A DISAPPOINTED CHIEF. 305 



hut, but darts back again at the first glimpse of the same fearful apparition. 

 Dogs turn tail and scour off in dismay, and hens abandoning their chickens 

 fly screaming to the tops of the houses. The so-lately peaceful village 

 becomes a scene of confusion and hubbub, until calmed by the laughing 

 assurance of our men, that white people do not eat black folks ; a joke having 

 oftentimes greater influence in Africa than solemn assertions. Some of our 

 young swells, on entering an African village, might experience a collapse of 

 self-inflation, at the sight of all the pretty girls fleeing from them, as from 

 hideous cannibals, or by witnessing, as we have done, the conversion of 

 themselves into public hobgoblins ; the mammas holding naughty children 

 away from them, and saying, ' Be good, or I shall call the white men to bite 

 you.' " 



The two donkeys rivalled them in the interest they excited. " Great 

 was the astonishment when one of the donkeys began to bray. The 

 timid jumped more than if a Hon had roared beside them. All were startled, 

 and stood in mute amazement at the harsh-voiced one, till the last broken 

 note was uttered; then, on being assured that nothing in particular was 

 meant, they looked at each other, and burst into a loud laugh at their 

 common surprise. When one donkey stimulated the other to try his vocal 

 powers, the interest felt by the startled natives must have equalled that of the 

 Londoners, when they first crowded to see the famous hippopotamus." 



Here, they examined seams of excellent coal, and found lumps of it 

 which had been brought down from the near hill ranges by the brooks, 

 and astonished the natives by showing them that the black stones would burn. 

 They stated that there was plenty of it among the hills. Some of the chie& 

 wore wigs made of the fibrous leaves of a plant called i/e, allied to the aloea ; 

 when properly dyed these wigs have a fine glossy appearance. Mpende and 

 his people, who were objects of some dread to Livingstone and his companions 

 in their journey to the coast from Linyanti were now most friendly: the chief 

 apologising for his want of attention to the traveller and his party as they 

 passed on their way to the coast. Several Banyai chiefs sent their headmen 

 across the stream to demand tribute, but the travellers were glad to be in a 

 position to resist such exactions. Halting near the village of a chief named 

 Pangola, he demanded a rifle in exchange for the food they needed, and 

 refused to trade on any other terms; fortunately, a member of the party managed 

 to shoot a water-bok, which rendered them independent of the greedy savage, 

 who was intensely mortified at seeing them depart without his having traded 

 with them in any way. He cried after them as they passed on their way, 

 " You are passing Pangola. Do not you see Pangola ? " But the whole 

 party were so disgusted with him that they would have no dealings with him 

 on any terms. 



Passing the ruins of the once flourishing Portuguese settlement of Zumbo, 

 Pi 



