I Stated The Object Of My Journey And Mission,
And To All I Advanced The Old Gentleman Clapped His Hands In Approbation.
He Replied Through A Spokesman; Then All The Company Joined In The Response
By Clapping Of Hands Too.
After the more serious business was over, I asked if he had ever seen
a white man before.
He replied, "Never; you are the very first I have seen
with a white skin and straight hair; your clothing, too,
is different from any we have ever seen." They had been visited
by native Portuguese and Mambari only.
On learning from some of the people that "Shinte's mouth was bitter
for want of tasting ox-flesh," I presented him with an ox,
to his great delight; and, as his country is so well adapted for cattle,
I advised him to begin a trade in cows with the Makololo.
He was pleased with the idea, and when we returned from Loanda,
we found that he had profited by the hint, for he had got three,
and one of them justified my opinion of the country, for it was more
like a prize heifer for fatness than any we had seen in Africa.
He soon afterward sent us a basket of green maize boiled,
another of manioc-meal, and a small fowl. The maize shows by its size
the fertility of the black soil of all the valleys here,
and so does the manioc, though no manure is ever applied.
We saw manioc attain a height of six feet and upward, and this is a plant
which requires the very best soil.
During this time Manenko had been extremely busy with all her people
in getting up a very pretty hut and court-yard, to be, as she said,
her residence always when white men were brought by her along the same path.
When she heard that we had given an ox to her uncle, she came forward to us
with the air of one wronged, and explained that "this white man
belonged to her; she had brought him here, and therefore the ox was hers,
not Shinte's." She ordered her men to bring it, got it slaughtered by them,
and presented her uncle with a leg only. Shinte did not seem at all annoyed
at the occurrence.
19TH. I was awakened at an early hour by a messenger from Shinte;
but the thirst of a raging fever being just assuaged by the bursting forth
of a copious perspiration, I declined going for a few hours.
Violent action of the heart all the way to the town did not predispose me
to be patient with the delay which then occurred, probably on account of
the divination being unfavorable: "They could not find Shinte."
When I returned to bed, another message was received, "Shinte wished
to say all he had to tell me at once." This was too tempting an offer,
so we went, and he had a fowl ready in his hand to present,
also a basket of manioc-meal, and a calabash of mead.
Referring to the constantly-recurring attacks of fever,
he remarked that it was the only thing which would prevent a successful issue
to my journey, for he had men to guide me who knew all the paths
which led to the white men. He had himself traveled far when a young man.
On asking what he would recommend for the fever, "Drink plenty of the mead,
and as it gets in, it will drive the fever out." It was rather strong,
and I suspect he liked the remedy pretty well, even though he had no fever.
He had always been a friend to Sebituane, and, now that his son Sekeletu
was in his place, Shinte was not merely a friend, but a father to him;
and if a son asks a favor, the father must give it. He was highly pleased
with the large calabashes of clarified butter and fat which Sekeletu
had sent him, and wished to detain Kolimbota, that he might send a present
back to Sekeletu by his hands. This proposition we afterward discovered
was Kolimbota's own, as he had heard so much about the ferocity of the tribes
through which we were to pass that he wished to save his skin.
It will be seen farther on that he was the only one of our party
who returned with a wound.
We were particularly struck, in passing through the village,
with the punctiliousness of manners shown by the Balonda.
The inferiors, on meeting their superiors in the street,
at once drop on their knees and rub dust on their arms and chest;
they continue the salutation of clapping the hands until
the great ones have passed. Sambanza knelt down in this manner
till the son of Shinte had passed him.
We several times saw the woman who occupies the office of drawer of water
for Shinte; she rings a bell as she passes along to give warning to all
to keep out of her way; it would be a grave offense for any one
to come near her, and exercise an evil influence by his presence
on the drink of the chief. I suspect that offenses of the slightest character
among the poor are made the pretext for selling them or their children
to the Mambari. A young man of Lobale had fled into the country of Shinte,
and located himself without showing himself to the chief. This was considered
an offense sufficient to warrant his being seized and offered for sale
while we were there. He had not reported himself, so they did not know
the reason of his running away from his own chief, and that chief
might accuse them of receiving a criminal. It was curious to notice
the effect of the slave-trade in blunting the moral susceptibility:
no chief in the south would treat a fugitive in this way.
My men were horrified at the act, even though old Shinte and his council
had some show of reason on their side; and both the Barotse and the Makololo
declared that, if the Balonda only knew of the policy pursued by them
to fugitives, but few of the discontented would remain long with Shinte.
My men excited the wonder of his people by stating that every one of them
had one cow at least in his possession.
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