Chap. XXXI. TETE : ITS POPULATION. 629 



Banyai, and Major Sicard assured me that to strangers its bite 

 is more especially dangerous, as it sometimes causes fatal fever. 

 It may please our homoeopathic friends to hear that, in curing the 

 bite of the tampan, the natives administer one of the insects 

 bruised in the medicine employed. 



The village of Tete is built on a long slope down to the river, 

 the fort being close to the water. The rock beneath is grey 

 sandstone, and has the appearance of being crushed away from 

 the river : the strata have thus a crumpled form. The hollow 

 between each crease is a street, the houses being built upon the 

 projecting fold. The rocks at the top of the slope are much 

 higher than the fort, and of course completely command it. 

 There is then a large valley, and beyond that, an oblong hill 

 called Karueira. The whole of the adjacent country is rocky 

 and broken, but every available spot is under cultivation. The 

 stone houses in Tete are cemented with mud instead of lime, and 

 thatched with reeds and grass. The rains, having washed out the 

 mud between the stones, give all the houses a rough untidy 

 appearance. No lime was known to be found, nearer than 

 Mozambique; some used in making seats in the verandahs, 

 had actually been brought all that distance. The Portuguese, 

 evidently, knew nothing of the pink and white marbles, which I 

 found at the Mbai, and another rivulet, named the Unguesi, near 

 it, and of which I brought home specimens; nor yet of the 

 dolomite which lies so near to Zumbo ; they might have 

 burned the marble into lime without going so far as Mozam- 

 bique. There are about thirty European houses; the rest are 

 native, and of wattle and daub. A wall about ten feet high 

 is intended to enclose the village, but most of the native inha- 

 bitants prefer to live on different spots outside. There are 

 about 1200 huts in all, which with European households would 

 give a population of about 4500 souls. Only a small propor- 

 tion of these, however, live on the spot ; the majority are en- 

 gaged in agricultural operations in the adjacent country. Gene- 

 rally there are not more than 2000 people resident, for, compared 

 with what it was, Tete is now a ruin. The number of Portu- 

 guese is very small; if we exclude the military, it is under 

 twenty. Lately, however, 105 soldiers were sent from Portugal 

 to Senna, where in one year twenty-five were cut off by fever. 



