CHAP. V. MODE OF MAKING FIRE. 121 



a time a Portuguese named Jose Pedra, — by the natives 

 called Nyamatimbira, — chief, or capitao mor, of Zumbo, 

 a man of large enterprise and small humanity, — being 

 anxious to ascertain if Kebrabasa could be navigated, made 

 two slaves fast to a canoe, and launched it from Chicova 

 into Kebrabasa, in order to see if it would come out at 

 the other end. As neither slaves nor canoe ever appeared 

 again, his Excellency concluded that Kebrabasa was un- 

 navigable. A trader had a large canoe swept away by a 

 sudden rise of the river, and it was found without damage 

 below ; but the most satisfactory information was that of 

 old Sandia, who asserted that in flood all Kebrabasa became 

 quite smooth, and he had often seen it so. 



We emerged from the thirty-five or forty miles of 

 Kebrabasa hills into the Chicova plains on the 7th of June, 

 1860, having made short marches all the way. The cold 

 nights caused some of our men to cough badly, and colds 

 in this country almost invariably become fever. The 

 Zambesi suddenly expands at Chicova, and assumes the 

 size and appearance it has at Tette. Near this point we 

 found a large seam of coal exposed in the left bank. 



We met with native travellers occasionally. Those on 

 a long journey carry with them a sleeping-mat and wooden 

 pillow, cooking-pot and bag of meal, pipe and tobacco- 

 pouch, a knife, bow, and arrows, and two small sticks, of 

 from two to three feet in length, for making fire, when 

 obliged to sleep away from human habitations. Dry wood 

 is always abundant, and they get fire by the following- 

 method. A notch is cut in one of the sticks, which, with 

 a close-grained outside, has a small core of pith, and this 

 notched stick is laid horizontally on a knife-blade on the 

 ground ; the operator squatting, places his great toes on 

 each end to keep all steady, and taking the other wand, 

 which is of very hard wood cut to a blunt point, fits it 

 into the notch at right angles ; the upright wand is made 



