364 THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



CHAPTER XX. 



PUNISHMENT FOR UNFAITHFULNESS. 



IT was not until the first of June that the floods had subs ded 

 sufficiently to admit of a resumption of the journey, which was 

 now to be directed toward Lake Bangweolo, of which Living- 

 stone had heard much. As he was upon the point of leaving 

 Casembe, he was struck by the sight of a sub-chief's wife, who 

 was uncommonly good-looking, in a slave chain-gang. Inquiry 

 elicited the fact that she had been sold for unfaithfulness ; her 

 husband, Kapika, was an old man, while she was both youthful 

 and pretty ; her offense, therefore, was but the counterfeit of 

 what we frequently see among civilized people who are similarly 

 mis-mated. 



The case of the chieftainess excited great sympathy among the 

 people ; many brought her food, and one man offered to redeem 

 her with three slaves. The matter was finally brought before 

 Casembe, but this chief, owing to the fact that he himself was an 

 old man having a pretty young wife, declared that ten slaves 

 could not redeem the faithless woman. He pronounced this 

 judgment with a scowl and looked at his own wife at the same 

 time. 



On the sixth day after leaving Casembe a small party of natives 

 was met, carrying a dead lion slung across a pole. The lion had 

 killed a man, and it was being taken to Casembe for judgment ; 

 its mouth was carefully strapped and the paws tied tightly across 

 its chest. Some of the lions of this district stand more than five 

 feet high, and are nearly as large as a buffalo. 



JOY AMONG SLAVES. 



ONE day Livingstone met a gang of slaves being driven along 

 the path, and some of them were singing as if they did not feel 

 the weight and degradation of the slave-sticks. Livingstone 

 asked the cause of their mirth, and was told that they rejoiced 

 at the idea of "coming back after death, and haunting and 



