From All I Could Hear Of Matiamvo,
There Was No Chance Of My Being Allowed To Proceed Through His Country
To The Southward.
If I had gone merely to visit him, all the goods
would have been expended by the time I returned to Cabango;
and we had not found mendicity so pleasant on our way to the north
as to induce us to desire to return to it.
The country of Matiamvo is said to be well peopled, but they have
little or no trade. They receive calico, salt, gunpowder,
coarse earthenware, and beads, and give in return ivory and slaves.
They possess no cattle, Matiamvo alone having a single herd, which he keeps
entirely for the sake of the flesh. The present chief is said to be mild
in his government, and will depose an under-chief for unjust conduct.
He occasionally sends the distance of a hundred miles or more
to behead an offending officer. But, though I was informed by the Portuguese
that he possesses absolute power, his name had less influence
over his subjects with whom I came in contact than that of Sekeletu has
over his people living at a much greater distance from the capital.
As we thought it best to strike away to the S.E. from Cabango
to our old friend Katema, I asked a guide from Muanzanza
as soon as the funeral proceedings were over. He agreed to furnish one,
and also accepted a smaller present from me than usual,
when it was represented to him by Pascoal and Faria that I was not a trader.
He seemed to regard these presents as his proper dues;
and as a cargo of goods had come by Senhor Pascoal, he entered the house
for the purpose of receiving his share, when Senhor Faria
gravely presented him with the commonest earthenware vessel,
of which great numbers are brought for this trade. The chief received it
with expressions of abundant gratitude, as these vessels are highly valued,
because from their depth they can hold so much food or beer.
The association of ideas is sometimes so very ludicrous that it is difficult
to maintain one's gravity.
Several of the children of the late Matiamvo came to beg from me, but never
to offer any food. Having spoken to one young man named Liula (Heavens)
about their stinginess, he soon brought bananas and manioc.
I liked his appearance and conversation, and believe that the Balonda
would not be difficult to teach, but their mode of life would be a drawback.
The Balonda in this quarter are much more agreeable-looking
than any of the inhabitants nearer the coast. The women allow their teeth
to remain in their beautifully white state, and would be comely
but for the custom of inserting pieces of reed into the cartilage of the nose.
They seem generally to be in good spirits, and spend their time
in everlasting talk, funeral ceremonies, and marriages.
This flow of animal spirits must be one reason why they are such
an indestructible race. The habitual influence on their minds
of the agency of unseen spirits may have a tendency in the same direction,
by preserving the mental quietude of a kind of fatalism.
We were forced to prepay our guide and his father too,
and he went but one day, although he promised to go with us to Katema.
He was not in the least ashamed at breaking his engagements,
and probably no disgrace will be attached to the deed by Muanzanza.
Among the Bakwains he would have been punished. My men would have
stripped him of the wages which he wore on his person, but thought that,
as we had always acted on the mildest principles, they would let him move off
with his unearned gains.
They frequently lamented the want of knowledge in these people, saying,
in their own tongue, "Ah! they don't know that we are men as well as they,
and that we are only bearing with their insolence with patience
because we are men." Then would follow a hearty curse,
showing that the patience was nearly expended; but they seldom quarreled
in the language of the Balonda. The only one who ever lost his temper
was the man who struck a head man of one of the villages on the mouth,
and he was the most abject individual in our company.
The reason why we needed a guide at all was to secure the convenience
of a path, which, though generally no better than a sheep-walk,
is much easier than going straight in one direction, through tangled forests
and tropical vegetation. We knew the general direction we ought to follow,
and also if any deviation occurred from our proper route;
but, to avoid impassable forests and untreadable bogs, and to get to
the proper fords of the rivers, we always tried to procure a guide,
and he always followed the common path from one village to another
when that lay in the direction we were going.
After leaving Cabango on the 21st, we crossed several little streams
running into the Chihombo on our left, and in one of them
I saw tree ferns (`Cyathea dregei') for the first time in Africa.
The trunk was about four feet high and ten inches in diameter.
We saw also grass trees of two varieties, which, in damp localities,
had attained a height of forty feet. On crossing the Chihombo, which we did
about twelve miles above Cabango, we found it waist-deep and rapid.
We were delighted to see the evidences of buffalo and hippopotami
on its banks. As soon as we got away from the track of the slave-traders,
the more kindly spirit of the southern Balonda appeared,
for an old man brought a large present of food from one of the villages,
and volunteered to go as guide himself. The people, however,
of the numerous villages which we passed always made efforts to detain us,
that they might have a little trade in the way of furnishing our suppers.
At one village, indeed, they would not show us the path at all
unless we remained at least a day with them.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 190 of 295
Words from 196100 to 197132
of 306638
