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



indoctrinate him: when I gave him a present he imme- 

 diately proposed to sell a goat! We get on pretty well 

 however. 



Zomba is in a range of hills to our west, called Zala 

 nyama. The Portuguese, in going to Casembe, went still 

 further west than this. 



Passing on we came to a smithy, and watched the 

 founder at work drawing off slag from the bottom of his 

 furnace. He broke through the hardened slag by striking 

 it with an iron instrument inserted in the end of a pole, 

 when the material flowed out of the small hole left for the 

 purpose in the bottom of the furnace. The ore (probably 

 the black oxide) was like sand, and was put in at the top 

 of the furnace, mixed with charcoal. Only one bellows was 

 at work, formed out of a goatskin, and the blast Avas very 

 poor. Many of these furnaces, or their remains, are met 

 with on knolls ; those at work have a peculiarly tall hut 

 built over them. 



On the eastern edge of a valley lying north and south, 

 with the Diampwe stream flowing along it, and the Dzala 

 nyama range on the western side, are two villages screened 

 by fine specimens of the Ficus Indica. One of these is 

 owned by the headman Theresa, and there we spent the 

 night. We made very short marches, for the sun is very 

 powerful, and the soil baked hard, is sore on the feet: 

 no want of water, however, is felt, for we come to supplies 

 every mile or two. 



The people look very poor, having few or no beads ; 

 the ornaments being lines and cuttings on the skin. 

 They trust more to buaze than cotton. I noticed but two 

 cotton patches. The women are decidedly plain ; but mono- 

 polize all the buaze cloth. Theresa was excessively liberal, 

 and having informed us that Zomba lived some distance 

 up the range and was not the principal man in these parts, 

 we, to avoid climbing the hills, turned away to the north, 



