Chap. XXVII. WE MEET THE MAZITU. 551 



"Let us conclude the bargain, and never mind her;" but 

 he being better instructed, replied, " No, I have raised a host 

 against myself already," and refused. If this was a fair speci- 

 men of domestic life, the women here have the same influ- 

 ence that they have in Londa, further west, and in many 

 parts north of the Zambesi ; where we have known a wife 

 order a husband not to sell a fowl, merely, as we supposed, 

 to show us strangers that she had the upper hand. We con- 

 jectured that deference was commonly shown to women here, 

 because, as in the west, the exclamation most commonly 

 used was, " my mother ! " We heard it frequently some 

 thirty miles east of this, when the inhabitants took us for 

 the Mazitu. South of the Zambesi the exclamation oftenest 

 heard is, " My father." 



We now pushed on to the east, so as to get down to the 

 shores of the Lake, and into the parts where we were known. 

 The country was beautiful, well wooded, and undulating, but 

 the villages were all deserted ; and the flight of the people 

 seemed to have been quite recent, for the grain was standing 

 in the corn-safes untouched. The tobacco, though ripe, 

 remained uncut in the gardens, and the whole country was 

 painfully quiet : the oppressive stillness quite unbroken by 

 the singing of buds, or the shrill calls of women watching 

 their corn. 



On passing a beautiful village, called Bangwe, surrounded 

 by shady trees, and placed in a valley among mountains, we 

 were admiring the beauty of the situation, when some of the 

 much dreaded Mazitu, with their shields, ran out of the ham- 

 let, from which we were a mile distant. They began to scream 

 to their companions to give us chase. Without quickening 

 our pace we walked on, and soon were in a wood, through 

 which the footpath we were following led. The first inti- 

 mation we had of the approaching Mazitu was given by the 



