CHAP. VI. THE " BAENDA PEZI," OR " GO-NAKEDS." 161 



regaled with sweet new-made beer, which, "being yet 

 unfermented, was not intoxicating. It is in this state 

 called Liting or Makonde. Some of the men carry large 

 shields of buffalo-hide, and all are well supplied with heavy 

 spears. The vicinity of the villages is usually cleared 

 and cultivated in large patches ; but nowhere can the 

 country be said to be stocked with people. At every 

 village stands were erected, and piles of the native corn, 

 still unthrashed, placed upon them ; some had been beaten 

 out, put into oblong parcels made of grass, and stacked in 

 wooden frames. 



We crossed several rivulets in our course, as the Mandora, 

 the Lofia, the Manzaia (with brackish water), the Bimbe, 

 the Chibue, the Chezia, the Chilola (containing fragments 

 of coal), which did little more than mark our progress. 

 The island and rapid of Nakansalo, of which we had 

 formerly heard, were of no importance, the rapid being 

 but half a mile long, and only on one side of the island. 

 The island Kaluzi marks one of the numerous places 

 where astronomical observations were made ; Mozia, a 

 station where a volunteer poet left us ; the island Mochenya, 

 and Mpande island, at the mouth of the Zungwe rivulet, 

 where we left the Zambesi. 



When favoured with the hospitality and company of 

 the " Go-nakeds," we tried to discover if nudity were the 

 badge of a particular order among the Bawe, but they 

 could only refer to custom. Some among them had always 

 liked it for no reason in particular : shame seemed to lie 

 dormant, and the sense could not be aroused by our laugh- 

 ing and joking them on their appearance. They evidently 

 felt no less decent than we did with our clothes on ; but, 

 whatever may be said in favour of nude statues, it struck 

 us that man, in a state of nature, is a most ungainly 

 animal. Could we see a number of the degraded of our 

 own lower classes in like guise, it is probable that, with- 



