598 STRANGE CHARACTERS. 



was charming, but every day revealed darker shades in the 

 characters of the people; deeper degradation had never con- 

 fronted Dr. Livingstone, though no man had seen so much of 

 Africa as he. Every village seemed to be estranged from all 

 the rest by some deadly feud, and every man needed to protect 

 his life. 



Their characters abounded in strange contradictions; conspicu- 

 ously honest and sincere, they were absolutely distrustful ; with 

 unquestionable kindness they joined horrid bloodthirstiness. 

 This indeed seemed to be their one great blemish ; industrious, 

 temperate, handsome, honest and cleanly, they found delight in 

 killing ; and though the charitable traveller was slow to believe 

 the reports which were floating about on every breath of their 

 cannibal propensities, he was destined soon to give up all doubt 

 of it. The pretty villages, so full of golden sunshine, so com- 

 fortable and neat, were all entirely isolated ; there was no com- 

 munication between them ; the man from one who ventured to 

 another forfeited his head without judge or jury. Many of these 

 villages were almost entirely concealed ; so thoroughly had the 

 work been done that a traveller ignorant of the country might 

 easily pass within a few yards of them without being aware of 

 their proximity. 



The most serious annoyance experienced in those parts which 

 had been exempt from the presence of traders was in the curiosity 

 of the people, who were entirely unrestrained by any sense of 

 propriety ; they were the most impertinent gazers the doctor had 

 ever seen, and though considerably inured to the ordeal of free 

 inspection which every stranger must submit to in African vil- 

 lages, he was intolerably bored by the unceasing stare of men 

 and women, who did not hesitate to push down the door of his 

 hut to indulge their curiosity. But when he came into the dis- 

 tricts which had been visited by Dugumbe Hassani's bands there 

 was graver trouble. This man had ventured as far as Bam- 

 barre, as we have seen, and gathered immense quantities of ivory 

 just before Livingstone and Mohamad Bogharib came into the 

 country ; he was the first of the traders, and though he had pene- 

 trated only so short a distance his brutal conduct had enraged 

 the whole population, and they would extend no hospitality nor 

 listen to offers of trade, but insisted on the strangers going away. 



