520 EFFECTS OF RAREFIED AIR. Chap. XXV. 



at the Lake it was about 10° higher. Of the symptoms they 

 complained of — pains everywhere — nothing could be made. 

 And yet it was evident that they had good reason for saying 

 that they were ill. They scarified almost every part of their 

 bodies as a remedial measure ; medicines, administered on 

 the supposition that their malady was the effect of a sudden 

 chill, had no effect, and in two days one of them actually died 

 in consequence of, as far as we could judge, a change from a 

 malarious to a purer and more rarefied atmosphere. 



As we were on the slave route, we found the people more 

 churlish than usual. On being expostulated with about it, 

 they replied, " We have been made wary by those who come 

 to buy slaves." The calamity of death having befallen our 

 party, seemed, however, to awaken their sympathies. They 

 pointed out their usual burying-place, lent us hoes, and 

 helped to make the grave. When we offered to pay all 

 expenses, they showed that they had not done these friendly 

 offices without fully appreciating their value ; for they enu- 

 merated the use of the hut, the mat on which the deceased 

 had lain, the hoes, the labour, and the medicine which they 

 had scattered over the place to make him rest in peace. 



The power ascribed to certain medicines, made from plants 

 known only to the initiated, is the most prominent feature 

 in the religion of the Africans. According to their belief 

 there is not only a specific for every ill that flesh is heir to, 

 but for every woe of the wounded spirit. The good spirits 

 of the departed, Azimo or Bazimo, may be propitiated by 

 medicines, or honoured by offerings of beer or meal, or any- 

 thing they loved while in the body; and the bad spirits, 

 " 31chesi," of whom we have heard only at Tette, and 

 therefore cannot be certain that they belong to the pure 

 native faith, may be prevented by medicine from making 

 raids and mischief in the gardens. A man with headache 



