156 
Seven Years in Central Africa. 
[Dec, 
it, looking suspiciously at the back of the chair. He never asked 
for anything, but kept looking about him, and then at me, with a 
pair of eyes like needles for sharpness. When I observed him 
afterwards speaking to his own people, I saw what I suspected 
was the case — that the little slim, wiry body, so cautious in its 
movements, was full of activity and energy. He was sorry I 
could only remain with him one day, and gave me a goat as a 
present. 
^th. — Marched for Kobongo; crowds of people everywhere; 
country very flat and full of marshes. Travelling is most trying 
work over these exposed flats, under a vertical sun. I should 
suppose that there is a splendid opening for mission-work here ; 
crowds of people on all hands. The country may be unhealthy 
to a European, but the natives, judging from their looks, find it 
healthy ; they have not the sunken eyes and sallow skins of the 
Barotse and others who inhabit marshy countries. They tell me 
that in the dry season it is so cold that " the trees and grass dry 
up ; " so there must be some degrees of frost annually, owing, I 
suppose, to the altitude and exposed nature of the country. 
THE TRIBES TO THE EAST OF BIHE. 
As to-morrow I expect to meet with a caravan bound west- 
wards, I will sum up this portion of my diary with general re- 
marks upon the inhabitants of the countries east of Bihe. 
The Va- or Ba-loimbe, living along the Quanza and three 
days' journey east of that river, seem to be naturally a quiet, 
industrious people, given to fishing, herding cattle, and the 
manufacture of native pottery. They have been much disturbed 
by the inhabitants of Bihe, and everywhere there are the remains 
of what were once large villages, burned down by those robbers. 
Next come the Bachibokwe, a wandering people seeking for 
beeswax or hunting game; they work in wood and iron very 
neatly, and expend much ingenuity in ornamenting their guns 
and other weapons. They have the name of being very quarrel- 
some and ready to fall out with travellers. But I experienced 
nothing of the kind, except that a company of beeswax hunters- 
robbed one of my men who had fallen behind the caravan. 
They build very mean-looking villages — mere camps, in fact^ 
hid among the trees, and often far from water. 
