PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 61 



fallen from you ! Perhaps Tete is entitled to 

 plead some sort of an excuse, for there is an 

 atmosphere of dolcefar niente about all Zambesia, 

 which seems to envelop its people, its scenes, its 

 very trees and birds, in a siesta shroud. 



Even the great river, after rushing in a mad, 

 seething torrent over the rapids of Caroabassa, 

 wends slowly, sleepily, seaward past Tete, unless 

 it be that the Zambesi is in full flood and the 

 pent-up waters in the north tear along to the 

 Indian Ocean. And when the mother river 

 hastens past the picturesque little settlement, 

 Tete looks disdainfully at its energy, for surely 

 the year is long ; might not that bit of driftwood 

 stay its scurry until to-morrow? 



" Yesterday and to-morrow " ; those are the 

 keynotes of this capital of Zambesia. 



Yesterday Portugal subdued East Africa; and 

 to-morrow? Ah, well, quien sabe? The sun 

 is high in the heavens and there are thousands 

 of natives who can work ! 



So thinks the Portuguese official or merchant 

 as he lounges lazily back in his " machilla " (ham- 

 mock), gaudily decked with leopard-skins and a 

 tasselled awning whereon perhaps his coat-of- 

 arms is emblazoned. 



Down the Aveneida de Freria d'Andrade swing 

 the " machilla " boys, past the old, low-lying, blue- 

 stained houses which seem to struggle for exist- 

 ence with the more solid, lofty, cool, white build- 

 ings which Tete in a moment of wondrous activity 

 reared up unto itself along the river front. 



The lord and master of the "machilla" indo- 

 lently alights and saunters into his house, a figure 

 celestial almost in the snowy whiteness of his 

 " ducks " and helmet, perhaps to enjoy a cigarette 

 and a slumber. 



