242 Seven Years in Central Africa. 
a very disagreeable odour. This uncourteous creature was the 
Ocimbanda (fetish doctor). She did not cease her dousing work 
till she had favoured all sitting around. The king then went into 
the house, and his wife came out with some cloth, which she tied 
round the mother's waist ; and then a piece of cloth was given to 
the husband. The friends had brought some native beer, and 
when Msidi came out he went to one of the pots, filled his mouth, 
spurting the beer into his wife's face ; she did the same to him, after 
which the spurting became general. I did not think that Msidi 
would stoop to such undignified ways, but they told me it was 
their custom to act thus when twins were born." 
The dangers children are exposed to, where wild animals are so 
numerous, compels the parents to take especial care of them. I 
did not understand this at first, and used often to grieve over the 
fact that I could not get the children to come freely to my house, 
till I learned that it was because of the parents' care for them 
that they were not allowed to leave their own compounds without 
permission. 
Children of slaves are treated as " nobody's " children^ though 
they are the property of " somebody." The life of a slave can 
be compensated for by cloth, goats, or other things of like value ; 
but the life of "somebody's" child can only be compensated for 
by five slaves. If a freeborn child were lost or devoured by wild 
animals, the father would have to pay its value to his wife's 
relatives, as, strange to say, freeborn children are in some parts 
supposed to belong entirely to their mother. 
HOW SLAVES ARE MADE. 
The actual slaves of the country are either captives newly 
taken in war, or the children of slaves ; but their descendants 
after the third or fourth generation, are reckoned as free-born. 
War is, to a great extent, carried on for the sake of making 
captives ; and on account of this the king has often difficulty in 
restraining his soldiers from extending their raiding expeditions 
mercilessly, when once he has banded them together to attack any 
chief I never saw Msidi to better advantage than when, one day 
addressing his own nephew, he declared his indignation against 
him because, having been sent out to attack a rebel chief, he had 
afterwards raided upon some peaceful Lamba villages to enrich 
