Returning To The Village Again,
We Tried Another Footpath In A Similar Direction, But This Led Us Into
An Equally Impassable And Trackless Forest.
We were thus forced
to come back and remain.
In the following morning they put us
in the proper path, which in a few hours led us through a forest
that would otherwise have taken us days to penetrate.
Beyond this forest we found the village of Nyakalonga, a sister of
the late Matiamvo, who treated us handsomely. She wished her people
to guide us to the next village, but this they declined
unless we engaged in trade. She then requested us to wait an hour or two
till she could get ready a present of meal, manioc roots,
ground-nuts, and a fowl. It was truly pleasant to meet with people
possessing some civility, after the hauteur we had experienced
on the slave-path. She sent her son to the next village
without requiring payment. The stream which ran past her village
was quite impassable there, and for a distance of about a mile on either side,
the bog being soft and shaky, and, when the crust was broken through,
about six feet deep.
On the 28th we reached the village of the chief Bango (lat. 12d 22' 53" S.,
long. 20d 58' E.), who brought us a handsome present of meal,
and the meat of an entire pallah. We here slaughtered the last of the cows
presented to us by Mr. Schut, which I had kept milked until it gave
only a teaspoonful at a time. My men enjoyed a hearty laugh
when they found that I had given up all hope of more,
for they had been talking among themselves about my perseverance.
We offered a leg of the cow to Bango, but he informed us
that neither he nor his people ever partook of beef,
as they looked upon cattle as human, and living at home like men.
None of his people purchased any of the meat, which was always eagerly done
every where else. There are several other tribes who refuse to keep cattle,
though not to eat them when offered by others, because, say they, oxen bring
enemies and war; but this is the first instance I have met with in which
they have been refused as food. The fact of killing the pallahs for food
shows that the objection does not extend to meat in general.
The little streams in this part of the country did not flow in deep dells,
nor were we troubled with the gigantic grasses which annoyed our eyes
on the slopes of the streams before we came to Cabango.
The country was quite flat, and the people cultivated manioc very extensively.
There is no large collection of the inhabitants in any one spot.
The ambition of each seems to be to have his own little village; and we see
many coming from distant parts with the flesh of buffaloes and antelopes
as the tribute claimed by Bango.
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