130 LIFE OF DA YW LIVINGSTONE, LL.R 



to govern wild beasts. Several captives belonging to other tribes further to 

 the north were taken with the party. 



Passing up the placid Leeba he saw a tree in flower which brought the 

 pleasant fragrance of hawthorn hedges back to memory ; its leaves, flowers, 

 perfume, and fruit, resembled those of the hawthorn, only the flowers were 

 as large as dog-roses, and the "haws like boys' marbles." On the banks of 

 the Leeba and Leeambye, and further to the north, the flowers are dis- 

 tinguished for their sweet perfume ; a pleasant contrast to many of those 

 further to the south, which emit either no smell, or only a nauseous odour. 



Crocodiles were very numerous ; and as it was the season for hatching, 

 large numbers of young ones, from a foot long and upwards, were met with ; 

 the little creatures biting savagely at the spears with which his attendants 

 impaled them. The natives search for and eat the eggs when they are fresh, 

 so that an increase of population would greatly diminish the number of these 

 dangerous reptiles. They feed on fish and the smaller species of game which 

 come to the water to drink ; now and again picking a child, a woman, or a 

 man off the banks, or seizing them in the water when bathing. The natives 

 have little dread of them ; and when armed with a knife or javelin, go into 

 the water and attack and kill them. One of Livingstone's attendants, in 

 swimming across a creek, was seized by one ; but being armed with a javelin, 

 he wounded it severely behind the shoulder, and escaped with a severe teeth- 

 wound in the thigh where the brute had seized him. 



In the south, where some tribes hold the animal sacred, when a man has 

 been bitten by a crocodile he is shunned by the rest of his tribe as being un- 

 clean ; but further north no such custom is known, and they voluntarily hunt 

 it for the sake of its flesh, which they eat. 



At the village of Manenko, two Balonda men visited Livingstone, and 

 informed him that one of his party was believed to have acted as a guide to 

 Lerimo during his foray in the district. Having a captive boy and girl with 

 him whom he was conducting back to their people, to show that neither he 

 nor Sekeletu had anything to do with the sins of inferior men, they were so 

 far satisfied that his intentions were peaceable, and departed to report the 

 conversation to Manenko, the first female chief they had come across. After 

 waiting two days an answer came from this African amazon, accompanied 

 with a basket of manioc roots, telling them that they were to remain until she 

 should visit them. Other messengers arrived with orders that he should visit 

 her ; but having lost four days in negotiations, he declined going at all, and 

 proceeded up stream to the confluence of the Leeba and Makondo. Here one 

 of the party picked up a bit of a steel watch-chain ; and its being there was 

 explained by the information that it was here the Mambari crossed in going 

 and coming to Masiko. 



Among other articles of commerce the Mambari bring Manchester goods 



