302 DIFFERENCE OF LANGUAGE. CHAP. XI. 



probably came at a different season from that in which 

 they visited it, and our account oiight to be taken with 

 theirs to arrive at the truth. It might be available as 

 a highway for commerce during three quarters of each 

 year; but casual visitors, like ourselves and others, are 

 all ill able to decide. The absence of animal life was 

 remarkable. Occasionally we saw pairs of the stately 

 jabirus, or adjutant-looking marabouts, wading among the 

 shoals, and spur-winged geese, and other water-fowl, but 

 there was scarcely a crocodile or a hippopotamus to be 

 seen. 



At the end of the first week, an old man called at our 

 camj), and said he would send a present from his village, 

 which was up among the hills. He appeared next morn- 

 ing with a number of his people, bringing meal, cassava- 

 root, and yams. The language differs considerably from 

 that on the Zambesi, but it is of the same family. The 

 people are Makonde, and are on friendly terms with the 

 Mabiha, and the Makoa, who live south of the Eovuma. 

 When taking a walk up the slopes of the north bank, we 

 found a great variety of trees we had seen nowhere else. 

 Those usually met with far inland seem here to approach 

 the coast. African ebony, generally named mpingu, is 

 abundant within eight miles of the sea ; it attains a larger 

 size, and has more of the interior black wood than usual. 

 A good timber tree called mosoko is also found ; and we 

 saw half-caste Arabs near the coast cutting up a large log 

 of it into planks. Before reaching the top of the rise we 

 were in a forest of bamboos. On the plateau above, large 

 patches were cleared and cultivated. A man invited us to 

 take a cup of beer ; on our complying with his request, the 

 fear previously shown by the bystanders vanished. Our 

 Mazaro men could hardly understand what they said. 

 Some of them waded in the river and caught a curious fish 

 in holes in the claybank. Its ventral fin is peculiar, being 



