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136 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



slave could be bought, and five of them were considered a handsome price for 

 an elephant's tusk worth ten pounds. 



The following extract from Livingstone's first letter to Sir Roderick 

 Murchison supplements the above account of his interview with Shiute : — 



" We were received in what they consider grand style. The old 

 chief sat under a species of Ficus Inclica, on a raised seat, having 

 some hundreds of women behind him, all decked out in their best, 

 and that best was a profusion of red baize. Some drums and primi- 

 tive instruments made of wood, were powerfully beaten ; and different 

 bands of men, each numbering about fifty or eighty persons, well armed 

 with large bows and iron-headed arrows, short broadswords and guns, 

 rushed yelling towards us from different quarters As they all screwed up their 

 faces so as to look very fierce and savage, I supposed they were trying whether 

 they could not make us take to our heels. But they knelt down and made their 

 obeisance to Shinte, which in all this country consists in rubbing dust on the 

 upper and front part of the arms and across the chest. When several hundreds 

 had arrived, speeches were delivered, in which my history, so far as they 

 could extract it from my companions, was given. ' The Bible containing a 

 message of peace.' ' The return of two captives to Shinte.' ' The opening of 

 a new path for trade,' &c, were all described. ' Perhaps he is fibbing, perhaps 

 not ; they rather thought he was.' ' But as they were good-hearted, and not 

 at all like the Balobale, or people of Sekeletu, and had never done any evil to 

 any one, Shinte had better treat him well and send him on his way.' The 

 women occasionally burst forth with a plaintive ditty, but I could not distinguish 

 whether it was in praise of the speakers or of themselves ; and when the sun 

 became hot the scene closed. 



" Shinte came during the night and hung around my neck a particular 

 kind of shell, which is highly valued as a proof of the greatest friendship ; 

 and he was greatly delighted with some Scriptural pictures which I showed 

 him from a magic lantern. The spirit of trade is strong in all Africans, and 

 the Balonda chiefs we visited all highly approved of our journey. Each 

 expressed an earnest hope that the projected path might lead through his town. 

 Shinte facilitated our progress to the next important chief, named Katema." 



After furnishing him with guides, and a stock of provisions, they parted 

 with mutual good wishes, each being serviceable to the other to an extent of 

 which Shinte had little idea. 



The great explorer was now in regions where his knowledge of the 

 language of the Bechuanas and the Makololo was of no service to him ; 

 and he speaks bitterly of the inconvenience and drawbacks of speaking 

 through an interpreter. 



From Kabompo to Katema's town, Livingstone and his party passed 

 across a country rich in woods and fertile plains, the latter covered from a 



