Chap. XXIX. CROSSING THE ZAMBESI. 389 



former times went to wash for gold, and beyond that are 

 great numbers of tribes which pass under the general name 

 of Maravi. To the N.E. there are extensive plains destitute of 

 trees, but covered with grass, and in some places with 

 marshes. The whole of the country to the north of the 

 Zambesi is asserted to surpass in fertility that to the south. 

 The Maravi, for instance, raise sweet potatoes of immense 

 size, but on the southern bank these plants soon degenerate. 

 Unfortunately, all the tribes on the north side of the country 

 are at enmity with the Portuguese, and their practice of 

 making night attacks renders travelling dangerous among them. 



2§th. — I was most sincerely thankful to find myself on the 

 south bank of the Zambesi, and, having nothing else, I sent 

 back one of my two spoons and a shirt as a thank-offering to 

 Mpende. The different head-men along this river act very 

 much in concert, and if one refuses passage they all do, 

 uttering the sage remark, " If so-and-so did not lend his 

 canoes, he must have had some good reason." At the next 

 island, which belonged to a man named Mozinkwa, we were 

 detained so long that niy tent again became quite rotten. One 

 of the Batoka died here after a long sickness, the nature of 

 which I did not understand ; when he became unable to walk 

 I had some difficulty in making his companions cany* him; 

 and when his case became hopeless they wished to leave him 

 to die. We met with persons who had visited Tele, which 

 was reported to be ten days distant hence. One of these, a 

 Mashona man, who had some knowledge of the English, and 

 of their hatred to the slave-trade, told Sekwebu that the 

 " English were men" and I found that from these and similar 

 encomiums I rose higher every day in the estimation of my 

 people. Even the slaves gave a high character to the English ; 

 and when I was first reported at Tete, the servants of my 

 friend the Commandant said to him in joke, " Ah ! this is 

 our brother who is coming ; we shall all leave you and go 

 with him." 



The women here have only a small puncture in the upper 

 lip, in which they insert a little button of tin. The perfo- 

 ration is made by degrees, a ring with an opening in it being 

 attached to the lip, and the ends squeezed gradually together 

 Children may be seen with the ring on the lip, trt not yet 



