Photo] JUNGLE PATH THROUGH THE FOREST [Rev. R. H. Kirkland.
(Said to be haunted by bad spirits at night.)
Huge boulders like giants’ marbles were strewn about the hill-tops, and some were clinging to the sides of the hills, while others were lying about the valleys as though the players in their games had thrown them too far. The travellers had, with difficulty, to wind round or clamber over them, and every extra exertion was felt in such a tropical heat.
After resting they ate some of their kwanga loaves, and, bathing in the turbid river, they picked up their burdens to start again on their journey, when Old Plaited-Beard kicked his foot against a stone. A look of horror came into his beady eyes at the ill omen against himself.
The snake omen was against the whole party, but this was against the individual. On a journey like this the omen might mean death at the end of the journey to whomsoever it occurred, and the only way to counteract its potency in this case was to go right back home and stay there.
Old Plaited-Beard was too superstitious to disregard the portend, and with many a muttered curse on his carelessness he turned his face homewards, having taken the long fatiguing journey to no purpose. No one regretted his going, for he was as cantankerous as he was superstitious.
His wives and followers at first refused to return with him; but the old man, infuriated at their unwillingness, poured upon them a torrent of abuse, charged them with bewitching him to kick the stone, and threatened them with the curses of his various fetishes in such invectives that they trembled before him, and, gathering their goods, followed him with hearts full of fear and hate.
We lost so much time over these events that instead of reaching our destination that evening we were compelled to spend another night on the road. The whole of the next morning was leisurely spent in resting and dressing.
Satu and his followers bathed during the morning, using soap-worts, which lather well, instead of soap. Then one of his wives combed out and replaited his hair, and dusted it with fine camwood powder. Another wife very carefully rubbed his face, body, legs and arms with palm-oil, to render the skin soft and cool; and a third pounded some camwood into a fine powder, and, putting it into a coarse mesh cloth, dabbed the oiled skin with the cosmetic, giving it a pleasant look and an appearance of being well groomed. A thick band of brilliant red was drawn across the forehead, and Satu went and lolled on a mat to wait for those who had not such expert wives.
The wives rubbed one another with palm-oil, and dusted each other with the red camwood powder. Bakulu and his friends operated, with the skill of experience, on each other, and I came in for such a polishing that I shone like gold on my owner’s neck.