We Left Koki With Difficulty, In Consequence Of The Chopi Porters
Refusing To Carry Any Loads, Leaving The Burden Of
Lifting them
on the country people, as they said, "We have endured all the
trouble and hardships of bringing these
Visitors through the
wilderness; and now, as they have visited you, it is your place
to help them on." The consequence was, we had to engage fresh
porters at every village, each in turn saying he had done all the
work which with justice fell to his lot, till at last we arrived
at the borders of a jungle, where the men last engaged, feeling
tired of their work, pleaded ignorance of the direct road, and
turned off to the longer one, where villages and men were in
abundance, thus upsetting all our plans, and doubling the actual
distance.
To pass the night half-way was now imperative, as we had been the
whole day travelling without making good much ground. From the
Gani people we had, without any visible change, mingled with the
Madi people, who dress in the same naked fashion as their
neighbours, and use bows and arrows. Their villages were all
surrounded with bomas (fences), and the country in its general
aspect resembled that of Northern Unyamuezi. At one place, the
good-natured simple people, as soon as we reached their village,
spread a skin, deposited a stool upon it, and placed in front two
pots of pombe. At the village where we put up, however, the women
and children of the head man at first all ran away, and the head
man himself was very shy of us, thinking we were some unearthly
creatures.
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