244 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



say so. I remember when Colonel Steele and I were together, the natives 

 pointed him out as still wild, and said I was tame, because I understood the 

 language. Now, I suppose, when a geographer tells you that, when the 

 natives say, " one river runs into or out of another," they don't mean what 

 they say ; but, in reality, the natives mean that the geographer is still wild, 

 he is not tame, i. e. he does not know the language. I found the natives to be 

 very intelligent ; and, in this well watered part, to be of the true Negro 

 family. They all had woolly hair, and a good deal of it, and they are darker 

 than those who live to the south. The most remarkable point I noticed 

 among them, was the high estimation in which they hold the women. Many 

 of the women become chiefs. If you ask a man to do something for you, he 

 will perhaps make some arrangements about payment ; but before deciding 

 to do it, he is sure to say, " Well, I will go home and ask my wife." If the 

 wife agrees to it, he will do what you want ; but if she says no, there is no 

 possibility of getting him to move. The women sit in the public council, and 

 have a voice in the deliberations. Among the Bechuanas the men swear by 

 their fathers, but among the true negroes they swear by their mothers. Any 

 exclamation they make is, " Oh, my mother !" — while among the Bechuanas 

 and the Kaffres they swear by their father. If a woman separate from her 

 husband, the children all go with the mother — they all stick by the mother. 

 If a young man falls in love with a young woman of another village, he must 

 leave his own village and live with her ; and he is obliged to keep his mother- 

 in-law in firewood. If he goes into her presence, he must go in a decent way, 

 clapping his hands in a supplicatory manner ; and if he sits, he must not put 

 out his feet towards her — he must bend his knees back, and sit in a half-bent 

 position. I was so astonished at this, that I could scarcely believe their own 

 statements as to the high estimation in which they held the ladies, until I 

 asked the Portuguese, if they understood the same, as I did. They said, 

 exactly the same ; they had been accustomed to the natives for many years, 

 and they say that the women are really held in very great estimation. I 

 believe they deserve it ; for the whole way through the centre of the country, 

 we were most kindly treated by them. When I went up the Zambesi, I pro- 

 ceeded as far as the 14th degree, and then returned to Linyanti. I found the 

 country abounding in all the larger game. I know all the country through 

 which Mr. Gordon Cumming and others have hunted, and I never saw any- 

 thing before like the numbers of game that are to be found along the Zambesi. 

 There are elephants all the way to Tete, in prodigious numbers, and all the 

 other large game, buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, and a great variety of antelopes. 

 There are three new species of antelope that have never been brought to 

 Europe. 



Seeing the country was well supplied with game, I thought it was of 

 little use burdening my men with other provisions ; I thought I could easily 



