Chap. V. MOUNTAINS. 135 



for the whites. The gardens are separated from each 

 other by a single row of small stones, a few handfuls of 

 grass, or a slight furrow made by the hoe. Some are 

 enclosed by a reed fence of the flimsiest construction, yet 

 sufficient to keep out the ever wary hippopotamus, who 

 dreads a trap. His extreme caution is taken advantage of 

 by the women, who hang, as a miniature trap-beam, a 

 kigelia fruit with a bit of stick in the end. This protects 

 the maize, of which he is excessively fond. 



The quantity of hippopotamus meat eaten by our men 

 made some of them ill, and our marches were necessarily 

 short. After three hours' travel on the 13th, we spent 

 the remainder of the day at the village of Chasiribera, 

 on a rivulet flowing through a beautiful valley to the 

 north, which is bounded by magnificent mountain-ranges. 

 Pinkwe, or Mbingwe, otherwise Moeu, forms the south- 

 eastern angle of the range. On the 16th June we were at 

 the flourishing village of Senga, under the headman Man- 

 yame, which lies at the foot of the mount Motemwa. 

 Nearly all the mountains in this country are covered with 

 open forest and grass, in colour, according to the season, 

 green or yellow. Many are between 2000 and 3000 feet 

 high, with the sky line fringed with trees ; the rocks show 

 just sufficiently for one to observe their stratification, or 

 their granitic form, and though not covered with dense 

 masses of climbing plants, like those in moister eastern 

 climates, there is still the idea conveyed that most of the 

 steep sides are fertile, and none give the impression of that 

 barrenness which, in northern mountains, suggests the 

 idea that the bones of the world are sticking through its 

 skin. 



The villagers reported that we were on the footstejjs 

 of a Portuguese half-caste, who, at Senga, lately tried to 

 purchase ivory, but, in consequence of his having murdered 

 a chief near Zumbo and twenty of his men, the people 



