434 ISLAND OF KICHOKOMANE. Chap. XXT. 



maltreated by him on the way. We have felt heartily 

 ashamed sometimes on discovering how causelessly we have 

 been angry. No doubt the natives are at times as perversely 

 stupid as servants at home can be when they like ; but our 

 conduct must often appear to the native mind as a mixture 

 of silliness and insanity. 



On the 16th September, we arrived at the inhabited island 

 of Kichokomane. The usual way of approaching an unknown 

 people is to call out in a cheerful tone " Malonda !" Things for 

 sale, or do you want to sell anything ? If we can obtain a man 

 from the last village, he is employed, though only useful in 

 explaining to the next that we come in a friendly way. The 

 people here were shy of us at first, and could not be induced 

 to sell any food ; until a woman, more adventurous than the 

 rest, sold us a fowl. This opened the market, and crowds 

 came with fowls and meal, far beyond our wants. The 

 women are as ugly as those on Lake Nyassa, for who can 

 be handsome wearing the pelele or upper-lip ring of large 

 dimensions? We were once surprised to see young men 

 wearing the pelele, and were told that in the tribe of the 

 Mabiha, on the south bank, men as well as women wore 

 them. 



Along the left bank, above Kichokomane, is an exceed- 

 ingly fertile plain, nearly two miles broad, and studded 

 with a number of deserted villages. The inhabitants were 

 living in temporary huts on low naked sandbanks ; and we 

 found this to be the case as far as we went. They leave 

 most of their property and food behind, because they are 

 not afraid of these being stolen, but only fear being stolen 

 themselves. The great slave-route from Nyassa to Kilwa 

 passes to 1ST. E. from S. W., just beyond them ; and it is 

 dangerous to remain in their villages at this time of year, 

 when the kidnappers are abroad. In one of the tempo- 



