170 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. [Chap. VII. 



mud, then even he, the strong one, feels it difficult to 

 escape.* 



5th January. — Still storm-stayed. We shall be off as soon 

 as we get a fair day and these heavy rains cease. 



Gth January. — After service two men came and said 

 that they were going to Lobeinba, and would guide us to 

 Motuna's village ; another came a day or two ago, but he 

 had such a villainous look we all shrank from him. These 

 men's faces pleased us, but they did not turn out all we ex- 

 pected, for they guided us away westwards without a path : 

 it was a drizzling rain, and this made us averse to striking 

 off in the forest Avithout them. No inhabitants now except 

 at wide intervals, and no animals either. In the afternoon 

 we came to a deep ravine full of gigantic timber trees and 

 bamboos, with the Mavoche River at the bottom. The damp- 

 ness had caused the growth of lichens all over the trees, and 

 the steep descent was so slippery that two boys fell, and he 

 who carried the chronometers, twice : this was a misfortune, 

 as it altered the rates, as was seen by the first comparison 

 of them together in the evening. No food at Motuna's 

 village, yet the headman tried to extort two fathoms of 

 ■calico on the ground that he was owner of the country : we 

 offered to go out of his village and make our own sheds on 

 ■" God's land," that is, where it is uncultivated, rather than 

 have any words about it : he then begged us to stay. A 

 very high mountain called Chikokwe appeared W.S.W. from 

 this village ; the people who live on it are called Matumba ; 

 this part is named Lokmnbi, but whatever the name, all 

 the people are Babisa, the dependants of the Babemba, 

 reduced by their own slaving habits to a miserable jungly 

 state. They feed much on wild fruits, roots, and leaves ; 

 and yet are generally plump. They use a wooden hoe for 



* "When the elephant becomes confused by the yelping pack of dogs 

 with which he is surrounded, the hunter stealthily approaches behind, 

 and with one blow of a sharp axe hamstrings the huge beast. — Ed. 



