242 NATIVE PECULIARITIES. 



it is aided by knocking against the trees, makes frightful gashes 

 within, and soon causes death. They kill them also by means 

 of a spear inserted in a beam of wood, which being suspended 

 on the branch of a tree by a cord attached to a latch fastened in 

 the path, and intended to be struck by the animal's foot, leads 

 to the fall of the beam, and, the spear being poisoned, causes 

 death in a few hours." 



The paths along the bank were only such as had been made 

 by the wild animals ; there were no roads. Besides the ele- 

 phants and buffaloes, which we have mentioned, there were 

 herds of zebras, pallahs and water-bucks; great numbers of 

 wild pigs, koodoos and black antelopes. 



The party began to feel the oppression of the sun only after 

 entering these lowlands, though there were rains every day and 

 considerable cloudiness. The sun frequently came out with 

 " scorching intensity." The men had never suffered from the 

 heat while on the hills. 



Livingstone considered it worthy of mention that in all his 

 journey across the continent he never met an albino, though 

 they were reported by the Portuguese to be quite numerous. 

 "The natives in this section present the same admixture of 

 color, ranging from very dark to light olive, which distinguished 

 those of Londo. They all have the thick lips and flat noses, 

 but instances of the ugly negro physiognomy are rarely to be 

 seen." They have a singular fashion of marking themselves, 

 from the roots of the hair on the forehead to the tip of the nose, 

 by little raised cicatrices about a quarter of an inch in length. 



" The women here are in the habit of piercing the upper lip, 

 and gradually enlarging the orifice until they can insert a shell. 

 The lip then appears drawn out beyond the perpendicular of the 

 nose, and gives them a most ungainly aspect. Sekwebu re- 

 marked, ' These women want to make their mouths like those 

 of ducks ; ' and, indeed, it does appear as if they had the idea 

 that female beauty of lip had been attained by the Ornithorhyn- 

 chus paradoxus alone. This custom prevails throughout the 

 country of the Maravi, and no one could see it without confes- 

 sing that fashion had never led women to a freak more mad." 



There is a remarkable absence of deformities. There is a 

 horror of everything which is out of the apparent order of na- 



