18G6.] MOLOMBA. ANOTHER SHUPANGA. 131 



more southing than we wished. One day beyond Zomba and 

 W.S.W. is the part called Chindando, where the Portuguese 

 formerly went for gold. They don't seem to have felt it 

 worth while to come here, as neither ivory nor gold could 

 be obtained if they did. The country is too full of people 

 to allow any Avild animals elbow-room : even the smaller 

 animals are hunted down by means of nets and dogs. 



We rested at Pachoma ; the headman offering a goat 

 and beer, but I declined, and went on to Molomba. Here 

 Kauma's carriers turned because a woman had died that 

 morning as Ave left the village. They asserted that had she 

 died before we started not a man would have left : this shows 

 a reverence for death, for the woman was no relative of 

 any of them. The headman of Molomba was very poor but 

 very liberal, cooking for us and presenting a goat : another 

 headman from a neighbouring village, a laughing, good- 

 natured old man, named Chikala, brought beer and a fowl 

 in the morning. I asked him to go on with us to Mironga,. 

 it being important, as above-mentioned, to have the like of 

 his kind in our company, and he consented. We saw Mount 

 Ngala in the distance, like a large sugar-loaf shot up in 

 the air : in our former route to Kasungu Ave passed north 

 of it. 



16th October. — Crossed the rivulet Chikuyo going N. for 

 the Lake, and Mironga being but one-and-a-half hour off, 

 we Avent on to Chipanga : this is the proper name of Avhat 

 on the Zambesi is corrupted into Shupanga. The headman, 

 a miserable hemp-consuming * leper, fled from us. We 

 were offered a miserable hut, which Ave refused, Chikala 

 meanAvhile Avent through the Avhole village seeking a better,, 

 which we ultimately found: it was not in this chief to be 

 generous, though Chikala did what he could in trying to 



* Hemp = bange is smoked throughout Central Africa, and if used in. 

 excess produces partial imbecility. — Ed. 



K 2 



