118 NATIVE BEBE. Chap. V. 



so needlessly sending for them. " These people are peace- 

 able ; they do not hurt you ; you are killed with beer : " 

 so saying, they returned to their homes. 



We remarked the different varieties of intoxication 

 among these topers, the talkative, the boisterous, the • 

 silly, the stupid, and the pugnacious : the last, when the 

 Chief, at the head of his men, placed himself in front, 

 crying — " I stop this path, you must go back." He sprang 

 aside, hoAvever, with more speed than dignity, when an 

 angry Makololo made a lunge at him with the but of his 

 musket. 



Native beer has a pinkish colour, and the consistency 

 of gruel. The grain is made to vegetate, dried in the 

 sun, pounded into meal, and gently boiled. When only 

 a day or two old, the beer is sweet, with a slight degree 

 of acidity, which renders it a most grateful beverage in 

 a hot climate, or when fever begets a sore craving for 

 acid drinks. A single draught of it satisfies this craving 

 at once. Only by deep and long-continued potations can 

 intoxication be produced : the grain being in a minutely 

 divided state, it is a good way of consuming it, and the decoc- 

 tion is very nutritious. At Tette a measure of beer is exchanged 

 for an equal-sized pot full of grain. A present of this beer, 

 so refreshing to our dark comrades, was brought to us in 

 nearly every village. Beer-drinking does not appear to 

 produce any disease, or to shorten life, on the hills. Never 

 before did we see so many old grey-headed men and women ; 

 leaning on their staves they came with the others to see the 

 white men. The aged Chief, Muata Manga, could hardly have 

 been less than ninety years of age ; his venerable appearance 

 struck the Makololo. " He is an old man," said they, "a very old 

 man ; his skin hangs in wrinkles, just like that on elephants' 



