116 A Visit to Banza Chisalla. 
Ma-nboukou, or “prince who is below the Ma- 
kaia in dignity.” The native name of this third 
personage was Gidifuku. It was a gorgeous digni¬ 
tary : from the poll of his night-cap protruded a 
dozen bristles of elephant’s tail hair, to which a 
terminal coral gave the graceful curve of a pin¬ 
tado’s crest, and along his ears, like the flaps of a 
travelling casquette, hung two dingy little mirrors 
of talc from Cacongo, set in clumsy frames of 
ruddled wood. Masses of coral encircled his neck, 
and the full-dress naval uniform of a French 
officer, with epaulettes of stupendous size, exposed 
a zebra’d guernsey of equivocal purity. A long 
black staff, studded with broad-headed brass beads, 
served to clear the room of the lieges, who re¬ 
turned as fast as they were turned out—the baton 
was evidently not intended to be used seriously. 
But the Manbuku Prata is not a mere “ Punch 
in a puppet show.” His face expresses more in¬ 
telligence and resolution than usual, and his Portu¬ 
guese is not the vile article of the common trader. 
He means business. When other chiefs send their 
“ sons,” that is their slaves, to fight, he leads them 
in person— venite , non ite . The French “ Emigra¬ 
tion Libre” put 30,000 dollars into his pocket, and 
he still hopes against hope to ship many a cargo 
for the Banana factory. He has some 300 armed 
serviles at Chimmi and Lamba, two villages 
perched like condors’ nests upon hills command- 
