It
Is Pleasant To Give A Present, But That Pleasure The Banyai Usually
Deny To Strangers By Making It A
Fine, and demanding it in such a
supercilious way, that only a sorely cowed trader could bear it.
They often
Refuse to touch what is offered - throw it down and leave
it - sneer at the trader's slaves, and refuse a passage until the
tribute is raised to the utmost extent of his means.
Leaving the steamer next morning, we proceeded on foot, accompanied
by a native Portuguese and his men and a dozen Makololo, who carried
our baggage. The morning was pleasant, the hills on our right
furnished for a time a delightful shade; but before long the path
grew frightfully rough, and the hills no longer shielded us from the
blazing sun. Scarcely a vestige of a track was now visible; and,
indeed, had not our guide assured us to the contrary, we should have
been innocent of even the suspicion of a way along the patches of
soft yielding sand, and on the great rocks over which we so painfully
clambered. These rocks have a singular appearance, from being
dislocated and twisted in every direction, and covered with a thin
black glaze, as if highly polished and coated with lamp-black
varnish. This seems to have been deposited while the river was in
flood, for it covers only those rocks which lie between the highest
water-mark and a line about four feet above the lowest. Travellers
who have visited the rapids of the Orinoco and the Congo say that the
rocks there have a similar appearance, and it is attributed to some
deposit from the water, formed only when the current is strong.
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