bananas and manioc.
I liked his appearance and conversation, and believe that the Balonda
would not be difficult to teach, but their mode of life would be a
drawback. The Balonda in this quarter are much more agreeable-looking
than any of the inhabitants nearer the coast. The women allow their
teeth to remain in their beautifully white state, and would be comely
but for the custom of inserting pieces of reed into the cartilage of the
nose. They seem generally to be in good spirits, and spend their time in
everlasting talk, funeral ceremonies, and marriages. This flow of animal
spirits must be one reason why they are such an indestructible race. The
habitual influence on their minds of the agency of unseen spirits may
have a tendency in the same direction, by preserving the mental quietude
of a kind of fatalism.

We were forced to prepay our guide and his father too, and he went but
one day, although he promised to go with us to Katema. He was not in the
least ashamed at breaking his engagements, and probably no disgrace will
be attached to the deed by Muanzanza. Among the Bakwains he would have
been punished. My men would have stripped him of the wages which he wore
on his person, but thought that, as we had always acted on the mildest
principles, they would let him move off with his unearned gains.

They frequently lamented the want of knowledge in these people, saying,
in their own tongue, "Ah! they don't know that we are men as well as
they, and that we are only bearing with their insolence with patience
because we are men." Then would follow a hearty curse, showing that the
patience was nearly expended; but they seldom quarreled in the language
of the Balonda. The only one who ever lost his temper was the man who
struck a head man of one of the villages on the mouth, and he was the
most abject individual in our company.

The reason why we needed a guide at all was to secure the convenience
of a path, which, though generally no better than a sheep-walk, is much
easier than going straight in one direction, through tangled forests and
tropical vegetation. We knew the general direction we ought to follow,
and also if any deviation occurred from our proper route; but, to avoid
impassable forests and untreadable bogs, and to get to the proper
fords of the rivers, we always tried to procure a guide, and he always
followed the common path from one village to another when that lay in
the direction we were going.

After l