Chap. XVI. 
KIDNAPPING. 
297 
considered an oifence sufficient to warrant his being seized and 
offered for sale while we were there. He had not reported him¬ 
self, so they did not know the reason of his running away from 
his own chief, and that chief might accuse them of receiving a 
criminal. It was curious to notice the effect of the slave-trade 
in blunting the moral susceptibility: no chief in the south would 
treat a fugitive in this way. My men were horrified at the act, 
even though old Shinte and his council had some show of reason 
on their side ; and both the Barotse and the Makololo declared 
that, if the Balonda only knew of the policy pursued by them to 
fugitives, but few of the discontented would remain long with 
Shinte, My men excited the wonder of his people, by stating 
that every one of them had one cow at least in liis possession. 
Another incident, which occurred while we were here, may 
be mentioned, as of a character totally unknown in the south. 
Two children, of seven and eight years old, went out to collect 
firewood a short distance from their parents’ home, which was a 
quarter of a mile from the village, and were kidnapped; the 
distracted parents could not find a trace of them. This hap¬ 
pened so close to the town, where there are no beasts of prey, 
that we suspect some of the high men of Sliinte’s coml were the 
guilty parties; they can sell them by night. The Mambari 
erect large huts of a square shape to stow these stolen ones in ; 
they are well fed, but aired by night only. The frequent kid¬ 
napping from outlying hamlets explains the stockades we saw 
around them; the parents have no redress, for even Shinte 
himself seems fond of working in the dark. One night he sent 
for me, though I always stated I liked all my dealmgs to be 
aboveboard. When I came he presented me with a slave-girl 
of about ten years old; he said he had always been in the habit 
of presenting his visitors with a child. On my thanking liim, 
and saying that I thought it wrong to take away chilch^en from 
their parents, that I wished liim to give up this system alto¬ 
gether, and trade in cattle, ivory, and bees’-wax, he urged that 
she was “to be a child” to bring me water, and that a great 
man ought to have a child for the purpose, yet I had none. As 
I replied that I had four cliildren, and should be very sorry if 
my chief were to take my little girl and give her away, and that 
I would prefer tliis child to remain and carry water for her own 
