PLANTING THE CROP. 471 



cases is filled with pools with trickling rills between. All the 

 people are engaged at present in making mounds six or eight 

 feet square, and from two to three feet high. The sods in places 

 not before hoed are separated from the soil beneath and collected 

 into flattened heaps, the grass undermost ; when dried, fire is 

 applied and slow combustion goes on, most of the products of 

 the burning being retained in the ground ; much of the soil is 

 incinerated. The final preparation is effected by the men 

 digging up the subsoil round the mound, passing each hoeful 

 into the left hand, where it pulverizes, and is then thrown on to 

 the heap. It is thus virgin soil on the top of the ashes and 

 burned ground of the original heap, very clear of weeds. At 

 present many mounds have beans and maize about four inches 

 high. Holes, a foot in diameter and a few inches deep, are 

 made irregularly over the surface of the mound, and about eight 

 or ten grains put into each : these are watered by hand and 

 calabash, and kept growing till the rains set in, when a very 

 early crop is secured. 



After leaving Phunze they crossed a rivulet which emptied 

 into Lake Nyassa — undulation tends northward. Some hills 

 were in view, but were mere mounds by the side of the moun- 

 tains just left behind. This locality is over three thousand 

 feet above the sea and the air is delightful ; but as they passed 

 many spots covered with a plant which grows in marshy places, 

 probably it would not be pleasant as a place of residence. The 

 fact of even maize being planted on mounds where the ground 

 is naturally quite dry tells us the climate must be very humid. 



Kauma told Livingstone of some of his people, who had 

 lately come from Babisa, purchasing ivory : they would give 

 him information about the path. He took a fancy to one of 

 the boys' blankets, offering a native cloth, much larger, in ex- 

 change, and even a sheep to boot, but the owner being unwilling 

 to part with his covering, Kauma refused to send for the 

 travellers on account of the boy not wishing to deal with 

 him. This chieftain says his people are partly Kanthunda and 

 partly Chipeta; the first are mountaineers and the latter are 

 dwellers on the plain. The population of his village is large 

 and ceremonious ; in speaking of them, Livingstone says, 

 " When we meet any one he turns aside and sits down. We 



