STRANGE MODE OF SALUTATION. 209 



friendly, great numbers of them coming from a distance with presents of 

 maize and fruit, and expressing their great joy at the first appearance of a 

 white man amongst them. The women clothe themselves much as the Ma- 

 kololo women do, but the men go about in puris naturalibis, and appeared to 

 be quite insensible to shame. The country got more populous the farther 

 east they advanced, but the curiosity and kindness of the people fell off as 

 they proceeded. Food was abundant ; the masuka tree was plentiful, and its 

 fruit was so thickly strewn about the ground that his men gathered and ate it 

 as they marched. Everywhere among these unsophisticated sons of nature, 

 who had all they wished for in their genial climate — plentiful herds, and 

 abundant crops of maize and fruit — the cry was for peace. Before the advent 

 of Sebituane the country had been swept by a powerful chief named Pingola, 

 who made war from a mere love of conquest ; and the memory of their suf- 

 ferings had entered deeply into their hearts. A sister of Monze, the head 

 chief of the tribes in the district they were now traversing, in expressing 

 her joy at the prospect of being at peace, said " It would be so pleasant to 

 sleep without dreaming of any one pursuing them with a spear." 



Monze visited the party wrapped in a large cloth, and rolled in the dust, 

 slapping the outside of his thighs with his hands — a species of salutation 

 Livingstone had a strong repugnance to, especially when performed by naked 

 men ; but no expression of his feelings tended to put a stop to it. Monze 

 gave them a goat and a fowl, and a piece of the flesh of a buffalo which had 

 been killed by him, and was greatly pleased with a present of some handker- 

 chiefs; the head men of the neighbouring villages also visited them, each 

 of them provided with presents of maize, ground nuts, and corn. Some of 

 these villagers had the hair of their heads all gathered in a mass, and woven 

 into a cone, from four to eight inches in width at the base, ending in a point 

 more or less prolonged. 



Livingstone's own sketch of the country, and the mode of travel, etc., in 

 one of his letters, merits a place here : — 



" Still ascending the western side of the ridge (to the north of the 

 Zambesi), we cross another rivulet named Unguesi, which flows in the 

 same direction as Lekone, and joins the Zambesi above the point where 

 the rapids begin. The next tributary, called Kalomo, never dries; and 

 being on the top of the ridge, runs south, or south and by east, fall- 

 ing into the Zambesi below the falls. Lastly, we crossed the Mozuma, 

 or Dela, flowing eastwards. We continued the eastern descent till we 

 came to the Bashukulompo River, where it may be said to terminate, for 

 we had again reached the altitude of Linyanti. We intended to have struck 

 the Zambesi exactly at the confluence, but we were drawn aside by a wish 

 to visit Semalembue, who is an influential chief in that quarter. The 

 Bashukulompo River is here called Kehowhe, and further down it is named 

 o 1 



