Yet The Leeba
Does Not Show Any Great Rise, Nor Is The Water In The Least Discolored.
It Is Slightly
Black, from the number of mossy rills which fall into it.
It has remarkably few birds and fish, while the
Leeambye swarms with both.
It is noticeable that alligators here possess more of the fear of man
than in the Leeambye. The Balonda have taught them, by their poisoned arrows,
to keep out of sight. We did not see one basking in the sun.
The Balonda set so many little traps for birds that few appear.
I observed, however, many (to me) new small birds of song on its banks.
More rain has been falling in the east than here, for the Leeambye
was rising fast and working against the sandy banks so vigorously
that a slight yellow tinge was perceptible in it.
One of our men was bitten by a non-venomous serpent, and of course
felt no harm. The Barotse concluded that this was owing to many of them
being present and seeing it, as if the sight of human eyes
could dissolve the poison and act as a charm.
On the 6th of January we reached the village of another female chief,
named Nyamoana, who is said to be the mother of Manenko,
and sister of Shinte or Kabompo, the greatest Balonda chief
in this part of the country. Her people had but recently come
to the present locality, and had erected only twenty huts.
Her husband, Samoana, was clothed in a kilt of green and red baize,
and was armed with a spear and a broadsword of antique form,
about eighteen inches long and three broad. The chief and her husband
were sitting on skins placed in the middle of a circle thirty paces
in diameter, a little raised above the ordinary level of the ground,
and having a trench round it. Outside the trench sat about a hundred persons
of all ages and both sexes. The men were well armed with bows, arrows,
spears, and broadswords. Beside the husband sat a rather aged woman,
having a bad outward squint in the left eye. We put down our arms
about forty yards off, and I walked up to the centre of the circular bench,
and saluted him in the usual way by clapping the hands together
in their fashion. He pointed to his wife, as much as to say,
the honor belongs to her. I saluted her in the same way,
and a mat having been brought, I squatted down in front of them.
The talker was then called, and I was asked who was my spokesman.
Having pointed to Kolimbota, who knew their dialect best,
the palaver began in due form. I explained the real objects I had in view,
without any attempt to mystify or appear in any other character than my own,
for I have always been satisfied that, even though there were
no other considerations, the truthful way of dealing with the uncivilized
is unquestionably the best.
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