A SERIOUS QUESTION. 379 



for Lake Shirwa. They travelled in a northerly direction over 

 a mountainous country. The people were far from being well- 

 disposed to them, and some of their guides tried to mislead 

 them, and could not be trusted. Masakasa, a Makololo head 

 man, overheard some remarks which satisfied him that the guide 

 was leading them into trouble. He was quiet till they reached 

 a lonely spot, when he came up to Dr. Livingstone, and said, 

 'That fellow is bad, he is taking us into mischief; my spear is 

 sharp, and there is no one here, shall I cast him into the long 

 grass?' Had the doctor given the slightest token of assent, or 

 even kept silence, never more would any one have been led by 

 that guide, for in a twinkling he would have been where ' the 

 wicked cease from troubling.' It was afterwards found that in 

 this case there was no treachery at all ; but a want of knowledge 

 on their part of the language and of the country. They asked 

 to be led to ' Nyanja Mukulu,' or Great Lake, meaning by this 

 Lake Shirwa ; and the guide took them round a terribly rough 

 piece of mountainous country, gradually edging away towards 

 a long marsh, which from the numbers of those animals we had 

 seen there we had called the Elephant Marsh, but which was 

 really the place known to him by the name 'Nyanja Mukulu,' 

 or Great Lake. JNTyanja, or Nyanza, means, generally, a marsh, 

 lake, river, or even a mere rivulet. 



" The party pushed on at last without guides, or only with 

 crazy ones ; for, oddly enough, they were often under great ob- 

 ligations to the madmen of the different villages; one of these 

 honored them, as they slept in the open air, by dancing and 

 singing at their feet the whole night. These poor fellows sym- 

 pathized with the explorers, probably in the belief that they 

 belonged to their own class; and, uninfluenced by the general 

 opinion of their countrymen, they really pitied, and took kindly 

 to the strangers, and often guided them faithfully from place 

 to place, when no sane man could be hired for love or money. 



" The perseverance of the party was finally crowned with suc- 

 cess ; for on the 18th of April they discovered Lake Shirwa, a 

 considerable body of bitter water, containing leeches, fish, croco- 

 diles and hippopotami. From having probably no outlet, the 

 water is slightly brackish, and it appears to be deep, with 

 islands like hills rising out of it. Their point of view was at 



