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



a very strange flower called " katende," Avhich was a whorl 

 of seventy-two flowers sprung- from a flat, round root ; but it 

 cannot be described. Our guide would have crossed the 

 Tokosusi, which was running north-Avest to join the Loangwa, 

 and then gone to that river ; but always Avhen Ave have any 

 difficulty the " lazies " exhibit themselves. We had no 

 grain; and three remained behind spending four hours at 

 Avhat we did in an hour and a quarter. Our guide became 

 tired and turned, not before securing another ; but he would 

 not go over the Loangwa; no one likes to go out of his 

 own country : he Avould go westwards to Maranda's, and 

 noAvhere else. A " set-in " rain came on after dark, and 

 Ave went on through slush, the trees sending down heavier 

 drops than the shoAvers as Ave neared the LoangAva; Ave 

 forded several deep gullies, all flowing north or north-Avest 

 into it. The paths were running with Avater, and when 

 we emerged from the large Mopane Forest, Ave came on 

 the plain of excessively adhesive mud, on which Maranda's 

 stronghold stands on the left bank of LoangAA r a, here a 

 good-sized river. The people were all afraid of us, and Ave 

 were mortified to find that food is scarce. The Mazitu have 

 been here three times, and the fear they have inspired, 

 though they Avere successfully repelled, has prevented 

 agricultural operations from being carried on. 



Mem. — A flake of reed is often used in surgical operations 

 among the natives, as being sharper than their knives. 



M 



