Chap. XXYII. CONDUCT OF THE AJAWA. 561 



of a human fiend, stands grouped, with those by whom the 

 slave-traders are employed, and with all the workers of sin 

 and misery in more highly-favoured lands, an awful picture 

 to the All-seeing Eye. 



We arrived at Katosa's village on the 15th October, and 

 found about thirty young men and boys in slave-sticks. 

 They had been bought by other agents of the Arab slavers, 

 still on the east side of the Shire. They were resting in the 

 village, and their owners soon removed them. The weight of 

 the goree seemed very annoying when they tried to sleep. 

 This taming instrument is kept on, until the party has crossed 

 several rivers and all hope of escape has vanished from the 

 captive's mind. 



On explaining to Katosa the injury he was doing in selling 

 his people as slaves, he assured us that those whom we had 

 seen belonged to the Arabs, and added that he had far too 

 few people already. He said he had been living in peace 

 at the lakelet Pamalombe ; that the Ajawa, or Machinga, 

 under Kainka and Karamba, and a body of Babisa, under 

 Alaonga, had induced him to ferry them over the Shire ; that 

 they had lived for a considerable time at his expense, and at 

 last stole his sheep, which induced him to make his escape to 

 the place where he now dwelt, and in this flight he had lost 

 many of his people. His account of the usual conduct of the 

 Ajawa quite agrees with what these people have narrated 

 themselves, and gives but a low idea of their moral tone. 

 They have repeatedly broken all the laws of hospitality by 

 living for months on the bounty of the Manganja, and then, 

 by a sudden uprising, overcoming their hosts, and killing or 

 chasing them out of their inheritances. The secret of their 

 success is the possession of firearms. There were several of 

 these Ajawa here again, and on our arrival they proposed to 

 Katosa that they should leave ; but he replied that they 



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