152 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. [Chap. VI. 



poles, growing on pollards three or four feet from the 

 ground, by charcoal burners, who, in all instances, are 

 smiths too. 



On reaching Zeore's village, on the Lokuzhwa, we found 

 it stockaded, and stagnant pools round three sides of it. 

 The Mazitu had come, pillaged all the surrounding villages, 

 looked at this, and then went away ; so the people had food to 

 sell. They here call themselves Echewa, and have a different 

 marking from the Atumboka. The men have the hair 

 dressed as if a number of the hairs of elephants' tails were 

 stuck around the head : the women wear a small lip-ring, 

 and a straw or piece of stick in the lower lip, which dangles 

 down about level with the lower edge of the chin: their 

 clothing in front is very scanty. The men know nothing 

 of distant places, the Manganja being a very stay-at-home 

 people. The stockades are crowded with huts, and the 

 children have but small room to play in the narrow spaces 

 between. 



25th November. — Sunday at Zeore's. The villagers 

 thought we prayed for rain, which was much needed. The 

 cracks in the soil have not yet come together by the 

 swelling of soil produced by moisture. I disabused their 

 minds about rain-making prayers, and found the headman 

 intelligent. 



I did not intend to notice the Lokuzhwa, it is such a 

 contemptible little rill, and not at present running ; but in 

 going to our next point, Mpande's village, we go along its 

 valley, and cross it several times, as it makes for the 

 Loangwa in the north. The valley is of rich dark red loam, 

 and so many lilies of the Amaryllis kind have established 

 themselves as completely to mask the colour of the soil. 

 They form a covering of pure white where the land has 

 been cleared by the hoe. As we go along this valley to 

 the Loangwa, we descend in altitude. It is said to rise 

 at " Nombe mine," as we formerly heard. 



