On demanding back the price he said, "Let Abed come and I will give it to him;" then when I sent to force him to give up the goods, all his village fled into the forest: I now tried to buy one myself from the Bagenya, but there was no chance; so long as the half-caste traders needed any they got all--nine large canoes, and I could not secure one.
_24th May, 1871._--The market is a busy scene--everyone is in dead earnest--little time is lost in friendly greetings; vendors of fish run about with potsherds full of snails or small fishes or young _Clarias capensis_ smoke-dried and spitted on twigs, or other relishes to exchange for cassava roots dried after being steeped about three days in water--potatoes, vegetables, or grain, bananas, flour, palm-oil, fowls, salt, pepper; each is intensely eager to barter food for relishes, and makes strong assertions as to the goodness or badness of everything: the sweat stands in beads on their faces--cocks crow briskly, even when slung over the shoulder with their heads hanging down, and pigs squeal.
Iron knobs, drawn out at each end to show the goodness of the metal, are exchanged for cloth of the Muabe palm.

They have a large funnel of basket-work below the vessel holding the wares, and slip the goods down if they are not to be seen.

They deal fairly, and when differences arise they are easily settled by the men interfering or pointing to me: they appeal to each other, and have a strong sense of natural justice.

With so much food changing hands amongst the three thousand attendants much benefit is derived; some come from twenty to twenty-five miles.

The men flaunt about in gaudy-coloured lambas of many folded kilts--the women work hardest--the potters slap and ring their earthenware all round, to show that there is not a single flaw in them.