Beyond this forest we found the village of Nyakalonga, a sister of the late Matiamvo, who treated us handsomely.  She wished her people to guide us to the next village, but this they declined unless we engaged in trade.  She then requested us to wait an hour or two till she could get ready a present of meal, manioc roots, ground-nuts, and a fowl.  It was truly pleasant to meet with people possessing some civility, after the hauteur we had experienced on the slave-path.  She sent her son to the next village without requiring payment.  The stream which ran past her village was quite impassable there, and for a distance of about a mile on either side, the bog being soft and shaky, and, when the crust was broken through, about six feet deep.

On the 28th we reached the village of the chief Bango (lat. 12d 22’ 53” S., long. 20d 58’ E.), who brought us a handsome present of meal, and the meat of an entire pallah.  We here slaughtered the last of the cows presented to us by Mr. Schut, which I had kept milked until it gave only a teaspoonful at a time.  My men enjoyed a hearty laugh when they found that I had given up all hope of more, for they had been talking among themselves about my perseverance.  We offered a leg of the cow to Bango, but he informed us that neither he nor his people ever partook of beef, as they looked upon cattle as human, and living at home like men.  None of his people purchased any of the meat, which was always eagerly done every where else.  There are several other tribes who refuse to keep cattle, though not to eat them when offered by others, because, say they, oxen bring enemies and war; but this is the first instance I have met with in which they have been refused as food.  The fact of killing the pallahs for food shows that the objection does not extend to meat in general.

The little streams in this part of the country did not flow in deep dells, nor were we troubled with the gigantic grasses which annoyed our eyes on the slopes of the streams before we came to Cabango.  The country was quite flat, and the people cultivated manioc very extensively.  There is no large collection of the inhabitants in any one spot.  The ambition of each seems to be to have his own little village; and we see many coming from distant parts with the flesh of buffaloes and antelopes as the tribute claimed by Bango.  We have now entered again the country of the game, but they are so exceedingly shy that we have not yet seen a single animal.  The arrangement into many villages pleases the Africans vastly, for every one who has a few huts under him feels himself in some measure to be a chief.  The country at this time is covered with yellowish grass quite dry.  Some of the bushes and trees are green; others are shedding their leaves, the young buds pushing off the old foliage.  Trees, which in the south stand bare during the winter months, have here but a short period of leaflessness.  Occasionally, however, a cold north wind comes up even as far as Cabango,