PREFATORY LETTER. liii 



There was, however, one single exception to the kind- 

 ness of the Natives. At the river Dila (not quite half way 

 between Kalai and the Kafue) they were among a tribe 

 of men — not perfectly subdued by Sebituane — who probably 

 suspected them to be enemies. There was the risk of a 

 night-attack; and one frantic fellow (driven mad perhaps 

 by smoking a kind of cannabis — a vile habit among the 

 poor Africans) came and brandished his battle-axe before 

 Livingstone; who with his usual courage and humanity, 

 and well supported by Sekwebu, soon put the madman on 

 one side, and prevented all further mischief. In the rest of 

 their journey to the Zambesi they met with nothing but 

 good-will. 



The forms of salutation among the Natives are base 

 and grovelling ; and among some of the tribes towards 

 the Kafue the men go in perfect nudity, and sneer with 

 much contempt at the unmanly custom of wearing any 

 covering. The women, however, wear a more modest dress, 

 though they are by no means prodigal in drapery. 



All the people of this country are, at a certain age, 

 deprived of their upper incisors. Sebituane and Sekeletu 

 have made this vile mutilation unlawful. But no matter ! 

 Fashion here, as elsewhere, drives law and reason to the 

 winds : and as soon as the children arrive at a certain age 

 they are, somehow or other, sure to go abroad without their 

 upper front teeth. When Dr Livingstone asked them why 

 they did this ; they answered, we make ourselves look like 

 cows: with our upper teeth in front our mouths would look 

 like the mouths of zebras. A pretty reason certainly ; and 

 we may well doubt whether a China woman could give a 

 better reason for her cramped feet, or an English woman 

 for the iron hoops with which she girds her lower person. 



The country they had left behind, among the abrupt 

 valleys branching from the Kafue, not only abounded in 

 what our Author calls "the large game," but was well- 



