Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/590

 at the time of Buchner's visit to the royal court, it had been transferred to Kawanda, some 12 miles to the south-west, and about midway between both affluents. The huts of the capital are scattered over a wide extent of ground, some grouped together "promiscuously" like mole-hills, others enclosed within a rectangular palisade, formed of stakes or saplings, which are planted in the ground at the beginning of the rainy season, and which, striking root, rapidly grow into large leafy trees. Pogge estimated at from eight to ten thousand the

number of persons dwelling in the mussamba within a radius of a mile and quarter from the royal enclosure.

North of the territory chosen as the site of the royal residence, the domain of the Muata Yamvo extends to no great distance, the banks of the Lu-Lua and its tributaries being occupied in this direction by the savage Ka-Wanda people, who have hitherto valiantly resisted all attempts at conquest. Their bowmen are said to dip their arrowheads in a very active poison, of which they alone have the secret, and with which they imbue the thorny bushes along the tracts in order to destroy the enemy penetrating into their territory. In any case, no European explorer has yet succeeded in making his way into the Ka-Wanda country.