On the 4th we reached their first village.  Remaining at a distance of a quarter of a mile, we sent two men to inform them who we were, and that our purposes were peaceful.  The head man came and spoke civilly, but, when nearly dark, the people of another village arrived and behaved very differently.  They began by trying to spear a young man who had gone for water.  Then they approached us, and one came forward howling at the top of his voice in the most hideous manner; his eyes were shot out, his lips covered with foam, and every muscle of his frame quivered.  He came near to me, and, having a small battle-axe in his hand, alarmed my men lest he might do violence; but they were afraid to disobey my previous orders, and to follow their own inclination by knocking him on the head.  I felt a little alarmed too, but would not show fear before my own people or strangers, and kept a sharp look-out on the little battle-axe.  It seemed to me a case of ecstasy or prophetic phrensy, voluntarily produced.  I felt it would be a sorry way to leave the world, to get my head chopped by a mad savage, though that, perhaps, would be preferable to hydrophobia or delirium tremens.  Sekwebu took a spear in his hand, as if to pierce a bit of leather, but in reality to plunge it into the man if he offered violence to me.  After my courage had been sufficiently tested, I beckoned with the head to the civil head man to remove him, and he did so by drawing him aside.  This man pretended not to know what he was doing.  I would fain have felt his pulse, to ascertain whether the violent trembling were not feigned, but had not much inclination to go near the battle-axe again.  There was, however, a flow of perspiration, and the excitement continued fully half an hour, then gradually ceased.  This paroxysm is the direct opposite of hypnotism, and it is singular that it has not been tried in Europe as well as clairvoyance.  This second batch of visitors took no pains to conceal their contempt for our small party, saying to each other, in a tone of triumph, “They are quite a Godsend!” literally, “God has apportioned them to us.”  “They are lost among the tribes!” “They have wandered in order to be destroyed, and what can they do without shields among so many?” Some of them asked if there were no other parties.  Sekeletu had ordered my men not to take their shields, as in the case of my first company.  We were looked upon as unarmed, and an easy prey.  We prepared against a night attack by discharging and reloading our guns, which were exactly the same in number (five) as on the former occasion, as I allowed my late companions to retain those which I purchased at Loanda.  We were not molested, but some of the enemy tried to lead us toward the Bashukulompo, who are considered to be the fiercest race in this quarter.  As we knew our direction to the confluence of the Kafue and Zambesi, we declined their guidance, and the civil head man of the evening before then came along with