496 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



dears could not change their charming black eyes, beautiful foreheads, nicely 

 rounded limbs, well-shaped forms, and small hands and feet. But they must 

 adorn themselves ; and this they do — oh, the hussies ! — by filing their splendid 

 teeth to points like cats' teeth. It was distressing, for it made their smile, 

 which has generally so much power over us great he-donkeys, rather crocodile- 

 like. Ornaments are scarce. What would our ladies do, if they had none, 

 but pout and lecture us on ' Women's Rights ' ? But these specimens of the 

 fair sex make shift by adorning their fine warm brown skins, tattooing them 

 with various pretty devices without colours, that, besides purposes of beauty, 

 serve the heraldic uses of our Highland tartans. They are not black, but of 

 a light warm brown colour ; and so very sisterish — if I may use the new coin- 

 age — it feels an injury done to oneself to see a bit of grass stuck through the 

 cartilage of the nose, so as to bulge out the alee nasi (wings of the nose 

 of anatomists). Cazembe's Queen — a Ngombe, Moari by name — would be 

 esteemed a real beauty in London, Paris, or New York, and yet she had a small 

 hole through the cartilage near the top of her fine slightly aquiline nose. But 

 she had only filed one side of the two fronts of her superb snow-white teeth ; 

 and then what a laugh she had ! Let those who wish to know, go and see her 

 carried to her farm in her pony phaeton, which is a sort of throne fastened 

 on two very long poles, and carried by twelve stalwart citizens. If they take 

 PuncKs motto for Cazembe, ' Niggers don't require to be shot here,' as their 

 own, they may show themselves to be men ; but whether they do or not, 

 Cazembe will show himself a man of sterling good sense. Now these people, 

 so like ourselves externally, have genuine human souls. Rua, a very large 

 section of country north and west of Cazembe's, but still in the same inland 

 region, is peopled by men very like those of Insama and Cazembe. 



" An Arab, Said-bin-Habib, went to trade in Rua two years ago, and, as 

 the Arabs usually do when natives have no guns, Said-bin-Habib 's elder 

 brother carried matters with a high hand. The Rua men observed that the 

 elder brother slept in a white tent, and pitching their spears into it by night, 

 killed him. As Moslems never forgive bloodshed, the younger brother forth- 

 with ran at all indiscriminately in a large district. Let it not be supposed 

 that any of these people are, like the American Indians, insatiable bloodthirsty 

 savages, who will not be reclaimed, or enter into terms of lasting friendship 

 with fair-dealing strangers. Had the actual murderers been demanded, and 

 a little time been granted, I feel morally certain, from many other instances 

 among tribes who, like the Ro Rua, have not been spoiled by Arab traders, 

 they would all have been given up. The chiefs of the country would, first 

 of all, have specified the crime of which the elder brother was guilty, and who 

 had been led to avenge it. It is very likely that they would stipulate that 

 no other should be punished but the actual perpetrator. Domestic slaves, 

 acting under his orders, would be considered free from blame. I know of 



