Chap. XVIII. 
GEEEDY GUIDES. 
835 
My men were as much astonished as myself at the demand for 
payment for leave to pass, and the almost entire neglect of the 
rules of hospitality. Katende gave us only a little meal and 
manioc, and a fowl. Being detained two days by heavy rains, 
we felt that a good stock of patience was necessary in travelling 
through this country in the rainy season. 
Passing onwards without seeing Katende, we crossed a small 
rivulet, the Sengko, by which we had encamped, and after two 
hours came to another, the Totelo, which was somewhat larger, 
and had a bridge over it. At the further end of this structure 
stood a negro, who demanded fees. He said the bridge was his; 
the path his; the guides were his children; and if we did not 
pay him, he would prevent farther progress. This piece of 
civilization I was not prepared to meet, and stood a few seconds 
looking at our bold toll-keeper, when one of my men took oh 
three copper bracelets, which paid for the whole party. The 
negro was a better man than he at first seemed, for he imme¬ 
diately went to his garden and brought us some leaves of tobacco 
as a present. 
When we had got fairly away from the villages, the guides 
from Kangenke sat down and told us that there were three paths 
in front, and, if we did not at once present them with a cloth, 
they would leave us to take whichever we might like best. As 
I had pointed out the direction in which Loanda lay, and had 
only employed them for the sake of knowing the paths between 
villages which lay along our route, and always objected when 
they led us in any other than the Loanda dhection, I wished my 
men now to go on without the guides, trusting to ourselves to 
choose the path which would seem to lead us in the direction we 
had always followed. But Mashauana, fearing lest we might 
wander, asked leave to give his own cloth, and when the guides 
saw that, they came forward shouting, “ Averie, Averie! ” 
In the afternoon of this day we came to a valley about a mile 
wide, filled with clear fast-flowing water. The men on foot were 
chin deep in crossing, and we three on oxback got wet to the 
middle, the weight on the animals preventing them from swim¬ 
ming. A thunder-shower descending, completed the partial 
drenching of the plain, and gave a cold uncomfortable “ packing 
in a wet blanket ” that night. Next day we found another 
