290 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. [Chap. XL 



and would go no further. " Mother Kasanga," as the name 

 means, had been very handsome, and had a beautiful 

 daughter, probably another edition of herself, she advised 

 my waiting in the deep shade of the Ficus indica, in which 

 her houses were placed. I fired a gun, and when my 

 attendants came gave her a string of beads, which made 

 her express distress at my " leaving without drinking any- 

 thing of hers." People have abandoned several villages on 

 account of the abundance of ferocious wild beasts. 



23rd April. — Through very thick tangled Nyassi grass to 

 Chikosi's burned village ; Nsama had killed him. We spent 

 the night in a garden hut, which the fire of the village had 

 spared. Turnips were growing in the ruins. The Nyassi, or 

 long coarse grass, hangs over the paths, and in pushing it 

 aside the sharp seeds penetrate the clothes and are very 

 annoying. The grass itself rubs on the face and eyes dis- 

 agreeably : when it is burned off and greensward covers the 

 soil it is much more pleasant walking. 



2Mh April. — We leave Chikosi's ruins and make for the 

 ford of the Kalungosi. Marigolds are in full bloom all over 

 the forest, and so are foxgloves. The river is here fully 100 

 yards broad with 300 yards of flood on its western bank ; so 

 deep we had to remain in the canoes till within 50 yards 

 of the higher ground. The people here chew the pith of the 

 papyrus, which is three inches in diameter and as white as 

 snow : it has very little sweetness or anything else in it. 

 The headman of the village to which we went was out cut- 

 ting wood for a garden, and his wife refused us a hut, but 

 when Kansabala came in the evening he scolded his own 

 spouse roundly and all the wives of the village, and then 

 pressed me to come indoors, but I was well enough in my 

 mosquito curtain without, and declined : I was free from 

 insects and vermin, and few huts are so. 



25th April. — Off early west, and then on to an elevated 

 forest land, in which our course was S.S.W. to the great 



