384 ARMED MAZITU. Chap. XIX. 



the boat, but only saw it disappearing away to the north. 

 They pushed on as briskly as possible after it, but the 

 mountain flank which forms the coast proved excessively 

 tedious and fatiguing; travelling all day, the distance 

 made, in a straight line, was under five miles. As soon as 

 day dawned, the march was resumed ; and, after hearing at 

 the first inhabited rock that their companions had passed it 

 the day before, a goat was slaughtered out of the four which 

 they had with them, when suddenly, to the evident con- 

 sternation of the men, seven Mazitu appeared armed with 

 spears and shields, with their heads dressed fantastically 

 with feathers. To hold a parley, Dr. Livingstone and 

 Moloka, a Makololo man who spoke Zulu, went unarmed 

 to meet them. On Dr. Livingstone approaching them, 

 they ordered him to stop, and sit down in the sun, 

 while they sat in the shade. "No, no!" was the reply, 

 "if you sit in the shade, so will we." They then 

 rattled their shields with their clubs, a proceeding which 

 usually inspires terror ; but Moloka remarked, " It is not the 

 first time we have heard shields rattled." And all sat down 

 together. They asked for a present, to show their Chief 

 that they had actually met strangers — something as evidence 

 of having seen men who were not Arabs. And they were 

 requested in turn to take these strangers to the boat or to their 

 Chief. All the goods were in the boat, and to show that no pre- 

 sent such as they wanted was in his pockets, Dr. Livingstone 

 emptied them, turning out, among other things, a note-book : 

 thinking it was a pistol they started up, and said, "Put 

 that in again." The younger men then became boisterous, and 

 demanded a goat. That could not be spared, as they were the 

 sole provisions. When they insisted, they were asked how 

 many of the party they had killed, that they thus began to 

 divide the spoil ; this evidently made them ashamed. The 



