424 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



different from any we had seen, being shaped like the half of an orange, 

 and only five feet high, made of boughs, and covered with grass very neatly. 

 There was but one door ; the hut had no chimney, the smoke finding its way 

 through the light, grass roof. I observed a portable Indian ' chivlah ' or 

 fireplace inside the hut, which was tidily floored with hay. These natives 

 are a curious and distinct race. Previous to milking the cows in the morning, 

 they wash themselves, their teeth, and their wooden milk vessels or gourds, 

 with the urine of the animal, as they consider there is some virtue in it, 

 afterwards using fresh water for cleansing. They are allowed half the milk, 

 and Moosah had his half milked into his own clean vessel, in the morning 

 at eight o'clock. It took the milk of two cows to fill one good-sized tin 

 tea-pot. A cow's value was four or five dollars, though a first-class one would 

 cost double, or two pounds. Men milked them into a large crucible of wood 

 or gourd, in an open yard ; the hind-legs were tied above the hocks with a 

 thong of leather ; one of the handsome women sat on the other side, with a 

 bough beating off the flies, and with a stick to keep away the calf, which 

 stood at its mother's head, a boy sometimes assisting. Should the calf die, 

 its skin is stuffed and placed before the cow, otherwise she refuses to 

 milk. The Wanyamwezi look with great respect on this people. When two 

 of them meet, the Wezee puts both his palms together; these are gently 

 clasped by the Watusi, a few inaudible words are repeated, and they pass on. 

 The form of salutation, when a native meets one of his women senior to 

 himself, is gentle and pleasing ; he places his hands on her arms, below her 

 shoulders, while her hands hang by her sides." 



The following interesting picture of African village life and industry, by 

 Captain Grant, refers to the country a few days' march to the south of 

 Kwihara. 



" The flora was new and interesting ; but we were amazed at not seeing 

 better crops, as grasses, with pendant panicles, grew luxuriantly ten feet high. 

 The surface-soil, however, was very light, merely the washings of the hill- 

 sides brought down in a stream of red clay grit. In this tract of country we 

 came upon groups of palms, not met with since we left the coast. They were 

 converted into many uses — fences, thatching, firewood, and uprights for 

 building, etc. Toddy, also, was occasionally extracted. The fruit hung 

 down in rich, large, tempting clusters, at the mercy of any hungry traveller. 

 We observed some of these palms, with their leaf stalks still remaining in 

 the tree, to be the support and life of a species of ficus, growing like a 

 parasite, luxuriantly healthy, its roots not near the ground, but forming a 

 complete network round the stem of the palm. Tamarind-trees, so umbra- 

 geous and beautiful in outline, were numerous. There were also the runner, 

 from ten to twelve feet high ; and the tree, a ficus, whose bark affords the 

 Waganda their clothing, was here seen for the first time. The bark is taken 



