138 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LLP. 



fire were pounded in a mortar, after which it was ready for use, The whole 

 party were hospitably entertained by him, and he took great interest in :ill 

 that the white man told him, and gave him much information as to the Ba- 

 londa and their habits in return. Speaking of Matiamvo, a powerful chief of 

 the district, he said that so absolute was he, that when any of the mountain 

 traders arrived, he would select a large portion of their goods, ami hand over 

 a number of his people, or even the inhabitants of an entire village, as pay- 

 ment. He was a man of violent temper and appeared to have been really 

 insane, as " he sometimes indulged in the whim of running a muck in the 

 town, and beheading whomsoever he met, until he had quite a heap of human 

 heads." That these people have some notion of a future state is evident from 

 the answer of an ambassador of Matiamvo when he was rebuked for his 

 cruelty, and told that he would be judged in company with those he destroyed. 

 " We do not go up to God as you do ; we are put into the ground." 



Katema received the party seated on a sort of throne, with about throe 

 hundred of his principal men around him, and thirty women, said to be his 

 wives, seated behind. The main body of the people were seated in a semi- 

 circle about fifty yards distant. Intemese, the chief guide sent with Living- 

 stone by Shinte, in a speech, gave the history of the white man, his doings 

 and intentions. Katema placed twelve large baskets of meal, half a dozen 

 fowls, and a dozen eggs before them, telling them to " go home, and cook 

 and eat, and you will then be in a fit state to speak to me at an audience I 

 will give you to-morrow." Katema was described by Livingstone as " a tall 

 man, about forty years of age, and his head was ornamented with a helmet 

 of beads and feathers. He had on a well worn snuff-brown coat, with a 

 broad band of tinsel down the arms, and carried in his hand a large tail made 

 of the caudal extremities of a number of gnus," which had charms attached 

 to it. 



He had a great idea of his own importance, and did not fail to give 

 Livingstone the benefit of it on the morrow. "I am the great Moene (lord) 

 Katema, the father of Matiamvo. There is no one in this country equal to 

 Matiamvo and me ; I have always lived here, and my forefathers too. There 

 is the house in which my father lived. You found no human skulls near the 

 place where you encamped. I never killed any of the traders, they all come 

 to me, I am the great Moene Katema, of whom you have heard." 



Livingstone presented him with several small articles, apologising for the 

 meagreness of his gift, and asking him what he should bring him from the 

 coast, hinting that it might not be bulky. Everything (he said laughing) of 

 the white people would be acceptable, and he would receive anything thank- 

 fully ; but the coat he had then on was old and he would like another. 



Unlike the chiefs farther to the south, he had a herd of cattle, reared 

 from two he had bought from the Balobalo when he was young. They were 



