Chap. XXVII. STOCKADE OF CHINSAMBA. 557 



never saw one with the mark on it of an enemy's arrow. It 

 certainly is no match for the Zulu shield, which is between 

 four and five feet long, of an oval shape, and about two feet 

 broad. So great is the terror this shield inspires that we 



Maravi Bow. 



sometimes doubted whether the Mazitu here were Zulus at 

 all, and suspected that the people of the country took ad- 

 vantage of that fear, and, assuming shields, pretended to 

 belong to that nation. 



On the 11th October we arrived at the stockade of 

 Chinsamba in Mosapo, and had reason to be very well 

 satisfied with his kindness. A paraffin candle was in his 

 eyes the height of luxury, and the ability to make a light 

 instantaneously by a lucifer match, a marvel that struck him 

 with wonder. He brought all his relatives in different 

 groups to see the strange sights, — instantaneous fire-making, 

 and a light, without the annoyance of having fire and smoke 

 in the middle of the floor. When they wish to look for 

 anything in the dark, a wisp of dried grass is lighted. Our 

 books, too, were objects of admiration. The idea that enters 

 their minds is that books are our instruments of divination. 

 Theirs are bits of wood, horn, and knuckle-bones of different 

 animals, or the scales of the Manis, which, according to the 

 way they alight when thrown on the ground, indicate which 

 way the diviner is to answer the inquiries which have been 

 put to him. The sextant and artificial horizon — the weight 

 of the mercury — called by our men " foreign water," were all 

 pondered over with the same kind of interest that we should 

 take for the first time in any new and wonderful thing. In 



