THE LAKE PEOPLE. 519 



real height above the sea to be, as he puts it, two thousand eight 

 hundred feet. 



The little village at which he first touched the lake was sur- 

 rounded by real west coast palm-oil trees, requiring two men 

 to carry a bunch of ripe fruit. Notwithstanding great weakness, 

 the unyielding man spent the time as diligently as possible exam- 

 ining the region. The people called themselves Balungu, but 

 they had not the bold independent bearing of those of that 

 name among whom Livingstone had so lately passed. And 

 their numbers had been sadly reduced by the Mazitu, who are 

 constantly carrying on° their women and children. They seem 

 themselves, too, to have caught the slaving spirit, and to have 

 come to admire their destroyers. That is surely the deepest de- 

 gradation, the most absolute and irredeemable slavery, out of 

 which a man gazes with admiration on the power which op- 

 presses him, and wears with pride the chain which binds him. 

 God save a fallen people from the grace of a contentment which 

 dispenses with hope; from a submission which kisses the yoke, 

 while it forgets the galling. "As a people," says Livingstone, 

 " they are all excessively polite. The clapping of hands on 

 meeting is something excessive, and then the string of saluta- 

 tions that accompany it would please the most fastidious French- 

 man. It implies real politeness, for in marching with them 

 they always remove branches out of the path, and indicate 

 stones or stumps in it carefully to a stranger, yet we cannot pre- 

 vail on them to lend carriers to examine the lake, or to sell 

 goats, of which, however, they have very few, and all on one 

 island." 



It is mentioned that weeds were observed floating northwards 

 on the lake. Mention is also made of various rivers, flowing 

 northeast and northwest, entering the southern part of the 

 lake. The Lonzua, the Kowe, the Kapala, the Luaze, and the 

 Kalambwe, flow into it near the east end, and the Lovu, or 

 Lofubu, or Lofu, from the southwest. The doctor reasoned 

 that there must be an exit somewhere for such volumes of water. 



We need not follow the curious traveller up and down the 

 steep mountain sides as he wandered about the shores of the 

 lake ; his journal for these days supplies little more than the 

 names of the villages which he passed. 



