to be converted into flour, three fowls, and seven
eggs, with three smoke-dried fishes; and others gave with similar
liberality. I gave to the head men small bunches of my stock of beads,
with an apology that we were now on our way to the market for these
goods. The present was always politely received.

We had an opportunity of observing that our guides had much more
etiquette than any of the tribes farther south. They gave us food, but
would not partake of it when we had cooked it, nor would they eat their
own food in our presence. When it was cooked they retired into a thicket
and ate their porridge; then all stood up, and clapped their hands, and
praised Intemese for it. The Makololo, who are accustomed to the most
free and easy manners, held out handfuls of what they had cooked to
any of the Balonda near, but they refused to taste. They are very
punctilious in their manners to each other. Each hut has its own fire,
and when it goes out they make it afresh for themselves rather than take
it from a neighbor. I believe much of this arises from superstitious
fears. In the deep, dark forests near each village, as already
mentioned, you see idols intended to represent the human head or a
lion, or a crooked stick smeared with medicine, or simply a small pot of
medicine in a little shed, or miniature huts with little mounds of earth
in them. But in the darker recesses we meet with human faces cut in the
bark of trees, the outlines of which, with the beards, closely resemble
those seen on Egyptian monuments. Frequent cuts are made on the trees
along all the paths, and offerings of small pieces of manioc roots or
ears of maize are placed on branches. There are also to be seen every
few miles heaps of sticks, which are treated in cairn fashion, by every
one throwing a small branch to the heap in passing; or a few sticks are
placed on the path, and each passer-by turns from his course, and forms
a sudden bend in the road to one side. It seems as if their minds were
ever in doubt and dread in these gloomy recesses of the forest, and
that they were striving to propitiate, by their offerings, some superior
beings residing there.

The dress of the Balonda men consists of the softened skins of small
animals, as the jackal or wild cat, hung before and behind from a girdle
round the loins. The dress of the women is of a nondescript character;
but they were not immodest. They stood before us as perfectly
unconscious of any indecorum