Chap. XXV. MEASURING CLOTH. 527 



On our arrival, the Chief was sitting in the smooth shady 

 place, called Boalo, "where all public business is transacted, 

 with about two hundred men and boys around him. We paid 

 our guides with due ostentation. Masiko, the tallest of 

 our party, measured off the fathom of cloth agreed upon, and 

 made it appear as long as possible, by facing round to the 

 crowd, and cutting a few inches beyond what his outstretched 

 arms could reach, to show that there was no deception. This 

 was by way of advertisement. The people are mightily grati- 

 fied at having a tall fellow to measure the cloth for them. 

 It pleases them even better than cutting it by a tape-line — 

 though very few men of six feet high can measure off their 

 own length with their outstretched arms. Here, where Arab 

 traders have been, the cubit called mokono, or elbow, begins 

 to take the place of the fathom in use further south. The 

 measure is taken from the point of the bent elbow to the 

 end of the middle finger. 



We found, on visiting Muazi on the following day, that he 

 was as frank and straightforward as could reasonably be 

 expected. He did not wish us to go to the N.N.W., because 

 he carries on a considerable trade in ivory there. We were 

 anxious to get off the slave route, to people not visited before 

 by traders ; but Muazi naturally feared, that if we went to 

 what is said to be a well-watered country, abounding in 

 elephants, we might relieve him of the ivory which he now 

 obtains at a cheap rate, and sells to the slave-traders as 

 they pass Kasungu to the east ; but at last he consented, 

 warning us that "great difficulty would be experienced in 

 obtaining food — a district had been depopulated by slave 

 wars — and a night or two must be spent in it; but he 

 would give us good guides, who would go three days with 

 us, before turning, and then further progress must depend 

 on ourselves." Some of our men having been ill ever since 



