1866.] DESCRIPTION OF THE WAIYOU. 81 



the hair into little knobs, which was in fashion there, is 

 more common in some tribes than in this. The mouths 

 of the women would not be so hideous with a small lip- 

 ring if they did not file their teeth to points, but they 

 seem strong and able for the work which falls to their 

 lot. The men are large, strong-boned fellows, and capable 

 of enduring great fatigue, they undergo a rite which once 

 distinguished the Jews about the age of puberty, and take a 

 new name on the occasion ; this was not introduced by the 

 Arabs, whose advent is a recent event, and they speak 

 of the time before they were inundated with European 

 manufactures in exchange for slaves, as quite within their 

 memory. 



Young Mataka gave me a dish of peas, and usually brought 

 something every time he made a visit, he seems a nice boy, 

 and his father, in speaking of learning to read, said he and 

 his companions could learn, but he himself was too old. The 

 soil seems very fertile, for the sweet potatoes become very 

 large, and we bought two loads of them for three cubits and 

 two needles ; they quite exceeded 1 cwt. The maize becomes 

 very large too; one cob had 1600 seeds. The abundance of 

 water, the richness of soil, the available labour for building 

 square houses, the coolness of the climate, make this nearly 

 as desirable a residence as Magomero ; but, alas ! instead 

 of three weeks' easy sail up the Zambesi and Shire, we 

 have spent four weary months in getting here : I shall 

 never cease bitterly to lament the abandonment of the 

 Magomero mission. 



Moaning seems a favourite way of spending the time with 

 some sick folk. For the sake of the warmth, I allowed a 

 Nassick boy to sleep in my house ; he and I had the same 

 complaint, dysentery, and I was certainly worse than he, but 

 did not moan, while he played at it as often as he was awake. 

 I told him that people moaned only when too ill to be 



VOL. I. G 



