426 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D., 



from the bough of a tree, as exhibited in the illustration of ' Unyamwezi 

 harvest,' in Captain Speke's Journal. 



" Provisions were all remarkably cheap upon the route. A fat cow was 

 purchased for four fathoms of calico ; another full-sized cow and four small 

 goats were got for eight fathoms ; but three small goats were a bargain at the 

 same price ; a donkey was offered for fourteen, but he would have been dear 

 at half the amount. For a fowl, one native demanded a charge of gunpowder, 

 and would not sell it for anything else ; another native led in a goat to camp, 

 saying if we repaired his old flint-musket we should have the animal ; he 

 refused to bargain for anything else. For two quarts of impure honey, ten 

 strings of common beads and a fathom of calico were asked, but not given. 

 Milk was not always to be had, the people being afraid to keep heads of cattle, 

 as they would attract the plundering Watuta race. Milk sometimes cost three 

 strings of beads per pint ; twelve measures of rice, one fathom of calico ; 

 sweet potatoes were one-tenth of the price they brought at Zanzibar ; a basin- 

 ful of ground nuts, or a load of wood, cost but one string of ordinary beads. 



" The people preferred keeping a few milk-cows, being more productive 

 than oxen, which were rarely met with, except one or two, fattened up to a 

 large size, on purpose to be killed on the visit of a neighbouring Sultan, or to 

 celebrate some success in war. After the cattle have been brought in at night, 

 a quantity of rubbish is allowed to smoke and smoulder in the centre of the 

 fold. It was amusing to watch how each animal took up its nightly position, 

 never altering it, and thoroughly enjoying the smoke, which prevented them 

 from being annoyed by insects. The sheep were very stupid-looking animals, 

 small, and wanting in rotundity. 



" We had daily visits from the women of the country, who came in parties. 

 They were copper-coloured, and flat featured, and wore round their necks a 

 profusion of pendent bead necklaces, of the colour of the mountain-ash berry; 

 their ankles were concealed with masses of wire rings. For hours they sat 

 silently before us, smoking, nursing, and shampooing the limbs and necks of 

 their infants ; some wore the heavy cloth of the country, others had soiled 

 robes of calico. Young girls, many of them with pleasing faces, and plump 

 round figures, wore merely a diminutive cloth about their loins, and infants 

 had a fringe of beads. . . . We saw some decidedly handsome girls on 

 this route : their men attend upon cattle exclusively, while they stay at home 

 doing household work, cooking, coquetting, and showing off their beautiful 

 feet and ankles. Two, in the bloom of youth, sat by us, with their arms most 

 affectionately twined round each other's necks. The arms were at once dropped, 

 exposing their beautiful necks and bus^s, quite models for a ' Grreek Slave.' 

 Their woolly hair was combed out ; and raised up from the forehead and over 

 the ears by a broad band, made from the skin of a milk-white cow; this con- 

 trasted strikingly with their beautiful light copper skins." 



