We Promised To Return Through His Town
When We Came Back From The Sea-Coast.
Manenko gave us some manioc roots in the morning, and had determined
to carry our baggage to her uncle's,
Kabompo or Shinte.
We had heard a sample of what she could do with her tongue;
and as neither my men nor myself had much inclination to encounter
a scolding from this black Mrs. Caudle, we made ready the packages;
but she came and said the men whom she had ordered for the service had not
yet come; they would arrive to-morrow. Being on low and disagreeable diet,
I felt annoyed at this further delay, and ordered the packages
to be put into the canoes to proceed up the river without her servants;
but Manenko was not to be circumvented in this way; she came forward
with her people, and said her uncle would be angry if she did not
carry forward the tusks and goods of Sekeletu, seized the luggage,
and declared that she would carry it in spite of me. 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.
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