38 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. [Chap. II.. 



We met a runaway woman : slie was seized by Ali, and it 

 was plain that he expected a reward for his pains. He 

 thought she was a slave, but a quarter of a mile off was the 

 village she had left, and it being doubtful if she were a 

 runaway at all, the would-be fugitive slave-capture turned 

 out a failure. 



12th May. — About 4' E.N.E. of Matawatawa, or Nyama- 

 tolole, our former turning point. 



\3th May. — We halted at a village at Matawatawa. A 

 pleasant-looking lady, Avith her face profusely tattooed, came 

 forward with a bunch of sweet reed, or Sorghum saccharatum, 

 and laid it at my feet, saying, "I met you here before," 

 pointing to the spot on the river Avhere we turned. I re- 

 member her coming then, and that I asked the boat to wait 

 while she went to bring us a basket of food, and I think it was 

 given to Chiko, and no return made. It is sheer kindliness 

 that prompts them sometimes, though occasionally people do- 

 make presents with a view of getting a larger one in return : 

 it is pleasant to find that it is not always so. She had a quiet,, 

 dignified manner, both in talking and walking, and I now 

 gave her a small looking-glass, and she went and brought 

 me her only fowl and a basket of cucumber-seeds, from 

 which oil is made; from the amount of oily matter they 

 contain they are nutritious when roasted and eaten as nuts. 

 She made an apology, saying they were hungry times at 

 present. I gave her a cloth, and so parted with Kanangone,- 

 or, as her name may be spelled, Kanaiione. The carriers- 

 were very useless from hunger, and we could not buy any- 

 thing for them for the country is all dried up, and covered 

 sparsely with mimosas and thorny acacias. 



14ih May. — I could not get the carriers on more than 

 an hour and three-quarters : men tire very soon on empty 

 stomachs. We had reached the village of Hassane, opposite 

 to a conical hill named Chisulwe, which is on the south side of 

 the river, and evidently of igneous origin. It is tree-covered,. 



