Monze Had Never Been Visited By Any White Man, But Had Seen
Black Native Traders, Who, He Said, Came For
Ivory, not for slaves.
He had heard of white men passing far to the east of him to Cazembe,
referring,
No doubt, to Pereira, Lacerda, and others,
who have visited that chief.
The streams in this part are not perennial; I did not observe one
suitable for the purpose of irrigation. There is but little wood;
here and there you see large single trees, or small clumps of evergreens,
but the abundance of maize and ground-nuts we met with shows
that more rain falls than in the Bechuana country, for there
they never attempt to raise maize except in damp hollows
on the banks of rivers. The pasturage is very fine for both cattle and sheep.
My own men, who know the land thoroughly, declare that
it is all garden-ground together, and that the more tender grains,
which require richer soil than the native corn, need no care here.
It is seldom stony.
The men of a village came to our encampment, and, as they followed
the Bashukulompo mode of dressing their hair, we had an opportunity
of examining it for the first time. A circle of hair at the top of the head,
eight inches or more in diameter, is woven into a cone
eight or ten inches high, with an obtuse apex, bent, in some cases,
a little forward, giving it somewhat the appearance of a helmet.
Some have only a cone, four or five inches in diameter at the base.
It is said that the hair of animals is added; but the sides of the cone
are woven something like basket-work. The head man of this village,
instead of having his brought to a point, had it prolonged into a wand,
which extended a full yard from the crown of his head.
The hair on the forehead, above the ears, and behind, is all shaven off,
so they appear somewhat as if a cap of liberty were cocked upon
the top of the head. After the weaving is performed it is said to be painful,
as the scalp is drawn tightly up; but they become used to it.
Monze informed me that all his people were formerly ornamented in this way,
but he discouraged it. I wished him to discourage the practice
of knocking out the teeth too, but he smiled, as if in that case the fashion
would be too strong for him, as it was for Sebituane.
Monze came on Monday morning, and, on parting, presented us with
a piece of a buffalo which had been killed the day before by lions.
We crossed the rivulet Makoe, which runs westward into the Kafue,
and went northward in order to visit Semalembue, an influential chief there.
We slept at the village of Monze's sister, who also passes by the same name.
Both he and his sister are feminine in their appearance, but disfigured
by the foolish custom of knocking out the upper front teeth.
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