WHITE MAN'S MEAL. 213 



necessary to explain to them the existence of a Deity. Sekwebu pointed out 

 a district, two and a half days' distance, where there is a hot fountain which 

 emits steam, where Sebituane had at one time dwelt. " There," said he, 

 "had Sebituane been alive, he would have brought you to live with him. 

 You would be on the bank of the river, and by taking canoes, you would at 

 once sail down to the Zambesi, and visit the white people at the sea." 



The country they were now in was diversified by low hills, and every 

 available piece of ground in the valleys in the neighbourhood of the villages 

 was carefully tilled. The gardens near the river are surrounded by pitfalls, 

 to prevent the inroads of the hippopotami, which are very numerous and 

 quite tame, showing no fear when any of the party approached them. As 

 they required meat, they shot a cow hippopotamus, and found the flesh tasted 

 very much like pork. The range of hills amongst which they now were, rose 

 from six to nine hundred feet above the level of the river, and these were but 

 the outer and lower fringe of a higher range beyond. From the top of the 

 outer range of hills, they had a splendid view of the surrounding country. 

 The course of the Kafue, through hills and forests, could be followed towards 

 its confluence with the Zambesi, and beyond that lay a long range of dark 

 hills, and above the course of the Zambesi floated a line of fleecy clouds. 

 Elephants, zebras, and buffaloes were met with in vast herds, which showed 

 no dread at their approach. They also saw large numbers of red-coloured 

 wild pigs. 



As they approached the Zambesi, the ground became more and more 

 thickly covered with broad-leaved brush-wood, and water-fowl rose out of the 

 pools and streams and flew overhead in large numbers. On again reaching 

 the river, they found it greatly increased in volume, and flowing at the rate 

 of four and a half miles an hour. When Sekwebu was a boy, this region was 

 thickly inhabited, and all the natives had plenty of cattle. The return to it 

 of the larger game, after the depopulation of the country, had introduced the 

 dreaded insect, "tsetse," which rapidly destroyed the cattle. 



Every village they passed furnished two guides, who conducted them by 

 the easiest paths to the next. Along the course of the Zambesi, in this 

 district, the people are great agriculturists — men, women, and children were 

 all very busily at work in their gardens. The men are strong and robust, 

 with hands hardened by toil. The women disfigure themselves by piercing 

 the upper lip, and inserting a shell. This fashion universally prevails among 

 the Maran, which is the name of the people. The head men of the villages 

 presented the party freely with food, and one of them gave Livingstone a 

 basinful of rice, the first he had seen for a long time. He said he knew it 

 was white man's meal, and refused to sell a quantity unless for a man. 

 Strange that his first introduction to one of the products of civilisation in this, 

 to him, new region, should be simultaneous with the appearance of a hateful 



