154 
MAMBARI TRADERS. 
chiofti would be pleased to hear that they had treated us 
well : wo gave them pieces of meat in return. 
Whon crossing at the confluence of the Lcoba and Ma- 
kondo, ono of my men picked up a bit of a steel watch 
chain of English manufacture, and we wero informed that 
this was tho spot whore the Marnbari cross in coming to 
Masiko. Thoir visits explain why Sekclenke kept his tusks 
so carefully. Thcso Marnbari are very enterprising mer- 
chants : when they mean to trade with a town, they delibe- 
rately begin the affair by building huts, as if they know 
that little business could be iransacted without a liboral 
allowance of timo for palaver. They bring Manchester 
goods into tho heart of Africa; thcso cotton prints look so 
wonderful that tho Makololo could not believo them to bo 
tho work of mortal hands. On questioning tho Marnbari, 
they were answered that English manufactures came out of 
the sea, and beads were gathered on its shore. To Africans 
our cotton-mills are fairy dreams. “ How can the irons spin, 
weave, and print so beautifully?” Our country is like what 
Taprobane was to our ancestors, — a strange realm of light, 
whence came tho diamond, muslin, and peacocks ; an attempt 
at explanation of our manufactures usually elicits the expres- 
sion, “ Truly ye are gods!” 
When about to leave the Makondo, one of my men had 
dreamed that Mos&ntu was shut up a prisoner in a stockade: 
this dream depressed thc^ spirits of the whole party, and 
when I came out of my little tent in the morning, they 
were sitting tho pictures of abject sorrow. I asked if wo 
wore to bo guided by dreams, or by the authority I dorivod 
from Sekclotu, and ordered them to load tho boats at once; 
they soemod ashamed to confess their fears; tho Makololo 
picked up courago and upbraided tho others for having 
such superstitious views, and said this was always thoir 
way: if oven a certain bird called to them, they would turn 
back from an enterprise, saying it was unlucky. They 
entered tho canoes at last, and were tho better of a little 
scolding for ooing inclinod to put dreams befori authority- 
