1867.] ARRIVES AT CASEMBE'S TOWN. 247 



soil is very rich. Casembe's ground-nuts are the largest I 

 have seen, and so is the cassava. I got over a pint of palm 

 oil for a cubit of calico. 



A fine young man, whose father had been the Casembe 

 before this one, came to see us ; he is in the background 

 now, otherwise he would have conducted us to the vil- 

 lage : a son or heir does not succeed to the chieftainship 

 here. 



21st November. — The River Lunde was five miles from 

 Chungu. It is six yards wide where we crossed it, but 

 larger further down ; springs were oozing out of its bed : 

 we then entered on a broad plain, covered with bush, the 

 trees being all cleared off in building a village. When one 

 Casembe dies, the man who succeeds him invariably removes 

 and builds his pembwe, or court, at another place : when 

 Dr. Lacercla died, the Casembe moved to near the north end 

 of the Mofwe. There have been seven Casembes in all. 

 The word means a general. 



The plain extending from the Lunde' to the town of 

 Casembe is level, and studded pretty thickly with red ant- 

 hills, from 15 to 20 feet high. Casembe has made a broad 

 path from his town to the Lunde, about a mile-and-a-half 

 long, and as broad as a carriage-path. The chief's residence 

 is enclosed in a wall of reeds, 8 or 9 feet high, and 300 

 yards square, the gateway is ornamented with about sixty 

 human skulls ; a shed stands in the middle of the road 

 before we come to the gate, with a cannon dressed in gaudy 

 cloths. A number of noisy fellows stopped our party, and 

 demanded tribute for the cannon ; I burst through them, 

 and the rest followed without giving anything : they were 

 afraid of the English. The town is on the east bank of the 

 Lakelet Mofwe, and one mile from its northern end. Mo- 

 hamad bin Saleh now met us, his men firing guns of welcome ; 

 he conducted us to his shed of reception, and then gave us 

 a hut till we could build one of our own. Mohamad is a 



