302 
MANIOC-GARDENS. 
Chap. XYII. 
CHAPTER XVII. 
Leave Shinte — Manioc-gardens — Mode of preparing the poisonous kind 
Its general use — Presents of food — Punctiliousness of the Balonda — 
Their idols and superstition — Dress of the Balonda — Yillages beyond 
Lonaje—Cazembe ■—Our guides and the Makololo-—Night rains —In¬ 
quiries for English cotton goods — Intemese’s fiction — Yisit from an old 
man — Theft — Industry of our guide — Loss of pontoon — Plains covered 
with water — Affection of the Balonda for their mothers — A night on an 
island — The grass on the plains — Source of the rivers — Loan of the roofs 
of huts — A halt — Fertility of the country through which the Lokaluejo 
flows — Omnivorous fish — Natives’ modes of catching them — The village 
of a half-brother of Katema, his speech and present — Our guide’s per¬ 
versity — Mozenkwa’s pleasant home and family — Clear water of the 
flooded rivers — A messenger from Katema — Quendende’s village, his 
kindness—Crop of wool—Meet people from the town of Matiamvo — Fire¬ 
side talk — Matiamvo’s character and conduct — Presentation at Katema’s 
court, his present, good sense, and appearance — Interview on the following 
day — Cattle — A feast and a Makololo dance — Arrest of a fugitive — 
Dignified old courtier — Katema’s lax government — Cold wind from the 
north — Canaries and other singing birds — Spiders, their nests and webs — 
Lake Dilolo — Tradition — Sagacity of ants. 
—Leaying Sliinte, witli eight of his men to aid in carry¬ 
ing onr luggage, we passed, in a northerly direction, down the 
lovely valley on which the town stands, then went a little to 
the west through pretty open forest, and slept at a village of 
Balonda. In the morning we had a fine range of green hills 
called Saloisho on our right, and were informed that they were 
rather tliickly inhabited by the people of Shinte, who worked in 
iron, the ore of which abounds in these hills. 
The country tlirough which we passed, possessed the same 
general character of flatness and forest that we noticed before. 
The soil is dark, with a tinge of red; in some places it might 
be called red; and appeared very fertile. Every valley con¬ 
tained villages of twenty or thirty huts, with gardens of manioc, 
which here is looked upon as the staff of life. Very little labour 
is required for its cultivation. The earth is drawn up into 
oblong beds, about three feet broad and one in height, and in 
