546 BEAUTIFUL HEADS. 



but soon showed that she preferred her father to her husband, 

 for seeing preparations made to send off to purchase ivory, she 

 suspected that her father was to be attacked, and made her escape. 

 I then visited Nsama, and, as he objected to many people coming 

 near him, took only three of my eight attendants. His people 

 were very much afraid of fire-arms, and felt all my clothing to 

 see if I had any concealed on my person. Nsama is an old 

 man, with head and face like those sculptured on the Assyrian 

 monuments. He had been a great conqueror in his time, and 

 with bows and arrows was invincible. He is said to have de- 

 stroyed many native traders from Tanganyika, but twenty Arab 

 guns made him flee from his own stockade, and caused a great 

 sensation in the country. He was much taken with my hair 

 and woollen clothing ; but his people, heedless of his scolding, so 

 pressed upon us that we could not converse, and, after promis- 

 ing to send for me to talk during the night, our interview 

 ended. He promised guides to Moero, and sent us more pro- 

 visions than we could carry ; but showed so much distrust that, 

 after all, we went without his assistance. 



" Nsama's people are particularly handsome. Many of the 

 men have as beautiful heads as one could find in an assembly 

 of Europeans. All have very fine forms, with small hands and 

 feet. None of the west coast ugliness, from which most of our 

 ideas of the negroes are derived, is here to be seen. No prog- 

 nathous jaws nor lark-heels offended the sight. My observa- 

 tions deepened the impression first obtained from the remarks 

 of Winwood Reade, that the typical negro is seen in the ancient 

 Egyptian, and not in the ungainly forms which grow up in the 

 unhealthy swamps of the west coast. Indeed it is probable 

 that this upland forest region is the true home of the negro. 

 The women excited the admiration of the Arabs. They have 

 fine, small, well-formed features : their great defect is one of 

 fashion, which does not extend to the next tribe ; they file their 

 teeth to points, the hussies, and that makes their smile like that 

 of the crocodile. 



" Nsama's country is called Itawa, and his principal town is 

 in latitude 8° 55" south, and longitude 29° 21' east. From 

 the large population he had under him, Itawa is in many parts 

 well cleared of trees for cultivation, and it is lower than Ulungu, 



