ENDURANCE OF THE CARRIERS 303 



tating the employment of considerable numbers of 

 native carriers, and I have found that their endur- 

 ance whilst so employed was remarkable. It is 

 my rule on these occasions to limit the loads 

 which they bear upon their heads to fifty pounds, 

 and one would suppose such a weight to be 

 sufficient ; but to this not inconsiderable burden 

 they will add fully seven or eight pounds, consisting 

 of their own impedimenta in the shape of earthen- 

 ware cooking pots, sleeping mats, sweet potatoes or 

 cassava, with various relishes in the shape of dried 

 fish or out-of-date buck-meat intended for addition 

 to their daily ration of maize or millet flour. If in 

 the course of the day's march a beast be shot, they 

 will eagerly divide the meat among them, thereby 

 increasing their burdens still further, rather than 

 leave a morsel behind. Thus loaded, I have been 

 able to march an average of eighteen to twenty 

 miles a day without undue fatigue to the carriers. 

 The porterage of machilas is a somewhat specialised 

 form of labour, and requires training in order to 

 obtain the necessary smoothness of step ; it must 

 be exceedingly fatiguing to the men, who, when so 

 employed, especially in the Tete district, do very 

 little else. I have travelled in these unpleasant 

 conveyances borne on the shoulders of a team 

 drawn from the Wa-Sena tribe whose gait has 

 been so free from the usual jolting one experiences 

 in other parts of the country that one could read 

 or sleep with ease. The favourite employment of 

 the native of the Zambezi Valley as a whole is, 

 I think, on steamers or barges. It is hard to 

 imagine a lighter-hearted class of men than the 



