Chap. XXIL MAESH CULTUEE. 457 



may accept our own, as tinged with exaggeration ; but 

 w T hen our eyes beheld the last mere driblets of this cup 

 of woe, we for the first time felt that the enormous wrongs 

 inflicted on our fellow-men by slaving are beyond exag- 

 geration. 



The plan adopted by these Manganja highlanders to raise 

 crops on the soft black mud of the marshes might not 

 occur to agriculturists of other countries. Coarse river-sand 

 is put down on the rich dark ooze in spadefuls, at about 

 two feet from each other, and the maize planted therein. 

 In vegetating, the roots are free to take what they require 

 from the too fat soil beneath, and also atmospheric con- 

 stituents through the sand. Nearly the same thing is done 

 when the soil is more solid, but too damp. A hole is dug 

 about a foot in depth, the seed is thrown in and covered 

 with a spadeful of sand, and the result is a flourishing crop ; 

 where, without the sand, the rich but too wet loam would 

 yield nothing. In this way, the people saved their lives 

 in former droughts, but now the slave-hunting panic seemed 

 to have destroyed all presence of mind. The few wretched 

 survivors, even after our arrival, were overpowered by an 

 apathetic lethargy. They attempted scarcely any cultivation, 

 which, for people so given to agriculture as they are, was 

 very remarkable ; they were seen daily devouring 'the corn- 

 stalks which had sprung up in the old plantations, and 

 which would, if let alone, have yielded corn in a month. 

 They could not be aroused from their lethargy. Famine 

 benumbs all the faculties. We tried to induce some to 

 exert themselves to procure food — but failed. They had 

 lost all their former spirit, and with lacklustre eyes, 

 scarcely meeting ours, and in whining tones, replied to every 

 proposition for their benefit — " No, no ! " (Ai ! ai !) 



Wherever we took a walk, human skeletons were 



