we could collect from his incoherent
sentences, Shinte had said the rain was too heavy for our departure, and
the guides still required time for preparation. Shinte himself was busy
getting some meal ready for my use in the journey. As it rained nearly
all day, it was no sacrifice to submit to his advice and remain.
Sambanza staggered to Manenko's hut; she, however, who had never
promised "to love, honor, and obey him," had not been "nursing her wrath
to keep it warm," so she coolly bundled him into the hut, and put him to
bed.

As the last proof of friendship, Shinte came into my tent, though
it could scarcely contain more than one person, looked at all the
curiosities, the quicksilver, the looking-glass, books, hair-brushes,
comb, watch, etc., etc., with the greatest interest; then closing the
tent, so that none of his own people might see the extravagance of which
he was about to be guilty, he drew out from his clothing a string of
beads, and the end of a conical shell, which is considered, in regions
far from the sea, of as great value as the Lord Mayor's badge is in
London. He hung it round my neck, and said, "There, now you HAVE a proof
of my friendship."

My men informed me that these shells are so highly valued in this
quarter, as evidences of distinction, that for two of them a slave
might be bought, and five would be considered a handsome price for
an elephant's tusk worth ten pounds. At our last interview old Shinte
pointed out our principal guide, Intemese, a man about fifty, who was,
he said, ordered to remain by us till we should reach the sea; that I
had now left Sekeletu far behind, and must henceforth look to Shinte
alone for aid, and that it would always be most cheerfully rendered.
This was only a polite way of expressing his wishes for my success. It
was the good words only of the guides which were to aid me from the next
chief, Katema, on to the sea; they were to turn back on reaching him;
but he gave a good supply of food for the journey before us, and, after
mentioning as a reason for letting us go even now that no one could say
we had been driven away from the town, since we had been several days
with him, he gave a most hearty salutation, and we parted with the wish
that God might bless him.

Chapter 17.

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 Ba