My Men Succumbed Sooner
To This Petticoat Government Than I Felt Inclined To Do, And Left Me No Power;
And,
Being unwilling to encounter her tongue, I was moving off to the canoes,
when she gave me a kind explanation,
And, with her hand on my shoulder,
put on a motherly look, saying, "Now, my little man, just do
as the rest have done." My feelings of annoyance of course vanished,
and I went out to try and get some meat.
The only game to be found in these parts are the ZEBRA,
the KUALATA or tahetsi (`Aigoceros equina'), kama (`Bubalus caama'),
buffaloes, and the small antelope hakitenwe (`Philantomba').
The animals can be seen here only by following on their trail for many miles.
Urged on by hunger, we followed that of some zebras during the greater part
of the day: when within fifty yards of them, in a dense thicket,
I made sure of one, but, to my infinite disgust, the gun missed fire,
and off they bounded. The climate is so very damp, from daily heavy rains,
that every thing becomes loaded with moisture, and the powder
in the gun-nipples can not be kept dry. It is curious to mark
the intelligence of the game; in districts where they are much annoyed
by fire-arms, they keep out on the most open spots of country they can find,
in order to have a widely-extended range of vision, and a man armed
is carefully shunned. From the frequency with which I have been allowed
to approach nearer without than with a gun, I believe they know
the difference between safety and danger in the two cases. But here,
where they are killed by the arrows of the Balonda, they select for safety
the densest forest, where the arrow can not be easily shot.
The variation in the selection of standing-spots during the day may, however,
be owing partly to the greater heat of the sun, for here it is particularly
sharp and penetrating. However accounted for, the wild animals here do select
the forests by day, while those farther south generally shun these covers,
and, on several occasions, I have observed there was no sunshine
to cause them to seek for shade.
Chapter 16.
Nyamoana's Present - Charms - Manenko's pedestrian Powers - An Idol -
Balonda Arms - Rain - Hunger - Palisades - Dense Forests -
Artificial Beehives - Mushrooms - Villagers lend the Roofs of their Houses
- Divination and Idols - Manenko's Whims - A night Alarm -
Shinte's Messengers and Present - The proper Way to approach a Village -
A Merman - Enter Shinte's Town: its Appearance -
Meet two half-caste Slave-traders - The Makololo scorn them -
The Balonda real Negroes - Grand Reception from Shinte -
His Kotla - Ceremony of Introduction - The Orators - Women -
Musicians and Musical Instruments - A disagreeable Request -
Private Interviews with Shinte - Give him an Ox - Fertility of Soil -
Manenko's new Hut - Conversation with Shinte - Kolimbota's Proposal -
Balonda's Punctiliousness - Selling Children - Kidnapping -
Shinte's Offer of a Slave - Magic Lantern - Alarm of Women -
Delay - Sambanza returns intoxicated - The last and greatest
Proof of Shinte's Friendship.
11TH OF JANUARY, 1854. On starting this morning,
Samoana (or rather Nyamoana, for the ladies are the chiefs here)
presented a string of beads, and a shell highly valued among them,
as an atonement for having assisted Manenko, as they thought,
to vex me the day before. They seemed anxious to avert any evil
which might arise from my displeasure; but having replied
that I never kept my anger up all night, they were much pleased
to see me satisfied. We had to cross, in a canoe, a stream which flows
past the village of Nyamoana. Manenko's doctor waved some charms over her,
and she took some in her hand and on her body before she ventured
upon the water. One of my men spoke rather loudly when near
the doctor's basket of medicines. The doctor reproved him,
and always spoke in a whisper himself, glancing back to the basket
as if afraid of being heard by something therein. So much superstition
is quite unknown in the south, and is mentioned here to show the difference
in the feelings of this new people, and the comparative want of reverence
on these points among Caffres and Bechuanas.
Manenko was accompanied by her husband and her drummer;
the latter continued to thump most vigorously until a heavy, drizzling mist
set in and compelled him to desist. Her husband used
various incantations and vociferations to drive away the rain,
but down it poured incessantly, and on our Amazon went,
in the very lightest marching order, and at a pace that few of the men
could keep up with. Being on ox-back, I kept pretty close to our leader,
and asked her why she did not clothe herself during the rain,
and learned that it is not considered proper for a chief to appear effeminate.
He or she must always wear the appearance of robust youth,
and bear vicissitudes without wincing. My men, in admiration of
her pedestrian powers, every now and then remarked, "Manenko is a soldier;"
and thoroughly wet and cold, we were all glad when she proposed a halt
to prepare our night's lodging on the banks of a stream.
The country through which we were passing was the same succession
of forest and open lawns as formerly mentioned: the trees were
nearly all evergreens, and of good, though not very gigantic size.
The lawns were covered with grass, which, in thickness of crop,
looked like ordinary English hay. We passed two small hamlets
surrounded by gardens of maize and manioc, and near each of these I observed,
for the first time, an ugly idol common in Londa - the figure of an animal,
resembling an alligator, made of clay. It is formed of grass,
plastered over with soft clay; two cowrie-shells are inserted as eyes,
and numbers of the bristles from the tail of an elephant are stuck in
about the neck. It is called a lion, though, if one were not told so,
he would conclude it to be an alligator.
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