Chap. XXIV. DESERTED VILLAGE. 487 



been preserved for the sake of the fat and oil which may be 

 obtained from their seeds. 



As the Kivi-rivi came from the N.W. we continued to 

 travel along its banks, until we came to people who had 

 successfully" defended themselves against the hordes of the 

 Ajawa. By employing the men of one village to go for- 

 ward and explain who we were to the next, we managed 

 to prevent the frightened inhabitants from considering us 

 a fresh party of Ajawa, or of Portuguese slaving agents. 

 Here they had cultivated maize, and were willing to sell, 

 but no persuasion could induce them to give us guides to 

 the Chieftainess, Nyango. They evidently felt that we were 

 not to be trusted ; though, as we had to certify to our own 

 character, our companions did not fail "to blow our own 

 trumpet," with blasts in which modesty was quite out of 

 the question. To allay suspicion we had at last to re- 

 frain from mentioning the lady's name. 



It would be wearisome to repeat the names of the villages 

 we passed on our way to the north-west. One was the largest 

 we ever saw in Africa, and quite deserted, with the usual 

 sad sight of many skeletons lying about. Another was called 

 Tette. We know three places of this name, which fact shows 

 it to be a native word ; it seems to mean a place where 

 the water rushes over rocks. A third village was called 

 Chipanga (a great work), a name identical with the Shu- 

 panga of the Portuguese. This repetition of names may 

 indicate that the same people first took these epithets in 

 their traditional passage from north to south. The country 

 generally was covered with open forest of moderate growth, 

 and very large trees fringed the watercourses. One, a fig- 

 tree with a peculiar leaf, had been struck by lightning. On 

 the lines which the electric fluid had made in streaming 

 down its trunk, masses of new growth were shooting out to 



