EXTRAVAGANT TATTOOING. 431 



voracity, and, besides, a most unnatural capacity, which without 

 any peculiar attainment would have told dreadfully on the 

 stock in store of precious food. Besides their wonderful capacity 

 they were most remarkable dyspeptics; accomplished beyond 

 all conception in the unpardonably wasteful art of ejecting in- 

 stantaneously what they had eaten, their voracious powers 

 were only equalled by their amazing vomition. 



If those Sepoys were specimens of their class, then would we 

 advise all travellers to beware of Sepoys. From the frequency 

 with which Livingstone complained of this batch Ave are im- 

 pressed that they should have gone with him for nothing and 

 paid extra board besides. Either the cruelties of these men or 

 the tsetse, or both, were beginning to tell on the camels and the 

 buffaloes. They were rapidly becoming a burden rather than a 

 help. The people, however, when they had food were quite 

 generous. The villages of the Makonde were generally quite 

 cleanly and pleasant looking. These were sometimes found in 

 a state of anxiety on account of the kidnapping proclivities of 

 their neighbors on the south side of the Rovuma, who bear the 

 general name of Mabiha. These people are considerably inter- 

 ested in furnishing slaves for the Ibo market, and not unfre- 

 quently, if occasion offers, the women of the Makonde become 

 victims. There is hardly a sadder picture of home life than is 

 presented by a little African village about which a hasty stockade 

 has been thrown, behind which the people go timidly about their 

 duties, in hourly expectation of the enemy who has fixed avaricious 

 eyes on the choicest of their number. 



After crossing the N'Konya, a beautiful stream flowing out of 

 the highlands from the north into the Rovuma, the last of the 

 range which flanks the river on that side was seen, and the 

 country which lay before them was a plain, with a few detached 

 granitic peaks shooting up. In this neighborhood there were 

 some very remarkable specimens of personal ornamentation dis- 

 played with unconcealed pride. The fashion of the region 

 called for an extravagance of tattooing. The lovely belles who 

 displayed their proportions with shameless freedom were not 

 only adorned, as are other maidens of the land, about their faces 

 and breasts, but their entire persons seem to have been at the 

 command of the artist, and especially elaborate were the designs 



