484 SERIOUS EMBARRASSMENTS. 



The country continued strewn with the evidences of the ancient 

 iron works. Speaking of these, the doctor says : " The iron trade 

 must have been carried on for an immense time in the country, 

 for one cannot go a quarter of a mile without meeting pieces of 

 slag and broken pots, calcined pipes, and fragments of the fur- 

 naces, which are converted by the fire into brick. It is curious 

 that the large stone sledge-hammers now in use are not called 

 by the name stone-hammers, but by a distinct word, ' kama : ' 

 nyundo is one made of iron." Though they are greatly inferior 

 to the Manganja in the lake region in their pottery, the people 

 claim to have come originally from Nyassa, and they also declare 

 that they received the knowledge of iron-smelting from Chisumjn 

 (God). 



At Kanyenje he received the usual attentions ; and it was ex- 

 ceedingly gratifying to find that this town had escaped the 

 ravages of the Mazitu during the last year. The chief readily 

 furnished some food, and though not entirely free from some 

 of the more disagreeable traits of men of his sort, was reasona- 

 bly polite. Among the men who figured most conspicuously 

 about his court was an old gentleman who displayed on his arm 

 twenty-seven rings of elephants' skin, which marked him as the 

 great hunter of the town. And when it is remembered that 

 these trophies had all been won by the spear alone, we should 

 not be astonished that they are worn with great pride. 



But although there was abundance of large game reported on 

 all sides the party passed on with no special adventure. Indeed 

 the journey was already becoming one full of anxiety and hard- 

 ship to Livingstone. They were advancing slowly toward the 

 north, and his stock of goods had been sadly diminished through 

 the dishonesty of the men who had already so faithlessly deserted 

 him. And besides the embarrassment of these losses he was 

 under the necessity of having carriers for the small store which he 

 still possessed. These embarrassments, added to the devastations 

 of the Mazitu, made it exceedingly difficult to procure food on 

 any terms. The inconvenience of being so dependent on carriers 

 was perhaps more annoying than it would have been among the 

 tribes farther south, because the chiefs are less absolute and feel 

 more the importance of courting their people. It was not un- 

 frequently the case that some trifling whim on the part of the 



