MARKET PRICES AT TETE. 393 



dull community. Owing to the desolating wars of former years, 

 the cost of provisions was nearly three times as much as in by- 

 gone days ; so his excellency determined to reduce prices to their 

 former standard, and proclaimed that in future twenty-four fowls 

 instead of eight were to be sold for two yards of calico, and that 

 the prices of sheep, goats, and oil should be reduced in like 

 proportion. The first native who came to market refused to 

 sell his fowls at government prices, and was at once hauled up 

 before the irate commandant, and, for contumacy to this new 

 re-enactment of old laws, condemned to be marched up and 

 down the street all day, with his cackling merchandise hung 

 round his neck, and then sent to prison to pass the night. An- 

 other poor fellow brought a pot of groundnut-oil for sale, and 

 was condemned to drink of it largely for refusing to sell it at 

 the legal rate. 



Such measures did very well as an expression of his excel- 

 lency's animus, but they were impotent so far as any general 

 influence on the market was concerned. The natives simply de- 

 clined to bring their possessions to the village under the circum- 

 stances, and while the country is claimed with a great show of 

 dignity by the Portuguese, the tax collectors, who should ven- 

 ture to invade the back country for the dues of their master, 

 would probably be called on to pay the " last debt " before col- 

 lecting the first one. Besides the funerals and weddings, which 

 are reckoned among the institutions of the place, the "tea- 

 parties " are perhaps as characteristic of the mercantile commu- 

 nity. They are of a " social turn," and these evening parties are 

 quite popular with them, and if any man would know of the 

 climate of Tete, the expedition supports us in advising him to 

 select a " tea-party " for his investigations ; nowhere may he 

 hope to witness so satisfactorily the strangely debilitating effects. 

 Of such an occasion Dr. Livingstone says : 



" In the course of an hour a number of the members become 

 too feeble to sit in their chairs, and slip unconsciously under the 

 table ; while others, who have been standing up loudly singing 

 or talking, fall into one another's arms, swearing eternal friend- 

 ship, but gradually losing control both of tongue and limb. 

 Slaves sit at the door, who, understanding these symptoms, enter 

 and bear their weak and prostrate masters home. We should 



