In this house lives Manenko, with Maunka her mother, Sekomi her father, and Zungo and Shobo her two brothers.

They are all very dark, darker than the brown baby.  I believe you would call them black, but they are not really quite so.  Their lips are thick, their noses broad, and instead of hair, their heads are covered with wool, such as you might see on a black sheep.  This wool is braided and twisted into little knots and strings all over their heads, and bound with bits of red string, or any gay-looking thread.  They think it looks beautiful, but I am afraid we should not agree with them.

Now we will see what clothes they wear.

You remember Agoonack, who wore the white bear’s-skin, because she lived in the very cold country; and the little brown baby, who wore nothing but a string of beads, because she lived in the warm country.  Manenko, too, lives in a warm country, and wears no clothes; but on her arms and ankles are bracelets and anklets, with little bits of copper and iron hanging to them, which tinkle as she walks; and she also, like the brown baby, has beads for her neck.

Her father and mother, and Zungo her brother, have aprons and mantles of antelope skins; and they, too, wear bracelets and anklets like hers.

Little Shobo is quite a baby and runs in the sunshine, like his little sister, without clothes.  Dear little Shobo! how funny and happy he must look, and how fond he must be of his little sister, and our little sister, Manenko!  We have all seen such little dark brothers and sisters.  His short, soft wool is not yet braided or twisted, but crisps in little close curls all over his head.

In the morning they must be up early, for the father is going to hunt, and Zungo will go with him.  The mother prepares the breakfast, small cakes of bread made from the pounded corn, scarlet beans, eaten with honey, and plenty of milk from the brown cow.  She brings it in a deep jug, and they dip in their hands for spoons.

All the meat is eaten, and to-day the men must go out over the broad, grassy fields for more.  They will find the beautiful young antelope, so timid and gentle as to be far more afraid of you than you would be of them.  They are somewhat like small deer, striped and spotted, and they have large, dark eyes, so soft and earnest you cannot help loving them.  Here, too, are the buffalo, like large cows and oxen with strong horns, and the great elephants with long trunks and tusks.  Sometimes even a lion is to be met, roused from his sleep by the noise of the hunters; for the lion sleeps in the daytime and generally walks abroad only at night.  When you are older you can read the stories of famous lion and elephant hunters, and of strange and thrilling adventures in the “Dark Continent.”

It would be a wonderful thing to you and me to see all these strange or beautiful animals, but Zungo and his father have seen them so many times that they are thinking only of the meat they will bring home, and, taking their long spears and the basket of ground nuts and meal which the mother has made ready, they are off with other hunters before the sun is up.