80 TREACHEROUS GUIDES. Chap. III. 



there, which protected them from the bite of these terrible 

 reptiles. 



Leaving the vessel opposite Chibisa's village, Drs. Living- 

 stone and Kirk and a number of the Makololo started on foot 

 for Lake Shirwa. They travelled in a northerly direction 

 over a mountainous country. The people were far from 

 being well-disposed to them, and some of their guides tried 

 to mislead them, and could not be trusted. Masakasa, a Mako- 

 lolo headman, overheard some remarks, which satisfied him 

 that the guide was leading them into trouble. He was quiet 

 till they reached a lonely spot, when he came up to Doctor 

 Livingstone, and said, " That fellow is bad, he is taking us into 

 mischief ; my spear is sharp, and there is no one here ; shall I 

 cast him into the long grass?" Had the Doctor given the 

 slightest token of assent, or even kept silence, never more 

 would any one have been led by that guide, for in a twink- 

 ling he would have been where "the wicked cease from 

 troubling." It was afterwards found that in this case there 

 was no treachery at all ; but a want of knowledge on their 

 part of the language, and of the country. They asked to be 

 led to " Nyanja Mukulu," or Great Lake, meaning, by this, 

 Lake Shirwa ; and the guide took them round a terribly rough 

 piece of mountainous country, gradually edging away towards 

 a long marsh, which from the numbers of those animals we 

 had seen there we had called the Elephant Marsh, but which 

 was really the place known to him by the name " Nyanja 

 Mukulu," or Great Lake. Nyanja orNyanza means, generally, 

 a marsh, lake, river, or even a mere rivulet. 



The party pushed on at last without guides, or only 

 with crazy ones ; for, oddly enough, they were often 

 under great obligations to the madmen of the different 

 villages : one of these honoured them, as they slept 



