176 
KIDNAPPING 
remedy pretty well, oven though ho had no fover. He had 
always been a friend to Sobituano ; and, now that his son 
Sekoletu was in his place, Shinto was not moroly a friond, 
but a father to him ; and if a son asks a favor the father 
must givo it. Ho was highly pleased with tho Urge cala- 
bashes of clarified butter and fat which Sokeleti had sent 
him, and wished to dotain Kolimbota, that ho might send 
a prosont back to Sokolctu by his hands. This proposition 
wo afterward discovered was Kolimbota’s own, as ho had 
heard so much about the forocity of tho tribes through 
which wo woro to pass that ho wished to savo his skin. 
It will bo seen farther on that ho was tho only on® of our 
party who returned with a wound. 
An incident which occurred while wo woro hero may be 
mentioned, as of a character totally unknown in tho south 
Two children, of sovon and eight years old, went out to 
collect firewood a short distanco from their parents’ homo, 
which was a quarter of a rnilo from tho village, and wore 
kidnapped ; tho distractod parents could not find a traco of 
them. This happened so closo to tho town, where there 
are no beasts of prey, that we suspect somo of tho high 
men of Shinto’s court woro tho guilty parties : they can 
sell thorn by night. Tho Mambari erect largo huts of a 
square shape to stow theso stolon ones in ; thoy aro well fed, 
but aired by night only. Tho frequent kidnapping from 
outlying hamlots explains tho stockades wo saw around 
them : tho parents havo no redress, fer ovon Shinto himself 
seems fond of working in tho dark. One night ho sent for 
mo, though I always stated 1 liked all my doalings to be 
aboveboard. When I came, ho presented mo witn a slave- 
girl about ten yoars old : ho said ho had always boon in the 
habit of presenting his visitors with a child. On my 
thanking him, and saying that I thought it wrong to take 
away children from their parents, that I wishod him to 
givo up this systom altogether and trade in cattle, ivorfi 
and bees’ -wax, ho urged that she was “to bo a child” to 
bring mo water, and that a groat man ought to have a 
