276 
MODE OF SALUTATION. 
Chap. XY. 
rejoined, that the Balobale would not kill me, but the Makololo 
would all be sacrificed as their enemies. This produced con¬ 
siderable effect on my companions, and inclined them to the 
plan of Nyamoana, of going to the town of her brother, rather 
than ascending the Leeba. The arrival of Manenko herself on 
the scene, threw so much weight into the scale on their side, that 
I was forced to yield the point. 
Manenko was a tall strapping woman about twenty, distin¬ 
guished by a profusion of ornaments and medicines hung round 
her person; the latter are supposed to act as charms. Her body 
was smeared all over with a mixture of fat and red ochre, as a 
protection against the weather; a necessary precaution, for, like 
most of the Balonda ladies, she was otherwise in a state of 
frightful nudity. Tliis was not from want of clothing, for, being 
a chief, she might have been as well clad as any of her subjects, 
but from her peculiar ideas of elegance in dress. When she 
arrived with her husband, Sambanza,'they listened for some time 
to the statements I was making to the people of Nyamoana, 
after which the husband, acting as spokesman, commenced an 
oration, stating the reasons for their coming, and, during every 
two or tliree seconds of the delivery, he picked up a little sand, 
and rubbed it on the upper part of his arms and chest. This is 
a common mode of salutation in Londa; and when they wish 
to be excessively polite, they bring a quantity of ashes or pipe¬ 
clay in a piece of skin, and, taldng up handfuls, rub it on the 
chest and upper front part of each arm; others, in saluting, drum 
their ribs with their elbows; while others still, touch the ground 
with one cheek after the other, and clap their hands. The chiefs 
go tlirough the manoeuvre of rubbing the sand on the arms, but 
only make a feint at picking up some. When Sambanza had 
finished liis oration, he rose up, and showed his ankles orna¬ 
mented with a bundle of copper rings; had they been very 
heavy, they would have made liim adopt a straggling walk. 
Some chiefs have really so many, as to be forced, by the weight 
and size, to keep one foot apart from the other; the weight 
being a serious inconvenience in walking. The gentlemen like 
Sambanza, who wish to imitate their betters, do so in their 
walk; so you see men, with only a few ounces of ornament on 
their legs, strutting along as if they had double the number of 
