358 ACEOSS AFKICA. [Chap. 



July, whole must follow motions ; and when one falls, five or six are 

 1875. dragged down. 



The whole conntry was well wooded, and the streams were 

 almost innumerable. Groves of gigantic trees sprung up with- 

 out undergrowth, and a weird feeling of awe stole over me as I 

 wandered in my loneliness among their huge trunks and looked 

 up at their towering heads, whose outspreading branches ob- 

 scured the light of the midday sun. 



At Lupanda, the chief brought a tusk of ivory for sale, and 

 the caravan was halted a day, that Alvez might bargain about 

 the price ; and even then he did not purchase it. 



I had some conversation with these people, and also with a 

 chief named Mazonda, whose village we had passed the day be- 

 fore. They told me that Mata Yafa, who had been deposed by 

 his sister, was stealing through the country about eight miles 

 north of us, being on his way to solicit the assistance of his 

 friend and kinsman, Kasongo, to reinstate him in his govern- 

 ment. 



In addition to cutting off noses, lips, and ears, the morbid cu- 

 riosity of this wretched creature led him, on one occasion, to 

 extend his studies in vivisection even to sacrificing an unfortu- 

 nate woman who was about to become a mother. To this, 

 his sister — who was also his principal wife — objected, being 

 prompted by the instinct of self-preservation; for she urged 

 that, being herself a woman, she might some day be chosen as a 

 subject by Mata Yafa in his search for knowledge. So, gather- 

 ing together a strong party, she attempted to surprise and kill 

 him in his hut at night. 



Rumor of tliese intentions having reached him, he escaped 

 with a mere handful of men, and his sister proclaimed a brother 

 the ruler in his stead. 



A quantity of copper — principally obtained from mines 

 about fifty miles south of this place — was brought into camp 

 here as an exchange for slaves. It was cast in pieces shaped 

 like St. Andrew's cross, as before described, and was carried in 

 loads of nine or ten slung at each end of a pole, weighing alto- 

 gether from fifty to sixty pounds. 



Upon my picking up a half-load, consisting of ten pieces, and 

 holding it out at arms -length, the people were greatly aston- 



