624 THE BANYAI. Chap. XXX. 



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 afterwards. 

 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 Ins 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 

 colour, and indeed this colour is considered handsome through- 

 out the whole country, — a fan- complexion being as much a 

 test of beauty with tliem 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 reddish colour, many of them put me in mind of 

 the ancient Egyptians. The great mass of dressed hair which 

 they possess, reaches to the shoulders, but, when they intend to 

 travel, they draw it up to a bunch, and tie it on the top of the 

 head. They are cleanly in their habits. 



