Chap. XV. 
INTEEVIEW WITH FEMALE CHIEF. 
273 
The favourite wife, who was also present, was equally anxious 
for butter. She had a profusion of iron rings on her ankles, to 
which were attached little pieces of sheet-iron, to enable her to 
make a tinkling as she walked in her mincing African style; the 
same tiling is thought pretty by our own dragoons in walking 
jauntingly. 
We had so much rain and cloud, that I could not get a single 
observation for either longitude or latitude for a fortnight. Yet 
the Leeba does not show any great rise, nor is the water in the 
least discoloured. It is slightly black, from the number of mossy 
riUs which fall into it. It has remarkably few birds and fish, 
wliile the Leeambye swarms with both. It is noticeable that 
alligators here, possess more of the fear of man than in the 
Leeambye. The Balonda have taught them, by their poisoned 
arrows, to keep out of sight. We did not see one basldng in the 
sun. The Balonda set so many little traps for birds, that few 
appear. I observed, however, many (to me) new small birds of 
song on its banks. More rain has been falling in the east than 
here, for the Leeambye was rising fast and working against 
the sandy banks so vigorously, that a slight yellow tinge was 
perceptible in it. 
One of our men was bitten by a non-venomous serpent, and 
of course felt no harm. The Barotse concluded, that this was 
owing to many of them being present and seeing it, as if the 
sight of human eyes could dissolve the poison, and act as a 
charm. 
On the 6th of January, we reached the village of another 
female chief, named Nyamoana, who is said to be the mother of 
Manenko, and sister of Shinte or Kabompo, the greatest Balonda 
cliief in this part of the country. Her people had but recently 
come to the present locality, and had erected only twenty huts. 
Her husband, Samoana, was clothed in a kilt of green and red 
baize, and was armed with a spear, and a broad-sword of antique 
form, about eighteen inches long and three broad. The cliief 
and her husband, were sitting on skins, placed in the middle of a 
circle, thirty paces in diameter, a little raised above the ordinary 
level of the ground, and having a trench round it. Outside the 
trench sat about a hundred persons of all ages and both sexes : 
the men were well armed with bows, arrows, spears, and broad- 
T 
