right, and seemed to be hesitating as to whether
they should retreat or advance.
The “ Open S e s a m e “ Sen-nen-neh! was I
loudly uttered by Katembo with his usual pa.
thetic, bleating accent, and to our joy the word
was repeated by over a hundred voices. “Sen-
nen-neh! Sennenneh! Sennenneh!”— each voice
apparently vying with the other in loudness.
The river bore us down, and as they would not
shorten the distance, we thought it better to
keep this condition of things, lest the movement
might be misconstrued, and we might be precipi-
tated into hostilities.
For half an hour we glided down in this
manner, keeping up a constant fire of smiling compliments
and pathetic Sennennehs. Indeed, we were
discovering that there was much virtue in a protracted
and sentimental pronunciation of Sen-nen-neh!
The men of the Expedition , who had previously i
ridiculed, with mocking Ba-a-a-a-as, the absurd I
moan and plaintive accents of Sen-nen-neh, which
Katembo had employed, now admired him for
his tact. The good natives with whom we were
now exchanging these suave, bleating courtesies
proved to us that the true shibboleth of peace
was to prolong each word with a quavering
moan and melancholic plaint.
We came to a banana grove, of a delicious
and luxuriant greenness which the shadowy black
green of the antique forest behind it, only made
rjan. 3> *«77-1 THE SHIBBOLETH OF PEACE. 2 77
[ Kankore. J
more agreeable and pleasant. Beyond this grove,
the bank was lined by hundreds of men and
women, standing or sitting down, their eyes
directed towards our approaching flotilla.
“ Sen-nen-neh!” was delivered with happy effect
by one of the boat-boys. A chorus of Sen-nen-
n eh s , long-drawn, loud, and harmonious, quickly
following the notes of the last syllable, burst
from the large assembly, until both banks of
the great river re-echoed it with all its indescribable
and ludicrous pathos.
The accents were peaceful, the bearing of
the people and the presence of the women were
unmistakably pacific, so the word was given to
drop anchor.
The natives in the canoes, who had hitherto
preceded us, were invited to draw near, but
they shrugged their shoulders, and declined the
responsibility of beginning any intercourse with
the strangers. We appealed to the concourse
on the banks, for we were not a hundred feet
from them. They burst out into a loud laughter,
yet with nothing of scorn or contempt in it, for
we had been so long accustomed to the subtle
differences of passion that we were by this time
adepts in discovering the nicest shades of feeling
which wild humanity is capable of expressing^
We held out our hands to them with palms
upturned, heads sentimentally leaning on one
side, and, with a captivating earnestness of