A SINGULAR FANCY. 



387 



successively for weeks, and months, and years. The process of 

 increasing the size of the lip goes on till its capacity becomes so 

 great that a ring of two inches diameter can be introduced with 

 ease. All the highland women wear the pelele, and it is com- 

 mon on the Upper and Lower Shire; and everywhere it is ac- 

 counted a matchless charm. The fair belle of our great cities 

 clings not more fondly to the sparkling jewel on her breast, or 

 the pendants of pearl which adorn her ears, than do these Afri- 

 can beauties (?) maintain the excellence of the pelele. They 

 need no better justification of their custom than "it is fashion;" 

 and why should they go further than that? can civilization sug- 

 gest the modification of a custom which is a matter of established 

 fashion ? Will not even the church of to-day admit that the 

 fact of the fashion answers all objections to anything ? A bright 

 idea struck Livingstone on observing the younger women con- 

 stantly twaddling this queer pendant with their tongues, and it 

 is a question whether, if the idea is "to find safe employment 

 for that little member," it may not receive the indorsement of 

 the gentlemen of the land we live in. The frequent mention 

 of beer, among the abundant commodities of the country, may 

 have suggested the suspicion already, that the Manganja would 

 hardly pay a hundred cents on the dollar as temperance candi- 

 dates for our respect. Dr. Livingstone remarked to his associates 

 that he had not seen so much drunkenness during sixteen years 

 in Africa as he saw among these people. As they crossed, the 

 party sometimes found whole villages revelling in their favorite 

 indulgence, and the drinking, drumming and dancing, with 

 which they insist on hailing the morning, would put the most 

 accomplished priests of Bacchus to the blush. The party entered 

 a village one afternoon where every man had fallen in the action ; 

 not one was to be seen, and the only indications of life were the 

 few half-conscious women who were still by the beer-pots under 

 a tree. There, as here, the serpent excites every man to the 

 extravagance of his ruling passion, and they have topers, talka- 

 tive, boisterous, silly, stupid and pugnacious. One of these 

 pugnacious specimens on one occasion attempting to arrest the 

 party in their journey, subjected himself to a very pointed lesson 

 on politeness by one of the Makololo who had as little con- 

 science about using his spear on a man as on an ox. The bev- 



