When All Had Come And Were Seated,
Then Began The Curious Capering Usually Seen In Pichos.
A man starts up,
and imitates the most approved attitudes observed in actual fight,
as throwing one javelin, receiving another on the shield,
springing to one side to avoid a third, running backward or forward,
leaping, etc.
This over, Sambanza and the spokesman of Nyamoana stalked
backward and forward in front of Shinte, and gave forth, in a loud voice,
all they had been able to learn, either from myself or people,
of my past history and connection with the Makololo;
the return of the captives; the wish to open the country to trade;
the Bible as a word from heaven; the white man's desire for the tribes
to live in peace: he ought to have taught the Makololo that first,
for the Balonda never attacked them, yet they had assailed the Balonda:
perhaps he is fibbing, perhaps not; they rather thought he was;
but as the Balonda had good hearts, and Shinte had never done harm to any one,
he had better receive the white man well, and send him on his way.
Sambanza was gayly attired, and, besides a profusion of beads,
had a cloth so long that a boy carried it after him as a train.
Behind Shinte sat about a hundred women, clothed in their best,
which happened to be a profusion of red baize. The chief wife of Shinte,
one of the Matebele or Zulus, sat in front with a curious red cap on her head.
During the intervals between the speeches, these ladies burst forth
into a sort of plaintive ditty; but it was impossible for any of us to catch
whether it was in praise of the speaker, of Shinte, or of themselves.
This was the first time I had ever seen females present in a public assembly.
In the south the women are not permitted to enter the kotla;
and even when invited to come to a religious service there, would not enter
until ordered to do so by the chief; but here they expressed approbation
by clapping their hands, and laughing to different speakers;
and Shinte frequently turned round and spoke to them.
A party of musicians, consisting of three drummers and four performers
on the piano, went round the kotla several times, regaling us
with their music. Their drums are neatly carved from the trunk of a tree,
and have a small hole in the side covered with a bit of spider's web:
the ends are covered with the skin of an antelope pegged on;
and when they wish to tighten it, they hold it to the fire
to make it contract: the instruments are beaten with the hands.
The piano, named "marimba", consists of two bars of wood placed side by side,
here quite straight, but, farther north, bent round so as to resemble
half the tire of a carriage-wheel; across these are placed
about fifteen wooden keys, each of which is two or three inches broad,
and fifteen or eighteen inches long; their thickness is regulated
according to the deepness of the note required: each of the keys
has a calabash beneath it; from the upper part of each a portion is cut off
to enable them to embrace the bars, and form hollow sounding-boards
to the keys, which also are of different sizes, according to
the note required; and little drumsticks elicit the music.
Rapidity of execution seems much admired among them, and the music
is pleasant to the ear. In Angola the Portuguese use the marimba
in their dances.
When nine speakers had concluded their orations, Shinte stood up,
and so did all the people. He had maintained true African dignity of manner
all the while, but my people remarked that he scarcely ever
took his eyes off me for a moment. About a thousand people were present,
according to my calculation, and three hundred soldiers.
The sun had now become hot; and the scene ended by the Mambari
discharging their guns.
18TH. We were awakened during the night by a message from Shinte,
requesting a visit at a very unseasonable hour. As I was just
in the sweating stage of an intermittent, and the path to the town lay through
a wet valley, I declined going. Kolimbota, who knows their customs best,
urged me to go; but, independent of sickness, I hated words of the night
and deeds of darkness. "I was neither a hyaena nor a witch."
Kolimbota thought that we ought to conform to their wishes in every thing:
I thought we ought to have some choice in the matter as well,
which put him into high dudgeon. However, at ten next morning we went,
and were led into the courts of Shinte, the walls of which were woven rods,
all very neat and high. Many trees stood within the inclosure
and afforded a grateful shade. These had been planted, for we saw some
recently put in, with grass wound round the trunk to protect them
from the sun. The otherwise waste corners of the streets were planted
with sugar-cane and bananas, which spread their large light leaves
over the walls.
The Ficus Indica tree, under which we now sat, had very large leaves,
but showed its relationship to the Indian banian by sending down shoots
toward the ground. Shinte soon came, and appeared a man
of upward of fifty-five years of age, of frank and open countenance,
and about the middle height. He seemed in good humor, and said
he had expected yesterday "that a man who came from the gods would have
approached and talked to him." That had been my own intention in going
to the reception; but when we came and saw the formidable preparations,
and all his own men keeping at least forty yards off from him,
I yielded to the solicitations of my men, and remained by the tree
opposite to that under which he sat. His remark confirmed
my previous belief that a frank, open, fearless manner is the most winning
with all these Africans.
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