152 ANNUAL TKIBUTE TO ZULUS. Chap. VI. 



cabin. A green snake lived with us several weeks, con- 

 cealing himself behind the casing of the deckhouse in the 

 daytime. To be aroused in the dark by five feet of cold 

 green snake gliding over one's face, is rather unpleasant, 

 however rapid the movement may be. Myriads of two 

 varieties of cockroaches infested the vessel; they not only 

 ate round the roots of our nails, but even devoured and 

 defiled our food, flannels, and boots ; vain were all our 

 efforts to extirpate these destructive pests; if you kill one, 

 say the sailors, a hundred come down to his funeral ! In the 

 work of Commodore Owen it is stated that cockroaches, 

 pounded into a paste, form a powerful carminative ; this has 

 not been confirmed, but when monkeys are fed on them they 

 are sure to become so lean as to suggest the idea, that for fat 

 people a course of cockroach might be as efficacious as a 

 course of Banting. 



On coming to Senna, we found that the Zulus had arrived in 

 force for their annual tribute. These men are under good dis- 

 cipline, and never steal from the people. The tax is claimed on 

 the ground of conquest, the Zulus having formerly completely 

 overcome the Senna people, and chased them on to the islands 

 in the Zambesi. Fifty-four of the Portuguese were slain on 

 the occasion, and, notwithstanding the mud fort, the village 

 has never recovered its former power. Fever was now very 

 prevalent, and most of the Portuguese were down with it. 

 The village has a number of foul pools, filled with green, fetid 

 mud, in which horrid long-snouted greyhound-shaped pigs 

 wallow with delight. The greater part of the space enclosed 

 in the stockade, which is an oblong of say a thousand yards 

 by five hundred, is covered with tall indigo-plants, cassia, 

 and bushes, with mounds on which once stood churches and 

 monasteries. The air is not allowed free circulation, so it 



