The Different Sections Of The Tribe Came Forward
In The Same Way That We Did, The Head Man Of Each
Making obeisance
with ashes which he carried with him for the purpose; then came the soldiers,
all armed to the
Teeth, running and shouting toward us,
with their swords drawn, and their faces screwed up so as to appear as savage
as possible, for the purpose, I thought, of trying whether they could not
make us take to our heels. As we did not, they turned round toward Shinte
and saluted him, then retired. When all had come and were seated,
then began the curious capering usually seen in pichos. A man starts up,
and imitates the most approved attitudes observed in actual fight,
as throwing one javelin, receiving another on the shield,
springing to one side to avoid a third, running backward or forward,
leaping, etc. This over, Sambanza and the spokesman of Nyamoana stalked
backward and forward in front of Shinte, and gave forth, in a loud voice,
all they had been able to learn, either from myself or people,
of my past history and connection with the Makololo;
the return of the captives; the wish to open the country to trade;
the Bible as a word from heaven; the white man's desire for the tribes
to live in peace: he ought to have taught the Makololo that first,
for the Balonda never attacked them, yet they had assailed the Balonda:
perhaps he is fibbing, perhaps not; they rather thought he was;
but as the Balonda had good hearts, and Shinte had never done harm to any one,
he had better receive the white man well, and send him on his way.
Sambanza was gayly attired, and, besides a profusion of beads,
had a cloth so long that a boy carried it after him as a train.
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