Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,077 pages of information about Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,077 pages of information about Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa.

   No. 3 appears like gently curving horns.  There is a part in
   the middle, and the hair, on leather frames, curls outward and
   upward at the temples.

No. 4 is likewise, but the single horn curves outward and upward from the forehead—­it is labelled “A Young Man’s Fashion”.  Except for No. 1, all are represented as having the rest of their hair hanging in braids around the sides and back.  All of the faces, as Livingstone asserts, appear much like paintings of ancient Egyptians, and could easily be European except for the shading and the slanted eyes.  They are all handsome.—­A.  L., 1997.

Chapter 23.

Make a Detour southward—­Peculiarities of the Inhabitants—­Scarcity of Animals—­Forests—­Geological Structure of the Country—­Abundance and Cheapness of Food near the Chihombo—­A Slave lost—­The Makololo Opinion of Slaveholders—­Funeral Obsequies in Cabango—­Send a Sketch of the Country to Mr. Gabriel—­Native Information respecting the Kasai and Quango—­The Trade with Luba—­Drainage of Londa—­Report of Matiamvo’s Country and Government—­Senhor Faria’s Present to a Chief—­The Balonda Mode of spending Time—­Faithless Guide—­Makololo lament the Ignorance of the Balonda—­Eagerness of the Villagers for Trade—­Civility of a Female Chief—­The Chief Bango and his People—­Refuse to eat Beef—­Ambition of Africans to have a Village—­Winters in the Interior—­Spring at Kolobeng—­White Ants:  “Never could desire to eat any thing better”—­Young Herbage and Animals—­Valley of the Loembwe—­ The white Man a Hobgoblin—­Specimen of Quarreling—­Eager Desire for Calico—­Want of Clothing at Kawawa’s—­Funeral Observances—­Agreeable Intercourse with Kawawa—­His impudent Demand—­Unpleasant Parting—­Kawawa tries to prevent our crossing the River Kasai—­Stratagem.

We made a little detour to the southward in order to get provisions in a cheaper market.  This led us along the rivulet called Tamba, where we found the people, who had not been visited so frequently by the slave-traders as the rest, rather timid and very civil.  It was agreeable to get again among the uncontaminated, and to see the natives look at us without that air of superciliousness which is so unpleasant and common in the beaten track.  The same olive color prevailed.  They file their teeth to a point, which makes the smile of the women frightful, as it reminds one of the grin of an alligator.  The inhabitants throughout this country exhibit as great a variety of taste as appears on the surface of society among ourselves.  Many of the men are dandies; their shoulders are always wet with the oil dropping from their lubricated hair, and every thing about them is ornamented in one way or another.  Some thrum a musical instrument the livelong day, and, when they wake at night, proceed at once to their musical performance.  Many of these musicians are too poor to have iron keys to their instrument,

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Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.