272 The March to Banza Nkulu. 
panions remarked of the performances in the South 
Sea Islands, what it means. 
The hero of the night was Chico Mpamba; he 
must have caused a jealous pang to shoot through 
many a masculine bosom. With bending waist, arms 
gracefully extended forwards, and fingers snapping 
louder than castanets; with the upper half of the 
body fixed as to a stake, and with the lower con¬ 
vulsive as a scotched snake, he advanced and retired 
by a complicated shuffle, keeping time with the tom¬ 
tom and jingling his brass anklets, which weighed 
at least three pounds, and which, by the by, lamed 
him for several days. But he was heroic as the 
singer who broke his collar-bone by the ut dipetto. 
A peculiar accompaniment was a dulcet whistle 
with lips protruded; hence probably the fable of 
Pliny’s Astomoi, and the Africans of Eudoxus, 
whose joined lips compelled them to eat a single 
grain at a time, and to drink through a cane before 
sherry-cobblers were known. Others joined him, 
dancing either vis-a-vis or by his side ; and more 
than one girl, who could no longer endure being a 
wall-flower, glided into the ring and was received 
with a roar of applause. In the feminine perform¬ 
ance the eyes are timidly bent upon the ground ; 
the steps are shorter and daintier, and the ritrosa 
appears at once to shun and to entice her cavalier, 
who, thus repulsed and attracted, redoubles the 
exciting measure till the delight of the spectators 
