A Thousand Miles in a Machilla 



the unfortunate owners dare not do anything to 

 chase them away; for if they interfered with them, 

 the intelligent beasts would retaliate at once and 

 demolish a hut or two. Natives appear to look 

 upon these feeds of grain as a sort of tribute the 

 elephants are entitled to levy. 



Tobacco is cultivated in every village garden. 

 Aborigines do not smoke, but use it in the form of 

 snuff; and I have constantly seen our men stop 

 local natives on the road and beg a pinch from them. 



The women grind corn between two stones, or 

 they pound it in high wooden troughs hollowed out 

 of tree trunks, using heavy wooden mallets for the 

 purpose, and then sift the flour into baskets. They 

 keep very little flour by them, pounding it when 

 wanted, a system which used to cause us at times 

 considerable delay; for if the men had to go any 

 distance to buy food, they had in addition to wait 

 while the corn was being crushed for them by the 

 women ; however, in Nyasaland, as a rule, the 

 nearest village could generally supply sufficient for 

 our needs. 



Soon after our arrival in camp, the local chief 

 would usually turn up to pay his compliments, and 

 he almost invariably brought with him a present of 

 fowls, mealie flour, and sometimes a goat, in 

 exchange for which he received what natives call a 

 *' prize," the value depending on the local price of 

 the fowls and flour he had given us, with an extra 

 renumeration for any services he rendered, such as 

 the provision of guides, hunters, or porters. In 

 Nyasaland the chiefs were usually paid in money; 



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