e affair and finally told the king that
they knew who I was.

"The foreigner who is at Bixibing," said they, "who has come these long
trails and who speaks our language is a Makuba, one of the early
settlers who died, and whose spirit went to a foreign country and now he
has returned."

The messengers hastened to return and accompany me to the capital.

We had been longing and praying for days for the best. With the king's
special envoy were many more men who had come through mere curiosity, as
was their custom.

N'Toinzide stood in the center of the town and called with his loud
voice saying who I was and giving briefly my history.

The villagers were indeed happy. They flocked around as the king's son
drew near and extended their hands to me.

I arose from my chair and made these remarks: "I have heard distinctly
all that you have said, but I am not a Makuba; I have never been here
before."

N'Toinzide insisted that they were right, and said that his father, the
king, wanted me to come on at once to the capital. The people were
mighty happy, Kueta, our host, the townspeople, and my people, too.
Their appetites came back, and so did mine.

With a hasty good-bye, "Gala hola," to Kueta, we were off.

On the last morning our trail grew larger, the country more open, and
the ascent greater, until we stood upon an extensive plain and had a
beautiful view in every direction of all the land as far as we could
see.

We could see in the distance thousands and thousands of banana and palm
trees and our escort of Bakuba cried out, "Muxenge! muxenge!" (meaning
capital! capital!). Just before entering the great town we were halted
at a small guard post consisting of a few houses and some men who were
the king's watchmen. They told me that on each of the four entrances to
the capital these sentries were stationed. A man was dispatched to
notify the king that we were near. In a short while the people came out
of the town to meet and greet us, hundreds of them, and many little
children, too. Some of my caravan were frightened and would run away,
but I told them that the oncoming crowd meant no harm.

N'Toinzide, the king's son, with spear in hand, took the lead and the
interested and excited crowd after getting a peep at me fell in behind.

We marched down a broad, clean street, lined on both sides by interested
spectators jostling, gesticulating, talking aloud and laughing. The
young boys and girls struck up a song whi