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The village on the Kweelo, at which we spent Sunday, was that of a civil, lively old man, called Sakandala, who offered no objections to our progress. Rains and fever, as usual, helped to impede our progress until we were put on the path which leads from Cassange and Bihe to Matiamvo, by a head man named Kamboela.
Leave Shinte Manioc Gardens Mode of preparing the poisonous kind Its general Use Presents of Food Punctiliousness of the Balonda Their Idols and Superstition Dress of the Balonda Villages beyond Lonaje Cazembe Our Guides and the Makololo Night Rains Inquiries for English cotton Goods Intemese's Fiction Visit from an old Man Theft Industry of our Guide Loss of Pontoon Plains covered with Water Affection of the Balonda for their Mothers A Night on an Island The Grass on the Plains Source of the Rivers Loan of the Roofs of Huts A Halt Fertility of the Country through which the Lokalueje flows Omnivorous Fish Natives' Mode of catching them The Village of a Half-brother of Katema, his Speech and Present Our Guide's Perversity Mozenkwa's pleasant Home and Family Clear Water of the flooded Rivers A Messenger from Katema Quendende's Village: his Kindness Crop of Wool Meet People from the Town of Matiamvo Fireside Talk Matiamvo's Character and Conduct Presentation at Katema's Court: his Present, good Sense, and Appearance Interview on the following Day Cattle A Feast and a Makololo Dance Arrest of a Fugitive Dignified old Courtier Katema's lax Government Cold Wind from the North Canaries and other singing Birds Spiders, their Nests and Webs Lake Dilolo Tradition Sagacity of Ants.
Having here received pretty certain information on a point in which I felt much interest, namely, that the Kasai is not navigable from the coast, owing to the large waterfall near the town of Mai, and that no great kingdom exists in the region beyond, between this and the equator, I would fain have visited Matiamvo.
I had given one to the Chiboque, and must give him the same, together with a gun, gunpowder, and a black robe, like that he had seen spread out to dry the day before; that, if I refused an ox, I must give one of my men, and a book by which he might see the state of Matiamvo's heart toward him, and which would forewarn him, should Matiamvo ever resolve to cut off his head."
At an opening on the western side an ugly idol was placed: several strings of beads and bits of cloth were hung around. We learned that he had been a half-caste, who had died on his way back from Matiamvo. As we were now alone, and sure of being on the way to the abodes of civilization, we went on briskly.
This is a good sign, for a man who shakes his sides with mirth is seldom difficult to deal with. When we rose to take leave, all rose with us, as at Shinte's. There is no one in the country equal to Matiamvo and me. I have always lived here, and my forefathers too. There is the house in which my father lived. You found no human skulls near the place where you are encamped.
The rains were occasionally, but not always, accompanied with very loud thunder. The country there is named Mokwankwa. And there Intemese informed us one of Shinte's children was born, when he was in his progress southward from the country of Matiamvo. This part of the country would thus seem not to have been inhabited by the people of Shinte at any very remote period.
The people of that part, named Kanyika and Kanyoka, living on its banks, are represented as both numerous and friendly, but Matiamvo will on no account permit any white person to visit them, as his principal supplies of ivory are drawn from them. Thinking that we might descend this branch of the Zambesi to Masiko, and thence to the Barotse, I felt a strong inclination to make the attempt.
We left Quendende's village in company with Quendende himself, and the principal man of the embassadors of Matiamvo, and after two or three miles' march to the N.W., came to the ford of the Lotembwa, which flows southward.
We were assured that if the late Matiamvo took a fancy to any thing, such, for instance, as my watch-chain, which was of silver wire, and was a great curiosity, as they had never seen metal plaited before, he would order a whole village to be brought up to buy it from a stranger.
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