moerwa's visit. 497 



reality they were ' patari (far)/ that we begin to think pafupi 

 means ' I wish you to go there/ and patari the reverse. # In 

 this case near meant an hour and three-quarters from our 

 sleeping-place to Moerwa's! 



" When we look back from the height to which we have 

 ascended we see a great plain clothed with dark green forest 

 except at the line of yellowish grass, where probably the Loangwa 

 flows. On the east and southeast this plain is bounded at the 

 extreme range of our vision by a wall of dim blue mountains 

 forty or fifty miles off. 



" Moerwa came to visit me in my hut, a rather stupid man, 

 though he has a well-shaped and well-developed forehead, and 

 tried the usual little arts of getting us to buy all we need here 

 though the prices are exorbitant. ■ No people in front ; great 

 hunger there.' ' We must buy food here and carry it to support 

 us.' On asking the names of the next head man he would not 

 inform me, till I told him to try and speak like a man ; he then 

 told us that the first Lobemba chief was Motuna, and the next 

 Chafunga. We have nothing, as we saw no animals in our way 

 hither, and hunger is ill to bear. By giving Moerwa a good 

 large cloth he was induced to cook a mess of maere or millet 

 and elephant's stomach ; it was so good to get a full meal that 

 I could have given him another cloth, and the more so as it was 

 accompanied by a message that he would cook more next day 

 and in larger quantity. On inquiring next evening he said ' the 

 man had told lies/ he had cooked nothing more : he was prone 

 to lie himself, and was a rather bad specimen of a chief. 



" While resting en route for Chitemba's, who it was reported 

 had successfully resisted the Mazitu, Moerwa, with all his force 

 of men, women, and dogs, came up, on his way to hunt elephants. 

 The men were furnished with big spears, and their dogs are used 

 to engage the animal's attention while they spear it ; the women 

 cook the meat and make huts, and a smith goes with them to 

 mend any spear that may be broken." 



Continuing their journey over level plateaux on which the 

 roads are wisely placed, they hardly realized that they were 

 travelling in a mountainous region. It was all covered with 

 dense forest, which in many cases is pollarded, from being cut 

 for bark cloth or for hunting purposes. Masuko fruit abounds. 

 From the cisalpinse and gum-copal trees bark cloth is made. 



