Where did they get them from, I wonder, and what was the origin of their race?
I cannot answer the question, for I never found out with any certainty.

Nor do I think they knew themselves.
The _indaba_ was resumed.

Bausi announced that we three white men with a servant apiece (I stipulated for this) would visit Pongo-land as his envoys, taking no firearms with us, there to discuss terms of peace between the two peoples, and especially the questions of trade and intermarriage.

Komba was very insistent that this should be included; at the time I wondered why.

He, Komba, on behalf of the Motombo and the Kalubi, the spiritual and temporal rulers of his land, guaranteed us safe conduct on the understanding that we attempted no insult or violence to the gods, a stipulation from which there was no escape, though I liked it little.