Chap. XI. SOBEIETY OF THE BATOKA. 235 



When taken in connexion with the wants of the people, 

 the cultivation on the whole is most creditable to their 

 industry. They erect numerous granaries which give 

 their villages the appearance of being large; and, when 

 the water of the Zambesi has subsided, they place large 

 quantities of grain, tied up in bundles of grass, and well 

 plastered over with clay, on low sand islands for protection 

 from the attacks of marauding mice and men. Owing to the 

 ravages of the Aveevil, the native corn can hardly be preserved 

 until the following crop comes in. However largely they may 

 cultivate, and however abundant the harvest, it must all be 

 consumed in a year. This may account for their making so 

 much of it into beer. The beer these Batoka or Bawe brew 

 is not the sour and intoxicating boala or pombe, found among 

 some other tribes, but sweet, and highly nutritive, with only a 

 slight degree of acidity, sufficient to render it a pleasant drink. 

 The people were all plump, and in good condition ; and we 

 never saw a single case of intoxication among them, though 

 all drank abundance of this liting, or sweet beer. Both men 

 and boys were eager to work for very small pay. Our men 

 could hire any number of them to carry their burdens for a 

 few beads a day. Our miserly and dirty ex- cook had an old 

 pair of trousers that some one had given to him ; after he 

 had long worn them himself, with one of the sorely decayed 

 legs he hired a man to carry his heavy load a whole day ; 

 a second man carried it the next day for the other leg, and 

 what remained of the old garment, without the buttons, 

 procured the labour of another man for the third day. 



Men of remarkable ability have risen up among the 

 Africans from time to time, as amongst other portions of the 

 human family. Some have attracted the attention, and 

 excited the admiration of large districts by their wisdom. 



