290 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



grand palaver was held, at which their objects and intentions in visiting the 

 country were discussed with due gravity and form. 



The inhabitants of this district are very industrious; in addition to 

 cultivating the soil extensively, they work in iron, weave cotton, and make 

 baskets. Each village has its smelting-house, charcoal-burners, and black- 

 smiths. The axes, spears, needles, arrowheads, bracelets, and anklets are 

 excellent, and are sold exceedingly cheap. Crockery and pottery of various 

 kinds are also largely manufactured ; and fishing-nets are made from the 

 fibres of the buaze, a shrub which grows on the hills. 



The use of ornaments on the legs and arms is common, but the most 

 extraordinary custom is that of the pelele, worn by women. A small hole is 

 made in the upper lip, and gradually widened, — the process of widening 

 extending over several years, — until an aperture of from one to two inches is 

 rendered permanent ; into this a tin or ivory ring is forced until the lip 

 protrudes a couple of inches beyond the nose. " When an old wearer of a 

 hollow ring smiles, by the action of the muscle of the cheeks, the ring and 

 lip outside it are dragged back and thrown over the eyebrows. The nose is 

 seen through the middle of the ring, and the exposed teeth show how care- 

 fully they have been chipped to look like those of the crocodile." No reason 

 was given for this monstrosity, excepting that it was the fashion. The 

 prevalence of such a hideous custom, is the more to be wondered at, as the 

 Manganja are a comely people, intelligent-looking, with well-shaped heads 

 and agreeable features. 



They brew large quantities of a kind of beer. " The grain is made to 

 vegetate, dried in the sun, pounded into meal, and gently boiled. When 

 only a day or two old, the beer is sweet, with a slight degree of acidity, 

 which renders it a most grateful beverage in a hot climate, or when fever 

 begets a sore craving for acid drinks." It is pinkish in colour, and of 

 the consistency of thin gruel. It takes a large quantity of it to produce 

 intoxication ; but as they must drink it rapidly, as it will not keep for any time, 

 intoxication among the Manganjas is very common — whole villages being often 

 found by the travellers on the spree. It apparently has no baneful effects upon 

 them, nor does it shorten life, as the party never saw so many aged people 

 as they did while amongst this people. One aged chief, Muata Manga, 

 appeared to be about ninety years of age. " His venerable appearance 

 struck the Makololo. ' He is an old man,' they said ; ' a very old man ; his 

 skin hangs in wrinkles, just like that on elephants' hips.' " 



Speaking of the drinking habits of the Manganjas, Dr. Livingstone said 

 in one of his letters — " I saw more intoxication in the forty days of our 

 march on foot than I had seen in other parts during sixteen years. It is a 

 silly sort of drunkenness ; only one man had reached the fighting stage, and 

 he was cured by one of the Makololo thrusting him aside from the path he 



