492 CHEAPNESS OF FOOD. 



feel glad when the path comes into the shade. The want of life 

 in the scenery made me long to tread again the banks of the Zam- 

 besi, and see the graceful antelopes feeding beside the dark buffa- 

 loes and sleek elands. Here hippopotami are known to exist only 

 by their footprints on the banks. Not one is ever seen to blow or 

 put his head up at all; they have learned to breathe in silence 

 and keep out of sight. We never heard one uttering the snorting 

 sound so common on the Zambesi. 



We crossed two small streams, the Kanesi and Fombeji, before 

 reaching Cabango, a village situated on the banks of the Chihom- 

 bo. The country was becoming more densely peopled as we pro- 

 ceeded, but it bears no population compared to what it might 

 easily sustain. Provisions were to be had in great abundance ; a 

 fowl and basket of meal weighing 20 lbs. were sold for a yard and 

 a half of very inferior cotton cloth, worth not more than three- 

 pence. An idea of the cheapness of food may be formed from the 

 fact that Captain Neves purchased 380 lbs. of tobacco from the 

 Bangalas for about two pounds sterling. This, when carried into 

 central Londa, might purchase seven thousand five hundred fowls, 

 or feed with meal and fowls seven thousand persons for one day, 

 giving each a fowl and 5 lbs. of meal. When food is purchased 

 here with either salt or coarse calico, four persons can be well fed 

 with animal and vegetable food at the rate of one penny a day. 

 The chief vegetable food is the manioc and lotsa meal. These 

 contain a very large proportion of starch, and, when eaten alone 

 for any length of time produce most distressing heartburn. As 

 we ourselves experienced in coming north, they also cause a weak- 

 ness of vision, which occurs in the case of animals fed on pure 

 gluten or amylaceous matter only. I now discovered that when 

 these starchy substances are eaten along with a proportion of 

 ground-nuts, which contain a considerable quantity of oil, no inju- 

 rious effects follow. 



While on the way to Cabango we saw fresh tracks of elands, 

 the first we had observed in this country. A poor little slave girl, 

 being ill, turned aside in the path, and, though we waited all the 

 next day making search for her, she was lost. She was tall and 

 slender for her age, as if of too quick growth, and probably, unable 

 to bear the fatigue of the march, lay down and slept in the forest, 

 then, waking in the dark, went farther and farther astray. The 



