170 SOBRIETY OF THE B ATOKA. CHAP. VI. 



water of the Zambesi has subsided, they place large 

 quantities of grain, tied up in bundles of grass, and well 

 plastered over with clay, on low sand islands for pro- 

 tection from the attacks of marauding mice and men. 

 Owing to the ravages of the weevil, the native corn can 

 hardly be preserved until the following crop comes in. 

 However largely they may cultivate, and however abun- 

 dant the harvest, it must all be consumed in a year. This 

 may account for their making so much of it into beer. 

 The beer these Batoka or Bawe brew is not the sour and 

 intoxicating boala or pombe found among some other 

 tribes, but sweet, and highly nutritive, with only a slight 

 degree of acidity, sufficient to render it a pleasant drink. 

 The people were all plump, and in good condition ; and 

 we never saw a single case of intoxication among them, 

 though all drank abundance of this liting, or sweet beer. 

 Both men and boys were eager to work for very small 

 pay. Our men could hire any number of them to carry 

 their burdens for a few beads a day. Our miserly and 

 dirty ex-cook had an old pair of trousers that some one 

 had given to him ; after he had long worn them himself, 

 with one of the sorely decayed legs he hired a man to 

 carry his heavy load a whole day ; a second man carried 

 it the next day for the other leg, and what remained of 

 the old garment, without the buttons, procured the labour 

 of another man for the third day. 



Men of remarkable ability have risen up among the 

 Africans from time to time, as amongst other portions 

 of the human family. Some have attracted the attention, 

 and excited the admiration of large districts by their 

 wisdom. Others, apparently by the powers of ventrilo- 

 quism, or by peculiar dexterity in throwing the spear, 

 or shooting with the bow, have been the wonder of their 

 generation ; but the total absence of literature leads to 

 the loss of all former experience, and the wisdom of the 



