r.IVrXC^STONE on the ZAMBFSI y^3 



attitude of marked hostility. But on being told that the white men 

 were English, and that statement receiving some support from the 

 entirely novel boat in which they traveled, the natives became friendly, 

 and Tingane, a notorious chief, and a known foe to the Portuguese, 

 extended his hospitality and protection toward them. 



A hundred miles "as the crow flies" from the confluence of the 

 Shire and Zambesi — or, if the meanderings of the river are taken into 

 account, some two hundred miles from that point — further navigation 

 was prevented by the lowest of those large cataracts which Living- 

 stone afterwards called the Murchison Cataracts. As the natives were 

 too suspicious — they kept w^atch over the little party night and day — ■ 

 for it to be prudent to advance along the bank, the Doctor sent friendly 

 messages to the neighboring chiefs, with a view to future relations, 

 and returned to Tete. 



A month later, he and Kirk again arrived at the foot of the falls, 

 and, traveling in a northeasterly direction across country, they came 

 to the shores of Lake Shirwa on the 19th of April, 1859. This lake 

 had never been heard of before, and consequently it was a genuine, 

 an absolute discovery. Some seventy miles in length and twenty in 

 breadth, Lake Shirwa lies amid beautiful scenery. The lofty ridge of 

 Zomba, nine thousand feet in height, which separates the lake from 

 the Shire, is its western boundary; and on the east rises the Malanje 

 chain, a ridge of equal magnitude. But the importance of this dis- 

 covery was enhanced tenfold w^hen Livingstone learnt from the natives 

 around its shores that there was another lake to the north, only 

 separated from the Shirwa by a narrow belt of land, and compared 

 with which the Shirwa "was nothing in size." 



In August the Shire was ascended for the third time. The people 

 on this occasion were in nearly every case peaceably inclined, and Liv- 

 ingstone had ample opportunity to study their customs and inquire 

 into their beliefs. It was here he first met with the pelele contrivance, 

 which in the opinion of the native women so greatly adorns them. 

 When told it was ugly, they replied much as their European sisters 

 might — ''Really! It is the fashion." The pelele consists of a ring so 

 inserted in the upper lip as to draw it out in a horizontal line at least 

 two inches beyond the nose. The ring may be of metal or ivory, and 

 is inserted at an early age. 



