108 PARAMOUNT CHIEFS. Chap. V. 



of a Makololo herdsman, whose occupation had given him skill 

 in pasturage. " Truly," he replied, " do you not see abundance 

 of those grasses which the cattle love,"and get fat upon ? " Yet 

 the people have but few goats, and fewer sheep. With the 

 exception of an occasional leopard, there are no beasts of prey 

 to disturb domestic animals. Wool-sheep would, without 

 doubt, thrive on these highlands. The Manganja generally live 

 in villages, each of which has its own headman, and he may be 

 ruler over several adjacent villages. The people are regarded 

 as his children. All the petty chiefs of a particular portion 

 of country give a sort of allegiance to a paramount chief, 

 called the Eondo, or Kundo. They are bound to pay him 

 a small annual tribute, and one of the tusks of every ele- 

 phant killed ; and it is his duty in return to assist and 

 protect them when attacked by an enemy. Mankokwe is 

 the Kundo of the southern portion of the highlands; but 

 he is a besotted character, who never visits nor aids them 

 as his father did, and so the tribute is rarely paid. Still 

 all acknowledge him as their Eundo, and admit that it is 

 wrong in them not to pay the tribute, though wrong in him 

 not to help them when in trouble. Part of the Upper Shire 

 Valley has a lady paramount, named Nyango; and in her 

 dominions, women rank higher and receive more respectful 

 treatment than their sisters on the hills. 



The hill Chief, Mongazi, called his wife to take charge of a 

 present we had given him. She dropped down on her knees, 

 clapping her hands in reverence, before and after receiving 

 our present from his lordly hands. It was painful to see the 

 abject manner, in which the women of the hill tribes knelt 

 beside the path as we passed; but a great difference took 

 place when we got into Nyango's country. The headman of 

 the first of her villages, though told that the people of three 



