lxvl PREFATORY LETTER. 



sick, they are judged guilty and burnt to death. Horrible 

 as this custom is, we can match it by the solemn decisions 

 of our own courts of justice within a little more than two 

 hundred years of the times in which we live. 



Spite of these judicial horrors, which perhaps only 

 affect the harem of the Chief, the women in this part 

 of the country are of great authority. " The women are 

 masters here," one day remarked Sekwebu. The children 

 are the property of the wife and not of the husband: and 

 not only is he compelled to honour her by tender and 

 pleasant acts of obedience, but he has also to perform some 

 servile acts for his mother-in-law, and to appear before her 

 in a crouching posture. The old ladies, hearing of the 

 hunting skill of the Makololo, tried to secure some of them 

 for their daughters; but the brave fellows would not swal- 

 low the bait; for they had no taste for such a new form of 

 petticoat government. Nyakoba had granted them a guide, 

 who accepted a hoe as his fee; but when the hour of start- 

 ing came he told them "that his wife would not let him 

 go." " Then give us back the hoe," was the reply. " I 

 want it," he rejoined, " and my wife won't let me." 



To avoid the probable loss of all Sekeletu's tusks — a 

 treasure they had kept sacred — and the great risk of having 

 to fight their way to the Portuguese frontier, they now 

 resolved to avoid the villages, and to find their way as best 

 they could. As a good omen the birds were singing sweetly, 

 and Livingstone thought that he heard the canary, as he had 

 done the year before in Loanda. They passed the carcass 

 of a lion that had been gored to death by a buffalo; and 

 made a winding course to avoid Katolosa (or ts the Empe- 

 ror Monomotapa"), who seems to have little mercy on 

 those who fall into his hands. They all obtained an occa- 

 sional help from men who were on their way to the market 

 of Tete : and though the thermometer never rose above 94°, 

 the heat was far more oppressive than it had been during 



