These Are More Fertile
Than The Rest Of The Land, And Here They Are The Chief Garden-Ground
For Maize, Pumpkins, And Tobacco.
When we had passed the outskirting villages, which alone consider themselves
in a state of war with the Makololo, we found the Batoka, or Batonga,
as they here call themselves, quite friendly.
Great numbers of them came
from all the surrounding villages with presents of maize and masuka,
and expressed great joy at the first appearance of a white man,
and harbinger of peace. The women clothe themselves better than the Balonda,
but the men go `in puris naturalibus'. They walk about without the smallest
sense of shame. They have even lost the tradition of the "fig-leaf".
I asked a fine, large-bodied old man if he did not think it would be better
to adopt a little covering. He looked with a pitying leer,
and laughed with surprise at my thinking him at all indecent;
he evidently considered himself above such weak superstition.
I told them that, on my return, I should have my family with me,
and no one must come near us in that state. "What shall we put on?
we have no clothing." It was considered a good joke when I told them that,
if they had nothing else, they must put on a bunch of grass.
The farther we advanced, the more we found the country swarming
with inhabitants. Great numbers came to see the white man, a sight they had
never beheld before.
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