The Head Man Of The Village
Then Sent Out His Principal Men, As Shinte Now Did, To Bid Us Welcome
And Show Us A Tree Under Which We Might Sleep.
Before I had profited
by the rather tedious teaching of Manenko, I sometimes entered a village
and created unintentional alarm.
The villagers would continue
to look upon us with suspicion as long as we remained. Shinte sent us
two large baskets of manioc and six dried fishes. His men had
the skin of a monkey, called in their tongue "poluma" (`Colobus guereza'),
of a jet black color, except the long mane, which is pure white:
it is said to be found in the north, in the country of Matiamvo,
the paramount chief of all the Balonda. We learned from them
that they are in the habit of praying to their idols when unsuccessful
in killing game or in any other enterprise. They behaved with reverence
at our religious services. This will appear important if the reader remembers
the almost total want of prayer and reverence we encountered in the south.
Our friends informed us that Shinte would be highly honored
by the presence of three white men in his town at once. Two others
had sent forward notice of their approach from another quarter (the west);
could it be Barth or Krapf? How pleasant to meet with Europeans
in such an out-of-the-way region! The rush of thoughts
made me almost forget my fever. Are they of the same color as I am?
"Yes; exactly so." And have the same hair?
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