282 
AN IDOL-BALONDA ARMS. 
Chap. XVI. 
linsband used various incantations and vociferations to drive 
away tlie rain, but down it poured incessantly, and on our Amazon 
'went, in the very lightest marching order, and at a pace that few of 
the men could keep up with. Being on ox-back, I kept pretty 
close to our leader, and asked her why she did not clothe herself 
during the rain, and learned that it is not considered proper for 
a chief to appear effeminate. He or she must always wear the 
appearance of robust youth, and bear vicissitudes without winc¬ 
ing. My men, in admiration of her pedestrian powers, every 
now and then remarked, “ Manenko is a soldierand thoroughly 
wet and cold, we were all glad when she proposed a halt to pre¬ 
pare our night’s lodging on the banks of a stream. 
The country through which we were passing was the same 
succession of forest and open lawns as formerly mentioned—■ 
the trees were nearly all evergreens, and of good, though not very 
gigantic, size. The lawns were covered with grass, which in 
thickness of crop looked like ordinary English hay. We passed 
two small hamlets surrounded by gardens of maize and manioc, 
and near each of these I observed, for the first time, an ugly idol 
common in Londa—the figure of an animal, resembling an alli¬ 
gator, made of clay. It is formed of grass, plastered over with 
soft clay; two cowrie-shells are mserted as eyes, and numbers of 
the bristles from the tail of an elephant are stuck in about the 
neck. It is called a lion, though, if one were not told so, he 
would conclude it to be an alligator. It stood in a shed, and the 
Balonda pray and beat drums before it all night in cases of sick¬ 
ness. 
Some of the men of Manenko’s train had shields made of 
reeds, neatly woven into a square shape, about five feet long and 
three broad. With these, and short broadswords and sheaves of 
iron-headed arrows, they appeared rather ferocious. But. the 
constant habit of wearing arms is probably only a substitute for 
the courage they do not possess. We always deposited our fire¬ 
arms and spears outside a village before entering it, while the 
Balonda, on visiting us at our encampment, always came fully 
armed, until we ordered them either to lay down their weapons 
or be off. Next day we passed through a piece of forest so 
dense that no one could have penetrated it without an axe. It 
was flooded, not by the river, but by the heavy rains which 
