When They Come Out Of The River By Night,
They Crop Off The Soft Succulent Grasses Very Neatly.
When they blow,
they puff up the water about three feet high.
Chapter 15.
Message to Masiko, the Barotse Chief, regarding the Captives -
Navigation of the Leeambye - Capabilities of this District -
The Leeba - Flowers and Bees - Buffalo-hunt - Field for a Botanist -
Young Alligators; their savage Nature - Suspicion of the Balonda -
Sekelenke's Present - A Man and his two Wives - Hunters -
Message from Manenko, a female Chief - Mambari Traders - A Dream -
Sheakondo and his People - Teeth-filing - Desire for Butter -
Interview with Nyamoana, another female Chief - Court Etiquette -
Hair versus Wool - Increase of Superstition - Arrival of Manenko;
her Appearance and Husband - Mode of Salutation - Anklets -
Embassy, with a Present from Masiko - Roast Beef - Manioc -
Magic Lantern - Manenko an accomplished Scold: compels us to wait -
Unsuccessful Zebra-hunt.
On the 27th of December we were at the confluence of the Leeba and Leeambye
(lat. 14d 10' 52" S., long. 23d 35' 40" E.). Masiko, the Barotse chief,
for whom we had some captives, lived nearly due east of this point. They were
two little boys, a little girl, a young man, and two middle-aged women.
One of these was a member of a Babimpe tribe, who knock out
both upper and lower front teeth as a distinction. As we had been informed
by the captives on the previous Sunday that Masiko was in the habit of seizing
all orphans, and those who have no powerful friend in the tribe
whose protection they can claim, and selling them for clothing to the Mambari,
we thought the objection of the women to go first to his town
before seeing their friends quite reasonable, and resolved to send
a party of our own people to see them safely among their relatives.
I told the captive young man to inform Masiko that he was very unlike
his father Santuru, who had refused to sell his people to Mambari.
He will probably be afraid to deliver such a message himself,
but it is meant for his people, and they will circulate it pretty widely,
and Masiko may yet feel a little pressure from without.
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