174 MODE OF MAKING FERE. Chap. YIIL 



CHAPTER YIIL 



Pass from Kebrabasa on to Cbicova on 7th June, 18G0 — Native travellers' 

 mode of making fire — Night arrangements of the camp — Native names of 

 Stars — Moon-blindness — Our volunteer fireman — Native political discus- 

 sions — Our manner of marching — Not to make (oil of a pleasure — The 

 civilized show more endurance than the uncivilized — Chitora's politeness — 

 Filtered water preferred by native women — Whites hobgoblins to the 

 blachs — The fear of man on wild animals — First impressions of a donkey's 

 vocal powers. 



We emerged from the thirty-five or forty miles of Kebrabasa 

 hills into the Chicova plains on the 7th of June, 1860, 

 having made short marches all the way. The cold nights 

 caused some of our men to cough badly, and colds in this 

 country almost invariably become fever. The Zambesi sud- 

 denly expands at Chicova, and assumes the size and appear- 

 ance it has at Tette. Near this point we found a large seam 

 of coal exposed in the left bank. 



We met with native travellers occasionally. Those 

 on a long journey carry with them a sleeping-mat and 

 Avooden pillow, cooking-pot and bag of meal, pipe and 

 tobacco-pouch, a knife, bow, and arrows, and two small sticks, 

 of from two to three feet in length, for making fire, when 

 obliged to sleep away from human habitations. Dry wood 

 is always abundant, and they get fire by the following 

 method. A notch is cut in one of the sticks, which, with 

 a close-grained outside, has a small core of pith, and this 

 notched stick is laid horizontally on a knife-blade on the 

 ground ; the operator squatting, places his great toes on 

 each end to keep all steady, and taking the other wand, 

 which is of very hard wood cut to a blunt point, fits it into 



