A Visit td Banza Chisalla. 117 
ing the rivers northern bank, and, despite the 
present dearth of “ business,” he still owns some 
100,000 francs in cloth and beads, rum and gun¬ 
powder. 
As the “Silver Minister” took his seat upon 
the ground before the king, all removed their caps 
with a simultaneous grunt and performed the 
“ Sakila” or batta-palmas ; this hand-clapping must 
be repeated whenever the simplest action is begun 
or ended by king or chief. Monteiro and Ga- 
mitto (pp. 101 et seq.) refer to the practice every¬ 
where on the line of country which they visited : 
there it seems to be even a more ceremonious 
affair than in the Congo. The claps were succes¬ 
sively less till they were hardly audible; after a 
pause five or six were given, and the last two or 
three were in hurried time, the while without pro¬ 
nouncing a word. The palaver now opened 
steadily with a drink : a bottle of trade “ fizz ” 
was produced for the white man, and rum for his 
black congeners ; then the compliment of healths 
went all round. After this we fell to work at 
business. By dint of abundant wrangling and 
with an immense display of suspicion, natural 
under the circumstances, it was arranged that the 
king should forward me in a couple of his own 
canoes to Banza Nokki, the end of river naviga¬ 
tion, as we were told, and falsely told ; in my turn I 
was to pay goods valued about £ 6, at least three 
