256 
The March to Banza Nkulu . 
mom-sheaths and birds’ beaks and claws clustering 
round a something in shape like the largest German 
sausage, the whole ruddled with ochre : this charm 
must not be touched by the herd ; a slave-lad, 
having unwittingly offended, knelt down whilst 
the wearer applied a dusty big toe between his 
eyebrows. Papagayo had a bag of grass-cloth 
and bits of cane, from which protruded strips of 
leather and scarlet broadcloth. 
At 6.45 a.m. on Saturday, September 12, we 
exchanged the fields surrounding Banza Chinguvu 
for a ridge or narrow plateau trending to the 
north-east and bending to the magnetic north. A 
few minutes led to a rock-slope, fit only for goat- 
hoofs or nude-footed natives. Winding along the 
hill-sides, we passed out of the Nokki territory into 
that of Ntombo, the property of Mfumo Nelongo : 
here we descended into a little vale or gorge bright 
as verdure could make it— 
“ arborets and flowers 
Imborder’d on each bank ” 
of a bubbling brook, a true naiad of the hills, 
which ran to the embrace of the mighty stream ; it 
characteristically stained its bed with iron. On our 
right was a conspicuous landmark, Zululu ke Som- 
be, a tall rock bearing the semblance of an ele¬ 
phant from the north-east, visible from the Congo’s 
