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.
