588 A MAN TOSSED BY A BUFFALO. Chap. XXIX. 



inappropriate. The statement of Peirara that twenty negroes were 

 slaughtered in a day, was not confirmed by any one else, though 

 numbers may have been killed on some particular occasion during 

 the time of his visit, for we find throughout all the country north 

 of 20°, which I consider to be real negro, the custom of slaugh- 

 tering victims to accompany the departed soul of a chief, and 

 human sacrifices are occasionally offered, and certain parts of 

 the bodies are used as charms. It is on account of the exist- 

 ence of such rites, with the similarity of the language, and the 

 fact that the names of rivers are repeated again and again from 

 north to south through all that region, that I consider them to 

 have been originally one family. The last expedition to Cazembe 

 was somewhat of the same nature as the others, and failed in esta- 

 blishing a commerce, because the people of Cazembe, who had 

 come to Tete to invite the Portuguese to visit them, had not been 

 allowed to trade with whom they might. As it had not been free- 

 trade there, Cazembe did not see why it should be free-trade at 

 his town ; he accordingly would not allow his people to furnish 

 the party with food except at Ins price ; and the expedition, being 

 half-starved in consequence, came away voting unanimously that 

 Cazembe was a great bore. 



When we left the Loangwa we thought we had got rid of the 

 hills; but there are some behind Mazanzwe, though five or six 

 miles off from the river. Tsetse and the liills had destroyed two 

 riding oxen, and when the little one that I now rode knocked 

 up, I was forced to march on foot. The bush being very dense 

 and high, we were going along among the trees, when three buf- 

 faloes, which we had unconsciously passed above the wind, thought 

 that they were surrounded by men, and dashed through our line. 

 My ox set off at a gallop, and when I could manage to glance 

 back, I saw one of the men up in the air about five feet above a 

 buffalo, which was tearing along with a stream of blood running 

 down his flank. When I got back to the poor fellow, I found 

 that he had lighted on his face, and, though he had been carried 

 on the horns of the buffalo about twenty yards before getting the 

 final toss, the skin was not pierced nor was a bone broken. When 

 the beasts appeared, he had thrown down his load and stabbed one 

 hi the side. It turned suddenly upon him, and, before he could 

 use a tree for defence, carried him off. We shampooed him well. 



