616 A VILLAGE SCENE. 



rally, as if in despair. She eats everything, covers herself with a 

 mat to sleep, and wipes her face with a leaf, as naturally as one 

 of us can with a handkerchief." 



He left Mamohela on the 1st of March, his party swelled 

 somewhat by the addition of seven of the Arab's people going 

 on to buy ivory. He was on new territory : his former trips 

 had not extended farther west than Mamohela ; now he was 

 destined to reach the Lualaba. They advanced between 

 ranges of mountains, crossing innumerable rivulets. The peo- 

 ple were generally kind, and felt themselves fully remunerated 

 by a few strings of beads, which Livingstone always gave as an 

 acknowledgment, although nothing was asked. Many of the 

 villages which he passed were unusually pretty, standing on 

 slopes, the neat huts facing the bright sunny street. In front 

 of the doors little verandahs were often made, and here at 

 dawn the family gathers round a fire, and, while enjoying the 

 heat needed in the cold that always accompanies the first dart- 

 ing of the light or sun's rays across the atmosphere, inhale the 

 delicious air, and talk over their little domestic affairs. The 

 various shaped leaves of the forest all around their village and 

 near their nestlings are bespangled with myriads of dewdrops. 

 The cocks crow vigorously, and strut and ogle ; the kids gambol 

 and leap on the backs of their dams quietly chewing the cud ; 

 other goats make believe fighting. Thrifty wives often bake 

 their new clay pots in a fire, made by lighting a heap of grass 

 roots : the next morning they extract salt from the ashes, and 

 so two birds are killed with one stone. The beauty of this 

 morning scene of peaceful enjoyment is indescribable. Infancy 

 gilds the fairy picture with its own lines, and it is probably 

 never forgotten, for the young, taken up from slavers, and 

 treated with all philanthropic missionary care and kindness, 

 still revert to the period of infancy as the finest and fairest they 

 have known. They would go back to freedom and enjoyment 

 as fast as would our own sons of the soil, and be heedless to the 

 charms of hard work and no play, which our benevolence so 

 readily recognizes as best for them. The terror of the Arabs 

 had reached some of these villages, and the people fled when 

 they heard that strangers were approaching, supposing it to be 

 an Arab party. The farther he went the more horrible stories 



