CALICO CURRENCY. 



ing for food, they may be propitiated from time to time by offer- 

 ings of meat and drink. The serpent is an object of worship, 

 and hideous little images are hung in the huts of the sick and 

 dying. The uncontam mated Africans believe that Morungo, 

 the Great Spirit who formed all things, lives above the stars ; 

 but they never pray to him, and know nothing of their relation 

 to him, or of his interest in them. The spirits of their de- 

 parted ancestors are all good, according to their ideas, and on 

 special occasions aid them in their enterprises. When a man 

 has his hair cut, he is careful to burn it, or bury it secretly, lest, 

 falling into the hand of one who has an evil eye, or is a witch, 

 it should be used as a charm to afflict him with the headache. 

 They believe, also, that they shall live after the death of the 

 body, but have no distinct ideas of the condition of the departed 

 spirits. 



The principal currency of the country was English calico, 

 which was received by the natives in exchange for any and 

 everything which they had for sale. Labor, grain, land, gold, 

 everything has its price in calico, and the cheapness of labor 

 particularly would almost turn the head of one of our employ- 

 ers, whose life is worried almost out of him by the system of 

 strikes which is the order of the day. Two yards of unbleached 

 calico is the price of a day's labor, or sixteen yards will hire a 

 man a month. Provision is equally cheap. In ordinary times 

 two yards of calico will buy twenty-four fowls, and a hundred 

 pounds of flour bring the same price. 



The chief articles of export at the time of Dr. Livingstone's 

 visit, in 1856, were ivory and gold dust, and these not in very 

 considerable quantities. The gold seems to have been the 

 temptation which first drew the Portuguese to the Zambesi ; but 

 it is questionable whether they ever realized anything like their 

 hopes in the quantities of the precious metal which they ob- 

 tained. There are, however, quite a number of washings in the 

 country, and it is probable that the world will yet find them 

 very lucrative. Dr. Livingstone had the opportunity of exam- 

 ining the gold dust from different parts to the east and northeast 

 of Tete. 



Round toward the westward, the old Portuguese indicate a 

 station which was near to Zumbo on the River Panyame, and 



