Chap. XI. GEAVEYAEDS. 231 



the country. No other tribe either plants or abstains from 

 cutting down fruit trees, but here we saw some which had 

 been planted in regular rows, and the trunks of which were 

 quite two feet in diameter. The grand old Mosibe, a tree 

 yielding a bean with a thin red pellicle, said to be very fatten- 

 ing, had probably seen two hundred summers. Dr. Kirk 

 found that the Mosibe is peculiar, in being allied to a species 

 met with only in the West Indies. The Motsikiri, sometimes 

 called Mafuta, yields a hard fat, and an oil which is exported 

 from Inhambane. It is said that two ancient Batoka travellers 

 went down as far as the Loangwa, and finding the Macaa tree 

 (Jujube or zisijphus) in fruit, carried the seed all the way back to 

 the great Falls, in order to plant them. Two of these trees are still 

 to be seen there, the only specimens of the kind in that region. 

 The Batoka had made a near approach to the custom of 

 more refined nations and had permanent graveyards, either 

 on the sides of hills, thus rendered sacred, or under large 

 old shady trees ; they reverence the tombs of their ances- 

 tors, and plant the largest elephants' tusks, as monuments at 

 the head of the grave, or entirely enclose it with the choicest 

 ivory. Some of the other tribes throw the dead body into 

 the river to be devoured by crocodiles, or, sewing it up in a 

 mat, place it on the branch of a Baobab, or cast it in some 

 lonely gloomy spot, surrounded by dense tropical vegetation, 

 where it affords a meal to the foul hyenas ; but the Batoka 

 reverently bury their dead, and regard the spot henceforth 

 as sacred. The ordeal by the poison of the muave is 

 resorted to by the Batoka, as well as by the other tribes; 

 but a cock is often made to stand proxy for the supposed witch. 

 Near the confluence of the Kafue the Mambo, or Chief, with 

 some of his headmen, came to our sleeping-place with a pre- 

 sent ; their foreheads were smeared with white flour, and an 



