — One of the carriers who has a familiar spirit, being 
asked to divine why the oxen would not cross the Shikoloi, 
called up the spirit of an old servant of Senhor Porto's, who said 
that he had stopped the oxen because presents had not been 
given to his friends after his death. One of his frie?ids was 
amongst the company of carriers ! 
THE BAKUTI. 
May 2,0th. — Deciding to visit the line of small towns along 
this river belonging to the Bakuti, a people akin to the Bam- 
bunda, we got a boat and pulled up the stream, stopping at all 
the huts and small villages. The people showed much frankness, 
and said how glad they were to see an English " for the first 
time. I asked them to gather together at their chief town in 
two days' time, and then I would speak to them. 
3 1 J-/. — All day buying food, which the people bring in abund- 
ance. I never saw food anywhere in Africa so cheap as it is 
here. A piece of calico, about the size of a handkerchief, will 
buy about twenty pounds of meal or a calabash of honey. 
INTERESTING AUDIENCES. 
fune ist. — In the afternoon a goodly company had assembled 
to be spoken to, all men; for * everywhere in Africa the women 
are the most conservative and the most difficult to persuade 
into receiving anything new, and here they had shut themselves 
up in their huts. These people had lived in such seclusion that 
they knew nothing of teachers living amongst other tribes, the 
limit of their knowledge being the west-coast trader, his goods, 
his ivory, and, in past years, his string of slaves. Speaking 
through my interpreter, Antonio, I told them in the simplest 
language of God the Creator, of man's departure from Him, of 
the sending forth of God's Son as a Saviour, and of His now 
sending messengers throughout the world to call men back to 
