126 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOUKNALS. [Chap. V. 



easily settled by the men interfering or pointing to me : 

 they appeal to each other, and have a strong sense of 

 natural justice. With so much food changing hands 

 amongst the three thousand attendants much benefit is 

 derived ; some come from twenty to twenty-five miles. 

 The men flaunt about in gaudy-coloured lambas of many 

 folded kilts — the women work hardest — the potters slap 

 and ring their earthenware all round, to show that there 

 is not a single flaw in them. I bought two finely shaped 

 earthen bottles of porous earthenware, to hold a gallon each, 

 for one string of beads, the women carry huge loads of them 

 in their funnels above the baskets, strapped to the shoulders 

 and forehead, and their hands are full besides ; the roundness 

 of the vessels is wonderful, seeing no machine is used : no 

 slaves could be induced to carry half as much as they do 

 willingly. It is a scene of the finest natural acting ima- 

 ginable. The eagerness with which all sorts of assertions 

 are made — the eager earnestness with which apparently all 

 creation, above, around, and beneath, is called on to attest the 

 truth of what they allege — and then the intense surprise 

 and withering scorn cast on those who despise their goods : 

 but they show no concern when the buyers turn up their 

 noses at them. Little girls run about selling cups of water 

 for a few small fishes to the half-exhausted wordy com- 

 batants. To me it was an amusing scene. I could not 

 understand the words that flowed off their glib tongues, but 

 the gestures were too expressive to need interpretation. 



27th May. — Hassani told me that since he had come, no 

 Manyuema had ever presented him with a single mouth- 

 ful of food, not even a potato or banana, and he had made 

 many presents. Going from him into the market I noticed 

 that one man presented a few small fishes, another a sweet 

 potato and a piece of cassava, and a third two small fishes, 

 but the Manyuema are not a liberal people. Old men and 

 women who remained in the half-deserted villages we passed 



