Chap. XIX. THE MAZITU ALARMED. 385 



elders were more reasonable ; they dreaded treachery, and 

 were as much afraid of Dr. Livingstone and his party as his 

 men were of them ; for on leaving they sped away up the 

 hills like frightened deer. One of them, and probably the 

 leader, was married, as seen by portions of his hair sewn 

 into a ring ; all were observed by their teeth to be people of 

 the country, who had been incorporated into the Zulu tribe. 



The way still led over a succession of steep ridges with 

 ravines of from 500 to 1000 feet in depth ; some of the sides 

 had to be scaled on hands and knees, and no sooner was the 

 top reached than the descent began again. Each ravine had 

 a running stream; and the whole country, though so very 

 rugged, had all been cultivated, and densely peopled. 

 Many banana-trees, uncared for patches of corn, and Congo- 

 bean bushes attested former cultivation. The population 

 had all been swept away ; ruined villages, broken utensils, 

 and human skeletons, met with at every turn, told a sad tale 

 of " man's inhumanity to man." So numerous were the slain, 

 that it was thought the inhabitants had been slaughtered in 

 consequence of having made raids on the Zulus for cattle. 



^Ye conjectured this to be the cause of the wholesale 

 butchery, because Zulus do not usually destroy any save 

 the old, and able-bodied men. The object of their raids 

 in general is that the captured women and children may be 

 embodied into the tribe, and become Zulus. The masters 

 of the captives are kind to them, and the children are put 

 on the same level as those of any ordinary man. In their 

 usual plan, we seem to have the condition so bepraised by 

 some advocates for slavery. The members of small dis- 

 united commimities are taken under a powerful government 

 — obtain kind masters, whom they are allowed to exchange 

 for any one else within the tribe, and their children become 

 freemen. It is, as our eyes and nostrils often found by the 



2 c 



