LAKE SHIRWA DISCOVERED. 285 



perature was found to be 174° Fahr., and it boiled an egg in about the usual 

 time." Two pythons coiled together among the branches of a tree were shot, 

 the largest was ten feet long. Their flesh is greatly relished by the natives. 

 The people who dwelt on the mountain slopes, here and elsewhere on the 

 lower Shire, were found to be a hardy and kindly race. They cultivate 

 maize, pumpkins, and tobacco in their gardens on the plains, and catch fish in 

 the river, which they dry for future sale or for their own use. On the occasion 

 of a future ascent of the river, as we shall see, the party found that many of 

 these hardy mountaineers had been swept away in a slave raid by Mariano. 



In the middle of March they started for a second trip up the Shire, when 

 they found the natives altogether friendly, and anxious to sell them rice, 

 fowls, and corn. Within ten miles of the Murchison Cataracts they entered 

 into amicable relations with a chief named Chibisa, whose career had been of 

 a very warlike character, which he excused and explained by stating that the 

 parties with whom he had fought had all been in the wrong, while he was 

 invariably in the right He was a true believer in the Divine right of kings. 

 " He was an ordinary man, he said, when his father died, and left him the 

 chieftainship ; but directly he succeeded to the high office, he was conscious 

 of power passing into his head, and down his back ; he felt it enter, and knew 

 that he was a chief, clothed with authority, and possessed of wisdom ; and 

 people then began to fear and reverence him." 



Fortunately his people were of the same mind, for they bathed in the 

 river without dread of the crocodiles, after he had placed a medicine in it to 

 prevent their biting them. 



Drs. Livingstone and Kirk, and several of the Makololo men left the 

 steamer and the other members of the party at Chibisa's village, and pro- 

 ceeded overland to Lake Shirwa, the inhabitants of the district through which 

 they passed presenting a hostile appearance. Through a misunderstanding 

 their guide took them first to an extensive marsh, which they christened Ele- 

 phant Marsh, from the large number of those animals they saw there. After- 

 wards they pushed on without guides, save when an idiot from a native 

 village joined them, and accompanied them a considerable way on their 

 march, when ho sane member of the tribe would consent to guide them for 

 love or money. The people who occupy the district beyond the Shire were 

 called Manganja, and were distinguished for their bold and independent 

 bearing. Drs. Livingstone and Kirk, while keeping themselves prepared for 

 any attack, were careful to give no cause of offence, and so managed to avoid 

 getting into any serious difficulty with this warlike people, to the disgust 

 of the Makololo men, who were anxious to give them a taste of their 

 quality. 



On the 18th of April they discovered Lake Shirwa. The water was 

 brackish, and in it were enormous numbers of leeches, the attacks of which 



