638 PEACTICB WITH FLAKE-GOLD. Chap. XXXI. 



compasses at Tete, and extend the other three and a half degrees, 

 bringing it round from the north-east of Tete by west, and then to 

 the south-east, we nearly touch or include all the known gold-pro- 

 ducing country. As the gold on tins circumference is found in 

 coarser grains than in the streams running towards the centre, or 

 Tete, I imagine that the real gold-field lies round about the coal- 

 field ; and, if I am right in the conjecture, then we have coal 

 encircled by a gold-field, and abundance of wood, water, and provi- 

 sions — a combination not often met with in the world. The inha- 

 bitants are not unfavourable to washings, conducted on the principle 

 formerly mentioned. At present they wash only when in want 

 of a little calico. They know the value of gold perfectly well, 

 for they bring it for sale in goose-quills, and demand 24 yards of 

 calico for one penful. When the rivers in the district of Manica 

 and other gold-washing places have been flooded, they leave a 

 coating of mud on the banks. The natives observe the spots which 

 dry soonest, and commence digging there, in firm belief that gold 

 lies beneath. They are said not to dig deeper than their chins, 

 believing that if they did so the ground would fall in and kill 

 them. When they find a piece or flake of gold, they bury it again, 

 from the superstitious idea that this is the seed of the gold, and, 

 though they know the value of it well, they prefer losing it rather 

 than the whole future crop. This conduct seemed to me so very 

 unlikely in men who bring the dust in quills, and even put in a 

 few seeds of a certain plant as a charm to prevent their losing any 

 of it in the way, that I doubted the authority of my informant ; 

 but I found the report verified by all the Portuguese who know 

 the native language and mode of thinking, and give the statement 

 for what it is worth. If it is really practised, the custom may have 

 been introduced by some knowing one who wished to defraud the 

 chiefs of their due ; for we are informed in Portuguese history that 

 in former times, these pieces or flakes of gold were considered the 

 perquisites of the chiefs. 



Major Sicard, the Commandant, whose kindness to me and 

 my people was unbounded, presented a rosary made of the gold 

 of the country, the workmanship of a native of Tete, to my 

 little daughter ; also specimens of the gold-dust of three different 

 places, which, with the coal of Muatize and Morongoze, are depo- 

 sited in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn-street, London. 



