THE BANYAI. QQ$ 



ment, and would send men with me to Tete who would not lead 

 me to any other village. 



The birds here sing very sweetly, and I thought I heard the 

 canary, as in Londa. We had a heavy shower of rain, and I 

 observed that the thermometer sank 14° in one hour afterward. 

 From the beginning of February we experienced a sensible 

 diminution of temperature. In January the lowest was 75°, 

 and that at sunrise ; the average at the same hour (sunrise) 

 being 79° ; at 3 P.M., 90° ; and at sunset, 82°. In February 

 it fell as low as 70° in the course of the night, and the average 

 height was 88°. Only once did it rise to 94°, and a thunder- 

 storm followed this ; yet the sensation of heat was greater now 

 than it had been at much higher temperatures on more elevated 

 lands. 



"We passed several villages by going roundabout ways through 

 the forest. We saw the remains of a lion that had been killed by 

 a buffalo, and the horns of a putokwane (black antelope), the finest 

 I had ever seen, which had met its death by a lion. The drums, 

 beating all night in one village near which we slept, showed that 

 some person in it had finished his course. On the occasion of 

 the death of a chief, a trader is liable to be robbed, for the 

 people consider themselves not amenable to law until a new 

 one is elected. We continued a very winding course, in order 

 to avoid the chief Katolosa, who is said to levy large sums 

 upon those who fall into his hands. One of our guides was a 

 fine, tall young man, the very image of Ben Habib the Arab. 

 They were carrying dried buffalo's meat to the market at Tete 

 as a private speculation. 



A great many of the Banyai are of a light coffee-and-milk col- 

 or, and, indeed, this color is considered handsome throughout the 

 whole country, a fair complexion being as much a test of beauty 

 with them as with us. As they draw out their hair into small 

 cords a foot in length, and entwine the inner bark of a certain 

 tree round each separate cord, and dye this substance of a red- 

 dish color, many of them put me in mind of the ancient Egyp- 

 tians. The great mass of dressed hair which they possess reach- 

 es to the shoulders, but when they intend to travel they draw il 

 up to a bunch, and tie it on the top of the head. They are clean- 

 ly in their habits. 



