This Is A Common Mode Of Salutation In Londa;
And When They Wish To Be Excessively Polite, They Bring
A
Quantity of ashes or pipe-clay in a piece of skin, and, taking up handfuls,
rub it on the chest
And upper front part of each arm; others, in saluting,
drum their ribs with their elbows; while others still touch the ground
with one cheek after the other, and clap their hands. The chiefs go through
the manoeuvre of rubbing the sand on the arms, but only make a feint
at picking up some. When Sambanza had finished his oration,
he rose up, and showed his ankles ornamented with a bundle of copper rings;
had they been very heavy, they would have made him adopt a straggling walk.
Some chiefs have really so many as to be forced, by the weight and size,
to keep one foot apart from the other, the weight being
a serious inconvenience in walking. The gentlemen like Sambanza,
who wish to imitate their betters, do so in their walk;
so you see men, with only a few ounces of ornament on their legs,
strutting along as if they had double the number of pounds.
When I smiled at Sambanza's walk, the people remarked, "That is the way
in which they show off their lordship in these parts."
Manenko was quite decided in the adoption of the policy of friendship
with the Makololo which we recommended; and, by way of cementing the bond,
she and her counselors proposed that Kolimbota should take a wife among them.
By this expedient she hoped to secure his friendship,
and also accurate information as to the future intentions of the Makololo.
She thought that he would visit the Balonda more frequently afterward,
having the good excuse of going to see his wife; and the Makololo
would never, of course, kill the villagers among whom
so near a relative of one of their own children dwells.
Kolimbota, I found, thought favorably of the proposition,
and it afterward led to his desertion from us.
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