378 SELOLE'S HOSTILITY. Chap. XXVIIS. 



here the highway of the people. Buffaloes, zebras, pallahs, 

 and waterbucks abounded, and there was also a great abun- 

 dance of wild pigs, koodoos, and the black antelope. 



January 6th, 185G. — Each village that we passed furnished 

 us with a couple of men to conduct us to the next, through 

 the parts least covered with jungle. Near the villages we 

 saw men, women, and children employed in weeding theii 

 gardens. Their colour is the same admixture, from very 

 dark to light olive, that we saw in Londa. Though all have 

 thick lips and flat noses, only the more degraded possess 

 the ugly negro physiognomy. They mark themselves by a 

 line of little raised cicatrices, extending from the tip of the 

 nose to the root of the hair on the forehead. The women are 

 in the habit of piercing the upper lip, and gradually enlarging 

 the orifice until they can insert a shell. The lip then appears 

 drawn out beyond the perpendicular of the nose, and gives 

 them a most ungainly aspect. The same custom prevails 

 throughout the country of the Maravi, and no one could see 

 it without confessing that fashion had never led women to a 

 madder freak. 



As the game was abundant and my party very large, I had 

 still to supply their wants with my gun. We slaughtered 

 the oxen only when unsuccessful in hunting. We always 

 entered into friendly relations with the head-men of the 

 different villages, who presented grain and other food freely. 

 The last of these friendly head-men was named Mobala : 

 having passed him in peace, we reached, after a few hours, 

 the village of Selole, and found that he not only considered 

 us as enemies, but had actually sent an express to raise 

 the tribe of Mburuma against us. All the women had fled, 

 and the few people we met exhibited symptoms of terror. An 

 armed party had come from Mburuma in obedience to the call, 

 but the head-man of the company, suspecting that it was a 

 hoax, came to our encampment, and, when we explained our 

 objects, told us that Mburuma would, without doubt, receive 

 us well. The reason why Selole acted in this foolish manner 

 we afterwards found to be this : an Italian, named Simoens, 

 who had married the daughter of a chief called Sekokole, 

 living north of Tete, had ascended the river in canoes, with 

 an armed party of fifty slaves, and had attacked several 



