40 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOUENALS. [Chap. II. 



of calabash with its broad leaves, so that nothing appears of 

 the fence outside. 



11th January. — The people are civil, but uproarious from 

 the excitement of having never seen strangers before; all 

 visitors from a distance came with their large wooden 

 shields ; many of the men are handsome and tall but the 

 women are plainer than at Bambarre. 



12th January. — Cross the Lolinde', 35 yards and knee 

 deep, flowing to join Luamo far down : dark water. (13th.) 

 Through the hills Chimunemune ; we see many albinos and 

 partial lepers and syphilis is prevalent. It is too trying to 

 travel during the rains. 



14th January. — The Muabe palm had taken possession 



of a broad valley, and the leaf-stalks, as thick as a strong 



man's arm and 20 feet long, had fallen off and blocked up 



all passage except by one path made and mixed up by the 



feet of buffaloes and elephants. In places like this the leg 



goes into elephants' holes up to the thigh and it is grievous ; 



three hours of this slough tired the strongest: a brown 



stream ran through the centre, waist deep, and washed off a 



little of the adhesive mud. Our path now lay through a 



river covered with tikatika, a living vegetable bridge made 



by a species of glossy leafed grass which felts itself into a 



mat capable of bearing a man's weight, but it bends in a 



foot or fifteen inches every step ; a stick six feet long could 



not reach the bottom in certain holes we passed. The lotus, 



or sacred lily, which grows in nearly all the shallow waters 



of this country, sometimes spreads its broad leaves over the 



bridge so as to lead careless observers to think that it is the 



bridge builder, but the grass mentioned is the real agent. 



Here it is called Kintefwetefwe ; on Victoria Nyanza Tita- 



tika. 



15th January. — Choleraic purging again came on till all 

 the water used was boiled, but I was laid up by sheer weak- 

 ness near the hill Chanza. 



