TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 167 



A short time before the rains several of these shocks are thrown together, the earth 

 scraped over them, and then the grass underneath is set on fire. The soil is thus 

 treated in a manner similar to that practised in modern times among ourselves on 

 some lands. When they wish to clear a piece of woodland, they proceed in precisely 

 the same way as the farmers in Canada and the Western States do, — cut the trees 

 down with their axes, and, leaving the stumps about 3 feet high standing, pile up the 

 logs and branches for burning. They grow lassaver in large quantities, preparing 

 ridges for it from 3 to 4 feet wide, and about a foot high. They also raise maize, 

 rice, two kinds of millet, beans, sugar-cane, sweet potatoes, yams, ground-nuts, 

 pumpkin, tobacco, and Indian hemp. Near Lake Nyassa we saw indigo 7 feet high. 

 Large quantities of beer are made, and they like it well. We found whole villages 

 on the spree, and saw the stupid type of drunkenness, the silly sort, the boisterous 

 talkative sort, and on cne occasion the almost up-to-the-fighting-point variety, when 

 a petty chief, with some of the people near, placed himself in front, exclaiming, 

 " I stop this path ; you must go back." Had he not got out of the way with greater 

 speed than dignity, an incensed Makololo would have cured him of all desire to try 

 a similar exploit in future. It was remarked by the oldest traveller in the party 

 that he had not seen so much drunkenness during all the years he had spent in 

 Africa. The people, notwithstanding, attain to a great age. One is struck with the 

 large number of old grey-headed persons in the highlands. This seems to indicate 

 a healthy climate; for their long lives they are not in the least indebted to frequent 

 ablutions. "Why do you wash yourselves? our men never do," said some women 

 at Chinsurdi to the Makololo. An old man told us he remembered having washed 

 himself once when a boy, but never repeated it ; and from his appearance one could 

 hardly call the truth of his statement in question. A fellow who volunteered some 

 wild geographical information followed us about a dozen miles, and introduced us to 

 the chief Moena Moezi by saying, "They have wandered ; they don't know where 

 they are going." " Scold that man," said a Makololo head to his factotum, who 

 immediately commenced an extemporary scolding ; yet the singular geographer would 

 follow us, and we could not get quit of him till the Makololo threatened to take him 

 to the river and wash him. The castor-oil with which they lubricate themselves 

 and the dirt serve as additional clothing, and to wash themselves is like throwing 

 away the only upper garment they possess. They feel cold and uncomfortable after 

 a wash. We observed several persons marked by the small-pox. On asking the 

 chief Mongazi — who was a' little tipsy, and disposed to be very gracious, — if he knew 

 its origin, whether it had come to them from the sea, " He did not know," he said, 

 "but supposed it must have come to them from the English." Like other Africans, 

 they are somewhat superstitious. A person accused of bewitching another and 

 causing his death, either volunteers or is compelled to drink the Maiori, or ordeal. 

 On our way to the lake a chief kindly led us past the next two villages, whose chiefs 

 had just been killed by drinking the Maiori. When a chief dies his people imagine 

 that they may plunder any stranger coming into their village. A chief, near Zomba, 

 at whose village we took breakfast on our way up, drank the Maiori before our 

 return, and vomiting, was therefore innocent. His people we found manifesting their 

 joy by singing, dancing, and beating drums. Even Chibisa, an intelligent and power- 

 ful chief, drank it once, and when insisting that all his numerous wars were just, 

 and that his enemies were always in the wrong, said to us, " If you doubt my word, 

 I am ready to drink the Maiori." On the evening of the day we reached Moena 

 Moezi, an alligator carried off his principal wife from the very spot where some of 

 us had washed but a few hours before. We learned on our return that he had sent 

 messengers to several villages, saying, " He did not know whether we had put 

 rnediciue on the spot, but after we had been there his wife was carried off by an 

 alligator." The first village refused to sell us food, would have nothing whatever 

 to do with us, and the chief of the next village, who happened to be reclining in the 

 Boabab, ran off, leaving his wooden pillow and mat behind. The women seldom 

 run away — having more pluck perhaps than the men. When a person dies, the 

 women commence the death-wail, and keep it up for two days. A few words are 

 chanted in a plaintive voice, ending by a prolonged note : a — a, or o — o, or ea, ea, 

 e — a. The corpse is buried in the same hut in which he dies. It is then closed up 

 and allowed to fall into decay. We found one village in mourning, on the banks of 



