The Country Through Which We Were Passing Was The Same Succession
Of Forest And Open Lawns As Formerly Mentioned:
The trees were
nearly all evergreens, and of good, though not very gigantic size.
The lawns were covered with grass, which, in thickness of crop,
looked like ordinary English hay.
We passed two small hamlets
surrounded by gardens of maize and manioc, and near each of these I observed,
for the first time, an ugly idol common in Londa - the figure of an animal,
resembling an alligator, made of clay. It is formed of grass,
plastered over with soft clay; two cowrie-shells are inserted as eyes,
and numbers of the bristles from the tail of an elephant are stuck in
about the neck. It is called a lion, though, if one were not told so,
he would conclude it to be an alligator. It stood in a shed,
and the Balonda pray and beat drums before it all night in cases of sickness.
Some of the men of Manenko's train had shields made of reeds,
neatly woven into a square shape, about five feet long and three broad.
With these, and short broadswords and sheaves of iron-headed arrows,
they appeared rather ferocious. But the constant habit of wearing arms
is probably only a substitute for the courage they do not possess.
We always deposited our fire-arms and spears outside a village
before entering it, while the Balonda, on visiting us at our encampment,
always came fully armed, until we ordered them either to lay down
their weapons or be off.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 433 of 1070
Words from 123712 to 123973
of 306638
