128 . LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOUBNALS. [Chap. V. 



than for their own credit, because no one likes to be 

 thought giving his countenance to people other than 

 respectable, and it costs little. 



We came close to the foot of several squarish mountains,, 

 having perpendicular sides. One, called "Ulazo pa Ma- 

 lungo," is used by the people, whose villages cluster round 

 its base as a storehouse for grain. Large granaries stand 

 on its top, containing food to be used in case of war. A 

 large cow is kept up there, which is supposed capable 

 of knowing and letting the owners know when war is- 

 coming.* There is a path up, but it was not visible to us. 

 The people are all Kanthunda, or climbers, not Maravi. 

 Kimsusa said that he was the only Maravi chief, but 

 this I took to be an ebullition of beer bragging : the 

 natives up here, however, confirm this, and assert that 

 they are not Maravi, who are known by having markings 

 down the side of the face. 



We spent the night at a Kanthunda village on the western 

 side of a mountain called Phunze (the h being an aspirate 

 only). Many villages are planted round its base, but in front, 

 that is, westwards, we have plains, and there the villages are 

 as numerous: mostly they are within half a mile of each 

 other, and few are a mile from other hamlets. Each village 

 has a clump of trees around it : this is partly for shade and 

 partly for privacy from motives of decency. The heat of 

 the sun causes the effluvia to exhale quickly, so they are 

 seldom offensive. The rest of the country, where not culti- 

 vated, is covered with grass, the seed-stalks about knee deep. 

 It is gently undulating, lying in low waves, stretching N.E. 

 and S.W. The space between each wave is usually occupied 

 by a boggy spot or watercourse, which in some cases is filled 

 with pools with trickling rills between. All the people are 



* Several superstitions of tliis nature seem to point to a remnant of the 

 old heathen ritual, and the worship of gods in mountain groves. 



