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.
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