PUNISHMENT OF HUSBANDS. 245 



supply our wants with the gun, and I did not wish to tire them and make 

 them desire to return before we had accomplished our journey ; so we went 

 with scarcely anything. All the way up the river we had abundance of food, 

 and any one who is anything of a shot, may go out and kill as much in two 

 or three hours, as will serve for three or four days. The animals do not know 

 the gun, and they stand still, at bowshot distance. We got on very well in 

 this way, until we came to Shinte. There we found that the people, having 

 guns, had destroyed all the game in the district, and that there was nothing 

 left but mice ; you see the little boys and girls digging out the mice. I did 

 not try to eat them, but we were there obliged to live entirely upon what the 

 people gave us. We found the women remarkably kind to all of us; the 

 same in going down the Zambesi. Whatever they gave, they always did it 

 most gracefully, very often with an apology for its being so little. Then, 

 when coming to the eastward, we found it just the same. They supplied us 

 liberally with food wherever we went, all the way down, till we came near 

 to the settlements of the Portuguese. In the centre of the country, we found 

 the people generally remarkably civil and kind ; but as we came near to the 

 confines of .civilization, then they did not improve. We had a good deal of 

 difficulty with different tribes, as they tried to make us pay for leave to pass. 

 It so happened that we had nothing to pay with. They wanted either an ox, 

 a gun, or a man. I told them that my men had just as good a right to give 

 me, as I had to give one of them, because we were in the same position — we 

 were all free men. Then they wanted an ox, and we objected to it, saying, 

 " These oxen are our legs, and we cannot travel without them ; why should 

 we pay for leave to tread upon the ground of Grod, our common Father ? " 

 They agreed it was not right to ask payment for that, but said it had always 

 been the custom of the slave-traders, when they came in, to give a slave or an 

 ox, and we ought to do the same. But I said, " We are not slave-dealers, we 

 never buy nor sell slaves." " But you may as well give us an ox," they 

 replied, " it will show your friendship ; we will give you some of our food, if 

 you give us some of yours." If we gave them an ox, they very often gave 

 us back two or three pounds of our own food ; this is the generous way they 

 paid us back. But with the women we never found any difficulty. 



Let me mention the punishment which women inflict upon their husbands 

 in some parts. It is the custom of the country for each woman to have her 

 own garden and her own house. The husband has no garden and no house, 

 and his wives feed him. I have heard a man say, " Why, they will not feed 

 me ; they will give me nothing at all." A man may have five wives, and 

 sometimes the wives combine and make a strike against him. When he 

 comes home he goes to Mrs. One. She says, " I have nothing for you ; you 

 must go to Mrs. Two." He then goes to Mrs. Two, and she says, " You can 

 go to the one you love best ; " and in this way the husband is sent from one 



