400 THE LESUNGWE. CHAP. XIV. 



to beat on his head, and caused a splitting headache and 

 deafness : while he was nearly insensible, he felt Masiko 

 repeatedly lift him back to the bed off which he had 

 rolled, and cover him up. 



On the 24th we were again in Banda, at the village of 

 Chasundu, and could now see clearly the hot valley in 

 which the Shire flows, and the mountains of the Man- 

 ganja beyond to our south-east. Instead of following 

 the road by which we had come, we resolved to go south 

 along the Lesungwe, which rises at Zunje, a peak on the 

 same ridge as Mvai, and a part of Kirk's Eange, which 

 bounds the country of the Maravi on our west. This is 

 about the limit of the beat of the Portuguese native 

 traders, and it is but recently that, following our foot- 

 steps, they have come so far. It is not likely that their 

 enterprise will lead them further north, for Chasundu 

 informed us that the Babisa under-sell the agents from 

 Tette. He had tried to deal with the latter when they 

 first came ; but they offered only ten fathoms of calico for 

 a tusk, for which the Babisa gave him twenty fathoms 

 and a little powder. Ivory was brought to us for sale 

 again and again, and, as far as we could judge, the price 

 expected would be about one yard of calico per pound, or 

 possibly more, for there is no scale of prices known. The 

 rule seems to be that buyer and seller shall spend a good 

 deal of time in trying to cheat each other before coming 

 to any conclusion over a bargain. 



We found the Lesungwe a fine stream near its source, 

 and about forty feet wide and knee-deep, when joined 

 by the Lekudzi, which comes down from the Maravi 

 country. 



Guinea-fowl abounded, but no grain could be pur- 

 chased, for the people had cultivated only the holmes 

 along the banks with maize and pumpkins. Time enough 

 had not elapsed since the slave-trader's invasion, and 



