VILLAGES BEYOND THE LONAJE 
18 ) 
woman takes up the roots, she thrusts a piece or two of 
the upper stalks into the hole she has made, draws back 
the soil, and a new crop is thereby begun. The plant grows 
to a height of six feet, and every part of it is useful ; the 
loaves may be cooked as a vegetable. Tho roots are from 
three to four inches in diameter, and from twelve tc 
eighteen inches long. 
There are two varieties of the manioc or cassava,— one 
sweet and wholesome, the other bitter and containing 
poison, but much more speedy in its growth than the 
former This last property causes its perpetuation. 
Our chief guide, Intemese, sent orders to all the villages 
around our route that Shinte’s friends must have abundance 
of provisions. Our progress was impeded by ths time re- 
quisite for communicating tho chief's desire and consequent 
preparation of meal. Wo received far more food from 
Shinte’s people than from himself. Kapende, for instance, 
presented two large baskets of meal, three of manioc-ioota 
steeped and dried in the sun and ready to be converted 
into flour, three fowls, and seven eggs, with three smoke- 
dried fishes; and others gave with similar liberality. 1 
gave to the head-men small bunches of my stock of beads, 
with an apology that wo were now on our way to tne 
market for these goods. The present was always politely 
received. 
After crossing the Lonaje, wo came to some pretty vil- 
lages. embowered, as the negro villages usually are, in 
bananas, shrubs, and manioc, and near the banks of tho 
Leeba we formed our encampment in a nest of serpents, 
one of which bit one of our men ; but the wound was 
harmless. The people of the surrounding villages pre- 
sented us with largo quantities of food, in obedience to 
the mandate of Shinte, without expecting any equivalent 
One villago had lately been transferred hither from the 
country of Matiamvo. They, of course, continue to ac- 
knowledge him a° paramount chief; but the frequent in- 
stances which occur of people changing from ono part of 
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