122 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. [Chap. V. 



country in the west with sixteen tusks, and a great many- 

 slaves bought and not murdered for. The river is rising- 

 fast, and bringing down large quantities of aquatic grass, 

 duckweed, &c. The water is a little darker in colour 

 than at Cairo. People remove and build their huts 

 on the higher forest lands adjacent. Many white birds 

 (the paddy bird) appear, and one Ibis religiosa ; they pass 

 north. 



The Bakuss live near Lomame ; they were very civil and 

 kind to the strangers, but refused passage into the country. 

 At my suggestion, the effect of a musket-shot was shown on 

 a goat : they thought it supernatural, looked up to the 

 clouds, and offered to bring ivory to buy the charm that 

 could draw lightning down. When it was afterwards 

 attempted to force a path, they darted aside on seeing the 

 Banyamwezi's followers putting the arrows into the bow- 

 strings, but stood in mute amazement looking at the guns, 

 which mowed them down in large numbers. They thought 

 that muskets were the insignia of chieftainship. Their 

 chiefs all go with a long straight staff of rattan, having a 

 quantity of black medicine smeared on each end, and no 

 weapons in their hands : they imagined that the guns were 

 carried as insignia of the same kind ; some, jeering in the 

 south, called them big tobacco-pipes ; they have no fear on 

 seeing a gun levelled at them. 



They use large and very long spears very expertly in 

 the long grass and forest of their country, and are terrible 

 fellows among themselves, and when they become ac- 

 quainted with firearms will be terrible to the strangers 

 who now murder them. The Manyuema say truly, "If it 

 were not for your guns, not one of you would ever return 

 to your country." The Bakuss cultivate more than the 

 southern Manyuema, especially Pennisetum and dura, or 

 Holcus sorghum ; common coffee is abundant, and they use 

 it, highly scented with vanilla, which must be fertilized by 



