Instantly upon hearing this cry for peace all fighting, according to custom, must cease; consequently Satu told his men to stop firing. Then a small company of men coming across the valley could be seen, the foremost of whom was Dimbula, and behind him came a neighbouring chief carrying on his shoulders a white goat. Dimbula took the white goat, and kneeling in front of Satu, said: “I do not want any more fighting, and in token of my submission I offer you this white goat.”
Satu accepted the goat, and said: “I am glad to receive your white goat of submission; but I cannot promise you a lasting peace until you have: First, paid homage to me as a noble of rank; secondly, compensated my head man for a slave killed in the fight; and lastly, paid one hundred kegs of gunpowder and fifty pieces of cloth to compensate us.”
Dimbula begged for better terms, and pleaded poverty, stating truly that he had not the powder and cloth. All the swaggering arrogance of the bully had gone out of his tone and demeanour as he cringed on the ground before his conqueror; and as he crouched there he was seen in his true character--a coward.
To him Satu replied: “The homage you can pay now while you are kneeling before me; the slave you can also repay at once to my head man, for I know you have slaves; and for the rest you can hand over one of your brothers and two of your nephews for me to hold in pawn until you have paid the agreed price. This is fair, and I have only one mouth.”
Dimbula knew that it would be waste of time to plead further, and in his heart he was surprised that the conditions were so generous; so swallowing his pride he paid homage to his victor as N gudi a nkama Katendi. He then called one of his slaves and offered him to Satu’s head man, who, being satisfied with his healthy appearance, accepted him with alacrity. He then called his young brother and two nephews, and, promising to redeem them as soon as possible, put their hands in Satu’s, thus completing the conditions of peace.
In the meantime, a nganga was called who came with some stalks, leaves and palm-wine. He pressed the juice out of the stalks into the wine, and well mixing them he dipped the leaves in the liquid, touched the chiefs with the leaves and sprinkled the rest of the mixture indiscriminately over the fighters and people of both sides. Thus peace was established. To ensure this peace for all time, so far as these two men were concerned, the nganga let a little blood from them, and gave each to drink the blood taken from the other; then two needles were solemnly buried and the whilom enemies became henceforth staunch friends and blood brothers.
Down somewhere in Dimbula’s cruel, bullying, arrogant nature was a soft place for his nephews and brother, for at once he began to trade, nor did he rest until he had gained sufficient to redeem his relatives by taking the hundred kegs of powder, the fifty pieces of cloth, and the necessary three white goats to cleanse them from all taint of slavery. Besides, he was eager to reinstate himself with the neighbouring chiefs, among whom he had lost his position as a defeated man too poor to meet the terms of peace. And Satu, as a proof of his increasing friendship for Dimbula, gave him back the ridge-pole that had been torn from his house.
Chapter XVIII
Governing, Marketing, and Trading Customs
The making and enforcing of laws--Fines imposed--Division of fines--Congo week of four days probably named after their markets--Raids and robberies--Preparing a caravan for the road--Rules of the road--Arriving at a trading-station--Mode of trading--Goods given and received.
From this time Satu could not engage in trading expeditions, but devoted himself to governing the country by helping to make new laws or administering old ones. As a noble of exalted rank he presided over the chiefs of his district at the big palavers when difficult cases were judged, or called them together to give their sanction to new regulations.