i86 THE MFUMBIRO VOLCANOES 



stream, but always above it, we went higher up to 

 other terraces, which were densely populated and 

 well cultivated. The people, so far as we could see 

 them, looked a vigorous and healthy race, but we 

 only saw a very few of them at close quarters ; 

 they were all provokingly shy, and retreated to the 

 farthest ends of their fields when we came in sight. 

 When we happened to come upon any of them 

 unawares, they dropped their loads and made a 

 dash for the nearest shelter, as though they had seen 

 the devil. Their villages are compact collections of 

 round grass-huts, surrounded by a strong hedge of 

 thorny bushes, and they are often perched on a 

 prominent shoulder of the hill-side, where they can 

 be easily defended against attack. In some of them 

 an additional precaution is taken by protecting the 

 single narrow path, which leads to a village, by a 

 strong hedge on either side, so that it is impossible 

 for more than one person, whether friend or enemy, 

 to enter at the same time. It is not uncommon to 

 see the fields themselves neatly separated by hedges. 

 The most usual crop that they grow is a kind of 

 dwarf bean, and sometimes a larger one which they 

 train on sticks. They have a great fondness for 

 honey, and a prosperous village will possess several 

 hundred hives of bees ; they make the hives out of 

 hollowed losfs of wood. 



Some of these people are very rich in cattle, and 

 the superstition that they live upon milk and honey 

 has some foundation in fact, though it has a more 



