lvi PREFATORY LETTER. 



They were now commencing the second part of their 

 journey, between ridges of hills which flank the north and 

 south banks of the great river, and are supposed to be about 

 fifteen miles apart. The climate was changed: there was 

 an oppressive steaminess in the air, and the rain that de- 

 scended on them felt hot. In the glorious fresh uplands, 

 the rain would bring down the thermometer to 68° or 72° •' 

 but down in the valley of the Zambesi, they found that its 

 lowest range, in the coolest shade, was from 82° to 86° at sun- 

 rise — from 96° to 98° at mid-day — and 86° at sun-set; and 

 to increase their discomforts they were attacked by an in- 

 sect with a sting like a musquito. 



Still, their daily labours were not without some charms. 

 Their pathway through the bush was along the tracks of 

 wild animals ; " and of such there was no lack ; for buffaloes, 

 zebras, pallahs, water-bucks, wild-pigs, koodoos, and black 

 antelopes were in abundance;" and they shot a second 

 buffalo as he was rolling himself in the mud. While they 

 travelled eastward they found a simple-hearted and hospit- 

 able people; and day by day they saw the men, women and 

 children working and weeding among their grain and garden 

 grounds ; and as they journeyed onwards, from village to 

 village, they were cheerfully supplied with guides to shew 

 them the way through the thinnest parts of the jungle. 

 Some of the superstitions of the poor Natives are indeed 

 barbarous ; and the women have some strange forms of per- 

 sonal decoration. For not content with the pouting lip that 

 nature has given in such bounty to the African, they enlarge 

 it by the insertion of a shell. When Sekwebu was asked 

 the reason for this decoration, he gravely answered ; " these 

 women want to make their mouths look like the mouths of 

 ducks." A pretty reason certainly ; and well it is that the 

 limits of African fashion are bounded by the forms of 

 created life. In Europe, the boundless views of fashion will 

 not submit to any such mean, servile limitations. 



