1866.] NATIVE AGRICULTURE. HUMID CLIMATE. 129 



engaged at present in making mounds six or eight feet 

 square, and from two to three feet high. The sods in places 

 not before hoed are separated from the soil beneath and col- 

 lected into flattened heaps, the grass undermost ; when dried, 

 fire is applied and slow combustion goes on, most of the 

 products of the burning being retained in the ground, much 

 of the soil is incinerated. The final prejDaration is effected 

 by the men digging up the subsoil round the mound, pass- 

 ing each hoeful into the left hand, where it pulverizes, and 

 is then thrown on to the heap. It is thus virgin soil on the 

 top of the ashes and burned ground of the original heap, 

 very clear of weeds. At present many mounds have beans 

 and maize about four inches high. Holes, a foot in diameter 

 and a few inches deep, are made irregularly over the surface 

 of the mound, and about eight or ten grains put into each : 

 these are watered by hand and calabash, and kept growing 

 till the rains set in, when a very early crop is secured. 



13th October. — After leaving Phunze, we crossed the 

 Levinge, a rivulet which flows northwards, and then into 

 Lake Nyassa ; the lines of gentle undulation tend in that 

 direction. Some hills appear on the plains, but after the 

 mountains which we have left behind they are mere 

 mounds. We are over 3000 feet above the sea, and the air 

 is delicious ; but we often pass spots covered with a plant 

 -which grows in marshy places, and its heavy smell always 

 puts me in mind that at other seasons this may not be so 

 pleasant a residence. The fact of even maize being planted 

 on mounds where the ground is naturally quite dry, tells a 

 tale of abundant humidity of climate. 



Kauma, a fine tall man, with a bald head and pleasant 

 manners, told us that some of his people had lately returned 

 from the Chibisa or Babisa country, whither they had gone 

 to buy ivory, and they would give me information about the 

 path. He took a fancy to one of the boys' blankets ; offer- 

 ing a native cloth, much larger, in exchange, and even a 



VOL. i. K 



