114 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOUKNALS. [Chap. V. 



spot. All the pools iii the lower portion of this spring- 

 course are filled by the first rains, which happen south of 

 the equator when the sun goes vertically over any spot. 

 The second, or greater rains, happen in his course north 

 again, when all the bogs and river-courses being wet, the 

 supply runs off, and forms the inundation : this was cer- 

 tainly the case as observed on the Zambesi and Shire, and, 

 taking the different times for the sun's passage north of the 

 equator, it explains the inundation of the Nile. 



2bth September. — Marenga's town on the west shore of 

 Lake Nyassa is very large, and his people collected in great 

 numbers to gaze at the stranger. The chief's brother 

 asked a few questions, and I took the occasion to be a good 

 one for telling him something about the Bible and the 

 future state. The men said that their fathers had never 

 told them aught about the soul, but they thought that the 

 whole man rotted and came to nothing. What I said was 

 very nicely put by a volunteer spokesman, who seemed to 

 have a gift that way, for all listened most attentively, and 

 especially when told that our Father in heaven loved all, 

 and heard prayers addressed to Him. 



Marenga came dressed in a red-figured silk shawl, and 

 attended by about ten court beauties, who spread a mat for 

 him, then a cloth above, and sat down as if to support him. 

 He asked me to examine his case inside a hut. He exhi- 

 bited his loathsome skin disease, and being blacker than his 

 wives, the blotches with which he was covered made him 

 appear very ugly. He thought that the disease was in the 

 country before Arabs came. Another new disease acquired 

 from them was the small-pox. 



26th September. — An Arab passed us yesterday, his slaves 

 going by another route across the base of Cape Maclear. 

 He told Musa that all the country in front was full of 

 Mazitu ; that forty-four Arabs and their followers had been 

 killed by them at Kasungu, and he only escaped. Musa 



